Can Ron DeSantis Displace Donald Trump as the G.O.P.’s Combatant-in-Chief? (The New Yorker)

[Morrison71]

Can Ron DeSantis Displace Donald Trump as the G.O.P.’s Combatant-in-Chief?

A fervent opponent of mask mandates and “woke” ideology, the Florida governor channels the same rage as the former President, but with greater discipline.

www.newyorker.com

Touches on:
- Policies (strikes me as willing to let people suffer for the "overall good")
- DeSantis vs Trump (DeSantis playing it aloof and not committing to Trump)
- DeSantis's dismissal of media/democrats helping endear him to far right
- Personal life (impersonal/rude unless he can use you)

This is a long article, but it's more specifics and behind-the-scenes moments than any surprises except maybe how impersonal and detached DeSantis is in person.

In person, he often comes across differently. "Ron is at his best on paper," a Florida political leader who knows DeSantis told me. "Then you meet him and you say, 'Oh, my gosh.' " People who work closely with him describe a man so aloof that he sometimes finds it difficult to carry on a conversation. "He's not comfortable engaging other people," a political leader who sees him often told me. "He walks into the meeting and doesn't acknowledge the rest of us. There's no eye contact and little or no interaction. The moment I start to ask him a question, his head twitches. You can tell he doesn't want to be there." (DeSantis's office declined requests for comment.)


Nearly everyone I talked to who knew DeSantis commented on his affect: his lack of curiosity about others, his indifferent table manners, his aversion to the political rituals of dispensing handshakes and questions about the kids. One former associate told me that his demeanor stems from a conviction that others have advantages that were denied to him. "The anger comes more easily to him because he has a chip on his shoulder," she said. "He is a serious guy. Driven."
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A colleague who served with DeSantis remembered, "Ron was a voracious worker, and he worked at phenomenal speed. He was a superb writer, especially for his age." Even then, his ambition seemed consuming. "Ron's a user," the former colleague told me. "If you had utility to him, he would be nice to you. If you didn't, he wouldn't give you the time of day."

Stuart Stevens, an adviser to Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign in 2012, told me that Republican leaders have made a calculated choice in recent decades. As their reliable cadre of white voters shrank, they realized that they could either try to attract more minorities or try to motivate white citizens who rarely voted by tapping their racial insecurities. When Romney ran, he rejected the latter strategy, Stevens told me. Then came Trump, who embraced it and won. "The G.O.P. has become a white-grievance party," Stevens said.
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DeSantis, he believes, is following the Trump playbook. "To me, Ron DeSantis is a fairly run-of-the-mill politician who will do anything to get elected," he said. "The problem is what the Party has become. It's a race to the bottom."

Reading this article was weirdly comforting. I've been worried about DeSantis in 2024, but this article makes it more clear to me that it wouldn't matter if it was DeSantis or any other republican (besides Trump). This is a party issue.

 

[Chishawk1425]

The GOP isn't electable and fit to serve. The entire cult needs to be DESTROYED

 

[FAUlty Gator]

He’s more dangerous than Trump!

Just getting that going early.

 

[Nole Lou]

Stuart Stevens, an adviser to Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign in 2012, told me that Republican leaders have made a calculated choice in recent decades. As their reliable cadre of white voters shrank, they realized that they could either try to attract more minorities or try to motivate white citizens who rarely voted by tapping their racial insecurities. When Romney ran, he rejected the latter strategy, Stevens told me. Then came Trump, who embraced it and won. "The G.O.P. has become a white-grievance party," Stevens said.
Click to shrink...

I mean, I do think there's some truth to this, but this is some real sour grapes and not real analysis.

At the same time they are supposedly doing this, the Republicans ARE making big inroads with non-white voters. The GOP does better with minorities now than Romney ever did. Turns out, many of these "white grievance issues" the Republicans focus on, such as stronger border security, condemning riots, not defunding the police, CRT, etc play very well to non-white voters as well. The activist, coastal, post-graduate view of what "racial justice" looks like is not the uniform view of all non-whites, especially working class and immigrants.

However, the truth in this statement, which I do condemn the GOP for, is that they want to have it both ways, and continue to signal to racist elements of their party that they should feel at home in the party as well. They espouse strong border policy which is perfectly popular with non-white voters, but they also dog-whistle for the racists along the way. Besides being wrong, it also puts a political ceiling on their success with non-whites (reasonably so). I wish they would just condemn and marginalize that part of the party.

 

[Colonoscopy]

He's better at Trump than everything... but for the ability, hopefully, to inspire the the sort of insane cult following that gave us 1/6.

I'm hopeful he'll at least be normal that way. That he plays by the rules.

But maybe we'd get lucky and he'd tone things down as a president. (wouldn't hold my breath)

 

[FAUlty Gator]

He's better at Trump than everything... but for the ability, hopefully, to inspire the the sort of insane cult following that gave us 1/6.

I'm hopeful he'll at least be normal that way. That he plays by the rules.

But maybe we'd get lucky and he'd tone things down as a president. (wouldn't hold my breath)

He’s worse than Trump at two important things: Putting his foot down with staff and handlers that seem to have him hypnotized. And reading the room…the room in this case is America and the voters.

 

[Nole Lou]

He's better at Trump than everything... but for the ability, hopefully, to inspire the the sort of insane cult following that gave us 1/6.

I'm hopeful he'll at least be normal that way. That he plays by the rules.

But maybe we'd get lucky and he'd tone things down as a president. (wouldn't hold my breath)

He's much smarter and much more politically savvy than Trump. I'd prefer he wasn't so eager to grandstand on the culture was side of things, but I'd vote for him, and I would never vote for Trump.

 

[swagsurfer02]

My crystal ball says that soon there will be news stories calling DeSantis:

- racist
- sexist
- ageist
- homophobic
- xenophobic
- animal killer
- pedophile

 

[artradley]

He's much smarter and much more politically savvy than Trump. I'd prefer he wasn't so eager to grandstand on the culture was side of things, but I'd vote for him, and I would never vote for Trump.

I will vote for him in the primary - or for whoever has the best chance of beating Trump. But I would vote for a yellow dog before I would vote for Desantis in the general.

 

[TC Nole OX]

DeathSantis is to Trump what Hannity was to Limbaugh.....an angry no talent copycat.