Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was 11 years old in 1990 when Fox network aired an episode of The Simpsons in which Marge organizes a protest against the violence depicted on The Itchy & Scratchy Show. She forbids Bart and Lisa to watch it and creates the protest group Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping (SNUH). The show's creator eventually agrees to eliminate the violence.Sometime later, a travelling exhibition of Michelangelo's sculpture David schedules a stop in Springfield. SNUH members urge Marge to protest the exhibition due to its nudity, but Marge, an artist herself, considers David a masterpiece. During a television interview, Marge concedes it is hypocritical to censor Itchy & Scratchy and not David. Realizing that her protests have done more harm than good - since the town's children stopped playing outside to resume watching a violence-free Itchy & Scratchy - Marge laments that the children would rather watch violent cartoons than see a work of great art.I have no idea if young Ron was watching the Fox hit show at the time. Chances are he did since I suspect he grew up watching that particular network which shaped the political views of many in his generation. He would have been the same age as the students at Florida's Tallahassee Classical School, who were recently exposed to what has been referred to as a 'pornographic' image during their sixth-grade art history lesson.The image in question is Michelangelo's statue of David, arguably the most famous sculpture in the world.Three parents complained they weren't warned their 11 and 12-year-olds would be shown David, which they consider 'pornographic' because of David's nudity. They are now demanding an advanced vote on any topic or lesson that could be considered controversial.One would think this is where the story ended. Shockingly, it didn't. The school's principal was forced to resign for having upset the children: “Parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it's one, 10, 20 or 50,” said school board president Barney Bishop.Perhaps because he was influenced by that Simpsons' episode as a child, Ron DeSantis has been particularly adept at stoking “culture wars” in his state. His Parental Rights in Education, limiting discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, has garnered much attention and positioned him for a run at the Presidency. Marge took on Itchy & Scratchy's creator. Ron took on Disney, one of his state's largest employers, which has been a vocal critic of the legislation. In response, DeSantis stripped it of its self-governing status and tax breaks.If you think the David controversy in Tallahassee would never happen here, think again. It did. In Québec. In 1965.The Fairview Shopping Center in Pointe-Claire was buzzing. Simpson's Department Store placed a plaster reproduction of Michelangelo's famous David in the plaza in front of the store. It did not go unnoticed. Many female shoppers took the time to stop to study David's anatomy. There was a public outcry. The store received thousands of letters requesting that the offensive statue be removed, while others asked that Simpson's not bend in the face of this intolerant puritanism. The statue was removed a month later when the General Manager of Simpson's donated the statue to the Loyola Students Association, and the 4.1-metre plaster replica with metal reinforcements was installed on a pedestal in the Vanier Library.Such were the tensions in Quebec in the mid-'60s amid the Quiet Revolution.Six decades later, I doubt anyone in Québec would care about David showing up in elementary art classes, or at the local mall. But in Florida, a state with plenty of skin on display on its beaches, David can still get a rise out of a few. Enough to be conveniently amplified by the many who dream of making America great again.Éric Blais is the president of Headspace Marketing in Toronto. He has helped build brands for over 35 years and is a frequent commentator on political marketing, most recently on CBC's Power & Politics.