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Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis
Even though Donald Trump has led Republicans to major defeats in three straight national elections, he remains the party’s most likely presidential nominee by a wide margin in 2024.
That irrational irony is because Trump has remade Republican primary voters in his own ugly, hateful image. No candidates other than Trump and his most devoted disciples need apply.
That’s become obvious from the grab bag of ugly Republican alternatives desperately trying to compete with the former president. They foolishly believe they can convince Trump’s most hard-core rightwing supporters they can be just as bad as he was.
Trump set an impossibly high bar for anyone else to meet. He’s the only president in history to create a violent, armed insurrection to try to overthrow democracy and remain in office after his defeat. Why support some lame imitator when Republicans can still enjoy the original recipe of Trump’s hatred of democracy and voting rights?
Where’s the Red Wave?
Briefly, Republican leaders thought their voters might accept a brand-new hero. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points during the 2022 midterms that otherwise went very poorly for Republicans.
Republicans expected a red wave in 2022 because newly elected presidents historically lose dozens of House seats and several Senators in their first midterms. Instead, there was barely a trickle because MAGA primary voters nominated terrible candidates who refused to accept Biden’s victory over Trump by the largest vote in U.S. history. Americans really don’t like politicians who try to throw out their votes.
Most House and Senate Republicans who ran for their lives during Trump’s violent insurrection will be happy when he’s gone for good, but they’re worried they can’t win elections without his supporters.
Meanwhile, DeSantis is working to perpetuate Trumpism after Trump and that’s not a pretty picture either. He was the first governor to sign a law banning abortion after six weeks before many women even know they’re pregnant. DeSantis hates women, Black and Brown voters, LGBTQ Americans and anyone who’s awake enough to realize what’s going on.
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GOP Hate List
DeSantis is out to ban books and abolish public education at every level including on college campuses. Forbidden subjects in his state are American history, sex education, gender differences and any discussion of divisive issues. If college students can’t argue about different ideas, what are they going to talk about?
Among other Republican hatreds, DeSantis called special attention to antisemitism by making his campaign announcement next to Elon Musk on a constantly failing Twitter site. Jewish groups have complained about the dramatic surge in antisemitic tweets since Musk took over the company. Musk joined in by comparing liberal philanthropist George Soros to the Jewish X-Men cartoon villain Magneto claiming Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”
As governor of Florida with a large Jewish population, DeSantis publicly associating himself with Musk was an odd choice. Of course, so was DeSantis’s opposition to covid vaccinations as the death toll soared for Florida’s elderly population. The more voters nationwide learn about DeSantis, the more appalled many will be.
Several other announced and soon to announce candidates are comically out-of-place in what has become Trump’s twisted version of the Republican party.
Hang Pence?
Mike Pence was Trump’s embarrassingly servile vice president for four years until Pence became democracy’s unexpected hero by refusing to join Trump’s criminal scheme to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s winning electoral votes.
America will be forever grateful, but Trump wasn’t. Trump sent his violent mob raging through the Capitol howling to “Hang Mike Pence!” by tweeting Pence had betrayed them. Pence is the only person in America who believes Trump’s Republicans might nominate Pence for president instead of murdering him.
It's also absurd to think the party of white male supremacy would nominate South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, an African American, or Nikki Haley, Trump’s former U.N ambassador and a woman of color. Both are more likely hoping to be added to Trump’s ticket as vice president to prove Republicans don’t have a racist bone in their bodies.
There are a few other Republican retreads around like Chris Christie, but few Republican voters know or care who they are. Party officials are afraid to move on from Trump even if it kills them. It easily could because Trump and his contempt for democracy drives intelligent, conservative voters out of the Republican party.
The destruction by Trump’s Supreme Court of constitutional rights for women and other Americans has produced record voter turnouts in state elections ever since restoring rights Americans thought would be protected forever.
President Biden and the Democrats may be the only candidates on the ballot in 2024 fighting for the constitutional rights of all Americans. The Republican nominee is likely to be under criminal indictment for attempting to violently overthrow democracy.
That might not matter to all Republicans, but it matters to every American voter.
