Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has been on a campaign in the past year to “out-Trump” the former President.
Hardly a day goes by that the Florida Republican doesn’t say something outrageous or propose some kind of draconian policy to suck-up to Trump’s fanatic MAGA base. There is no doubt that DeSantis is running for President in 2024.
And he will probably win.
Joe Biden and his Democratic teammates have done nothing to excite voters in a positive way. On the contrary, they have seemed impotent to combat inflation, deter Chinese or Russian aggression, or come up with any substantive policy initiatives to stimulate the 80 million voters who helped the Democratic Party win the White House in 2020.
Let’s face it, the majority of those voters weren’t enamored by crusty, old Joe Biden. He was, however, not Donald Trump, who had proved to be a horrible President. Pretty much anyone that the Democrats would have nominated was going to win… because he or she was not the incumbent.
In 2020, Donald Trump lost the popular vote for the Presidency for the second time. He is a narcissistic guy who likes to hear himself talk, surrounds himself with unqualified imbeciles who will cheer him as he speaks, and has no regard for the Constitution of the United States. In four years, he demonstrated his lack of qualifications for public service. And, on January 6th, 2020 he led an attempted coup to keep his job. He lost that engagement, too. He is, simply, a loser.
It is highly unlikely that the Republican Party is going to nominate a guy to lead their 2024 ticket who is not respected by most Americans.
Governor De Santis doesn’t have all that baggage. Additionally, he is quite adept at taking advantage of public “outrage” over scandalous issues both real and imagined. In politics, he is what is known as a “populist”: he identifies with peoples concerns and fears and acts upon them. DeSantis is the cleaned-up, respectable version of The Donald. His candidacy will play well with the MAGA cult and also Democrats and Independents who don’t think the current Administration knows up from down.
The Nation is veering to the right, not because “conservative” ideas have more value than “liberal” ones, but rather because the Democratic Party is in a 24/7 slap fight and is doing nothing to defend itself. Right-wing activists are playing hardball, working to tilt the playing field back in their direction by gerrymandering, tightening voting rules, capturing control of State offices which control elections, and so forth. This is the only way that the Republican Party can combat demographic trends which favor the Democrats.
They are making lemonade out of lemons.
Most likely the 2022 midterms will cement Joe Biden’s fate as a one-term President. If the Republicans make significant gains in the House and re-gain control of the Senate, Biden’s Administration will be a “lame duck” one as early as New Year’s Day, 2023. The Republican Party will, accordingly, spend the following year and a half objecting to anything Biden wants to do and will busy itself with all manner of sensational legislative fact-finding hearings designed to embarrass and humiliate Democratic officeholders and aspiring candidates.
I may find myself voting for DeSantis in 2024, but only if he cuts the umbilical cord to Donald Trump. There is no place in American government for that guy. He is better off scamming people out of money, groping women, and making preposterous statements to his fan club on Fox News. He probably enjoys his current role of Republican “kingmaker” to actually running for President again, although nothing is impossible considering that guy’s enormous ego.
The likelihood that the next Administration will have to deal with ongoing civil unrest is high. That’s what happens when downtrodden people are disgusted by their government. Most Americans are moderate to liberal politically, so there will be lots of unhappiness when the next Republican Administration and the right-tilting Supreme Court try to jam conservative ideas down the Nation’s throat.
President DeSantis, if that happens, will have one heck of a difficult job.