Even if you aren’t in Florida you probably heard about the ultra-cringey ad’s loathsome Democrat governor Gavin Newsom unloaded onto the Sunshine State airwaves last week…
We’re about to celebrate Independence Day — but Freedom is under attack by Republican leaders in states like Florida.
Banning books.
Restricting speech.
Making it harder to vote.
Criminalizing women and doctors.
It’s time to stand up. Don’t let them take your freedom. pic.twitter.com/cFI5UzgZzX— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 3, 2022
Ron DeSantis is up for reelection as Florida’s governor in the fall, and the two Democrats attempting to beat him, the old-and-tired Charlie Crist and the new-and-tiresome Nikki Fried, have virtually zero chance of knocking him out. DeSantis is likely to win that race with a number in the high 50s, or maybe larger if things really fall apart for the Dems, and he then becomes a juggernaut in national politics.
That’s not an endorsement of DeSantis as the GOP’s nominee in 2024. It’s just a statement of fact. A Ron DeSantis who has just beaten the tar out of a hapless Democrat in a wave election which establishes formerly-bellwether Florida as one of the nation’s redder states (defined by the Republican’s share of the gubernatorial vote and the makeup of statewide offices, state legislature, and congressional delegation) is a juggernaut in national politics even if he’s not on the 2024 ballot. A Ron DeSantis who takes to the hustings to campaign for a Donald Trump is almost certainly a big asset in places like Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania where it’s imperative to win.
And he’s also the favorite in the clubhouse to become president in 2028 if he doesn’t run.
That isn’t my analysis. It’s the Democrats’ analysis. It’s been their analysis for a couple of years. They’re terrified by Ron DeSantis because the way he operates explodes their political model.
I talk about revivalism — quite eloquently, as it happens, in my new book The Revivalist Manifesto — as the next iteration of center-right populist politics, following the Tea Party and MAGA waves, and while revivalism is without a doubt reflective of and welcoming toward President Trump, DeSantis represents a whole generation of Republican politicians to come who are a stark departure from the Bush/McConnell/McCain/Romney Stupid Party style.
DeSantis proved that when Florida passed their anti-grooming bill, the one the liars in the legacy corporate media followed their Democrat overlords in calling the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, even though the bill never mentioned homosexuality; it simply protected five-year-olds from being taught about sex by strangers. When the literal groomers at Disney threw a fit over the bill, perhaps not realizing that a majority of Democrat voters in Florida supported it, DeSantis and his allies in the Florida legislature not only pressed forward derisively, but then voided about $200 million in corporate welfare tax breaks Disney had received for its iconic theme park outside of Orlando.
Not only winning on the battlefield. Following the enemy back to his camp and then completing the rout there.
Disney amazingly renewed the contract of its imbecilic CEO Bob Chapek, who has trashed the company’s stock — it’s half the value it held three years ago. But it isn’t a bad bet that by the end of the year there will be a hostile takeover move at the Mouse House. It’s too juicy a target and too debauched a brand not to attract a predator. And Elon Musk’s time has now been freed up.
These things Ron DeSantis set in motion when weaker people crossed him. While the Disney example is a glowing one, there have been others, particularly when the trolls at newspapers and other media organs like the Washington Post have picked fights.
Today’s Democrat Party is built to exploit the fecklessness of Bush Republicans. It’s built to snow under the John Cornyns and Bill Cassidys of the world. That’s been awfully easy — when these guys are begging for a slot on Jimmy Kimmel, it isn’t even work to make them look stupid.
They have no idea what to do with DeSantis. Or Jim Jordan. Or Lauren Boebert. Or Josh Hawley. And every cycle brings more Republican politicians who refuse to play the old game of “standing athwart history yelling Stop” while their kids are invited to deposit singles in G-strings at the elementary school’s new drag show.
It’s easy to envision some Zoom call emanating from DNC headquarters in which all the gathered throng of blue-checkers with exotic pronouns, professional victims, failed comedians, and fatcat consultants threw out ideas for discrediting DeSantis and derailing his freight train … only to come up with that Newsom ad as their best gambit.
When the ad came out there was a smattering of “oooh, look, it’s a preview of the 2024 election!” by the legacy media. But as Levon Satamian wrote at RedState, that’s not really a fight wise Democrats are looking for…
Besides the fact that under DeSantis’ leadership, the Florida population has grown, and under Newsom’s leadership, for the first time ever in California, the population shrunk in 2020 and 2021, it seems clear that DeSantis would trounce Newsom in important swing states. Democrats might not see it that way; the GOP should encourage that. They should want Newsom to run for President because his whole platform will be about guns and abortion — no problem-solving solutions.
Newsom would run the country just like he ran San Francisco as its mayor, and now the state of California: an ineffective ‘leader’ who has made the homelessness crisis worse by not having mental health workers readily available to treat those in need, by the lack of rehabilitation centers for the homeless, and as much as the rescue missions are trying to help and reduce homelessness, it is continuously increasing due to Newsom’s ineffectiveness, and horrible leadership. Forty percent of small businesses were forced to shut down during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
That may not translate to the national level; however, his inability to run the fifth-largest economy in the world while having homelessness worsen, rampant crime due to Prop 47, and district attorneys like George Gascon, both of which Newsom supported, making people feel unsafe. His ineffectiveness in leading on several major issues might cause more damage than any President has before.
A DeSantis-Newsom race would be the last thing Democrats would want, especially if they both run on their respective records as Governor. Newsom kept his state under lockdown, destroying small businesses, and keeping schools closed, while his kids attended private school. In Florida, DeSantis kept the state open, the economy boomed, and small businesses continued to thrive, while there were no mandates, and schools were open.
And DeSantis couldn’t have been more ecstatic to have Newsom stick his nose into the Florida governor’s race.
“Yes, we've created a citadel of freedom here that has attracted people. And we are proud of it,” said @GovRonDeSantis
READ MORE 👉 https://t.co/OHHDuQtzVc#FlPol#Florida pic.twitter.com/HITKcLL1i4— Javier Manjarres (@JavManjarres) July 8, 2022
Remember how DeSantis last year went public with an invitation to the world’s shipping companies that the Port of Miami was wide open for business as the ships stacked up at the ports of Long Beach and Santa Monica?
There’s more where that came from. A lot more.
In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see DeSantis make his whole campaign a compare-and-contrast exercise between his Florida and Newsom’s California. That’d be a hell of a framing of the entire 2022 cycle for the GOP, by the way. It’s just too bad Mitch McConnell, who’s busily attempting to sandbag his party in Senate midterms so he can be the majority leader of a 51-49 or 52-48 Senate, wouldn’t participate.
