Posted on 11/24/2022 9:36:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
So, I told someone hardcore that I would be writing a column called “The Case Against Ron DeSantis 2024,” and he asked “Oh, will it be blank?” Amusing, and not unexpected because we are still at the DeSantis infatuation stage. As I wrote in my previous column, “The Case For Ron DeSantis 2024,” there is a lot to like about the Florida governor. But this is not time to go moon-eyed over The New Shiny Thing. We need to be ruthless in our vetting of the candidates. I was when I wrote “The Case Against Donald Trump 2024” (he sent me a nice note about it, BTW), and I will do the same for Ron DeSantis here.
Understand that the case against Ron DeSantis is not a case against Ron DeSantis personally any more than it would be against Donald Trump as a person. For our purposes, his objective goodness is irrelevant. We are not going to be asked to elect him buddy or nice guy or whatever. His one job would be to win the presidency. It’s pretty clear he meets the basic qualifications to be president, which used to be that he won’t bankrupt us or get us nuked, and since those two things are apparently not qualifications anymore, DeSantis is certainly good to go. This is really about electability, whether or not he can get the voters to put an X by his name in numbers greater than those for Grandpa Badfinger or whatever other pinko nimrod the Dems put up in 2024. The case against DeSantis is really the case against him winning the general election. And there is a case to be made for that.
First, who is Ron DeSantis? He’s got the credentials (the Yale one is not a good one) and he’s not a drooling mutant – which is another thing that used to, but no longer, disqualifies a candidate – yet does anyone outside of Florida or off of Twitter really know him yet? Some polls lately have him doing well, but others have Trump far ahead. That’s not a shock. Trump is known (maybe too known) and it’s only a couple weeks into the cycle. Maybe it’s early and voters are unaware of him, but he has yet to demonstrate that he’s the No. 1 guy in the GOP race, much less the general.
And what is his path in the general? His lane is competent and conservative, just like Kemp or Youngkin, and in 2022 that lane did well while based and belligerent had a tougher time. But guess what won in 2016 and came within less than 50,000 votes in three states from winning again in 2020? B&B.
Can DeSantis generate giant rallies, to the extent they matter? He’s a good speaker who has markedly improved over the several years and half-dozen speeches I have seen in person. But he’s no Trump. Of course, no one is Trump. Hell, judging by his listless announcement speech, it’s not clear Trump is even Trump anymore.
DeSantis will have to show some fire, and he does overlap into the based and belligerent lane. He fights, and he wins. Further, his fighting is disciplined and targeted. Trump took on the media – yah! But he also took on Rosie O’Donnell – ugh. DeSantis does not get into personal beefs. His tweets are not mean, and while a lot of us dearly love the mean tweets, a lot of voters are exhausted by mean tweets. And remember, the goal is to own the libs by winning power, not just by mocking their pinko behinds on the tweet machine (Trump being allowed back on Twitter might be a mixed blessing).
But can Heavy D win over the people who used to vote Republican then stopped because they were too sissy to deal with Trump’s in-your-face vibe? Look, these kind of soft, mostly suburban moderate people are tiresome, and the men are impotent figuratively and probably literally while their wives are awash in Chardonnay and SSRIs, but we need their votes. Can DeSantis get them to vote for him, or will his toughness make the wine women squeal and the wine males ashamed? The evidence is that in Florida they came around, but that’s one state. How does he play elsewhere?
Here's the question DeSantis needs to answer: “How do you win in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin?” Those are the real battleground states, and if he wants in the game, we need to know the plan to win these electoral votes away from the Democrats.
How does DeSantis play outside of the Land of Swamps and Falling Frozen Iguanas? We have no idea. Can he get the suburbans? The white working class? Heck, can he get the Trumpers?
That last one is key. You cannot win the presidency as a Republican with only Trumpanauts, but you cannot win it without them either. DeSantis has dared defy the Great Orange One by failing to take himself out of the running. Some of the Trump people are ticked off, though on social media it is hard to tell which accounts love the Donald and which are repurposed Democrat bots that just last week were calling us insurrectionists.
There is also the argument that he just won in Florida and, damnit, he needs to govern Florida and not abandon the state to…save the country. I don’t think this argument has ever prevailed on a potential winner, and I doubt it will now. It’s not like he would be tossing the keys to Charlie Crist or the naked drug guy.
Then there is the idea that it is not his turn, that he must defer to Trump because Trump got shafted. The idea is often combined with DeSantis running as Trump’s veep then taking over in 2028. This politico-erotic fantasy is less likely than the letter to Penthouse about the two swinging Swedish stewardesses who just moved in next door and came over to borrow some sugar wearing cheerleader outfits. Let’s just say Trump’s record on people close to him is mixed, spanning from terrible to Pence. A big argument for DeSantis is that Trump is … problematic, and therefore why would DeSantis ever choose to make that problem his?
Another knock on DeSantis is some of the people allegedly supporting him — a litany of RINOs, squishes, and cruise crew losers like Paul Ryan and similar establishment fungi. Of course, it is not clear that these unaccomplished amphibians actually support DeSantis rather than hate Trump. The creepy oddities of the Bulwark, Dispatch, and Lincoln Project have already signaled that they despise DeSantis precisely because they fear he will torment their paymasters without the baggage that made Trump vulnerable. Some people – both pro-Trump and anti-Trump, since they share the objective of nominating Trump – cynically push the “Look at who likes DeSantis!” line. It’s unclear if the base will be fooled by this ham-handed ploy.
Another hit on DeSantis is that he cannot unify the GOP. There are people who will vote for no one but Trump ever and that is that. Now, a lot of people say that today but, when the time comes, they will vote for DeSantis over whichever warmed-over communist pill the Democrats nominate. Others will not. Some did not vote before Donald Trump and were brought into politics by Donald Trump and will leave politics with Donald Trump. Others think Trump is owed the 2024 nomination and that if anyone else gets it that is just further proof of the perfidy of the system. Some have bought into the dumb memes like that this founder of the Freedom Caucus is a secret Paul Ryan puppet or that he must be a squish because some people who hate Trump are – shockingly – leaning toward the non-Trump frontrunner. One might observe that DeSantis can be counted on to never hire people like Fauci, Bolton, Wray, or Omarosa, but making that observation kind of assumes that the people you would need to make it to are capable of being convinced. Many are not, and that is a problem for DeSantis. Can he show that the people he loses by not being Trump are going to be outnumbered by the people he gains by not being Trump?
Another point against DeSantis is, “Sure, he’s a good governor, but he has not proven himself nationally and Trump has.” That is true, though with only two nationally elected positions in America there are not a lot of folks who have proven themselves successful nationally. Almost all candidates are trying it nationally for the first time or tried it before and lost. DeSantis needs to show how he plans to get those battleground states in his column. Will a Yale guy with a military background be able to win over hardhats and farmers? Well, two of three Bushes did and they had the disadvantage of being Bushes, but that was a while ago.
And will he have the money to fight? Sure, big donors will be happy to help but how about the little guys, the small dollar donors? Will they pay up? Will they work the phones and knock on the doors? Will they show up?
That’s the thing – DeSantis is an unknown quantity nationally. But most candidates are their first time, and lots of them win. The way for DeSantis to refute the case against him is to show exactly how he intends to do so in 2024.
But Trump won’t be a pushover. If DeSantis wants the nomination, he’ll have to take it.
That's right. Nothing here in Florida except swamps, falling frozen iguanas, a budget surplus, no state income tax, sunshine, white sand beaches and a haven for Yankee escapees.
Why didn’t Deep State mess with FL’s election for governor...
Inquiring minds want to know.
24 months is a very long time in politics.
But IMO they are all controlled opposition.
Florida is just one election away from a Gov. Andrew Gillum.
As long as Florida still uses RCV-enabled voting machines, early voting, and mail-in voting, Deep State can easily do to FL what it has done to other states.
You guys are on borrowed time unless that’s corrected.
Don’t get cocky.
It looks like the folks here are taking the bait - starting to divide between Trump and DeSantis nicely - by the time Nov 2024 comes around, we will be in total disarray - SSDD
Many Trump allies are trying to project DeSantis as a swamp creature somehow akin to Trumo’s actual appointees, but DeSantis’s true achilles heel based on how he has actually governed is that he is far to the right of most Republicans, including Trump, which may not perform that well in the general election.
I’d love to see someone that far right win, but it won’t be easy.
I don't know if DeSantis will win these states but I know that Trump will not.
I know this because he has demonstrated this by losing them in '20 and then by watching his hand-picked candidates lose them again in 2022.
The battleground states are not buying what Trump is selling. The did in 2016 but we've had three elections since then that have not gone well for Donald Trump. Will they buy what DeSantis is selling? We'll have to see.
But I know this. Nominate Trump in 2024 and he will lose. Feel free to mark this post if you'd like.
“>> TWO YEARS TO GO or as DeSantis said “chill out”.
How long do you feel your man can wait before announcing?
And what effect do you think his announcing will have on his sterling reputation in FLA?”
I will be supporting the anti-Democrat candidate, no matter who it is. Trump and DeSantis reputations will not change regardless of if or when DeSantis announces.
That’s why I don’t think he’ll pick the 2024 fight. The GOP nationally has not done nearly enough to combat election fraud, and there is frankly not enough time left now to fix all of those stolen states before 2024. DeSantis will wait, continue to build Florida into an economic powerhouse, and let more lower-level battles be won, first.
Gavin Newsom will almost certainly take over the White House in January, 2025 - but with the right planning and local/state level work he will be extraordinarily vulnerable to a DeSantis challenge in 2028. Newsom is the desired end result of all of the cheaters - a pretty fool who does what he is told and sounds all the right notes. A new JFK, but lacking the independent personal opinions the Deep State loathes. Those who think the various tribes will reject a white nominee miss the point - they harvest ballots for the (D) brand and its implied wealth distribution, and Newsom is a proven commodity.
Only Trump has any chance to beat Newsom in 2024, and it is admittedly a slim chance. The electoral math is ugly. But Trump’s presence will keep MAGA awake and focused on the difficult task of state-level reform that must be undertaken. He will also continue to confound the government/media/entertainment complex in a way no other political figure can.
“Campaigns don’t start in the election year anymore.”
Correct. They start when someone announces.
“How do you win in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin?”
Throw in Arizona on that question.
Until mail-in-voting (and same-day registration) is outlawed, it will never happen.
The country has to split up for any chance for free thinking, liberty loving people to live peaceably in the future.
The biggest dem hopefuls are Newsome, Biden and Hillary. The easiest grudge match to setup for the media and wannabe handlers/groomers (Dick Chenny/Karl Rove) is between these three.
Thanks for showing up and at least offering a non-answer answer.
I will gently remind you that Ron DeSantis is not running for president.
Donald Trump comprises 100% of the proven conservative candidates who have actually announced that they are running for POTUS 2024. I therefore support him wholeheartedly.
On the other hand, you are deliberately and vociferously (and prematurely) fomenting division. Not helpful to our cause.
“The Case For Ron DeSantis 2024,”
“The Case Against Donald Trump 2024”
and this one
“The Case Against Ron DeSantis 2024”
Seems like there’s one missng
The Democrats watched Trump lose the House in 2018, lose the White House and the Senate in 2020, and lose those battleground races in 2022 where he hand-picked the exact candidates that the Democrats wanted to run against.
In what fantasy world are the Democrats frightened of Trump?
If anything, they believe that Donald Trump gets Democrats elected!
I hope you’re not a fraud denier. Too many of them around.
***********
If that be the case and ‘fraud’ is the key to winning or losing
then how does the GOP either block the ‘fraud’ or get on the
fraud bandwagon and go for the win regardless of ethics? It
has to be one or the other.
Actually they start when donors start throwing money at people and Ron has had $200 million thrown his way.
Your Debbie Downer self chooses to see only the worst of what might happen in life. Fortunately, Florida has much more to offer than gloom and doom. Cocky? The only cocky critter here is your persistent determination that the rest of us should be as miserable as you perceive we should be.
I will vote Donald Trump and if he wants DeSantis that is fine with me. I will not support DeSantis for President unless he has Trump’s endorsement. Trump has done the heavy lifting for the GOP and could only be taken out by the corrupt political parties who want to keep their personal gravy trains rolling along. As of now, Florida needs DeSantis and DC needs Trump. At this point in time I believe that the poem Trump used to recite at rallies about the frog and Scorpion applies to DeSantis and those politicos who make a very good living from being involved in politics.
How do you win in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin?”
Throw in Arizona on that question.
Until mail-in-voting (and same-day registration) is outlawed, it will never happen.
The country has to split up for any chance for free thinking, liberty loving people to live peaceably in the future
———-
Bingo the elephant in the room.
Several of these have Dem legislatures so unlike Fla they so t change how voting is conducted
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