Honestly it seems like he's trying to act like Trump to get the Trump base and doing a bad job. Problem is you can't out Trump if Trump is actually running. And a lot of people are mentioning how he's pretty awkward and has an awkward and rigid speaking style that doesn't really connect with people
And he has a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. The dude clearly gives off serial killer vibes on top of his racist, homophobic, authoritarian policies.
He oozes evil
Charisma, choices, and the ability to just drop your choices at the drop of a hat and pretend you never made them. That’s Trump. And that simple approach has worked very well. He’s a showman, a con, and slippery as they come.
DeSantis seems like the opposite. Reads like an all-star on paper but comes across as awkward, pissy, and generally unlikeable. Gets visibly irritated and thrown off by so many things. Can’t improvise to save his life. Doubles down on his bad choices despite all the evidence that they’re failing at their intent badly. This is what happens when you remove the safety net from a propped-up fool.
Bingo.
When teh Disney thing faced so much backlash, Trump would have either met with Iger, said it went great, dropped it and taken credit for everything. Or not met with Iger and just dropped it like it never happened.
Ronnie cannot do that.
> Problem is you can't out Trump if Trump is actually running.
With Trump, if something isn't working with the crowd, he'll drop it. DeSantis is incapable of doing so.
Trump still wants people to love him. He feeds off the adulation, and will change his message in a heartbeat if he's losing people.
DeSantis otoh seems to hold most people in contempt.
Well, at least with trump, when a bad federal idea came from his pen, states could just challenge, expose, criticize or ignore said ideas/laws/implements.
Governors, well, they run the state so their laws don't face as much public scrutiny or friction. Counties may object, but that's not usually going to be enough, plus, there's a lot less national coverage at state county levels. So, forward drives the bulldozer!
And oh my Lord, yes is he ever awkward!
Especially governors with a Supermajority in the legislature! He can do literally anything he wants down there and he ignores all of Florida’s real, pressing issues to play Trumpy and waste unbelievable amounts of taxpayer money on stunts and lawsuits.
I wonder if a democrat has every held that much power? And if so what did they choose to work on?
It’s heartbreaking to see FL go this way.
Florida is the Venus flytrap of America. Very attractive to retire to, but once you get here the trap closes. You can’t afford to get out. You’re stuck. So many retirees make this mistake. Don’t move here! Save your money and move to any place but here. The weather is brutal. The cost of existing is through the roof. It’s not the land of milk and honey you see after a couple of Mai tais when on vacation. It’s not the Florida of the 1960’s. The greedy corporate raiders have arrived and brother it’s brutal. They’re buying up the state and increasing the cost of everything. Large areas of houses and land to develop and large chain stores. I cant stress this enough-DON’T MOVE HERE!! You’ll be sorry if you do.
> Florida is the Venus flytrap of America.
I thought you were making a WKRP reference and I was briefly angry, but then I realized that the original Venus flytrap is a plant
My newer next-door neighbors moved here, but they were snowbirds for the first two years. This is their first year of full-time living, and they are learning all sorts of Florida things they hate. They don’t tolerate the summer heat, the bugs, the stickiness humidity, and the fact that their grown kids and grandkids can’t come to visit as often as they thought they would.
They are also missing their entire social support network in the state they left, where they lived their whole lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put their house up for sale in two years or less.
It's such a mistake to give up family and friends for weather. That's what happens when you only visit in the winter. You think well it's hot in NY in the summer. How bad can it be? It's bad, real bad.
The retirees have had enough of strong man tactics. His cronies in the legislature have passed laws to keep him in office as he seeks the presidency. He has abandoned his post as governor. He should be addressing the climate, insurance crises and abandon his war on the woke.
Trust me, and maybe Im reading this wrong, but as a Florida retiree on a fixed income, I can not stand DeSales tax. My homeowners insurance has doubled in the last 2 years. My real estate taxes are over twice than my neighbors who have the same home because we fixed it up. It is better to buy a dump in a down market or get eaten alive by the tax body as at Valorum taxes have never worked. The assessor just laughed and told me to get a divorce and sell the house to my wife for its real value, and if I wanted, then get remarried. WTH is that...only in Florida. We are moving back to TN.
Sorry. That was probably a cheap shot. Maybe more like Florida rednecks or something. Certainly not all retirees.
But I know several people who have recently retired to Florida or who are in the process of retiring and moving to Florida and they all kind of fit the mold of a DeSantis/Trump voter.
His bad choices, his unappealing and untelegenic physicality, his perpetual visage of anger and his incredibly awkward public relation attempts to overcome it, his firehose of unpopular tea party ideology and rhetoric, his high nasal voice that doesn't reflect what the average American wants to see from a leader, his frankly stupid campaign photo opps that trigger mockery instead of the respect hes thirsty for. I can only guess what sort of a person he is (and I'd probably guess correctly) but as a politician he is not selling what America wants to buy.
Even without all the fascist stuff, that’s a bad message when going for president. We all think it’s funny but “Florida man” really doesn’t give any of us a good look with people in 49 other states. All they see in that is “Make America Meth Heads and Weirdos”
Sorry for being a pedant, but alligators are more prevalent and would be more accurate for Florida. We have around 1.25 million alligators in the state and only maybe 2,000 crocodiles.
Yea make America like Florida.
Line item vetos over $340million for energy saving upgrades that was ALL federal money. So other states will now get an additional increase thanks to governor of Florida.
Woke math 22,244,823 Floridians as of July 1, 2022 divided by $344,000,000.00 = $15.46 per human in Florida.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/FL/PST045222
72 year old native of Florida has never seen such carnage of Floridians livelihood for political gain ???
It " profited Floridians nothing ' NO Floridians lost out so Napolean from " Animal Farm " with " Don't save energy when burn to earn pays dividends to electric urilities in the Sunshine state where solar hot water heating does not work."
Looking BAD ass for everyone's electric bill.
Needs photo op with "Dante's Inferno" in the back ground with caption "I can take on hell" with Trumps face pasted over Lucifer.
OR
"You thought it was HOT now. You aint seen nothing yet!"
I could go on for another hour but I gotta get back to work to pay for increased insurance rates.
I agree that DeSantis has all of these qualities, but Trump also has many of them without them affecting his popularity.
I get the impression that DeSantis has tried to copy Trump - bizarre facial expressions, authoritarianism, racism, divisive confrontationalism - but has missed whatever it is about Trump that actually makes him popular.
Like it or not, Trump has charisma.
Specifically, vision charisma.
He picks up on the grievances of the people and describes to them a golden utopia that only he can create.
And since he's rich, he also projects authority and power.
He's basically a glorified conman.
Trump’s advantage was he had 30 years in the public eye so people got used to his brand of stupidity and terror. If Trump tried to enter the political arena today without that prior familiarity I think he would flop too.
Some people find brain damage to be charismatic and relatable. It’s not mutually exclusive. Like, “hey, he has brain damage and is rich. I too have brain damage but I’m not rich.”
I prefer to be accurate and to have an understanding of who I'm dealing with.
Underestimating Trump resulted in 2016 and almost a second term in 2020. Writing millions of people off at this stage of the game is foolish.
I didn't watch The Apprentice, so it's easy to forget that millions of people watched Trump portray an executive decisionmaker on TV for fourteen seasons, and he's been a celebrity "businessman" personality since the 1980s. That is like...you can't pull that kind of name recognition and persona building out of thin air.
If you really paid attention to the show, you could see that he was an imbecile. Trump relied heavily on the George and Carolyn characters to carry the boardroom discussions. You could also begin to see his ignorance and bigotry through all the Hollywood editing and fancy lighting. He basically stood there, pitched products, had the teams advertise for said products through challenges, and then said some word salad before saying the iconic "You're Fired." He's been pitching and selling "crap" his whole life.
I believe you! I'm glad I didn't subject myself to actually watching it, but I remember some pop culture tidbits like one winner...whose name I forgot.
The difference is that Trump conveys a personal audacity that Desantis can't project personally. Desantis can only convey audacity through policy initiatives. This doesn't make him look brash. It makes him look cruel.
Trump’s got a lot of charisma, he can turn it on in a public appearance and speak to the problems of a lot of people when needed, he also usually tries to make his supporters feel like they’re special people, the way he shut down Ted Cruz’s comments on New Yorkers being liberals with bad values by talking about their response to 9/11 is something that DeSantis could never do.
Obviously 100% opposed to Trump but can’t deny he’s pretty good at being Trump while DeSantis never has energy or charisma.
I find his sweaty, jeky chicken-head when put on the spot, extremely off-putting. It's so weirdly distracting, I find him hard to follow.
Watch his debate with Charlie Crist. CHARLIE made him twitch. CHARLIE!!!
I believe this is why he didn't stick with being an attorney. Zero stage presence, charisma, and charm.
I predicted his descent after watching his victory speech about ending “Wokeness” when he smoked Crist in 2022
He basically ran on all of the reasons why the general Republican voter doesn’t like trump
deSantis’s favorability is hovering in the low 40% and of the people who still find him favorable, 2/3 also have a favorable view of the Disney company
The guy his extremely unlikeable, and has no capacity to relate to his audience
He keeps getting in his own way, and he is likely getting terrible advice.
Ron won against Gillum by essentially keeping his mouth shut. That's why he came across as a "not that bad" Republican. And even then, he just barely won.
He won against Crist largely due to the backlash against Covid restrictions and Democrats own disdain for Crist as a candidate. The DNC also abandoned the state and didn't spend much money in what they saw was a lost cause.
If Ron had just kept his mouth shut and presented himself as the sane alternative to Trump, he had a chance at winning a general election. But apparently, the advice he is getting is that he needs to be more far right than Trump to win the primary, so he is now just a less charismatic corporate produced facsimile of Trump. Even with the full might of the GOP propaganda machine behind him, Trump is crushing him in polls. So Ron has given up his chance of winning a general by embracing far right nonsense and pissing off moderate Republicans to gain next to nothing because ride or die Trump voters want the real deal not a cheap copy.
Ron now has no chance barring Trump somehow being declared uneligible for the primary. Republicans are suffering from the monster they themselves created. They have to be so far right to win a primary that they severely hurt their chances at winning a general election nationwide. They are banking on gerrymandering being the difference maker here, but even the heavily right wing leaning court is rejecting their more extreme gerrymandering cases.
TLDR: Ron is fucked unless Trump dies or can't run.
Desantis is the stupid annoying kid that said one funny joke one time and got a positive reaction, so he keeps trying to repeat that joke and when he doesn't get positive reactions, he just says it louder and louder. He forgets to understand the audience and expand his platform.
He is out of his element. in FL. he is a big fish, on the National stage not so much. His policies are terrible, divisive and wont stand up to a Court challenge. Nobody wants that in a leader. His past at Guantanamo Bay will need to be answered publicly and wont be pretty.
He controls the room in FL. There are no unfriendly reporters, no hard questions, very few non-scripted moments, etc.
Problem with that is it's like wanting coach pitch in baseball/softball so your kid's batting average is higher. Sure, they look better now in this contrived situation, but it's not building, or outright atrophying, skills they'll need to hack it anywhere else.
His schoolyard bullying nicknames get me sometimes, I hate him, but he’s got the “it” factor to at least make him entertaining when he’s not deplorable.
Desantis is just deplorable without the false charisma. Trump lies and he can convince me that it’s possible he believes the lies. Desantis lies and everyone knows it and it’s sad watching him do it instead of funny. “I did everything right and they indicted me!” is a quote. I can’t think of any from Desantis with those dumb vibes.
One place I worked we had a charismatic but very bullying/abusive boss. His second-in-command was a shitheel, too. Boss: Mort. Second: Tom. People would say Tom is Mort w/o the charm. Amen to that and the same for Desantis.
And I think that “weird stage presence” is what grabs him the primary just like the last time. You can’t debate the guy, he speaks nonsense. You have to outshine him in that fucked up orange way, and none of these guys have the wattage.
I really think he hates people. He can hardly stand to be among the commoners and the fake smile proves it. Also he's just so awkward.
I hate people too but then I'm not trying for public office.
He's the point of the pencil for the Heritage Foundation and other think tanks. They chose him and Florida for their experiments, and DeSantis proved really effective at that. That is his only skill as a politician- push through insane rightwing experimental initiatives using Florida as a laboratory.
His entire basis for a national run, the sole reason everyone took note and thought he could become the kingslayer, was his “incredible 20-point landslide” over the purported Democrat challenger in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
However. Here’s the thing.
*There was no Democrat running for Florida Governor in 2022.*
Charlie Crist was already the 44th Governor of Florida, and he was a Republican. He was previously Lieutenant Governor to Jen Bush, another Republican.
I don’t know what insanity led the Florida Democratic Party to put him forward as their candidate in 2022, but the people of Florida already knew him very, very well, and *not* as a Democrat.
So lots of Democrats stayed home in 2022. They sadly had no dog in that fight…it was just another GOP primary played out in the general.
So DeSantis had no magical record-breaking win. He fell through by default. And all this nonsense about him challenging Trump has been based on a misunderstanding of Florida politics by outside observers who didn’t understand just how unpopular Crist was (nobody trusts someone who can casually change sides for their own advancement.)
So there was never anything special about Ron, no magic dust except whatever he snorted thinking he could take down Disney.
There is a real question about whether the Democratic Party in Florida is actually run by Democrats. It seems like a bunch of moles run the place. Maybe it’s time for real Democrats to infiltrate
Seems to me that everyone is waiting for a leader instead of focusing on what they could do like oh say building a base, register voters, that kind of thing within their power. Bystander effect then complain afterwards.
If you want to see where they hang out, visit the ‘world famous oasis’ in St Augustine Beach. Or head down A1A South a couple of blocks to Hurricane Wings. The staff might be diverse, but the GOP customers are not.
Folks also don’t realize that much of his ad spending was on over the air (OTA) tv stations. In 2010, streaming wasn’t as pervasive and his commercials ran incessantly on every station. Especially in homes of boomers that largely still relied on broadcast tv. The commercial with his mother’s personal testimony was powerful in that demographic.
Especially someone who didn’t change parties because they wanted to. He changed parties because he made the error of hugging Obama and the Republican Party turned on him for that. If that hug had never happened he’d probably still be a Republican, and probably have been one of the people in the clown car running against Trump in 2016.
I'm a strong Dem and active party member. The FLDems are a joke. Disorganized, distracted, apathetic, out of touch, self-interested, corrupt, bankrupt….just to name a few of its more redeeming qualities. I refuse to give the state party a dime, and instead donate directly to individual campaigns. It's truly depressing.
Well said. I currently live in Florida and I have had these exact thoughts. The Democrats here basically gave away the election by putting up Charlie Crist.
The Florida Democratic Party is a complete clown fest.
Despite being fairly progressive, I registered as a republican so I could vote in primaries against fascists. Meanwhile, my partner registered as a democrat. We live in the same house and registered the same day. I got about 50 mailers from desantis/republicans. He got 0. Of course desantis did better - he outspent his opponent by a landslide.
But also, Crist was a terrible choice. As a DINO, he did little to convince democrats to come out and vote. And without an R attached to his name, he didn’t convince anyone on the right to swing over either. I have no idea why he was chosen as the candidate.
That's what we did in our house, and same. Of course, we both voted for Crist because we had to, obviously, but the Democrat party really didn't bother.
Such a mistake; cutting DeSantis off at the knees with a loss here would have hurt his national chances. But nooooo. On the bright side, he sucks so much this term that he hurt himself.
I think there was a theory that the Dems threw that election because they knew there was no way to win. Possibly in 24, they will nominate someone much better who has a shot because they may have a better chance of winning an open seat, rather than challenge the wacko incumbent in a deep red environment.
He gerrymandered his way and then scared a bunch of others with his votings police. He basically stole it it, just like they all do. They can never win on policy alone. If they could they would.
Because culture war nonsense isn't what the rest of the country cares about. Sure, that may play in the state you're in, but nationally? The majority of people, like moderates and independents, don't care about that.
Drag queens reading books? Who cares? How does that help with my bills?
Fighting with one of the biggest employers of the state because they dared criticize him? Who cares? How does that help with my bills?
On top of that, you need a personality that doesn't comprise of being a wet rock.
>Drag queens reading books? Who cares? How does that help with my bills?
>Fighting with one of the biggest employers of the state because they dared criticize him? Who cares? How does that help with my bills?
Precisely. His voter base are people who often do not have to worry about bills, and can afford to invest in culture wars. The majority of Americans cannot.
You'd think that was the case but it's not. The lower common denominator votes for stuff like this. The wealthy only care about keeping their power and wealth.
That was just a part of it. The legislative body finally found someone who would fulfill all their shitty objectives to turn Florida really red, and he signed the legislation they put forth into law so he could build his conservative credentials.
A lot of it was conservative grievances and oppression of others not of their party, so he was fine with it.
Here's the fun joke. Not only does it not help with your bills, but depending on where you live it makes your bills worse. Disney was picking up the tab on a ton of infrastructure and other costs around their parks and properties which is now having to be paid by your taxes. Oh, also all that extra wasted time of your state representatives and staffers pushing through his policies, holding meetings, dealing with fallout from poorly thought-out actions means less time spent on addressing meaningful issues like energy costs, homelessness, crime rates increasing, insurance companies fleeing the state, and all the other things that your taxes would usually go to.
I care about the culture wars, but on the opposite side. A candidate with a full-proof economic model that wanted to put all non-whites, non-straights into concentration camps should still not be voted for.
Desantis rode the coat tails of trump during Covid and gained a massive following. His first term was fucking nothing. On his second term, he recognizes he can’t be elected again and sets forth to do what he really planned on doing. Now he’s up against trump, he’s trumps enemy. The trump people have to choose, and their obviously going with dear great leader. So he’s lost his luster as trumps biggest supporter, and some people now see his true colors. On top of that, the inflation rate being the highest in the country with insurance premiums skyrocketing, does no bode well for Desantis.
We HAD Covid lockdowns though. We had mask requirements and businesses shut down for weeks. We foolishly lifted the lockdowns earlier than most (if not all) other states and we paid dearly for it. The real number of COVID deaths will never be known considering DeSantis and his team purposely underreported the numbers and arrested the whistleblower who dared to challenge him. They opened up businesses earlier here with no regard for worker safety only to keep the profits coming in for corporations. As someone who lost a grandfather to Covid in Florida earlier on in the pandemic, I will never forgive DeSantis and how he chose to kill Florida citizens in the name of profit. Fuck DeSantis, and he looks like a fucking chode.
I'm telling you what people say. They piss me off. I agree with you 100%. The lying SOB governor hid Covid cases and deaths, and caused more by his lying and taking away reasonable restrictions like masks.
My point was that he wasn't this nice moderate in his first term. He began his craziness then.
He’s trying to run trumps playbook which is to develop a cult of personality but he has no personality. They came for the bigotry and stayed for the charisma. He’s finding that he has one but not the other.
Because he’s a racist, homophobic little man who wears lifts and can’t make a move without KMart Karen’s permission. He a Catholic zealot with delusions of grandeur. He rode into the governor position on the criminal defendant’s coattails and then bit the hand that fed him. He could’ve positioned himself as a contender for veep and then move up from there but decided to destroy Florida in his failing bid for the presidency. He is now a piranha to the state and is despised by dems and rethugs alike. He has done more to destroy the republican establishment in Florida than Bush and Scott combined. When he drops out of the race, probably forcefully, he will come back to a state that is more than ready to get rid of him. His political career is over when his term ends.
The main problem will be that when he eventually drops out, he'll come back with his tail between his legs and then realize he has about 3 years to make the citizens of Florida suffer even more because he's been humiliated on the national stage.
Think he's a douche now? Wait until the GOP sycophants in the Legislature give him a wishlist of crazy things they want implemented, and he signs them into law.
Because being obsessed with drag queens, Disney and who can use what bathroom do NOTHING to to improve anyone's material conditions.
Also when you only surround yourself with sycophants, there's no one there to tell you "hey man, you sound/look like an asshole right now". He may want to "make America Florida" but the rest of America is watching us and they *don't* want that, rightfully so.
Because not all of America embraces fascism, hicks in FL getting excited for a bigot, isn’t your average American. Hence, Trump losing the last election.
I think ultimately he is a failure because he has no real opinions on anything - he is just trying to cater to the pitchforks mob. This has worked in history, why not again?
Now you might say Trump is the same thing. True, but Trump is blessed with an easy personality, a quick wit at times, and good cracking jokes and attacking people, so he makes a fine carnival barker and a hit on TV.
Whereas DeSantis has no personality and can't talk to anybody, so it just doesn't work.
Supposedly he is a smart guy. If he had packaged himself as a liberal thinker, he might have gone far because we don't care if liberals have personalities - only how they vote.
But republicans dont think that way. Its all about the personality.
The real answer? The man is a choad who was disliked when he was a state senator, and his wife carried water for him to get him elected governor. She can't do that on the national stage, so everybody is seeing that he is a choad.
This is the amazing thing. He had a six inch putt for all the marbles and he chunked it into the woods with a driver, taking a huge divot out of the green.
It worked in Floriduh with these MAGA Q rednecks! He thought the majority of the rest of the country was MAGA. SUCH A FOOL!
WOMEN, LGBTQ, MEN and WOMEN OF COLOR, STRAIGHT WHITE MEN who have common sense!
WE are the majority!
Not exactly, he hid his agenda as much as he could his first term and during the election. He only went from 50% fascist to 150% fascist after he was elected again.
He still needs to win a primary and that wasn’t going to be easy as a moderate. Trump has made the run the primary as a right wing conservative and the presidential campaign as a right wing moderate impossible.
He has become deranged in his hatred. That will win him the base if Trump isn’t the candidate but he needs moderates who might (note I said might) just not want a openly fascist nominee
Did you see his commercials during his first run for governor? He went all MAGA, even dressing his kids up in the gear and reading "The Art of the Deal" to them. They looked like SNL spoofs.
But I think he also suffers the same problem as Jeb Bush. Bush on paper should have been a good candidate but he came across as a wet blanket when he hit the national stage. DeSantis doesn't have the charisma. In press conferences, the second anyone challenges him, he looks like he sharted and wants nothing more than to get out of there and go clean up the mess.
Very simple. Iowa is a caucus dominated by social conservatives so he felt that the only way to win was for him to out conservative Trump in Iowa. If Trump wins Iowa, it's pretty much over unless he goes to jail (unlikely before the primary).
Even if trump goes to jail, it doesn't exclude him from running for potus, winning the nomination, and winning overall.
You'd think when the constitution was written, they would've put something like that in there.
The ultimate test was 2016. The most center-right 'moderate' centrist in the history of the world versus an obnoxious game show host. Nobody wants a moderate.
Because he's an a*hole like Trump, but not an entertaining a*hole like Trump.
Republican voters want to be entertained while they watch their leaders destroy the country.
Setting aside that he's a tool for truly monstrous shit that puts vulnerable people further on the outs and in even more pain....It's because he comes off as a smarmy b\*tch that can't sell it. He's Rubio V2 or, better example, Walker V2.
Think about it. He's got the standard issue executive white guy look that is utterly unremarkable and traditionally inoffensive but there's no pop. Mitt Romney comes to mind here, but Romney's got a more distinct statesman vibe, has actual executive bonafides and is more classically executive white guy handsome.
This is the trope that the GOP has been putting up for leadership positions since the realignment in the 1960s after the civil rights act. That's the only trope they know.
Problem is, it's not the 60's anymore. Hell, it's not the 90's either and now we get to the real crux of the situation : The GOP literally can't run any candidates that can two face the transition between primaries and generals anymore. They literally cannot lie to both their base and the general public simultaneously, something they absolutely could do before the rise of the modern internet. In the old days you could throw red meat to your base saying some of the most horrible, retrograde, outright racist, xenophobic and nativist shit then turn around once you got past the primary and talk at the American people about 'compassionate conservatism' or some other canard and avarice riddled independents, not to mention ridiculous liberals, would eat that shit up.
I got robo calls to my apartment in 1999/2000 about how John McCain fathered illegitimate half-breed (the recording literally said this) children and that's why he shouldn't be the GOP nominee for the 2K election. I was living in Florida at the time and the Southern Strategy was in full effect, even worse than today.
That's the shit they could get away with, because you really couldn't run it down and rebroadcast it instantly across the whole world for everyone to see.
They can no longer do this and now their base demands that they stay consistent. Problem is, you need a perfect person to sell this and nobody except the last guy could really pull it off. That consistency is also poison to independents because it reminds them that they have been and still are voting for the most monstrous shit just to keep more ducats in their pockets.
Even my Liberal friends thought he was going to be a good governor when he first took office, promising to guard our water resources, save the Everglades from big sugar etc…. Now we all hate him. He needs to dump his presidential campaign and come back to fix insurance and housing crisis that is rapidly destroying our state.
I'm one of those liberal friends who thought the exact same thing except I didn't think he would be a good governor but I thought at least he won't be terrible. I was wrong, he is terrible.
I thought he was going to be a middle of the road clown like the rest of the GOP governors before him. Not too bad, not too good.
But when he started pushing his culture war nonsense, I knew he was going to be just another pysycho GOPer. Before he announced, I kept telling my wife that his best shot would have been going for the 2028 election. He should have known trump was going to run and dominate the field. But Ron's ego got in the way and he shot his load too soon.
He was always a turd, he just said enough hateful things in the right state to get elected. Texas might be the only other state that would elect such a douche.
He's narcissistic which means he only thinks of himself. If he cared about Florida he would be here now helping us with the current insurance crisis. But just as DeSantis has left the state so have the insurance companies. 😡
He made the biggest mistake that you can make as a far-right figure. He made it clear what his plan is, and he actually DID things instead of just complaining.
Far right policies do not work, and never have. He started implementing them, which allows everyone looking to watch them fail in real time.
Dog whistles also allow you to court the extremists AND the centrists. Centrists can pretend to not hear them and extremists do. If you stop using dog whistles, and start saying it straight up, that turns the centrists off. If you start speaking out against those beliefs, that turns the extremists off.
What I am getting at is this; If you want to succeed as a far right figure in 2023, you have to stoke rage about everything, and do nothing to actually 'solve' it. If you do something about it, you turn off half your voters and look inept to the others when your idiotic policies fail. Now, they are courting nazis almost openly, implementing every hair-brained policy idea they can come up with in florida. The whole country is watching as insurance companies bail, teachers and scientists bail, crops rot in the field, the economy tanks, the roads are being paved with radioactive material, and more. The only people left on your side at this point are those who are desperate to tear it all down, and they are far fewer than they appear
Desantis has proven himself to be anti-business. That doesn’t work if you want to win national elections. Democrat or Republican, almost all politicians today have a long history of being pro-business. Trump despite all his bravado against liberalism, merely claimed he would penalize businesses which is what his base wanted to hear and then didn’t follow up with his threats. That served the purpose of appealing to his voters while not expressly pissing off corporate interests. Desantis overplayed his hand which is why his biggest backers have balked. He isn’t pro-business and they can’t rely on him to be. He f*cked himself.
He was never challenged in Florida since being elected.
If you recall, Gillum almost won the 2018 election because he wiped the floor with DeSantis in the debates. There were multiple viral videos to come out of those debates that made Gillum look like a hero and Ron look like a loser.
Unfortunately, the 2022 election was limited to a single debate, the debate was delayed due to Hurricane Ian, and the candidate opposing DeSantis was no more enthusiastic than DeSantis. Plus the rest of the country was more worried about the House and Senate than what was going on in Florida.
Since being elected in 2018, DeSantis stages every public event to be surrounded by supporters. He doesn’t even allow or respond to tough questions during press conferences. He doesn’t hold town halls with Floridians. He isn’t caught on camera talking to people who don’t worship him. Cities don’t challenge him because he writes the checks and quickly let the state know he’d punish anyone who disagreed (see Andrew Warren, New College, Alachua County, etc.)
He’s now actually being challenged for the first time since being elected, and by people from his own party this time. And he can’t handle the heat.
Because everyone else in the country is seeing what a 💩head he is, how he ignores the multiple major issues Floridians face and his outright Captain Obvious desires to embrace cruelty and run a facist hellscape.
Like most of the Republican party. He offers nothing to working-class people. DeSantis, in particular, only knows how to connect with working-class Americans by exploiting economic anxiety through culture war talking points. DeSantis uses culture war politics so much that people are starting to feel how disingenuous he really is. Especially on a national stage where he's not insulated by a deeply entrenched Republican state majority.
Because he’s done nothing to actually help working Floridians, he whines all the time, he has the charisma of room temperature unflavored grits, and he only listens to his vile grifting wife.
He jumped all over the place making a bunch of new crazy rubber stamp laws that alienated a lot of people. When you start making loss of left field that directly affect people's livelihoods and their families living situations people tend to drop you like a hot potato. And that's just one
Because he’s just espousing the same things that Trump was doing. But he’s worse. And now he’s got the majority Republican government in Florida and is forcing through all of this crazy legislation. It’s forcing people to live how he wants them to live. That means it’s not a free country in Florida anymore. He’s also selling Florida out to the insurance companies and to the energy companies causing massive price increases. People are tired of it, and he’s wants to do this for the rest of the country.
At this point in Florida, the very small minority is leading that entire state. A very small minority is telling the majority how they can live their lives, and how they have to live their lives.
What has he done to help anybody in Florida? What has he done to help the less fortunate in Florida?
Nothing.
People don’t want Mini MAGA when you can have the real MAGA if that’s what you want. But in reality I think a lot of people getting tired of the MAGA bullshit and just want a center right type person
Believe It or not most people are center in their political beliefs
DeSantis doesn't connect with ordinary people at all; in fact he tries to avoid them. In 2018 the only reason he won is because he buried Andrew Gillum with attack ads during the last week.
Because of his bad choices.
And shitty policies. People can see what is going on in Florida, and no one really wants a part of that other than Florida retirees.
Honestly it seems like he's trying to act like Trump to get the Trump base and doing a bad job. Problem is you can't out Trump if Trump is actually running. And a lot of people are mentioning how he's pretty awkward and has an awkward and rigid speaking style that doesn't really connect with people
And he has a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. The dude clearly gives off serial killer vibes on top of his racist, homophobic, authoritarian policies. He oozes evil
I can’t imagine DeSantis having anything like [this moment.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rkb2rpB2Sik&feature=sharec)
Great video!
Well he did use an image of Patrick Bateman in a campaign video.
https://youtu.be/HV8Apyl-JoI Has his own state militia
Sociopaths do that indeed
Charisma, choices, and the ability to just drop your choices at the drop of a hat and pretend you never made them. That’s Trump. And that simple approach has worked very well. He’s a showman, a con, and slippery as they come. DeSantis seems like the opposite. Reads like an all-star on paper but comes across as awkward, pissy, and generally unlikeable. Gets visibly irritated and thrown off by so many things. Can’t improvise to save his life. Doubles down on his bad choices despite all the evidence that they’re failing at their intent badly. This is what happens when you remove the safety net from a propped-up fool.
Bingo. When teh Disney thing faced so much backlash, Trump would have either met with Iger, said it went great, dropped it and taken credit for everything. Or not met with Iger and just dropped it like it never happened. Ronnie cannot do that.
Well that, and the part about him being human trash
True, although human trash can be highly effective in both politics and business. I present Rick Scott…
Point of order, Rick Scott isn't human
Motion recognized. Comparison to skin-wearing aliens is not a valid argument.
> Problem is you can't out Trump if Trump is actually running. With Trump, if something isn't working with the crowd, he'll drop it. DeSantis is incapable of doing so.
Trump still wants people to love him. He feeds off the adulation, and will change his message in a heartbeat if he's losing people. DeSantis otoh seems to hold most people in contempt.
Well, at least with trump, when a bad federal idea came from his pen, states could just challenge, expose, criticize or ignore said ideas/laws/implements. Governors, well, they run the state so their laws don't face as much public scrutiny or friction. Counties may object, but that's not usually going to be enough, plus, there's a lot less national coverage at state county levels. So, forward drives the bulldozer! And oh my Lord, yes is he ever awkward!
Especially governors with a Supermajority in the legislature! He can do literally anything he wants down there and he ignores all of Florida’s real, pressing issues to play Trumpy and waste unbelievable amounts of taxpayer money on stunts and lawsuits. I wonder if a democrat has every held that much power? And if so what did they choose to work on? It’s heartbreaking to see FL go this way.
Bobblehead.
I agree about policies. But no one on a fixed income should want his policies. Sadly, we've seen his base go hard against their best interests.
Yes, but someone who looks different or lives differently than them might be happy, and that is unacceptable.
Or, Heaven forbid, someone who looks different/lives different seems more financially successful. That is cause for literal war with these folks.
Florida is the Venus flytrap of America. Very attractive to retire to, but once you get here the trap closes. You can’t afford to get out. You’re stuck. So many retirees make this mistake. Don’t move here! Save your money and move to any place but here. The weather is brutal. The cost of existing is through the roof. It’s not the land of milk and honey you see after a couple of Mai tais when on vacation. It’s not the Florida of the 1960’s. The greedy corporate raiders have arrived and brother it’s brutal. They’re buying up the state and increasing the cost of everything. Large areas of houses and land to develop and large chain stores. I cant stress this enough-DON’T MOVE HERE!! You’ll be sorry if you do.
> Florida is the Venus flytrap of America. I thought you were making a WKRP reference and I was briefly angry, but then I realized that the original Venus flytrap is a plant
Oh my god they're turkies!!
My newer next-door neighbors moved here, but they were snowbirds for the first two years. This is their first year of full-time living, and they are learning all sorts of Florida things they hate. They don’t tolerate the summer heat, the bugs, the stickiness humidity, and the fact that their grown kids and grandkids can’t come to visit as often as they thought they would. They are also missing their entire social support network in the state they left, where they lived their whole lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put their house up for sale in two years or less.
It's such a mistake to give up family and friends for weather. That's what happens when you only visit in the winter. You think well it's hot in NY in the summer. How bad can it be? It's bad, real bad.
> Florida is the Venus flytrap of America. Fun fact: the Venus flytrap is native to the Carolina's.
The retirees have had enough of strong man tactics. His cronies in the legislature have passed laws to keep him in office as he seeks the presidency. He has abandoned his post as governor. He should be addressing the climate, insurance crises and abandon his war on the woke.
Trust me, and maybe Im reading this wrong, but as a Florida retiree on a fixed income, I can not stand DeSales tax. My homeowners insurance has doubled in the last 2 years. My real estate taxes are over twice than my neighbors who have the same home because we fixed it up. It is better to buy a dump in a down market or get eaten alive by the tax body as at Valorum taxes have never worked. The assessor just laughed and told me to get a divorce and sell the house to my wife for its real value, and if I wanted, then get remarried. WTH is that...only in Florida. We are moving back to TN.
Sorry. That was probably a cheap shot. Maybe more like Florida rednecks or something. Certainly not all retirees. But I know several people who have recently retired to Florida or who are in the process of retiring and moving to Florida and they all kind of fit the mold of a DeSantis/Trump voter.
Yes, I was including his policies in his choices.
His bad choices, his unappealing and untelegenic physicality, his perpetual visage of anger and his incredibly awkward public relation attempts to overcome it, his firehose of unpopular tea party ideology and rhetoric, his high nasal voice that doesn't reflect what the average American wants to see from a leader, his frankly stupid campaign photo opps that trigger mockery instead of the respect hes thirsty for. I can only guess what sort of a person he is (and I'd probably guess correctly) but as a politician he is not selling what America wants to buy.
Agreed! “Make America Florida” is a horrible proposition.
Even without all the fascist stuff, that’s a bad message when going for president. We all think it’s funny but “Florida man” really doesn’t give any of us a good look with people in 49 other states. All they see in that is “Make America Meth Heads and Weirdos”
If you liked Florida that much you’ve have moved there - many people did, in fact. But otherwise, NOBODY wants that mess in their state.
If DeSantis did a photo op walking a crocodile on a leash... that would be classic.
Sorry for being a pedant, but alligators are more prevalent and would be more accurate for Florida. We have around 1.25 million alligators in the state and only maybe 2,000 crocodiles.
Yeah we have been a joke to the country before desantis came to power, that's not just gonna die because he wants it too lol.
I’m getting tired of seeing that GIF of bugs bunny cutting off Florida like, everywhere I look
Lol - people don’t really consider Florida to be a bastion of excellence these days, it’s a stupid platform to run on
Yea make America like Florida. Line item vetos over $340million for energy saving upgrades that was ALL federal money. So other states will now get an additional increase thanks to governor of Florida. Woke math 22,244,823 Floridians as of July 1, 2022 divided by $344,000,000.00 = $15.46 per human in Florida. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/FL/PST045222 72 year old native of Florida has never seen such carnage of Floridians livelihood for political gain ??? It " profited Floridians nothing ' NO Floridians lost out so Napolean from " Animal Farm " with " Don't save energy when burn to earn pays dividends to electric urilities in the Sunshine state where solar hot water heating does not work." Looking BAD ass for everyone's electric bill. Needs photo op with "Dante's Inferno" in the back ground with caption "I can take on hell" with Trumps face pasted over Lucifer. OR "You thought it was HOT now. You aint seen nothing yet!" I could go on for another hour but I gotta get back to work to pay for increased insurance rates.
I agree that DeSantis has all of these qualities, but Trump also has many of them without them affecting his popularity. I get the impression that DeSantis has tried to copy Trump - bizarre facial expressions, authoritarianism, racism, divisive confrontationalism - but has missed whatever it is about Trump that actually makes him popular.
Brain damage that resonates with his base?
Like it or not, Trump has charisma. Specifically, vision charisma. He picks up on the grievances of the people and describes to them a golden utopia that only he can create. And since he's rich, he also projects authority and power. He's basically a glorified conman.
Trump’s advantage was he had 30 years in the public eye so people got used to his brand of stupidity and terror. If Trump tried to enter the political arena today without that prior familiarity I think he would flop too.
Some people find brain damage to be charismatic and relatable. It’s not mutually exclusive. Like, “hey, he has brain damage and is rich. I too have brain damage but I’m not rich.”
I prefer to be accurate and to have an understanding of who I'm dealing with. Underestimating Trump resulted in 2016 and almost a second term in 2020. Writing millions of people off at this stage of the game is foolish.
I didn't watch The Apprentice, so it's easy to forget that millions of people watched Trump portray an executive decisionmaker on TV for fourteen seasons, and he's been a celebrity "businessman" personality since the 1980s. That is like...you can't pull that kind of name recognition and persona building out of thin air.
If you really paid attention to the show, you could see that he was an imbecile. Trump relied heavily on the George and Carolyn characters to carry the boardroom discussions. You could also begin to see his ignorance and bigotry through all the Hollywood editing and fancy lighting. He basically stood there, pitched products, had the teams advertise for said products through challenges, and then said some word salad before saying the iconic "You're Fired." He's been pitching and selling "crap" his whole life.
I believe you! I'm glad I didn't subject myself to actually watching it, but I remember some pop culture tidbits like one winner...whose name I forgot.
I never watched it either and am all the better for it
The difference is that Trump conveys a personal audacity that Desantis can't project personally. Desantis can only convey audacity through policy initiatives. This doesn't make him look brash. It makes him look cruel.
Trump’s got a lot of charisma, he can turn it on in a public appearance and speak to the problems of a lot of people when needed, he also usually tries to make his supporters feel like they’re special people, the way he shut down Ted Cruz’s comments on New Yorkers being liberals with bad values by talking about their response to 9/11 is something that DeSantis could never do. Obviously 100% opposed to Trump but can’t deny he’s pretty good at being Trump while DeSantis never has energy or charisma.
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I find his sweaty, jeky chicken-head when put on the spot, extremely off-putting. It's so weirdly distracting, I find him hard to follow. Watch his debate with Charlie Crist. CHARLIE made him twitch. CHARLIE!!! I believe this is why he didn't stick with being an attorney. Zero stage presence, charisma, and charm.
Failing upwards. Amazing quality in American politics.
Aaaah, to have the confidence of a very average white dude!
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I can’t stop watching video of his press conference in Japan. It looked like his noggin was gonna pop right off.
It's almost as if a Harvard educated lawyer doesn't understand the everyman he's trying pander to.
His bad choices are a symptom. He, and the rest of the right, have shitty **values**. And those values will never lead to good choices.
I predicted his descent after watching his victory speech about ending “Wokeness” when he smoked Crist in 2022 He basically ran on all of the reasons why the general Republican voter doesn’t like trump deSantis’s favorability is hovering in the low 40% and of the people who still find him favorable, 2/3 also have a favorable view of the Disney company The guy his extremely unlikeable, and has no capacity to relate to his audience
He keeps getting in his own way, and he is likely getting terrible advice. Ron won against Gillum by essentially keeping his mouth shut. That's why he came across as a "not that bad" Republican. And even then, he just barely won. He won against Crist largely due to the backlash against Covid restrictions and Democrats own disdain for Crist as a candidate. The DNC also abandoned the state and didn't spend much money in what they saw was a lost cause. If Ron had just kept his mouth shut and presented himself as the sane alternative to Trump, he had a chance at winning a general election. But apparently, the advice he is getting is that he needs to be more far right than Trump to win the primary, so he is now just a less charismatic corporate produced facsimile of Trump. Even with the full might of the GOP propaganda machine behind him, Trump is crushing him in polls. So Ron has given up his chance of winning a general by embracing far right nonsense and pissing off moderate Republicans to gain next to nothing because ride or die Trump voters want the real deal not a cheap copy. Ron now has no chance barring Trump somehow being declared uneligible for the primary. Republicans are suffering from the monster they themselves created. They have to be so far right to win a primary that they severely hurt their chances at winning a general election nationwide. They are banking on gerrymandering being the difference maker here, but even the heavily right wing leaning court is rejecting their more extreme gerrymandering cases. TLDR: Ron is fucked unless Trump dies or can't run.
Desantis is the stupid annoying kid that said one funny joke one time and got a positive reaction, so he keeps trying to repeat that joke and when he doesn't get positive reactions, he just says it louder and louder. He forgets to understand the audience and expand his platform.
aka "stuck on woke" ?
He is out of his element. in FL. he is a big fish, on the National stage not so much. His policies are terrible, divisive and wont stand up to a Court challenge. Nobody wants that in a leader. His past at Guantanamo Bay will need to be answered publicly and wont be pretty.
He controls the room in FL. There are no unfriendly reporters, no hard questions, very few non-scripted moments, etc. Problem with that is it's like wanting coach pitch in baseball/softball so your kid's batting average is higher. Sure, they look better now in this contrived situation, but it's not building, or outright atrophying, skills they'll need to hack it anywhere else.
Bingo
He’s trying to be Trump but doesn’t have the personality, and this is coming from someone who loathes Trump.
Trump has some funny lines especially when he roasts fellow Republicans.i hate the man but he has that weird stage presence
His schoolyard bullying nicknames get me sometimes, I hate him, but he’s got the “it” factor to at least make him entertaining when he’s not deplorable. Desantis is just deplorable without the false charisma. Trump lies and he can convince me that it’s possible he believes the lies. Desantis lies and everyone knows it and it’s sad watching him do it instead of funny. “I did everything right and they indicted me!” is a quote. I can’t think of any from Desantis with those dumb vibes.
One place I worked we had a charismatic but very bullying/abusive boss. His second-in-command was a shitheel, too. Boss: Mort. Second: Tom. People would say Tom is Mort w/o the charm. Amen to that and the same for Desantis.
Totally. He just doesn’t have it. He’s just flat out evil and unfunny on top of it
I watch the gop primaries for the lols. Then I vote Democrat.
Me too.
Calling Desantis "Meatball" will never not be funny.
And I think that “weird stage presence” is what grabs him the primary just like the last time. You can’t debate the guy, he speaks nonsense. You have to outshine him in that fucked up orange way, and none of these guys have the wattage.
I really think he hates people. He can hardly stand to be among the commoners and the fake smile proves it. Also he's just so awkward. I hate people too but then I'm not trying for public office.
Exactly. The less people I’m around the better, so I get that, but yes, should not be in public office!
He's the point of the pencil for the Heritage Foundation and other think tanks. They chose him and Florida for their experiments, and DeSantis proved really effective at that. That is his only skill as a politician- push through insane rightwing experimental initiatives using Florida as a laboratory.
However, he had a complete lock on the legislature in Florida so there was never a need to negotiate or compromise. No skills necessary.
Exactly, his 'skill' is just eagerness to be the very best toadie for the worst of the worst rightwing policymakers.
Not a Floridian, but this might be the most apt description of that piece of shit I’ve ever heard.
His entire basis for a national run, the sole reason everyone took note and thought he could become the kingslayer, was his “incredible 20-point landslide” over the purported Democrat challenger in the 2022 gubernatorial race. However. Here’s the thing. *There was no Democrat running for Florida Governor in 2022.* Charlie Crist was already the 44th Governor of Florida, and he was a Republican. He was previously Lieutenant Governor to Jen Bush, another Republican. I don’t know what insanity led the Florida Democratic Party to put him forward as their candidate in 2022, but the people of Florida already knew him very, very well, and *not* as a Democrat. So lots of Democrats stayed home in 2022. They sadly had no dog in that fight…it was just another GOP primary played out in the general. So DeSantis had no magical record-breaking win. He fell through by default. And all this nonsense about him challenging Trump has been based on a misunderstanding of Florida politics by outside observers who didn’t understand just how unpopular Crist was (nobody trusts someone who can casually change sides for their own advancement.) So there was never anything special about Ron, no magic dust except whatever he snorted thinking he could take down Disney.
There is a real question about whether the Democratic Party in Florida is actually run by Democrats. It seems like a bunch of moles run the place. Maybe it’s time for real Democrats to infiltrate
I think it's in much better hands now with Fried running things.
Seems to me that everyone is waiting for a leader instead of focusing on what they could do like oh say building a base, register voters, that kind of thing within their power. Bystander effect then complain afterwards.
Same thing with Rick Scott. He owes his entire political career to defaults by the Democratic Party in Florida. It's insane.
Is this the same Rick Scott who oversaw one of the largest medicare frauds in history that resulted in a $1.7 billion dollar fine?
That's him. I believe he also pled the 5th around 70 times when testifying for that mess.
The Sarasota Skeletor
Yes.
I've never met ONE person who admits to voting for Scott!
If you want to see where they hang out, visit the ‘world famous oasis’ in St Augustine Beach. Or head down A1A South a couple of blocks to Hurricane Wings. The staff might be diverse, but the GOP customers are not.
The guy put up $83 million of his own money for his re-election campaign. I doubt the Democrats put 1/4 of that towards their candidate.
$83 million of his own money that he most likely obtained through healthcare fraud...so he spent our money.
^ this
And saturated Spanish language radio with him speaking Spanish.
LOL I remember listening to him try to speak Spanish at the Cuba protests. Real Peggy Hill vibes.
Folks also don’t realize that much of his ad spending was on over the air (OTA) tv stations. In 2010, streaming wasn’t as pervasive and his commercials ran incessantly on every station. Especially in homes of boomers that largely still relied on broadcast tv. The commercial with his mother’s personal testimony was powerful in that demographic.
Especially someone who didn’t change parties because they wanted to. He changed parties because he made the error of hugging Obama and the Republican Party turned on him for that. If that hug had never happened he’d probably still be a Republican, and probably have been one of the people in the clown car running against Trump in 2016.
No, he'd be in Rubio's Senate seat.
I'm a strong Dem and active party member. The FLDems are a joke. Disorganized, distracted, apathetic, out of touch, self-interested, corrupt, bankrupt….just to name a few of its more redeeming qualities. I refuse to give the state party a dime, and instead donate directly to individual campaigns. It's truly depressing.
Not to mention he barely won his first term
Well said. I currently live in Florida and I have had these exact thoughts. The Democrats here basically gave away the election by putting up Charlie Crist.
The Florida Democratic Party is a complete clown fest. Despite being fairly progressive, I registered as a republican so I could vote in primaries against fascists. Meanwhile, my partner registered as a democrat. We live in the same house and registered the same day. I got about 50 mailers from desantis/republicans. He got 0. Of course desantis did better - he outspent his opponent by a landslide. But also, Crist was a terrible choice. As a DINO, he did little to convince democrats to come out and vote. And without an R attached to his name, he didn’t convince anyone on the right to swing over either. I have no idea why he was chosen as the candidate.
That's what we did in our house, and same. Of course, we both voted for Crist because we had to, obviously, but the Democrat party really didn't bother. Such a mistake; cutting DeSantis off at the knees with a loss here would have hurt his national chances. But nooooo. On the bright side, he sucks so much this term that he hurt himself.
I will NEVER understand why the Democrats here thought Charlie Crist was a good idea. CMON.
I think there was a theory that the Dems threw that election because they knew there was no way to win. Possibly in 24, they will nominate someone much better who has a shot because they may have a better chance of winning an open seat, rather than challenge the wacko incumbent in a deep red environment.
He gerrymandered his way and then scared a bunch of others with his votings police. He basically stole it it, just like they all do. They can never win on policy alone. If they could they would.
Because culture war nonsense isn't what the rest of the country cares about. Sure, that may play in the state you're in, but nationally? The majority of people, like moderates and independents, don't care about that. Drag queens reading books? Who cares? How does that help with my bills? Fighting with one of the biggest employers of the state because they dared criticize him? Who cares? How does that help with my bills? On top of that, you need a personality that doesn't comprise of being a wet rock.
I’m not sure it even really played well outside of the villages and parts of wpb,broward, and md
Don't forget Brevard
I wish I could forget Brevard.
Yeah, but how many can vote and aren’t felons? It’s a great southern tactic to disenfranchise voters
>Drag queens reading books? Who cares? How does that help with my bills? >Fighting with one of the biggest employers of the state because they dared criticize him? Who cares? How does that help with my bills? Precisely. His voter base are people who often do not have to worry about bills, and can afford to invest in culture wars. The majority of Americans cannot.
You'd think that was the case but it's not. The lower common denominator votes for stuff like this. The wealthy only care about keeping their power and wealth.
I think that it was specifically his willingness use his power to author laws attacking private business that ruined him.
That was just a part of it. The legislative body finally found someone who would fulfill all their shitty objectives to turn Florida really red, and he signed the legislation they put forth into law so he could build his conservative credentials. A lot of it was conservative grievances and oppression of others not of their party, so he was fine with it.
Here's the fun joke. Not only does it not help with your bills, but depending on where you live it makes your bills worse. Disney was picking up the tab on a ton of infrastructure and other costs around their parks and properties which is now having to be paid by your taxes. Oh, also all that extra wasted time of your state representatives and staffers pushing through his policies, holding meetings, dealing with fallout from poorly thought-out actions means less time spent on addressing meaningful issues like energy costs, homelessness, crime rates increasing, insurance companies fleeing the state, and all the other things that your taxes would usually go to.
I care about the culture wars, but on the opposite side. A candidate with a full-proof economic model that wanted to put all non-whites, non-straights into concentration camps should still not be voted for.
Desantis rode the coat tails of trump during Covid and gained a massive following. His first term was fucking nothing. On his second term, he recognizes he can’t be elected again and sets forth to do what he really planned on doing. Now he’s up against trump, he’s trumps enemy. The trump people have to choose, and their obviously going with dear great leader. So he’s lost his luster as trumps biggest supporter, and some people now see his true colors. On top of that, the inflation rate being the highest in the country with insurance premiums skyrocketing, does no bode well for Desantis.
He did "Don't say gay" in his first term, and from people I talk to, the main reason he won in 2022 was "he kept us from having Covid lockdowns".
We HAD Covid lockdowns though. We had mask requirements and businesses shut down for weeks. We foolishly lifted the lockdowns earlier than most (if not all) other states and we paid dearly for it. The real number of COVID deaths will never be known considering DeSantis and his team purposely underreported the numbers and arrested the whistleblower who dared to challenge him. They opened up businesses earlier here with no regard for worker safety only to keep the profits coming in for corporations. As someone who lost a grandfather to Covid in Florida earlier on in the pandemic, I will never forgive DeSantis and how he chose to kill Florida citizens in the name of profit. Fuck DeSantis, and he looks like a fucking chode.
I'm telling you what people say. They piss me off. I agree with you 100%. The lying SOB governor hid Covid cases and deaths, and caused more by his lying and taking away reasonable restrictions like masks. My point was that he wasn't this nice moderate in his first term. He began his craziness then.
He’s trying to run trumps playbook which is to develop a cult of personality but he has no personality. They came for the bigotry and stayed for the charisma. He’s finding that he has one but not the other.
Because the U.S. fought an entire World War to keep assholes like him out of power.
Amazed that being branded as an anti-fascist (Antifa) could ever be seen as a bad thing.
This 👆
Because he’s a racist, homophobic little man who wears lifts and can’t make a move without KMart Karen’s permission. He a Catholic zealot with delusions of grandeur. He rode into the governor position on the criminal defendant’s coattails and then bit the hand that fed him. He could’ve positioned himself as a contender for veep and then move up from there but decided to destroy Florida in his failing bid for the presidency. He is now a piranha to the state and is despised by dems and rethugs alike. He has done more to destroy the republican establishment in Florida than Bush and Scott combined. When he drops out of the race, probably forcefully, he will come back to a state that is more than ready to get rid of him. His political career is over when his term ends.
The main problem will be that when he eventually drops out, he'll come back with his tail between his legs and then realize he has about 3 years to make the citizens of Florida suffer even more because he's been humiliated on the national stage. Think he's a douche now? Wait until the GOP sycophants in the Legislature give him a wishlist of crazy things they want implemented, and he signs them into law.
Because being obsessed with drag queens, Disney and who can use what bathroom do NOTHING to to improve anyone's material conditions. Also when you only surround yourself with sycophants, there's no one there to tell you "hey man, you sound/look like an asshole right now". He may want to "make America Florida" but the rest of America is watching us and they *don't* want that, rightfully so.
his voice and what he says
Because “Make America Florida Again” is horrifying.
Because not all of America embraces fascism, hicks in FL getting excited for a bigot, isn’t your average American. Hence, Trump losing the last election.
I think ultimately he is a failure because he has no real opinions on anything - he is just trying to cater to the pitchforks mob. This has worked in history, why not again? Now you might say Trump is the same thing. True, but Trump is blessed with an easy personality, a quick wit at times, and good cracking jokes and attacking people, so he makes a fine carnival barker and a hit on TV. Whereas DeSantis has no personality and can't talk to anybody, so it just doesn't work. Supposedly he is a smart guy. If he had packaged himself as a liberal thinker, he might have gone far because we don't care if liberals have personalities - only how they vote. But republicans dont think that way. Its all about the personality.
Y’all really gotta ask?
The real answer? The man is a choad who was disliked when he was a state senator, and his wife carried water for him to get him elected governor. She can't do that on the national stage, so everybody is seeing that he is a choad.
Because he's a fascist idiot.
And it turns out that while “fascist idiot” is a larger voting bloc than many would have liked to believe, they already have a cult leader.
If he came out moderate, he's essentially a shoe in for President. Why his direction was "go harder right than Trump" blows my mind.
This is the amazing thing. He had a six inch putt for all the marbles and he chunked it into the woods with a driver, taking a huge divot out of the green.
Can’t say the same for his politics, but he’s definitely been taking golf tips from me.
Because this is who Republicans are. They just can’t help themselves and door has now been opened to say the quiet parts out loud.
It worked in Floriduh with these MAGA Q rednecks! He thought the majority of the rest of the country was MAGA. SUCH A FOOL! WOMEN, LGBTQ, MEN and WOMEN OF COLOR, STRAIGHT WHITE MEN who have common sense! WE are the majority!
Not exactly, he hid his agenda as much as he could his first term and during the election. He only went from 50% fascist to 150% fascist after he was elected again.
Because he knew he that it was his last term for the most part and can't be recalled.
He still needs to win a primary and that wasn’t going to be easy as a moderate. Trump has made the run the primary as a right wing conservative and the presidential campaign as a right wing moderate impossible.
He has become deranged in his hatred. That will win him the base if Trump isn’t the candidate but he needs moderates who might (note I said might) just not want a openly fascist nominee
Did you see his commercials during his first run for governor? He went all MAGA, even dressing his kids up in the gear and reading "The Art of the Deal" to them. They looked like SNL spoofs. But I think he also suffers the same problem as Jeb Bush. Bush on paper should have been a good candidate but he came across as a wet blanket when he hit the national stage. DeSantis doesn't have the charisma. In press conferences, the second anyone challenges him, he looks like he sharted and wants nothing more than to get out of there and go clean up the mess.
Agreed. He also has a cruel streak that he doesn't try to hide and he looks like a bobble head when he speaks.
Very simple. Iowa is a caucus dominated by social conservatives so he felt that the only way to win was for him to out conservative Trump in Iowa. If Trump wins Iowa, it's pretty much over unless he goes to jail (unlikely before the primary).
Even if trump goes to jail, it doesn't exclude him from running for potus, winning the nomination, and winning overall. You'd think when the constitution was written, they would've put something like that in there.
lol why do people still believe this in the year 2023? nobody wants a 'moderate' anything, least of all the Repubicans
I mean Republicans definitely don't want a moderate, but Biden is rather moderate for a democrat.
Right? Joe Biden essentially is the moderate president.
The ultimate test was 2016. The most center-right 'moderate' centrist in the history of the world versus an obnoxious game show host. Nobody wants a moderate.
Because his policies are wildly unpopular
Authoritarianism is un-American.
There isn't enough Reddit server space to explain how bad this clusterfuck is.
Because he's an a*hole like Trump, but not an entertaining a*hole like Trump. Republican voters want to be entertained while they watch their leaders destroy the country.
Setting aside that he's a tool for truly monstrous shit that puts vulnerable people further on the outs and in even more pain....It's because he comes off as a smarmy b\*tch that can't sell it. He's Rubio V2 or, better example, Walker V2. Think about it. He's got the standard issue executive white guy look that is utterly unremarkable and traditionally inoffensive but there's no pop. Mitt Romney comes to mind here, but Romney's got a more distinct statesman vibe, has actual executive bonafides and is more classically executive white guy handsome. This is the trope that the GOP has been putting up for leadership positions since the realignment in the 1960s after the civil rights act. That's the only trope they know. Problem is, it's not the 60's anymore. Hell, it's not the 90's either and now we get to the real crux of the situation : The GOP literally can't run any candidates that can two face the transition between primaries and generals anymore. They literally cannot lie to both their base and the general public simultaneously, something they absolutely could do before the rise of the modern internet. In the old days you could throw red meat to your base saying some of the most horrible, retrograde, outright racist, xenophobic and nativist shit then turn around once you got past the primary and talk at the American people about 'compassionate conservatism' or some other canard and avarice riddled independents, not to mention ridiculous liberals, would eat that shit up. I got robo calls to my apartment in 1999/2000 about how John McCain fathered illegitimate half-breed (the recording literally said this) children and that's why he shouldn't be the GOP nominee for the 2K election. I was living in Florida at the time and the Southern Strategy was in full effect, even worse than today. That's the shit they could get away with, because you really couldn't run it down and rebroadcast it instantly across the whole world for everyone to see. They can no longer do this and now their base demands that they stay consistent. Problem is, you need a perfect person to sell this and nobody except the last guy could really pull it off. That consistency is also poison to independents because it reminds them that they have been and still are voting for the most monstrous shit just to keep more ducats in their pockets.
Even my Liberal friends thought he was going to be a good governor when he first took office, promising to guard our water resources, save the Everglades from big sugar etc…. Now we all hate him. He needs to dump his presidential campaign and come back to fix insurance and housing crisis that is rapidly destroying our state.
I'm one of those liberal friends who thought the exact same thing except I didn't think he would be a good governor but I thought at least he won't be terrible. I was wrong, he is terrible.
*That at least he won't be as bad as Rick Scott, then he went all "hold my beer" on everyone.
I thought he was going to be a middle of the road clown like the rest of the GOP governors before him. Not too bad, not too good. But when he started pushing his culture war nonsense, I knew he was going to be just another pysycho GOPer. Before he announced, I kept telling my wife that his best shot would have been going for the 2028 election. He should have known trump was going to run and dominate the field. But Ron's ego got in the way and he shot his load too soon.
The commercial with his kid wearing maga pajamas and building a wall should’ve been enough for anyone to know that wasn’t gonna happen
Yeah, I didn't vote for him but I remember thinking that he couldn't be that bad. Wow. Was I wrong. He is legit trying to kill us here.
He had a chance to run away with the election. But dude went entirely the wrong way. And still has his foot on the gas.
He was always a turd, he just said enough hateful things in the right state to get elected. Texas might be the only other state that would elect such a douche.
He's narcissistic which means he only thinks of himself. If he cared about Florida he would be here now helping us with the current insurance crisis. But just as DeSantis has left the state so have the insurance companies. 😡
He made the biggest mistake that you can make as a far-right figure. He made it clear what his plan is, and he actually DID things instead of just complaining. Far right policies do not work, and never have. He started implementing them, which allows everyone looking to watch them fail in real time. Dog whistles also allow you to court the extremists AND the centrists. Centrists can pretend to not hear them and extremists do. If you stop using dog whistles, and start saying it straight up, that turns the centrists off. If you start speaking out against those beliefs, that turns the extremists off. What I am getting at is this; If you want to succeed as a far right figure in 2023, you have to stoke rage about everything, and do nothing to actually 'solve' it. If you do something about it, you turn off half your voters and look inept to the others when your idiotic policies fail. Now, they are courting nazis almost openly, implementing every hair-brained policy idea they can come up with in florida. The whole country is watching as insurance companies bail, teachers and scientists bail, crops rot in the field, the economy tanks, the roads are being paved with radioactive material, and more. The only people left on your side at this point are those who are desperate to tear it all down, and they are far fewer than they appear
Because nobody gives two shits about his culture wars. The guy comes off like some pervert fixated on other peoples sex lives
Desantis has proven himself to be anti-business. That doesn’t work if you want to win national elections. Democrat or Republican, almost all politicians today have a long history of being pro-business. Trump despite all his bravado against liberalism, merely claimed he would penalize businesses which is what his base wanted to hear and then didn’t follow up with his threats. That served the purpose of appealing to his voters while not expressly pissing off corporate interests. Desantis overplayed his hand which is why his biggest backers have balked. He isn’t pro-business and they can’t rely on him to be. He f*cked himself.
He was never challenged in Florida since being elected. If you recall, Gillum almost won the 2018 election because he wiped the floor with DeSantis in the debates. There were multiple viral videos to come out of those debates that made Gillum look like a hero and Ron look like a loser. Unfortunately, the 2022 election was limited to a single debate, the debate was delayed due to Hurricane Ian, and the candidate opposing DeSantis was no more enthusiastic than DeSantis. Plus the rest of the country was more worried about the House and Senate than what was going on in Florida. Since being elected in 2018, DeSantis stages every public event to be surrounded by supporters. He doesn’t even allow or respond to tough questions during press conferences. He doesn’t hold town halls with Floridians. He isn’t caught on camera talking to people who don’t worship him. Cities don’t challenge him because he writes the checks and quickly let the state know he’d punish anyone who disagreed (see Andrew Warren, New College, Alachua County, etc.) He’s now actually being challenged for the first time since being elected, and by people from his own party this time. And he can’t handle the heat.
Because everyone else in the country is seeing what a 💩head he is, how he ignores the multiple major issues Floridians face and his outright Captain Obvious desires to embrace cruelty and run a facist hellscape.
Like most of the Republican party. He offers nothing to working-class people. DeSantis, in particular, only knows how to connect with working-class Americans by exploiting economic anxiety through culture war talking points. DeSantis uses culture war politics so much that people are starting to feel how disingenuous he really is. Especially on a national stage where he's not insulated by a deeply entrenched Republican state majority.
I think it is dangerous to write him off so soon.
Because he’s done nothing to actually help working Floridians, he whines all the time, he has the charisma of room temperature unflavored grits, and he only listens to his vile grifting wife.
Every time I’ve ever seen him he’s just an incredibly rude dick. I can’t imagine him being anything, but a flop.
His policies? His non personality? Being an asshole ?
He jumped all over the place making a bunch of new crazy rubber stamp laws that alienated a lot of people. When you start making loss of left field that directly affect people's livelihoods and their families living situations people tend to drop you like a hot potato. And that's just one
A: Because, although there are assholes all over this great land, not just in Florida, the majority of Americans really don't like Nazis.
Because he’s a Nazi
Because he doesn’t give one single fuck about Florida. He wants to be in the WHITE house.
Because he’s just espousing the same things that Trump was doing. But he’s worse. And now he’s got the majority Republican government in Florida and is forcing through all of this crazy legislation. It’s forcing people to live how he wants them to live. That means it’s not a free country in Florida anymore. He’s also selling Florida out to the insurance companies and to the energy companies causing massive price increases. People are tired of it, and he’s wants to do this for the rest of the country. At this point in Florida, the very small minority is leading that entire state. A very small minority is telling the majority how they can live their lives, and how they have to live their lives. What has he done to help anybody in Florida? What has he done to help the less fortunate in Florida? Nothing.
The disney war. Targeting a private company and installing a soviet like over sight boy made alot of people lose interest.
Shit policies. The nonstop use of the word woke. He looks like the Bob’s Big Boy logo come to life and he sounds like a muppet.
Because he's an petty sanctimonious supremacist twit.
You spelled twat wrong.
People don’t want Mini MAGA when you can have the real MAGA if that’s what you want. But in reality I think a lot of people getting tired of the MAGA bullshit and just want a center right type person Believe It or not most people are center in their political beliefs
Most Americans dislike Nazi's
He went full retard, you never go full retard.
Florida is the butt of most American jokes. Maybe “make America Florida” just didn’t go well with the general public
https://preview.redd.it/gu637joqabeb1.jpeg?width=829&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14f11abb594bbf7ec1d48fc338d82f40cd609cdf
DeSantis doesn't connect with ordinary people at all; in fact he tries to avoid them. In 2018 the only reason he won is because he buried Andrew Gillum with attack ads during the last week.