Ron DeSantis on the fence?
I put up that unbelievable Ron DeSantis-is-Jesus ad earlier today. I still can hardly believe it. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a political ad quite like it, not even around St Ronnie or Trump.
I had to share this bit from Steve Schmidt about the Crown Prince of Tallahassee. It’s just too good:
Ron DeSantis presides over a tiny fiefdom in the hot, humid, corrupt Florida city of Tallahassee. He is king there, and he reigns with his wife, Casey. Mostly, the relevant information that political reporters talk to each other about is omitted from the coverage that informs the reader. Occasionally, some sunlight breaks through the murk, and citizens are able to cobble together some understanding around the psychology, motivations and decision-making values of the elected officials who have immense power, should they choose to abuse it.
DeSantis is an isolated figure. He does not like people, and has a difficult time connecting with them. He is known to be rude, arrogant, disrespectful, and completely disinterested in anything beyond his ambition or power. His leadership style and office culture are abusive. The horrendous treatment of his staff is an open secret, and their alienation and abuse by him and his wife are well-known to anyone paying attention.
DeSantis and his wife run the show. It is a ‘mom and pop’ shop of malice. The construct of the operations around DeSantis are important to understand. His wife views him as inerrant. Any bad thing that happens is thus not her beloved Ron’s fault. DeSantis is the vessel of perfection in his wife and co-governor’s eyes. He is a victim and champion simultaneously in her imagination, which is imposed on her controlled world by her pedestrian office bullying. When they attacked Disney as a proxy to assault gay people, it must have given them a special satisfaction. Rarely do the unhappiest places and people get to assault the happy ones in America.
DeSantis can’t beat Trump in a primary because he isn’t tough enough. He lacks the character for direct confrontation with the big boss. He is a schemer. He wants to inherit the throne, not fight the king for it. Relations between the true seat of MAGA power and DeSantis’ backwater duchy are poor. Making a move against Trump requires courage, and the one thing that Trump is completely right about is his assessments around his court’s cowardice. He looks at DeSantis, and sees a punk. He knows that the diminutive bully strikes down, not up. Trump knows he’s weak even if the national political press corps hasn’t figured it out yet.
What DeSantis just did in Martha’s Vineyard is frontally assault the Sermon on the Mount, and the basic core concepts of all the world’s major religions. He did not welcome the stranger. He rejected every precept of Christian charity. He struck out at vulnerable people, and assaulted their dignity. He weaponized fear and deployed it. It begs a question. Why did DeSantis do this? Is he sadistic? The short answer is, probably. That’s besides the point though.
Here is what matters: this is the audition. What does he want? He wants to be the American head of state. He wants to feel what it’s like to be the commander-in-chief of the most potent and deadly military in the history of humanity. This is how he thinks he gets there. He is talking to the small group of extremist donors, pundits, academics, and militia thugs who he believes control the Republican nominating process.
DeSantis knows these people don’t want to talk about American unity. He knows they reject the notion of “E Pluribus Unum.” They aren’t interested in building or making things better. They want to punish, dominate and control half the country. DeSantis is laying his cards on the table. He is making an offering. He is trying to say, “I will hurt the people you hate”. What he is saying is, “Give me power, and anything is possible.”
The real Republican Jesus doesn’t like it, not one bit. Let the games begin:
That nickname was coined by Roger Stone, by the way. And it’s causing quite a stir in MAGA land:
I suspect DeSantis will sit this one out. He doesn’t want to go up against Trump. Why bother?He’ll only be 48 in 2028, Trump will be out of the scene and he doesn’t have to get his crown of thorns dirty by rolling around in the mud with Orange Julius Caesar.
I kind of hope I’m wrong. It would be great if Trump could knock this guy off his pedestal. It would be his only positive legacy.