Who would you trust more on Sarasota's School Board - Bridget Ziegler or Ron DeSantis?

Look, I get it.

I get why many of you think Bridget Ziegler – now snared up in a threesome-sex scandal that also has her husband, former Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, under criminal investigation – needs to get her fake, hypocritical rear end off the Sarasota County School Board.

Immediately.

I mean, that’s a justifiable reaction regarding someone who has:

• Relished any opportunity to spit on the rainbow flag – and clearly enabled others to openly harass members of the LGBTQ community.

• Opposed inclusion and exploited racially charged issues while playing a key role in a national group accused of being an extremist organization.

• Become so radioactive that her four School Board colleagues have loudly, if so far in vain, called for her to resign – though there's reason to question the sincerity of three of them.

So, yes, I get it.

But, come on, now.

Come on.

DeSantis loves to appoint buffoons

Are you really sure you want Bridget Ziegler to instantly get gone from the School Board?

You are??!

Uh, well, OK.

How about this then:

Are you really, really, really sure you want Gov. Ron DeSantis appointing a replacement for Ziegler who would be on the School Board until, at minimum, an Aug. 20 election to elect her successor?

Really?

This dude?

This governor?

The same governor who appointed Christopher Rufo to the New College Board of Trustees – a guy who has an unhealthy obsession with race, can start loud verbal disputes in empty rooms and goes squealing and running to the cops and courts when his tired, toxic provocateur act antagonizes others to the point where they act with poor judgment?

More: New College spitting incident deserves a 'sorry' - not a sentence

The same governor who appointed another person to the New College trustees' board – Mark Bauerlein – who reposted a horrible, sexist tweet about Vice President Kamala Harris and responded to the resulting outrage in dismissive, trolling fashion?

The same governor who appointed a state ethics commission member, Glen Gilzean Jr., who somehow couldn’t grasp the fact that it would be unethical to hold both that position and a high-paying, taxpayer-funded job as the administrator of the district DeSantis set up to oversee Disney World?

And, while we’re at it . . .

The same governor who appointed someone to the district board who vowed to protect so-called “traditional values” at Disney World – yet who was living a decidedly less-than-conventional lifestyle behind closed doors and under shared sheets?

Why, yes, that someone would be Bridget Ziegler!

Don’t go, Bridget

Sorry, but uh-uh.

Nah.

There’s no way we should want Bridget Ziegler to step down from the Sarasota County School Board – because there’s no way we should want to give Ron DeSantis yet another opportunity to appoint yet another buffoon to yet another public position they have no business holding.

And, no, I don’t care that a DeSantis appointee might spend “only a few months” sitting on the School Board until the August election for Ziegler’s spot.

That’s still “a few months” too many to give any circus clown DeSantis is liable to appoint free rein to wreak the division and distraction – and maybe even damage – they'd surely rouse up during even that short amount of time.

Look, we know what we would have if Ziegler remained on the School Board for the final two years of her current term.

We would have someone with little gravitas as a board member, and even less credibility.

We would have someone whose future inflammatory statements and actions as a board member could be easily dismissed with rolled eyes and yawns, instead of the clenched teeth and angry reactions they would always generate in the past.

We would have someone who has been clearly exposed as a carnival barker, a charlatan and a fake moral guardian.

But, hey, at least she would be our carnival barker.

Our charlatan.

Our fake moral guardian.

At least she would be the devil we already know is sitting on the Sarasota County School Board.

Shouldn’t we consider that a “win” under the circumstances – and declare victory and move on?

Sure, I know that plenty of you would love to say two words to Bridget Ziegler right now – and that at least one of them probably couldn’t be printed here.

But that sure doesn’t apply to the two simple words of advice I'll offer her:

Don’t go.

Er, actually, let’s make that three words of advice:

Please, don’t go.

Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at roger.brown@heraldtribune.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at RBrown_HTOpin.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Don't go, Bridget Ziegler. You must stay on Sarasota's School Board.