For a Republican attempting the Sisyphean task of besting Donald Trump in a primary election next year, the options are decidedly limited. No one knows this more than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It’s bad enough to be running against someone who can constantly belittle and insult you without ever fearing any serious repercussions, let alone retaliation. But it’s worse when the only way to distinguish yourself is by trying to somehow co-opt his most pathetic supporters.
Despite his formidable record of performative cruelty in his home state, and despite his loud and public embrace of a wholly fascist agenda, DeSantis has thus far been unable to make any significant dent to Trump’s overwhelming popularity among Republican primary supporters. Still, flush with cash from at least 42 billionaires who would prefer the stability of a DeSantis to the mercurial and probably fatally unelectable Trump, he has to find some way to get people who matter — in this case, Republican primary voters — to actually consider him, especially in the event that Trump is a convicted criminal by the time Nov. 2024 rolls around (an event that DeSantis doubtlessly hopes and probably even prays for on a daily basis).
So, he puts out an over-the-top, inflammatory transphobic video, replete with interspersed “masculine” images, from oiled bodybuilders to gladiators. He knows it will garner a lot of attention, almost entirely negative, from the mainstream press, but that’s OK. As Philip Bump, writing for the Washington Post observes, “Each time it’s embedded in an article from a news outlet expressing condemnation, two DeSantis staffers high-five.” But successfully “owning the libs” with a sick video won’t do the trick for DeSantis at this point. He needs to make some semblance of inroads with the Republican base, or he’s toast.
Which is why the video (amply dissected on this site here and here) aims for the lowest of the low-hanging fruit as far as Trump’s base is concerned: The aggrieved, insecure, white male whose masculinity is acutely threatened by a world seemingly filled with LGBTQ people demanding rights and representation. The over-compensating, apparently embarrassingly-endowed men for whom a big and burly pickup truck and an AR-15 are essentially pacifiers for their tragically wounded sense of maleness. The ones who would dearly like to act out their fantasies of control and domination if a disgustingly feminized and “woke” society would only allow them to.
As Bump notes:
The ad is replete not just with cherry-picked examples of Trump attempting to appeal to LGBTQ voters — ignoring, for example, Trump’s angry effort to block transgender people from serving in the military — but with esoteric iconography popular with the online right-wing fringe. Those clips of Christian Bale playing serial killer Patrick Bateman? It’s meant to appeal to reactionary dudes who’ve adopted Bale’s character as a not-entirely-ironic role model.
Just in case you haven’t seen American Psycho, it’s the story of a New York City investment banker who moonlights as a sadistic murderer. It’s dark humor and satire, meant as satirical social commentary and not to inspire emulation. The misogyny is more than pronounced. But evidently, there is a certain demographic of Trump supporters who DeSantis thinks he can court with such imagery, a demographic who he hopes will identify with it, and (eventually) identify with DeSantis as well. As Bump observes, “The goal is to present DeSantis as aligned with that verbose community and that they will commend him and share his message.”
But it isn’t just the wannabe American psychos who DeSantis is targeting here. Because there probably aren't enough of those to win even a Republican primary. No, DeSantis is offering himself as a salve and savior to the insecure, wounded and frustrated white male demographic as a whole. As Bump points out, “Trump has continuously leveraged White anxiety during his time in politics; DeSantis is appealing to male insecurity.”
As Bump reports, that’s because polling finds that white males are more likely to feel that they, as opposed to other groups, are being discriminated against most.
[A]nd among people who say they voted for Trump in 2020 — a group that was more heavily male than female — more said that men faced discrimination more than women and more said that White people and Christians faced discrimination than said the same of LGBT people.
So, these are the people — in addition to the would-be psycho killers — who DeSantis is really trying to get the attention of: poor, sexually insecure white males who can’t seem to cope with the fact that LGBTQ people exist. He’s counting on the small-penis crowd to respond to him even more than they already respond to Trump.
As Bump writes:
This is what DeSantis is trying to tap into and what he’s defending. There is another version of America possible, this ad offers, one in which REAL MEN get to do real-men things (like be gladiators or, it seems, mass murderers). Enough with this treating LGBTQ people as worthy of inclusion in society. Let’s instead return primacy to real, alpha men! Please like and share.
As Bump points out, whether DeSantis actually identifies with these sad sacks in white America is irrelevant, particularly from the perspective of those targeted by this hateful and increasingly incessant rhetoric. He’s obviously committed to say or do anything to distinguish himself, no matter who is harmed in the process. This grotesque pro-masculinity shtick has been employed freely by other Republicans, from Josh Hawley to Tucker Carlson. It’s clearly a theme that’s intentional and considered, simply because there is a certain demographic that it appeals to.
Will it make any difference to Trump supporters? Almost certainly not. Trump’s hold on his most rabid base is akin to that of a cult figure and fairly impregnable at this point. But it speaks volumes about the sorry-ass state of many Republican men, and how low the Republican party will stoop to try and cultivate them.