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There exists a Republican Party establishment that still firmly controls about a third of the states in the union. That is what Desantis represents. Everything he does aligns with their agenda.
That is just claiming X without proving X. DeSantis went way out on a limb re covid. He held the line for freedom when many Republicans didn’t. How is that establishment?
except Desantis did lockdown, did enforce mask mandates, did close schools, and a bunch of other covid hysteria
Noem, Abbot, Kemp, and others have similar performance
was Desantis better than your average GOP derp? yeah, but that's not saying much
in order for Desantis to "go way out on a limb re covid" compared to the establishment GOP, the establishment GOP would have to have a stark covid response position
what was that establishment position during the covid hysteria?
Okay Charlie Crist. Florida was the first state of significant population to buck the covid lockdowns. They also did a lot to prevent local municipalities from backdooring the lunacy. If you compare Abbot with DeSantis Florida was faster and more complete in return to normal.
Part of the reason the GOP became more freedom aligned re Covid was because of DeSantis.
I doubt Desantis is a major part of the reason the GOP opposed Covid measures. The fact of the matter is that the GOP base always was going to be opposed to Covid measures and the GOP would've faced a revolt if they hadn't pivoted against lockdowns.
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The GOP was always going to be more freedom aligned due to the interests of its base.
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Georgia was first "of significant population." Florida caved hard to the hysteria around spring breakers and kept those beaches closed for while.
you mean after ignoring Miami giving hundreds of people tickets for months and months? and broward county?
I went to austin and miami around the same time in 2020 and austin was more normal than miami and before miami
I like what desantis did. In comparison to most others, he was great. But I'm not willing to stay silent to this revisionism of what desantis actually did.
the reason the GOP became more freedom aligned is because of their base throwing tantrums and harassing the shit out of them with Noem, Kemp, Desantis, Abbott, and maybe a few other governors responding to that
the same reason why lockdowners like Mike Dewine basically just stopped enforcing covid hysteria even as he left those executive orders on the books
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Can you be more specific? What are the policies where you see yourself and Trump in opposition to the GOP establishment and DeSantis?
Are you talking about Paul Ryan style fiscal conservatism, where he'll try to cut social security and medicare so he can cut taxes?
Or do you think he's faking it with his anti-illegal-immigration stance?
desantis is a neocon, his china/trade policy, his removal of confederate statues and history, having more charisma than a wet blanket, being able to win a national election to name a few
desantis doesn't have strong "stances," he makes political plays
which is why desantis was a nameless neocon dork during his 6 years in Congress (which is why the GOP essentially handed him a R+9 district), he saw how popular trump was with Republicans, and then has been going with the diet trump act since
if someone was going to attempt to supplant populist trumpism, you would go with a softer, diet trumpism while still maintaining much of the status quo nonsense
this was true when the GOP infiltrated and destroyed the tea party and it is true now
I will take Diet Trumpism with the chance of actually accomplishing anything over current Trumpism that did nothing but tweet for 4 years any day. How hard you might desire to hit doesn't mean anything if you never throw a punch.
Trump needs to go away. He had his chance. As impotent, disorganized, and completely non-insurrection-like in character as it was, he even had a kind of semi-coup (or at least semi-coup energy) available for him to work with in J6 (even if it had failed and he had simply died for it, that would have been a far more noble use of his life than anything he's ever done before or since).
(He also planned the whole thing and knew the date so he could have easily made some better coup preparations.) He chose to be lazy and incompetent, having no real plan other than tweeting as usual, and a coward, telling his followers to go home instead of rocking the system, instead (also as usual).
That's all he's ever been, a lazy coward with a big mouth, and there's no proof he's changed. At least DeSantis, despite his regrettable philosemitism, does things sometimes.
I don't think it would be productive continuing this conversation; thank you for your comment.
You're quite welcome. I hope you will consider however reluctantly the unfortunately necessary practicality of occasionally prioritizing activity over ideological purity (though I hardly believe Trump possesses even that tbh).
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