And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
— Exodus 14:27-28
Every new poll suggests a Red Wave will blessedly wash out the Democrats in November, much as the Red Sea did the Egyptian army during the Exodus. Judging by the just ended CPAC 2022 in Orlando, that wave has already formed in Florida. The conference showcased the usual conservative political stars but this year with a major difference — a markedly jubilant mood. And the four standouts there — Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio, Congressman Byron Donalds, and former President Donald Trump — were significantly all Floridians. Two of them, DeSantis and Trump, are the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunners. While the Sunshine State’s other senator, Rick Scott, made waves in Washington last week.
A Florida Red Current preceded the weekend gathering. Last Tuesday, Republican Nick Howland flipped a city council seat by a wide margin in the Jacksonville district that went overwhelmingly for Joe Biden just two years earlier. Howland got 68,599 votes to Tracye Polson’s 64,113. Top Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist campaigned hard for Polson, which bodes ill for his chances against Ron DeSantis this fall. Crist had been the moderate Republican governor of Florida but switched parties after Marco Rubio electorally embarrassed him in the 2010 Senate primary.
Also Tuesday in the nation’s capital, Senator Rick Scott presented his 11-point “Rescue America” plan for when the Republicans take back both chambers of Congress in November. The points include such conservative and culture war winners as school choice, schoolkids saluting the flag and saying the Pledge of Allegiance, backing police, securing the border, growing the economy, eliminating all federal programs that can be done locally, ensuring honest elections, defending and promoting the nuclear family, ending transgender lunacy, protecting unborn life, safeguarding religious freedom, and fighting American socialism.
“There’s one fella that really hates Florida, and his name is Joe Biden.… He doesn’t like Florida and he doesn’t like me because we stand up to him.”
The last point was a main target of the big four Floridian speakers at CPAC. Cuban-American Marco Rubio touchingly cited his family roots in his oration. “I’ve lived my entire life in the United States of America. Freedom and liberty are all I’ve ever known. But I was raised by people — and to this day live surrounded by people — that know what life is like in other countries. And so they know what real tyranny looks like, and what real oppression looks like.” Rubio added a chilling warning. “For the first time perhaps in recent memory, and certainly in recent history, Americans have come face-to-face with what it looks like when people use power to impose their will upon society. Every single person in this room, and the overwhelming majority of people that you know, are one word away … one statement, one retweet away, one ‘like’ away from destroying your life.”
There’s a reason why, during last year’s youth uprising in Cuba, the same Biden Administration that flung open the southern border to millions of illegal aliens took a hardline against the Cuban type. “Allow me to be clear,” declared Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States. “I repeat, do not risk your life attempting to enter the United States illegally. You will not come to the United States.” The message couldn’t be clearer. We don’t want your patriotic, God-fearing, hardworking kind around here. Regardless, Hispanics of all backgrounds, not only Cuban, are flocking to the Republican Party. And, to the Democratic Party’s terror, so are many blacks.
A record number of black Republicans are running for office this year. This development not only smashes the Democrats’ increasingly illusory “rainbow coalition.” It deprives them of their loudest battle cry — “racist.” In his stirring CPAC speech, Byron Donalds blasted the queen of the socialist Squad on nonracial economic ground. “I serve on a committee with Ocasio-Cortez,” he said, then after much booing, added, “Oh, you’ve heard of her — okay.… And she literally believes that we can print whatever we want. That it doesn’t matter how much we borrow. How much we spend.” Donald also slammed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for being the cowardly squish that he is. “Yeah, John, I’m talking to you,” Donalds said.
On the CPAC stage, Donald Trump hit all the right beats and typically delighted the boisterous crowd. Although given the domestic-foreign policy disasters that Joe Biden and company have wrought, all Trump really had to do was stand there. It was his possible 2024 rival who stole the CPAC show.
Ron DeSantis began his inspirational speech by asserting Florida’s importance in the rising Red Wave, and how he and his fellow conservative warriors have enlarged it. DeSantis noted that when he became governor in 2018, there were almost 300,000 more registered Democrats in Florida than Republicans. As of this month, he said, there are 82,000 more Republicans.
Then DeSantis’ rhetoric soared, and slaughtered all the opposition’s sacred cows: “In Florida, we reject the bio-medical security state which erodes liberty.” “Had Florida not led the way, this country could look like Canada or Australia.” “There’s one fella that really hates Florida, and his name is Joe Biden.… He doesn’t like Florida and he doesn’t like me because we stand up to him.” “We in Florida are one of the first states to stand up and protect women’s athletics. We’re not gonna let our young girls and our women athletes have opportunities denied for them because of ideology.” The more DeSantis spoke, the more it sounded like music to the audience’s ears — and to the Democrats listening, like the rumble of a rising wave.