The Ron DeSantis announcement disaster set new records for utter weirdness and personal abasement during the MAGA era. It was a parody of dysfunction, incompetence and ego that unspooled like a script from HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley.’ Squeezed between two self-important and loquacious billionaires — one being the richest man in the world — DeSantis was reduced to a prop at his own announcement. He was truly the invisible man.
Neither Trump or DeSantis are fit to serve in any capacity. Both are committed to undermining our democracy for their own benefits! Those Americans who are opposed to their fascist model of governance must unite to defeat them! Thanks Steve for your efforts to bring sunlight to this issue!
“...it depends on apathy to succeed.” --- Local newspapers kept even the marginally interested of us in the loop of what was going on, close to home and nationally. People were drawn to stories about themselves and their neighbors. Pictures from high school sports or of kids playing in parks or of the public pool on Memorial Day or a hot dog stand on Labor Day or one of the church displays around town at Christmas or menorahs at Hanukkah. It was normal conversation -- “Did you see such and such in the paper?” Without local papers, with cable and streaming making local television and radio more irrelevant every month, we all easily lose touch with each other right at home. That makes our national connection even more tenuous. That makes for apathy and allows for gerrymandering to occur under our noses, diluting a large chunk of the democratic power we had left. National elections (Senate, President) show where our heads are at. The House and its manufactured districts shows us who we aren’t (Boebert, Taylor Green, Gaetz, really?). How the digital age disconnects us while hyper-connecting us would be anthropologically interesting if it didn’t threaten us all so completely.
Look at the mess the republicans have to offer so far - Haley, Scott, Pence, Christie, desantis and the orange traitor himself.
What a collection of weak, power seeking, spineless individuals with no plan for a better America, and not one word about how to make life better for her citizens (not to mention the rest of the world).
Anyone who cares about democracy, freedom, and America should vote Democrat up and down the ballot in 2024 or stay home (while they still have one).
To me, Ron DeSantis is just the other side of the "MAGA/Trump coin"--bizarrely/frighteningly, though, he is setting himself up as the candidate who will run to the RIGHT of Trump. Maybe it will succeed, but like you, Mr. Schmidt, I believe that people will "go for the real thing" as opposed to a cheap (albeit even more extreme, which the Republican base seems to adore) knockoff.
Here is my question, though, and I certainly trust you to answer it: When does this seemingly never-ending move to the right end for the Republican Party? I am very concerned about the future of the country if it does not do so. This country has by and large benefitted from the two-party system. It has provided stability which has in turn made the United States the most powerful economy in the world and arguably, the most dominant economy since Great Britain dominated 1/4 of the world's population in the late 19th Century. Yet, at least to me, it seems as though Republicans seem more than happy to burn the whole system down, and for what reason? "Owning the Libs"? Unfettered business profits? Turning the country into a real-life equivalent of Margaret Atwood's "Gilead"? I honestly don't get this. I do get that many people in this country feel as though the "elites" in both parties don't answer to them, but how does that play into the sheer cruelty of these anti-trans laws which are spreading across Red States? How does that simmering anger lead to a belief that only ONE side has the right to be in charge? Are we that far gone?
It is bad now, can’t imagine how bad the future will be. I have been reading McCarthy’s talking points. What an ass. It just goes on and on and on. I find it hard to believe that people are not looking at this mess and screaming. My hope is we have the largest non-Republican turnout in history. My fear, we will not.
Not funny, but I had to laugh about this stance of invading Mexico. Where does this stuff come from?
So true, all that you say here Steve. It’s frightening to me how quickly and deeply authoritarianism and fascism have embedded themselves into the GOP. As a baby boomer, I can remember hearing my dad talk about his service in WWII. There was no doubt in his mind the US had to defeat the authoritarianism of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. It made a lasting impression on me to always abhor strongmen. Yet, in just a few generations we seem to have forgotten the cost we paid to fight authoritarianism in WWII. Many of us today seem to be willing to exchange our democratic freedoms for a strongman who will control our lives and promises to “protect and take care of us”. Sad to see how easy it is for us to be manipulated by these con men and women who are merely puppets of the billionaire class who are funding them via a parallel shadow government that most Americans don’t even realize exists.
To say that DeSantis is dead in the water is a redundancy, as he is already a bloated zombie floating face down in the Florida flood waters party to which he brings his ironic white boots.
Rot subsumes the entirety of the GOP- it is democracy vs decomposition.
The United States will have to collectively determine its affinity for necrophilia vs equality and decency.
It seems they will tear their own movement apart, on their way to something worse, possibly violently. The ONE THING they do not want to hear is from Democrats. Being reminded of their false idols will bind them more closely to them.
They will decay; we just have to weather this storm. We’re in the eye of the Trumpocalypse. It will get worse before it breaks apart.
Pathetic character, with hubris. It's a bit mind-blowing that he ever rose to the position he holds. I had tried twice to live in Florida, decades ago. I love warm weather and sunshine. Each attempt lasted just about 1 year. There was something a bit "off" about the people I encountered there. I assumed that this was just a cultural thing, it was I who did not fit in. But watching this insanity unfold, and DeSantis seemingly still favored by Floridians, causes me to believe that it's Florida that does not fit in, in the US. The 'why' of that, I don't know. Perhaps the is another north/south civil war on our horizon.
After World War II until the Berlin wall fell, communism was the enemy. republicans needed a new enemy, so they turned their sights at home. Our own government and the liberal left are the enemy now. Republicans are willing to vote for an authoritarian to protect them, and democracy becomes a threat.
DeSantis is more dangerous in so far as he actually believes white Christian autocracy is righteous and the appropriate political structure for the US. Trump is more dangerous in so far as having spent a term as President he has already consolidated power and a second term would commence with in your face autocracy and abuse of power. Pick your poison.
Steve, thanks for another great take-down of this bizarre DeSantis character, as you've masterfully done with so many insane and corrupt GOP personae. Your prior experience as a veteran campaign consultant allows you to notice many interesting things about political campaigns.
Takeover won’t take a majority for these horrendous Republicans. They just need enough people who don’t vote and don’t care. We are in desperate need of a communicator, an FDR or Churchill who can speak to the American people and rally those who are concerned about democracy. OK Democrats. Someone needs to step up in Prime Time.
When you said "Diet Trump" I first thought of a name brand out of Atlanta with Zero attached. Would fit DeSantis well.
Your core issue about their both standing together is key. Regardless of which survives their match up, it's still autocracy, and we still need to defeat it at every step. Yes, it is corrupt at its core: the CPAC financial person leaving due to leadership fiscal impropriety; that Ken Paxton is facing impeachment (23 counts); what we have seen with the House R (Santos anyone); or the continuing grift out of Arizona, no one has clean hands. Time to remove them, through the election process, from the political arena.
- "all the King's men" are falling. Stewart Rhodes III (Oath Keeper's leader) just got sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.
- Trumpty Dumpty is about to fall via various criminal and civil prosecutions; and he'll fall politically too.
- Biden will win reelection. Probably by a fairly large margin. Large enough to overcome the systemic inequality of the Electoral College.
- Thank God for Biden and the only political party supporting democracy and trying to make this place better for all people.
Neither Trump or DeSantis are fit to serve in any capacity. Both are committed to undermining our democracy for their own benefits! Those Americans who are opposed to their fascist model of governance must unite to defeat them! Thanks Steve for your efforts to bring sunlight to this issue!
“...it depends on apathy to succeed.” --- Local newspapers kept even the marginally interested of us in the loop of what was going on, close to home and nationally. People were drawn to stories about themselves and their neighbors. Pictures from high school sports or of kids playing in parks or of the public pool on Memorial Day or a hot dog stand on Labor Day or one of the church displays around town at Christmas or menorahs at Hanukkah. It was normal conversation -- “Did you see such and such in the paper?” Without local papers, with cable and streaming making local television and radio more irrelevant every month, we all easily lose touch with each other right at home. That makes our national connection even more tenuous. That makes for apathy and allows for gerrymandering to occur under our noses, diluting a large chunk of the democratic power we had left. National elections (Senate, President) show where our heads are at. The House and its manufactured districts shows us who we aren’t (Boebert, Taylor Green, Gaetz, really?). How the digital age disconnects us while hyper-connecting us would be anthropologically interesting if it didn’t threaten us all so completely.
Look at the mess the republicans have to offer so far - Haley, Scott, Pence, Christie, desantis and the orange traitor himself.
What a collection of weak, power seeking, spineless individuals with no plan for a better America, and not one word about how to make life better for her citizens (not to mention the rest of the world).
Anyone who cares about democracy, freedom, and America should vote Democrat up and down the ballot in 2024 or stay home (while they still have one).
To me, Ron DeSantis is just the other side of the "MAGA/Trump coin"--bizarrely/frighteningly, though, he is setting himself up as the candidate who will run to the RIGHT of Trump. Maybe it will succeed, but like you, Mr. Schmidt, I believe that people will "go for the real thing" as opposed to a cheap (albeit even more extreme, which the Republican base seems to adore) knockoff.
Here is my question, though, and I certainly trust you to answer it: When does this seemingly never-ending move to the right end for the Republican Party? I am very concerned about the future of the country if it does not do so. This country has by and large benefitted from the two-party system. It has provided stability which has in turn made the United States the most powerful economy in the world and arguably, the most dominant economy since Great Britain dominated 1/4 of the world's population in the late 19th Century. Yet, at least to me, it seems as though Republicans seem more than happy to burn the whole system down, and for what reason? "Owning the Libs"? Unfettered business profits? Turning the country into a real-life equivalent of Margaret Atwood's "Gilead"? I honestly don't get this. I do get that many people in this country feel as though the "elites" in both parties don't answer to them, but how does that play into the sheer cruelty of these anti-trans laws which are spreading across Red States? How does that simmering anger lead to a belief that only ONE side has the right to be in charge? Are we that far gone?
It is bad now, can’t imagine how bad the future will be. I have been reading McCarthy’s talking points. What an ass. It just goes on and on and on. I find it hard to believe that people are not looking at this mess and screaming. My hope is we have the largest non-Republican turnout in history. My fear, we will not.
Not funny, but I had to laugh about this stance of invading Mexico. Where does this stuff come from?
So true, all that you say here Steve. It’s frightening to me how quickly and deeply authoritarianism and fascism have embedded themselves into the GOP. As a baby boomer, I can remember hearing my dad talk about his service in WWII. There was no doubt in his mind the US had to defeat the authoritarianism of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. It made a lasting impression on me to always abhor strongmen. Yet, in just a few generations we seem to have forgotten the cost we paid to fight authoritarianism in WWII. Many of us today seem to be willing to exchange our democratic freedoms for a strongman who will control our lives and promises to “protect and take care of us”. Sad to see how easy it is for us to be manipulated by these con men and women who are merely puppets of the billionaire class who are funding them via a parallel shadow government that most Americans don’t even realize exists.
To say that DeSantis is dead in the water is a redundancy, as he is already a bloated zombie floating face down in the Florida flood waters party to which he brings his ironic white boots.
Rot subsumes the entirety of the GOP- it is democracy vs decomposition.
The United States will have to collectively determine its affinity for necrophilia vs equality and decency.
It seems they will tear their own movement apart, on their way to something worse, possibly violently. The ONE THING they do not want to hear is from Democrats. Being reminded of their false idols will bind them more closely to them.
They will decay; we just have to weather this storm. We’re in the eye of the Trumpocalypse. It will get worse before it breaks apart.
Pathetic character, with hubris. It's a bit mind-blowing that he ever rose to the position he holds. I had tried twice to live in Florida, decades ago. I love warm weather and sunshine. Each attempt lasted just about 1 year. There was something a bit "off" about the people I encountered there. I assumed that this was just a cultural thing, it was I who did not fit in. But watching this insanity unfold, and DeSantis seemingly still favored by Floridians, causes me to believe that it's Florida that does not fit in, in the US. The 'why' of that, I don't know. Perhaps the is another north/south civil war on our horizon.
After World War II until the Berlin wall fell, communism was the enemy. republicans needed a new enemy, so they turned their sights at home. Our own government and the liberal left are the enemy now. Republicans are willing to vote for an authoritarian to protect them, and democracy becomes a threat.
DeSantis is more dangerous in so far as he actually believes white Christian autocracy is righteous and the appropriate political structure for the US. Trump is more dangerous in so far as having spent a term as President he has already consolidated power and a second term would commence with in your face autocracy and abuse of power. Pick your poison.
Steve, thanks for another great take-down of this bizarre DeSantis character, as you've masterfully done with so many insane and corrupt GOP personae. Your prior experience as a veteran campaign consultant allows you to notice many interesting things about political campaigns.
Can one even imagine shaking hands with Puddin’ Fingers?
Takeover won’t take a majority for these horrendous Republicans. They just need enough people who don’t vote and don’t care. We are in desperate need of a communicator, an FDR or Churchill who can speak to the American people and rally those who are concerned about democracy. OK Democrats. Someone needs to step up in Prime Time.
When you said "Diet Trump" I first thought of a name brand out of Atlanta with Zero attached. Would fit DeSantis well.
Your core issue about their both standing together is key. Regardless of which survives their match up, it's still autocracy, and we still need to defeat it at every step. Yes, it is corrupt at its core: the CPAC financial person leaving due to leadership fiscal impropriety; that Ken Paxton is facing impeachment (23 counts); what we have seen with the House R (Santos anyone); or the continuing grift out of Arizona, no one has clean hands. Time to remove them, through the election process, from the political arena.