Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis seems to be stuck in a political quagmire. His message accentuating his cultural battles with the Woke and Disney have mobilized the Left and put him on the defensive. Worse, Donald Trump is still out-polling him despite the unrelenting legal assaults on the Orange Man by prosecutors around the country. Diehard Trump supporters apparently want no substitutes for the real thing.
It is clear that DeSantis lacks the charisma or sense of humor to overcome Trump or the corporate media. He’s more managerial than political, which is an asset sorely lacking in government today but hardly marketable among voters. As he says of Trump “…the promise in 2016 was that [Trump] would drain the swamp, but the swamp got way worse.” He might add that the swamp is now on the offensive.
Trump couldn’t drain the swamp because half his own party hated him – and still does. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) has outlasted Covid. Trump may out-poll DeSantis among Republicans but come 2024 TDS will re-infect independents and moderates. Trump may lose another election. But one poll gives DeSantis a five-point edge over Biden among independents, 43% to 38% – better than Trump’s odds. Age, of course, is another factor in DeSantis’s favor in primaries and the election. But Trump is the immoveable object, bent on avenging his 2020 loss and taking another crack at the swamp.
The only candidate who served.
The Wall Street Journal is one with DeSantis. Its editorials continually warn of Trump’s misguided hope for a 2024 victory. I’ve got over a dozen WSJ editorials and op-eds plugging DeSantis. They document the myriad DeSantis accomplishments in governance; so compelling that Trump must denounce them just to distract his base. DeSantis, for example, defied the Trump White House lockdown and school closure policies in 2020, staring down the Teachers Union and Fauci/Trump to save Florida’s economy and freedom to work. “The lockdown damage continues, but progressives can’t admit they were wrong. Nor can Mr. Trump. So they are trying to take down Mr. DeSantis for being right.” [WSJ, July 28, 2023]
Trump’s conservatism may still attract many of us but the man willingly compromises it to attack his one-time protégé DeSantis. He sides with Disney in the culture war “The former President goes for woke to trash Ron DeSantis.” [WSJ, April 19, 2023]. He sides with trial lawyers against DeSantis’s tort reform legislation that limits frivolous lawsuits. “The Florida Governor beats the trial bar and Mar-a-Lago ally….Irony alert: This will benefit Mr. Trump’s properties in the state.” [WSJ, April 1, 2023]. Imagine, the man who is a human piñata for lawyers backs ambulance chasers instead of “Ron DeSanctimonious,” as he sophomorically labels his fellow conservative.
The Journal has also done a number of editorials comparing Florida under DeSantis with Democratic New York and California under Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic contender. In each case, based on Covid results, the economy, and quality of life, Florida is better governed and growing under DeSantis.
Despite DeSantis’s poor showing among Republicans in the polls, he is deemed to be the favorite if Trump is taken down by the judicial system. As such, Leftist wordsmiths have had a field day denigrating the DeSantis agenda. “…they’ve issued bogus warnings against [Black] travel to Florida and resorted to name calling: ‘don’t say gay’ and falsely labeling as ‘book banning’ the removal of age-inappropriate books from school libraries.” [Dave Seminara, WSJ, June 2, 2023]
As for his rivalry with Mr. Trump, Peggy Noonan of the WSJ advises DeSantis: “Yes, tell those people [Trump loyalists] that you served your country in a tragedy called Iraq and the other guy claimed bone spurs and ran during a tragedy called Vietnam. You think you don’t have to say it, but you do. People who love Mr. Trump need reasons they can explain to themselves to peel away.” She might also remind them of Trump’s cavalier words to Republican Senator John McCain who suffered 5½ years in the Hanoi Hilton: “I like people who weren’t captured.”
DeSantis is hoping 2024 will be the culmination of his political dream. But it may be a frustrating slog for this ambitious vet. -JLM
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