Andrew Sullivan doesn’t exactly sound eager to support Gov. DeSantis’ possible bid for the White House in 2024, but he does tick through the arguments against him and suggests that given a choice between what we have now and a return of Donald Trump, DeSantis may in fact be the best choice.
So get real: If you really believe that Trump remains a unique threat to constitutional democracy in America, you need to consider the possibility that, at this point, a Republican is probably your best bet.
One stands out, and it’s Ron DeSantis, the popular governor of Florida. And yet so many Never Trumpers, right and left, have instantly become Never DeSanters, calling him a terrifyingly competent clone of the thug with the bad hair. He’s “Trump 2.0” but even “more dangerous than Trump,” says Dean Obeidallah. “He’s dangerous because he is equally repressive, but doesn’t have the baggage of Trump,” argues a fascism scholar.
“DeSantis has decided to try to outflank Trump, to out-Trump Trump,” worries Michael Tomasky. He’s a clone of Viktor Orbán, says Vox, and on some issues, “DeSantis has actually outstripped Orbán.”Then there’s Max Boot: “Just because DeSantis is smarter than Trump doesn’t mean that he is any less dangerous. In fact, he might be an even bigger threat for that very reason.”…
I don’t really have a solid grasp of his core character, and I have to remain a skeptic on this, but his steadfastness and independence of mind under Covid was encouraging. He served his country in Iraq. He works hard. He is a devoted family man. In all this, he is not just not-Trump. He is his opposite…
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DeSantis sure isn’t my dream candidate. But the currently viable alternative — we must always remember — is a nightmare.
Personally I was never a never Trumper. In fact, I voted for him but I won’t be voting for him again. I won’t go into my reasons except for this one: He’s too damn old to run again. Yes, I know he’s not Joe Biden but in two years he’ll be 78-years-old, which means if he won he’d be 82 in his final year in office. No one knows what that would look like and I don’t think the GOP should make the same mistake the Democrats made with Biden, especially when there’s a better candidate who is currently 43 years old and who lacks all of Trump’s considerable baggage.
So the attempt to frame DeSantis as Trump but worse which seems to be popular on the left right now makes little sense to me. But I guess the habit of framing each new GOP candidate as worse than the previous one is a habit that dies hard. The left does this every four years no matter who is on the ballot. When we nominated Mitt Romney, they turned him into a vampire capitalist who tortured dogs. If we somehow nominated Jill Biden to run on the GOP ticket against her husband we’d soon find out she’s history’s worst monster who is to blame for most of Hunter’s bad behavior.
So, the left is going to do what it always does, but that doesn’t mean I can’t point out they are hypocrites for doing it. Trashing DeSantis as worse than the guy you impeached twice and who you claim will be the end of the Republic reminds me of the environmentalists who say ending the use of fossil fuels is the most important thing humanity must do and who then push to make sure nuclear power stations are shut down. Either you really believe what you’re saying or you don’t.
Of course there’s no telling what the field will look like in two years and I’m not ready to commit to a candidate yet, but the lefties railing against DeathSantis (!1!!) two years out are as predictable as the sunrise and not very convincing.
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