Is Ron DeSantis Flaming Out Already?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
F lorida governor Ron DeSantis has long sought to avoid taking a position on Russia’s war in Ukraine. On the eve of the Russian invasion, 165 Florida National Guard members were stationed on a training mission in Ukraine. They were evacuated in February 2022 to continue their mission in neighboring countries. When they returned to Florida in August, DeSantis did not greet them. He has not praised, or even acknowledged, their work in any public statement.
DeSantis did find time, however, to admonish Ukrainian officials in October for not showing enough gratitude to new Twitter owner Elon Musk. (Musk returned the favor by endorsing DeSantis for president.) On tour this month to promote his new book , DeSantis has clumsily evaded questions about the Russian invasion. When a reporter for The Times of London pressed the governor, DeSantis scolded him: “Perhaps you should cover some other ground? I think I’ve said enough.”
Even his allies found this medley of past hawkishness and present evasiveness worrying—especially because he was on record, in 2014 and 2015, urging the Obama administration to send both “defensive and offensive” weapons to Ukraine after the Russian annexation of Crimea. So last night, DeSantis delivered a more definitive answer on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president. The governor began by listing America’s “vital interests” in a way that explicitly excluded NATO and the defense of Europe. He accepted the present Russian line that Putin’s occupation of Ukraine is a mere “territorial dispute.” He endorsed “peace” as the objective without regard to the terms of that peace, another pro-Russian talking point. He conceded the Russian argument that American aid to Ukraine amounts to direct involvement in the conflict. He endorsed and propagated the fantasy—routinely advanced by pro-Putin guests on Fox talk shows—that the Biden administration is somehow plotting “regime change” in Moscow. He denounced as futile the economic embargo against Russia—and baselessly insinuated that Ukraine is squandering U.S. financial assistance. He ended by flirting with the idea of U.S. military operations against Mexico, an idea that originated on the extreme right but has migrated toward the Republican mainstream.
A careful reader of DeSantis’s statement will find that it was composed to provide him with some lawyerly escape hatches from his anti-Ukraine positions. For example, it ruled out F-16s specifically rather than warplanes in general. But those loopholes matter less than the statement’s context. After months of running and hiding, DeSantis at last produced a detailed position on Ukraine—at the summons of a Fox talking head.
There’s a scene in the TV drama Succession in which the media mogul Logan Roy tests would-be candidates for the Republican presidential nomination by ordering them to bring him a Coke. The man who eventually gets the nod is the one who didn’t even wait to be asked—he arrived at the sit-down with Logan’s Coke already in hand. That’s the candidate DeSantis is showing himself to be.
D esantis is a machine engineered to win the Republican presidential nomination. The hardware is a lightly updated version of donor-pleasing mechanics from the Paul Ryan era. The software is newer. DeSantis operates on the latest culture-war code : against vaccinations, against the diversity industry, against gay-themed books in school libraries. The packaging is even more up-to-the-minute. Older models—Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush—made some effort to appeal to moderates and independents. None of that from DeSantis. He refuses to even speak to media platforms not owned by Rupert Murdoch. His message to the rest of America is more of the finger-pointing disdain he showed last year for high-school students who wore masks when he visited a college.
The problem that Republicans confront with this newly engineered machine is this: Have they built themselves a one-stage rocket—one that achieves liftoff but never reaches escape velocity? The DeSantis trajectory to the next Republican National Convention is fast and smooth. He raised nearly $10 million in February—a single month. That’s on top of the more than $90 million remaining from the $200 million he raised for his reelection campaign as governor. His allies talk of raising $200 million more by this time next year, and there is no reason to doubt they will reach their target. DeSantis has been going up in the polls, too. According to Quinnipiac , Donald Trump’s lead over DeSantis in a four-way race between them, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley has shriveled to just two points.
After that midpoint, however, the DeSantis flight path begins to look underpowered .
Florida Republicans will soon pass—and DeSantis pledged he would sign—a law banning abortion after six weeks. That bill is opposed by 57 percent of those surveyed even inside Florida. Another poll found that 75 percent of Floridians oppose the ban. It also showed that 77 percent oppose permitless concealed carry, which DeSantis supports, and that 61 percent disapprove of his call to ban the teaching of critical race theory as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on college campuses. As the political strategist Simon Rosenberg noted : “Imagine how these play outside FL.”
But even this understates the DeSantis design flaw.
More dangerous than the unpopular positions DeSantis holds are the popular positions he does not hold. What is DeSantis’s view on health care? He doesn’t seem to have one. President Joe Biden has delivered cheap insulin to U.S. users. Good idea or not? Silence from DeSantis. There’s no DeSantis jobs policy; he hardly speaks about inflation. Homelessness? The environment? Nothing. Even on crime, DeSantis must avoid specifics, because specifics might remind his audience that Florida’s homicide numbers are worse than New York’s or California’s.
DeSantis just doesn’t seem to care much about what most voters care about. And voters in turn do not care much about what DeSantis cares most about.
Yascha Mounk: How to save academic freedom from Ron DeSantis
Last fall, DeSantis tried a stunt to influence the midterm elections: At considerable taxpayer expense, he flew asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard. The ploy enraged liberals on Twitter . It delighted the Fox audience. Nobody else, however, seemed especially interested . As one strategist said to Politico : “It’s mostly college-educated white women that are going to decide this thing. Republicans win on pocketbook issues with them, not busing migrants across the country.”
A new CNN poll finds that 59 percent of Republicans care most that their candidate agrees with them on the issues; only 41 percent care most about beating Biden. DeSantis has absorbed that wish and is answering it. Last night, in his statement on Ukraine, DeSantis delivered another demonstration of this nomination-or-bust strategy.
D esantis will be a candidate of the Republican base, for the Republican base. Like Trump, he delights in displaying his lack of regard for everyone else. Trump, however, is driven by his psychopathologies and cannot emotionally cope with disagreement. DeSantis is a rational actor and is following what somebody has convinced him is a sound strategy. It looks like this:
- Woo the Fox audience and win the Republican nomination.
- ??
- Become president.
Written out like that, you can see the missing piece. DeSantis is surely intelligent and disciplined enough to see it too. But the programming installed in him prevents him from acting on what he sees. His approach to winning the nomination will put the general election beyond his grasp. He must hope that some external catastrophe will defeat his Democratic opponent for him—a recession, maybe—because DeSantis is choosing a path that cannot get him to his goal.
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I've run out of fingers and toes to count how many self-inflicted paper cuts DeFantacy is now bleeding from. My fave of late is him being sued by Trump's super PAC for ethics violations:
No worries, he just revoked the liquor license of an establishment that had ''Drag Queen'' show.
That's very 'woke' of the Sheriff of Naughtyham.
What???
That asshole.
Being an asshole is the current path to 'victory' within the post modern GoP.
I forgot
Wow.
How odd that state law allows the Governor to arbitrarily revoke a liquor license.
It's Florida
It's also not how their laws work, and Kavika knows that.
My comment was a joke. If you don't like Kav's comment take it up with him. Bring your armor
“…arbitrarily…”
….hence the discussion of all things DeSantis…and hence the concern.
His is an agenda that skirts allowing the popular vote in deference to his populist leanings. It plays well in Florida but will be tough sledding in those states he needs to carry.
I think the real concern is that he is the biggest threat to a Biden re-election... and he's not even a candidate yet.
I'm not so sure. The pendulum swings, after all.
For certain, there will be a given set of people who only consider the identity politics and follow their tribe no matter what.
But I don't think the mainstream voters who actually decide elections are going to be all that opposed to somebody enforcing existing laws.
Well.. when we look at the facts behind the clickbait headlines.....
So, in fact, they violated Florida law.
They were warned not to violate Florida law, and did it anyway.
The Governor of Florida has never had the power to revoke a liquor license. You lose your liquor license in Florida the same way you do anywhere else.... by violating the law.
Yes, indeed and it was DeSantis and the republican Florida legislature that passed those laws that never existed before DeSantis got them passed. Many of those Drag Queen Shows have been going on for years in those locations. So yeah, it was DeSantis that pulled their liquor license.
Like everything that DeSantis has done is his so called ''war on woke''. it's too bad that he isn't spending more time on things that really matter to Floridians like getting more teachers instead of this insane book banning bullshit or more LEOs. Florida has a huge shortage of both.
A couple of my favorites are his flying two plane loads of illegals to the NE meanwhile he campaigned on the fact that all Florida business would be subject to the E verify. But when in reality the law passed exempted all private businesses with these exceptions. And guess who lobbied to get the exemptions, well DUH it was the agribusiness who employed many of the illegals in Florida.
The so-called Disney victory that he claimed was not what he claimed. One only has to actually read the new law. He did not delete the ''special tax district'' it stayed intact because as he and the legislation were told for a year that if he did that then two Florida counties would be liable for the $1 billion debt and also for maintenance of roads and other items that Disney maintains.
There are many things in Florida that need improvement, but the ''war on woke'' seems to be the shiny bright object stuck in his eye.
I'm not sure that's accurate.
You couldn't allow minors into sexually explicit performances back in the 1980s when I lived there. Drag shows have been considered explicit since the 40s, at least.
Even if it were true, you've gone from "DeSantis took away their liquor license" to "they knowingly violated laws passed by Republicans" in one post.
We're conveniently overlooking the complete insanity of the idea that drag shows are appropriate places for children. These people are utterly detached from reality.
I'm not exactly sure that most Americans need to be told that you shouldn’t let 8 year-olds into a neon dildo show.
Look, there are things he's done that I have a problem with, including his little immigration stunt.
But FFS, children at drag shows??? He's not wrong here.
Then how do you explain that prick DeSantis having - (I think it was the Hyatt) - had a drag show in Florida with anyone under 18 having to be accompanied by an adult back in December 2022 had their liquor license revoked but they can appeal - DeSantis did this yet you deny it.
It was DeSantis specifically who had their liquor license revoked yet Jack continues to defend the indefensible, but that is all he has.
It is accurate - Kavika always is. You on the other hand are full of shit.
WE aren't the ones who are utterly detached from reality here.
“I've run out of fingers and toes…”
Keeping at least one big toe, Hal, if only to dip in the waters…
Belated thanks for your continued and cogent contributions.
I was hired to give republicans illusions of red waves ... so far it's panned out to 2 years of kaching!
When liberals stop obsessing over him, that's when he's in trouble
That did not pan out for Donnie, why would it pan out for Ronnie?
DeSantis just won reelection in what used to be a purple state by 20 points despite years of articles exactly like this. I think he'll be fine. And with Trump still around, the "DeSantis is really Hitler, not Trump" hysteria isn't going to work with anyone who's brain isn't already mush.
Liberals are scared of losing to him. If they ever come to think he's not a threat, they'll ignore him.
Florida is not America.
Stop pissing on us and telling us it's lemonade. DeSantis spanked the State Legislature when they left the congressional district maps intact in 2021 and had them redrawn.
not yet....
How absurd. You know legislative maps have nothing to do with gubernatorial elections, right?
Obama won Florida twice. Clinton lost it by a point. DeSantis was barely elected in 2018 and destroyed his opponent on 2022 after 4 years of national DeSantis is a Nazi coverage, while gushing over Cuomo as the ideal governor.
Yes, it's more diverse.
Are you comparing Florida to the rest of the US or to other states and by what parameters?
Gerrymandering effects voter turnout and election spending.
Lol. Just admit you had no idea what you were talking about and got caught.
The idea that DeSantis won by 20 points because of legislative gerrymandering is simply idiotic.
Racial diversity.
“Liberals are scared of losing to him.”
He is but trump 2.0, but perhaps even more dangerous as he is not a cultural personality, but purely an ideologue.
The chance he may win the election, have a majority House and Senate, with the SCOTUS in his pocket is a truly terrifying scenario.
We should all shudder at the possibility.
Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts. Or math.
State to state you are wrong.
Do not attempt to cloud the issue with alternative facts. Or alternative math.
A DeSantis government would result in the government having less power over individuals. I can see how that frightens progressives.
Florida has a higher percentage of Latinos and Blacks than the national average, less than an average percentage of Whites and Asians.
Unless one is LGBTQ+ or a teacher or a bar owner or a librarian or a woman or...
“A DeSantis government would result in the government having less power over individuals.”
Sell that story to any woman whom dare take autonomy over her private medical decision, or the physician willingly doing their job.
Tell the tale to the educator or librarian whom dare take the time to educate our children, willingly doing their job.
Wish away the immigration issue by separating families, caging children and thinking that is in any way a solution.
These may be your solutions to how to make your world great again, but damn if it is for the rest of us. Our America is better than that.
Apr 19, 2022 — The governor's congressional map creates 20 districts that favor Republicans , including the district Florida gains because of population growth, ...
Florida's DeSantis erases two districts that sent Black people to Congress
BULLSEYE!!!!
How so?
That's all he's got EG.
Or anyone who says anything bad about an elected official like DickSantis - having to register with the state
This what awaits DeSantis when the campaign against Trump goes into gear.
DeSantis is already the prime target of progressive activists like the Lincoln project.
@!@ ... the Lincoln Project is composed of real/former republican/conservatives who do not buy into the populism of wannabe demagogues. Those that do are the real RINOs.
Lol. It's staffed by and raises money from Democratic party activists. That people still believe otherwise might be the greatest grift going in politics..
George Soros lives rent free in some people's heads.
George Soros isn't a top investor in the Lincoln Project- but other Democrat entities are.
That is reality.
The Lincoln Project has ex-Republican shills that don't give a rats ass about who wins elections- they are out to just make a couple of million for themselves.
As opposed to current Republican shills that don't give a rats ass about anyone that doesn't conform to their purity tests and game the system where they already haven't changed the laws to make several million for themselves.
With his statement about Ukraine, DeSantis has fully revealed his unfitness for office.
Frum is absolutely correct: "DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president."
This was, IMO, a significant mistake. DeSantis does not have a lot of political capital so a few more blunders like this and he is going to be in scramble mode.
It was certainly a significant mistake. We can expect that he will double-down on it in order to continue trying to curry favor with the MAGA base.
Especially since he is on record when he was in congress as supporting Ukraine.
In addition, he is wrong. This is not merely a territory dispute. If Mexico invaded Southern CA would that be a territory dispute?
The question that will be raised by some is whether he's duplicitous or merely ignorant. Given his record, it can only be the former.
Actually, technically, yeah... it kinda would be.
The key word in my comment is "merely".
Why invade; when Mexico and every other country can just send their people freely across our southern border?
It is not like Brandon is turning them away.
Come up with a better argument.
Also, Ukraine- no matter how leftists wish it is not a part of the US; and never will be. It also will never be a real Democracy; will never stop supporting Fascists; and will never pay the US back for the billions we have invested in their defense. Unless you count political kickbacks as paybacks.
Fair enough.
I'm not sure it's accurate to describe border disputes as "mere", but I suppose that's sort of the point.
I doubt many people would consider the invasion of Ukraine by Russia as nothing more than a territory dispute. It is, of course, a territory dispute in its essence since Putin believes all the former Soviet states are part of Russia and the states hold that they are sovereign. It seems likely that most voters disagree with DeSantis on this point since Putin has turned a territory dispute into a full-scale bloody war and apparently replete with savage war crimes.
You (and Jeremy) seem to have missed the point of my analogy. Southern California (and a number of states) used to be part of Mexico until the mid 19th century. Thus if Mexico were to hold that Southern California really is part of Mexico that would be a territory dispute. If they then took action on the dispute and invaded the USA, that would be (at the very least) an act of war and could indeed lead into a war.
Putin holds Ukraine is still party of Russia. Ukraine holds that it is sovereign. That is a territory dispute. But Putin took action and turned the dispute into a full scale war.
See?
You need to pay attention to what people write instead of constantly inserting your per-conceived stereotype and arguing against that.
Who is arguing that? Good grief man, get a grip.
Correct. Again, not sure who has asserted this, but it was not me.
Go argue with a mirror; it would be a more honest act than the crap you just spewed.
Where EXACTLY have I commented on this piece of liberal trash? THIS is the 1st comment I've made on it. Pull your head from your 4th POC already and pay attention.
“…he is going to be in scramble mode.”
He has put all his eggs in one basket:
Appeasement on the Ukraine issue. Aggression on the LGBTQ + issue. Antipathy on women’s rights issues.
What plays in Florida will not play in the swing states that will determine the election.
He is fried, before even announcing.
You voted it up; that implies agreement. If you disagree with what Ronin wrote then I retract my inclusion of you.
Generally I agree, but DeSantis is not quite finished yet. He could easily move more towards the sane portion of the GOP (and also be more palatable to independents). He has time. But statements like that on Ukraine are liabilities that will haunt his campaign.
“…the sane portion of the GOP…”
A more and more disenfranchised group. But when trump finally achieves his long awaited self immolation, they will coalesce behind DeSantis, hold their nose, and once again, pick the lesser…
Certainly, unless Trump runs third party. Trump support is a bizarre phenomenon. Anyone who would support Trump after what he did in his Big Lie campaign is, in my opinion, irrational. I can easily see irrational / emotional Trump supporters voting for a third-party run rather than resorting to the GOP nominee who beat their hero.
“Trump support is a bizarre phenomenon.”
Inexplicable.
Afeared for the potential violence that in his inevitable loss he will most assuredly incite.
That hast to be one of the dumbest thing's I've heard from you. And that's A LOT of dumb shit.
A part of Spanish territory much longer than Mexican.
Keep up the hysterical negativity folks, it's quite entertaining. DeSantis WILL BE you next president. And his VP will most likely be Haley.
Another claim by you with no supporting reasoning.
Here is reasoning which suggests DeSantis will not be our next PotUS.
Note also that I am stating a hypothesis, not making a claim. Right now I see no realistic way for DeSantis to win the presidency (short of Trump silently fading into the sunset). But since factors can and will change, there is insufficient information to make a claim.
Further, I think the GOP continues to shoot itself in the foot. By not ejecting Trump, I think they ensure a win for whoever gets the D nomination.
Someone as out of touch with the majority of the American people as DeSantis WILL NOT BE our president, ever.
He will definitely have a hard time appealing to independents and whatever remains of the sane portion of the GOP.
I agree.
Actually, Greg, DeSantis would be better off if he did what he could to remove the white nationalists from the Republican party in FL. FYI four members of the Proud Boys are on the executive committee of the Miami-Dade Republican party and another is on the executive committee of the Sarasota Republican Party.
Florida GOP Proposal Would Ban Pride Flag—But Let Confederate Flag Fly At State Buildings