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| Home Front: Politix |
| Republican Voters Don't Want a Trump Knockoff |
| 2023-06-02 |
| [American Greatness] Republican voters have been bashed over the head repeatedly with the message that Ron DeSantis is the more "electable," new and improved version of Donald Trump. This was always a ridiculous talking point, as if an enigmatic figure such as Trump could be replicated, with all peculiar virtues retained and vices purged. But this shtick for DeSantis had life only so long as it remained an untested hypothesis. Under the pressure of a head-on collision with Trump, the careful ruse of "Trump without the baggage" is collapsing like a cardboard cutout. DeSantis’ disastrous Twitter launch, rationalized as bold and forward thinking by his supporters, is just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is DeSantis is lacking quite a bit more than Trump’s "baggage." Without his rival’s authenticity or charisma, DeSantis has relied on an annoyingly overbearing political operation to stay afloat. But sly maneuvering is precisely what Republican voters despise most in a politician today. Oddly enough, DeSantis appears to have even changed how he says his last name. One can imagine Trump having a field day with his understudy’s prevarications on the debate stage: "Tell us, Ron, Is it Duh-santis or DEE-santis?" DeSantis’ surrogates want to talk about nothing but "policy," perhaps as a distraction from the fact that he’s such an uninteresting character. It’s hard to trust a man who isn’t comfortable in his own skin. One could hardly lay such a charge against Trump. His supporters know that the chaos is part of a package deal that comes with a forceful and uncontrollable personality. With DeSantis, they get a boring, vacillating careerist pretending to be his more popular rival. The premise here was bound to end in failure once the rubber hit the road. Although his crudely obvious shadow campaign has reached a merciful conclusion, now that it’s "official," DeSantis’ candidacy feels like old news. The only difference is that the talking points voters have heard countless times already from Twitter pundits and Fox News and the editorial pages of the New York Post are coming from the governor’s own mouth. He ended his astroturfed Twitter launch by thanking apparently handpicked interlocutors for a "robust debate." It was a strange way to summarize what had just transpired: listeners heard DeSantis read stale talking points for an hour as allies teed up softball questions on his favorite topics. Then he hopped over to Murdoch-owned Fox News to be flattered some more by the weirdly affected Trey Gowdy. Asked how he would handle the war in Ukraine, DeSantis appeared to blow a circuit and started talking about transgenders in the military. "There’s a new sheriff in town," he declared. This is the serious, substantial candidate we’ve heard so much about? |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #9 I want someone who will prosecute fauci and not listen to him. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2023-06-02 22:18 |
| #8 who was it who recently said Chris Christie needs to run? Well, not for president, but just run... |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2023-06-02 22:17 |
| #7 ^^^^ Late entry for SOTD. |
| Posted by: Nero 2023-06-02 21:19 |
| #6 Chris Christie will eat her for breakfast. Literally With two pancakes as a side. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-06-02 17:00 |
| #5 Liz! Cheney! -snnnrrrrrrrttt- |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2023-06-02 16:19 |
| #4 I will vote for whomever comes out of the chute. I expect that the Dems are hoping for them to destroy each other. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-06-02 14:54 |
| #3 I suggest the Meatball stuff is reciprocation for the asshattery of DeSantis' Street Team. Very insulting people. Those folks dont realize the internet is forever. And just b/c Google flushed a sound bite down the memory hole, doesn't mean it no longer exists. DeSantis Street Team started back in Feb claiming Trump killed all the children with Operation Warp Speed. Not cool. Very bad optics. The DeSimps failed to remember how populous DeSantis was, forgot how Pro-Vax he was in the beginning. And despite our reminders, they cling to their narratives. I have the audio video of DeSantis praising Fauci, deferring to Fauci, and pushing Fauci to limit domestic air travel. We have shared that with them repeatedly, along with dozens of other colorful remarks by DeSantis. It does not change their tone. Painting DeSantis as Jeb or Paul Ryan... No. We are pointing out his donors are the same donors who back Jeb and Paul Ryan and Chamber of Commerce. Do you know what a bell curve is? How many deviations from the mean can we expect from DeSantis with his GOPe Donor Class Money? Does anyone think he will go hard on H1B1? No. Do you think there is any chance in hell DeSantis will stop the proxy war with UKR? No. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2023-06-02 12:52 |
| #2 Won't make any difference. Deep state is not going to allow any loss of power. Why do you think DoJ and the FBI are flipping off the House Republicans. People are willing to accept the corrupt ritual of shame elections rather than seriously disrupt their lives. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-06-02 07:20 |
| #1 DeSantis has been a very good governor here in Florida. I shudder to think of any aspect of a Gillum governorship. The people trying to paint him as Paul Ryan or Jeb! version 2.0 are off the mark. As for who he dealt with and how he dealt with them while a congressman, there's no Trump record in that department to compare, so how is it relevant? As for the "DeSimp" and "meatball" stuff, it says more about the people making those attacks than it does about the individual being attacked. All that said, it's the same as it ever was. Let the best man win. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-06-02 06:16 |