I guess we should take comfort in the fact that The New York Times is not the only publication out there that employs delusional opinion writers that foist their stupid takes on us daily.
Today’s example comes from The Washington Post, which is continuing the political press’s fluffing of Ron DeSantis, the heir-apparent to MAGA, apparently.
Last week I told you how The New York Times feels about good old Ron (not Reagan) DeSantis, current Governor of Florida and probably, almost definitely, you can bet your crypto dollars on, 2024 Presidential candidate.
Well, it’s a new week and we have yet another delusional take on how Ron will save the Republican Party and transform America. This time it’s from National Review senior political correspondent Jim Geraghty, writing in The Washington Post.
His overly long piece starts with the thesis that a Ron DeSantis presidency would signal a “return to normalcy” for the Republican Party and help us put the Trump Trauma firmly behind us.
As Chandler from “Friends” might say: “Can you be any further off the mark, Jim?”
He writes in his piece, “That might sound counterintuitive to Democrats who have been fed for the past couple of years on tales of DeSantis’s perfidy, but the fact remains: Given the bizarre state of American politics during the Trump era, DeSantis would represent a return to normality.”
Merriam-Webster defines perfidy as “The quality or state of being faithless or disloyal. Treachery.”
You see, Jim, your first mistake lies within the phrase “tales of DeSantis’s perfidy.” Perfidy is a pretentious word used by people who think they’re eloquent, for one thing. For another, you imply by using the word “tales” that Democrats are making up DeSantis’s treachery. They are not. It’s not all a lie.
Here are just some of Ron’s greatest hits:
According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis “In January 2013, after DeSantis had just been sworn into the House of Representatives, voted against providing federal disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy to the impacted states of New York and New Jersey.”
Yet in earlier this year when hurricane Ian hit Florida, DeSantis “In September 2022, as governor of Florida, DeSantis requested for federal disaster relief for Florida due to the impact of Hurricane Ian…,” according to The New York Times.
By the way, not one New York Representative voted “no” on aid to Florida for Hurricane Ian relief.
As Governor of Florida, according to NBC News, “in June 2019, [DeSantis] signed an anti-sanctuary city bill in law; the legislation required law enforcement ‘to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers for undocumented immigrants who are arrested or convicted’ of crimes. There were no sanctuary cities in Florida before the law's enactment, and immigration advocates called the bill politically motivated.”
In January 2019, less than a week after taking office, DeSantis issued a nondiscrimination order for state employees reiterating former governor Rick Scott's order, which included race, age, sex, color, religion, national origin, marital status, and disability, but had no protections for sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Washington Blade.
I could go on. And on. And on.
So, basically, Jim, your fourth paragraph, which states: “But DeSantis would be a Republican nominee without Donald Trump’s worst and most destructive impulses and habits. The governor certainly doesn’t shy from a scrap, but he fights for policies, not to prosecute vendettas. Having a normal-range Republican leader on the national stage would be a beneficial reset for the entire country,” is total bullshit. Borne out by what I wrote above.
Jim tells us that one of DeSantis’s triumphs was not closing down Florida during Covid. Schools and businesses remained open and the state is better for it.
“As governor, DeSantis took on some gargantuan fights and won. Most notably, his pandemic policies — reopening society faster and wider than many other states… As Americans consider lockdown fallout — including children’s learning loss from school closings, the impact of prolonged isolation on mental health, ruined small businesses, etc. — governors who quickly reopened their states look increasingly wise.”
Umm, Jim, no they don’t.
According to the WorldOMeter web site, to date, Florida has had 7.2 million Covid cases, with 82,541 deaths. Texas, another state that refused to put Covid mandates in place, had just over 8 million cases with 91,809 deaths. Contrast that with California, which imposed mask mandates and lockdowns early, which reported 11.3 million Covid cases and 97,213 deaths.
Given the population difference between California and Florida, the numbers are not drastically higher in Blue California.
So tell me again Jim how DeSantis looks “increasingly wise.”
My favorite part is when Jim tells us that, “It’s worth noting that DeSantis, unlike many elected Republicans, has never claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged or stolen, and he rejected calls for a statewide audit of Florida’s 2020 vote.”
While this is technically true, it employs a favorite Republican tactic of picking and choosing your facts. DeSantis has never come out and said the thinks the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. But he doesn’t have to. He supports people who do it for him.
“DeSantis recently embarked on a national tour to boost the campaigns of some of the most fervent election deniers nominated by his party this cycle, though he has not joined them in suggesting Trump should still be president,” notes CNN.com.
And we all know how that turned out for him.
Then there’s this: “Maybe to truly and permanently put the Trump era of American politics behind us, Democrats will have to accept a slightly higher risk of a not-so-crazy Republican winning the general election. Considering the stakes, that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.”
Oh, Jim, Jim, Jim. Does your delusion know no bounds?
Considering the stakes? Do you have any clue what the stakes are? Apparently not.
If DeSantis gets elected, you don’t think he’ll go full MAGA on us? While he may seem moderate to you now (believe me, he’s far from it), don’t you think he’ll embrace the base and turn out to be even worse than Trump?
Things might go better with Coke, but they certainly will not go better with a Republican in the White House. The Party will not “moderate” after Trump. They are too far gone. MAGA is too fully ingrained in the either for them to turn back now.
DeSantis knows this.
He won’t turn The Party into a “kinder, gentler” Republican Party. He’ll fully embrace the stupid and the dangerous.
And considering the stakes, that definitely is too much to ask.
I agree with you that Florida and Texas were stupid about Covid but I am not sure how these statistics validate your point that Florida and Texas fared worse with no Covid protocol than California?
"According to the WorldoMeter web site, to date, Florida has had 7.2 million Covid cases, with 82,541 deaths. Texas, another state that refused to put Covid mandates in place, had just over 8 million cases with 91,809 deaths. Contrast that with California, which imposed mask mandates and lockdowns early, which reported 11.3 million Covid cases and 97,213 deaths."