This morning, Fox and Friends host, Will Cain, asked Ron DeSantis about the timing of his presidential aspirations.
"Most of the people that support you probably voted for President Trump twice. And the first comment I hear over and over again is, "Why doesn't Ron DeSantis wait for President Trump's second term and then run?' And what is your best answer to that? Why is right now the time for Ron DeSantis to run for president?"
Mr. Sunshine State answered,
"Because everyone knows if I'm the nominee, I will beat Biden, uh, and I will serve two terms and I will be able to, uh, destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history."
Ron’s answer is notable for a false claim, a commitment to darkness, and his strange usage of “on the dustbin.” Does DeSantis think he is British and that garbage goes ‘on’ the trash receptacle?
More seriously, we can dismiss his inevitable electability claim. Nobody “knows” that DeSantis will beat Biden — especially in an election still 17 months away. Just because your wife tells you you are God’s anointed does not make it so.
In his claim of a guaranteed political future, DeSantis is hardly alone. Politics does not attract the humble. It takes ego to think you are the only one who can fix problems where many others have failed. DeSantis may believe he is the chosen one. But the voters will decide. What is more worrisome is the tenor of his message.
“Destroy”? DeSantis is not talking about Russia or terrorists — true enemies that deserve destruction. Or China, our biggest strategic threat and economic foe. Ron is referring to his fellow citizens. American leftism is not a disease. It is a different political philosophy, which most industrial counties consider centrism.
And “woke” is not evil because you say it is. At its best, woke reflects Jesus’s philosophy of inclusion; caring for the needy, the sick, and the socially disadvantaged; and welcoming the stranger. The worst you could accuse it of is being too finickity about pronouns and the like.
Modern conservatism was not always this way. Reagan — who was as callous, opportunistic, and implicitly racist (Welfare Queen) and homophobic (what AIDS crisis?) as any of today’s anti-social warriors, sugared his poison with sunny optimism. He reserved his dyspepsia for the government.
He did not declare war on half of America. He softened his barbs with humor and self-deprecation. He thought the truth — at least his version — would convince the left it was in error and set them free.
Contemporary conservatives have consigned Reaganism to the dustbin of history. Trump may have signed another round of plutocrat-stroking tax cuts and unleashed profit-boosting regulatory laissez-faire. However, pro-corporate economic philosophy is now rarely featured in Republican marketing. Bilious attacks on LGBTQ, female, and minority Americans are now the main attraction.
Contrast the difference in tone between Reagan’s description of the America he was to lead and Trump’s assessment of the Union he inherited. Both painted the nation bleakly — it is what incoming politicians do to make their anticipated improvements look better by contrast. Their language, however, reveals two different men.
Here is what Reagan said in January 1981
“These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity.”
Here is Trump’s version in January 2017
“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge, and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
The difference between Reagan’s list of challenges and Trump’s evocation of a dystopian wasteland is more egregious when you consider that in 1980 the US suffered a decline in GDP, a 12.5% inflation rate, and a 7.2% unemployment rate. While in 2016, GDP increased, inflation was 2.1%, and unemployment was 4.7%. Carnage? Only in the addled brain of a sociopathic narcissist.
Reagan talked of an alliterative ‘evil empire.’ Trump warned of ‘shithole countries.’ Reagan called immigrants “one of the most important sources of America’s greatness.” Trump called them — at least the Brown ones — “rapists.” Now DeSantis wants to out-hate the great hater.
The Florida Governor is so driven by bile it compounds his unrelatability. DeSantis has a glittering resume and a compelling life story, but he would rather fight the bad fight and unleash his mean-spirited antipathy. Even Foxers have noted his self-sabotaging bigotry.
Jessica Tarlov recently argued DeSantis “missed the boat” when Trey Gowdy interviewed him in prime time following his presidential announcement. She was scathing.
“Trey is a wonderful interviewer, gave him [DeSantis] a glowing biographical opening, and wanted him to talk about his military service. And instead of doing that, he pivoted right away to gender ideology problems in the military, not talking about why he served, what it means to wear the uniform, things that are going to resonate with other veterans.”
“He has a working-class background. Working-class people don’t talk about the woke mind virus, ESGs Bitcoin, and, you know, whatever George Soros is going to do to ruin the country. They want to hear about what your policies are, how you’re going to lift people up who are farmers, who are policemen, who are teachers, etc.”
Reagan was a superior politician — and a better actor. His public affability and social ease were a persona that hid a surprisingly private man with few deep friendships. Like DeSantis, he relied on his wife. But unlike DeSantis, he talked of America being a “Shining city on a hill” — a mystical place where all Americans could live.
DeSantis reflects today's conservative base — a baying horde of MAGAs who have lived on seven years of nihilistic Trumpism and the politics of small-minded pettiness. It is why Trump never won a majority of the voters and lost his last election.
DeSantis should emulate Reagan. The Great Communicator’s sunny optimism led to a landslide reelection in 1984 — the Orwell allusion is fortuitous happenstance — when Reagan won 49 states and the popular vote by 18%.
It was the last time everyone knew that a Republican would win.
