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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   29444 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023

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It's interesting to me that DeSantis (my preference) pitched himself as a competent and respectable Trump-like figure, and yet that hasn't won him much ground so far. I would think that would unify right wing voters, but apparently not.

One of the main issues with Desantis is that he's been completely unwilling to give the pitch you just gave, i.e. that Trump has flaws which Desantis could presumably be better at. For whatever reason, Desantis has been utterly unwilling to criticize Trump in basically any aspect, creating the bizarre scenario where he's running against Trump in the primary but refuses to tell us why.

For whatever reason, Desantis has been utterly unwilling to criticize Trump

Well, he has definitely avoided total war with Trump, but he has criticized Trump on several issues including abortion, covid policy, his handling of the capitol riots, and (obliquely) attacking him as not critical enough on gender issues. So I'm not disagreeing with you on principal, merely on the degree.

I suppose that could be part of the problem though. They seem to be avoiding directly attacking Trump, presumably to avoid alienating MAGA folk, but that in itself doesn't signal to those people that you are any better than Trump on the issues they care about. Sort of a reverse version of the "extreme in the primary, moderate in the general" formula aspirant presidents stick with. This is looking like a good example of why that formula is so prevalent.

They seem to be avoiding directly attacking Trump, presumably to avoid alienating MAGA folk

Why not? Worked in 2016!

At this point, I just think they're cowards who don't want to risk becoming Liz Cheney and no longer being welcome in the party if & when they lose.

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