The DeSantis Thread (aka Florida Man 2)

It seems like DeSantis bet on Natcon which is the ideology of Thiel, Sacks and other GOP elites might not really play. It has made him popular in Florida but he also did a lot of actually popular stuff in Florida.

Sure MAGA gets mad about “woke capitalism” but it’s not clear that normies Ron needs to win really know or care about all this stuff as a voting issues.

These attacks on Target or “ESG” are popular with the very online Ben Shapiro crowd, Musk Bros etc but those people are likely voting Ron anyway and

 

Also Ron's campaign has no real north star

On the one hand he is the populist governor, economic steward etc
On the other hand he is ultra maga to the right of trump on every issue especially abortion and guns
On the other hand he is a trad republican on social security
On the other hand he is a natcon humping the legs of GOP elites and the tech bros

The whole Musk thing is a good example because normies just don't care about ESG and crypto and all David Sacks pet Natcon issues. It links him to very online donor elites while Trump mocks him about disney

 

Joined?

I think he is the youth generations Hunter S T

 

He demonstrates that in an alternative reality, we could have nice things

A guy from a conservative background, who is rationale, who is not a bigot, who will engage with the Obama bros on the issues. I found it remarkable how little i disagree with Miller on - he could easily be one of the Obama bros

Miller is doing actual journalism in MAGA land. His work following the early days of the Desantis campaign or on the Lake campaign reminds me very much of HST. I think he has an insight that no journalists are bringing.

 

Yup, I'm pretty much there to my surprise. Though, it does seem he not as favorable on Big Government as I am, which generally means he's for lower taxes, which I'm not. But it really did surprise me how much he views social issues the same as I do.

Maybe it's because he is from Wisconsin, where I live.

 

It was surprising for me as well, and I think it illustrates just how far we've travelled from 'normality'.

Centre right liberals are basically democrats now. Same in the UK

 

This article is why i still check in on the Bulwark about once a week. JV Last and Longwell have started asking why on earth the GOP elites are so all in on Ron. The debate got going in conservative circles in recent days because never trumpers and lefties have started noting that Ron is much more extreme that Trump on a number of issues and also very bad at this. That caused the Ronboi elites to get very angry online, because their position is if you don't want Trump, you cannot criticise "the precious".

It's this kind of dear leader, boot licker tendency in the GOP that is a big part of the problem. Surely GOP elites should criticise Ron (like they did on Ukraine) to force him to adopt more reasonable positions. But we are back to the game of claiming Ron is merely saying this stuff for the base but will govern sensibly. sigh ....

So why aren't they trying to find someone better? Like surely even Youngkin is better and more electable than this? It's actually very strange

This article from JVL is paid - but you can hear the ideas on his podcast with Longwell - i mostly summarised it above.

"I suspect that Republicans who desperately want a post-Trump future ought to start shopping around for a Plan B. But who am I kidding? We all know that their Plan B is Trump." https://t.co/oVfC9muGot

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) June 5, 2023

 

The very online debate about whether Ron is actually more extreme and dangerous with Trump is kind of illustrative.

The campaign operatives and Ronboi elites seems to believe electability means 'strength' and that means running to the right of Trump on everything except (so far) without the extreme election denial.

The sane world tends to believe that the hardcore MAGAe will vote for Trump no matter what, so the Ron lane is white college educated (i.e. the elites) plus whatever non college educated base is ready to move on - so you'd think its better to be positioned more in the middle.

Indeed it keeps getting forgotten that Trump ran to the left of Ted Cruz and co on multiple issues. Remember great healthcare, economic populism ... and Trump was supposed to be more moderate on abortion! This is happening again where trump is calling out Ron on his disney failure (jobs!)

Polling is suggesting Ron is losing with the non college educated whites badly. i.e his base is just GOP elites. At the same time, his extreme policies are likely a big problem.

Miller suggests the whole thing is a misread of his own local popularity. e.g on Covid he was a big failure, but he kept Florida more open, which voters liked. Instead of running on that, he is now becoming an anti-vaxx conspiracist and is deep in the weeds with the Musk set.

In other words, he is presenting as an extreme weirdo rather than the sensible guy who can win

 

Sure, but they were pushed there by the MAGA.
But they are not a typical Republican now - they are intellectual. And it was them, or those over at Serious Trouble (or probably both) who mocked the lack of intelligentsia in the current Republican party. And I would guess that those like Tim Miller and Josh and others have a more diverse set of friends and associates than the MAGA members, so they are more socially accepting of different people. But they likely always have been, and in the Tim Miller-Wisconsin sense, non-confrontational and want lower taxes because their neighborhood are just fine.

 

Policies that are good for my family

 

Currently in Colorado driving a car with...Florida plates. I am embarrassed.

 

At least he is being true to his own self.