The Unbreakable 'Donald Trump Cult' in the GOP Means Ron DeSantis Is Doomed
By: Robert Kelly (FortyFive)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The cult-like bond of Trump voters to Donald Trump has far exceeded what anyone thought possible in US politics. Even as Trump has spiraled into ever worse scandal and crisis, his voters have not abandoned him.
By
Robert Kelly
What Happened to Ron DeSantis? - Former President Donald Trump grabs our attention relentlessly. Yet again this week, he is in the news.
This time he has been indicted (again).
What would sink other political candidacies, Trump somehow manages to turn to his advantage.
The indictments feed the persecution complex of his voters, and Trump, astoundingly, fund-raises off of them too.
All of this attention - for good or bad - is draining the oxygen out of the Republican primary. Trump's various opponents are unable to capture much media exposure when Trump constantly dominates the headlines.
And no one has suffered more from this than one-time Trump-killer Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.
Ron DeSantis Should be What the GOP Wants
DeSantis is the ideal candidate for the Republican party in its current form.
He is conservative, which reflects the GOP's swing to the right in the years since Barack Obama's 2008 presidential victory.
Ron DeSantis relishes the 'culture war,' much like Trump and Trump voters.
DeSantis has tangled with Hollywood, universities, teachers' unions, and the LGBTQ community - all favored targets of right-wing culture politics.
He even signed a strict, six-week abortion ban against the majority opinion in his home state.
On policy, he fits the median GOP voter as well as Trump does.
He has vast other advantages - most obviously, that he is not a career criminal like Donald Trump. Trump now faces a staggering ninety-one indictments across four separate cases.
The likelihood he will be convicted of something is growing rapidly. Trump, unlike most politicians, does not hide his abuses. Indeed, he does not want to. He relishes proclaiming his transgressions and daring the government to hold him accountable.
This makes for great politics with his base; his voters thrill to his defiant, alpha-male displays. But it also means the evidence to convict Trump is easy to find.
Ron DeSantis carries none of this legal baggage. Nor does he have Trump's bizarre personal peccadillos. DeSantis is also coherent, focused, and energetic on the job. He has pushed Florida politics to the right, achieved a fair amount of conservative goals, and cruised to re-election last fall. Trump, by contrast, lost the popular vote in 2016 and 2020. He is notoriously lazy and self-centered. Trump's politics usually turn on whatever scandal has recently overtaken him. The border wall - arguably Trump's biggest campaign promise in 2016 - went unfinished. Whatever policy promises Trump makes will likely go unfulfilled after 2024.
In short, DeSantis fits the trumpized GOP very well. He shares its goals and (scorched earth) tactics. He has a record of achievement, which lazy Trump does not. And he is clean enough to appeal to centrist and swing voters turned off by Trump's endless drama and sleaze.
The Triumph of the Donald Trump Show
So why is DeSantis floundering so badly? He came out of the 2022 midterms with momentum. Donors liked him as less erratic and corrupt than Trump. Conservative intellectuals preferred him for the same reasons. Even the left came to pick DeSantis to Trump - out of sheer anxiety that Trump rejected democracy.
One obvious answer to DeSantis' troubles is his stiff personality. A personal touch matters in US politics. Most voters care more about empathy than policy. They vote for someone with whom they would rather have a beer. DeSantis seems genuinely surprised that his list of conservative accomplishments - placed against Trump's incoherent presidency - has not moved opinion more.
Another explanation is staff and organization. DeSantis, surprisingly, has not spent his money well, nor staffed his campaign properly for a national campaign. He has already 'rebooted' his campaign and fired his campaign manager.
The deeper explanation though is probably more about Trump than DeSantis. That is, no Republican - not DeSantis or anyone else - is likely going to beat Trump in the primary. The cult-like bond of Trump voters to Donald Trump has far exceeded what anyone thought possible in US politics. Even as Trump has spiraled into ever worse scandal and crisis, his voters have not abandoned him.
It's a Cult
This is a unique occurrence in American politics. No candidate in American history has ever forged a cult of personality in US politics. Indeed, one reason why the US political system has struggled to accommodate Trump these past eight years is the fanatic, personalist bond he has with some 30-40% of the electorate. As Trump himself has noted again and again, his voters accept him with all his faults and vote for him anyway. DeSantis' strategy is based on the implicit assumption that GOP voters want trumpist policy without the Trump Show - the endless scandals, transgressions, narcissism, and general inanity. We now know they do not.
That DeSantis is bland and awkward only worsens the 'entertainment gap' with Trump. It is easy to predict that Trump will run away with the primary.
Dr. Robert E. Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly; RoberEdwinKelly.com) is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Pusan National University and 19FortyFive Contributing Editor.
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speaking of delusional Trump cultists
Truth hurts doesn't it?
Name one thing in the statement that is false.
Democrats love their criminals; and their two tier justice system.
Either the law applies to everyone equally or no one. Democrats are hastening the day when it will apply to no one. They will also be screaming the loudest when that day comes.
FBI Director James Comey has repeatedly said that there’s “no evidence” Clinton’s emails were deleted in an attempt to hide them, and all of the documents released by the FBI’s investigation since then have backed that up that conclusion.
Clinton’s staff had requested the emails to be deleted months before the subpoena
When they were done using them, well prior to any subpoena. The government does this themselves to assure no info could be removed from non-used cell phones.
Because she was cooperating, something Trump refused to do.
She voluntarily did an interview. Again, she was cooperating not obstructing.
In current times, comments like this are amazing in their irony.
Trump is clearly:
To top it off, 'Trump and the GOP' is the topic of this seed.
Why is your comment limited to Democrats when the 800 lb gorilla is pissing on your (everyone's) leg?
Mark Levin is demented and so are the people who continue to defend the worst human being to ever "lead" this country, Donald Trump.
Don't forget that he has already been found, by a jury, to be a sexual predator, guilty of sexual assault. And he has basically admitted to doing it numerous times.
Levin is a tool of the far right wing maniacal trump followers
Of course Levin is right.
She deleted subpoenaed emails. She lied and mishandled classified information. The DOJ rewrote the espionage act to protect her. The DOJ is now using novel interpretations of statutes to justify charging Trump.
Trump cultists are overwhelmed by the need to try and find a "left" counterpart to every clown ass illegal and immoral thing Trump has ever done. It would be funnier if it wasnt tearing the country apart.
There is no comparison between Trumps lack of fitness to hold office and any other figure in American history, let alone today.
Trump's unfitness has nothing to do with this. These are facts:
1. The DOJ essentially rewrote a statute to avoid charging Hillary Clinton with a crime.
2. The DOJ is pushing novel interpretations of statutes to charge Trump with crimes.
I know you are a "whatever is good for the Democrats is good with me" type of guy, but the double standard is real.
3. The DOJ is working overtime to cover for the Biden crime syndicate.
With an assist from the mass media.
100%.
Trump's unfitness has nothing to do with this. These are facts:
Ah, so you agree / admit Trump is unfit.
The very "comparison" is an implication that Trump is no more unfit than Clinton was or Biden is. Such a concept is fucking absurd. You guys either dont understand that or ignore that.
Im sick and tired of hearing the arguments you and your cohorts endlessly make on this topic.
"Fitness" has nothing to do with whether someone broke a law. Do the statutes have two standards for "fit" and "unfit" people? When you bend the law to protect some, and stretch it to "get" others, there's a double standard.
Such a concept is fucking absurd.
I disagree. I think a system of justice that treats people equally is not fucking absurd. I think arbitrarily using the law to punish some and protect others is. You don't think laws apply to Democrats because they govern the way you want and you'll want Trump found guilty no matter what the law actually says. That's not compatible with a democratic form of government.
It certainly has the markers of a cult-like mentality. Support for Trump seems to be based on emotion over reason.
Consider just this one example. People are actually claiming that Trump has been indicted because he merely "questioned the results of an election". That quite spectacular whitewashing of Trump's actions defies reason. But with emotional thinking, one can believe anything.
Trump does not write the headlines. And while the headlines highlight Trump, that is not the focus of the reporting. The unbiased press wants the country's attention focused on the elite prosecuting Trump for crimes against the elite. Trump is only being exploited by a faux upper-class to justify imposing their class views upon society.
What we are witnessing is a class war; not a culture war. The ruling class, commonly referred to as the elite, are attempting to maintain their status and power over society. Not even Biden's message can break through that defensive wall.
The deluded are not capable of proper reasoning on such topics so this article is garbage.
Tell that to the millions of demented Trump fans.
Nah, I’ll just keep pointing out the tens of millions of TDS ridden fools out there. There’s more of em. Lots more.
Way too early to make such rash predictions. More and more Republicans will realize they can't win with Trump, for the reasons stated in the article. His arrogant refusal to attend the debates will be the final straw for many Republicans. The size of Trump's irrational fanatical base of support is exaggerated.
Thats a good one. What other jokes do you have?