'Govs' off in rave for future of US
AND they’re off! Finally — finally — the real race for the presidency has begun. Ron DeSantis’ announcement on Wednesday, added to Tim Scott’s earlier in the week, means that the race is finally interesting.
Of course, the Florida governor’s critics have spent the last day focusing on a brief technical glitch at the beginning of his Twitter Spaces launch. But they’ve ignored the strength of his launch. What was that strength? It was the fact that here was a candidate who did not just talk in broad strokes about the country but actually got down to details. DeSantis’ time in Congress gave him a great insight into what is wrong at the highest levels in this country. Not least with the administrative state.
His time as governor of Florida has shown him how things can be turned around.
And on issue after issue he got specific. Not something that all the contenders for the office of president are keen to do.
But up until now DeSantis (pictured, near right) has been at a disadvantage. Since it became clear that he was one of the main Republican contenders for president, the leftist blob has been out to get him. They have done hit job after hit job on him.
Faux lefty outrage
Look at all the list of crock stories they have come up with. When Florida made efforts to protect children from inappropriate teaching materials the left claimed that Florida had a “Don’t Say Gay” bill. And how about the “travel advisory” issued earlier this week by the NAACP, which claimed that Florida “is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” For months these groups and their media outriders have been taking these insane potshots at DeSantis.
But they have a problem now. DeSantis can point to actions as well as words.
Because DeSantis does not simply say his critics are mean or nasty. He does not just denounce all this as “fake news.” Like Glenn Youngkin and other successful Republican governors, he has real-world results to point to.
My favorite part of the launch Q+A was when the NAACP “travel advisory” came up. An amused DeSantis noted that the chairman of the NAACP — Leon Russell — happens to live in Florida. So he clearly doesn’t believe his own “travel advisory.”
DeSantis also made the point that if you compare Florida with any number of Democratic-run cities, like Baltimore or Chicago, it’s obscene to even pretend that there is a threat to black Americans in his state.
But DeSantis could also able to point to the positives.
The fact that Florida has more black-owned businesses than any other state in the nation. The fact that more African Americans lead state agencies in DeSantis’ Florida than at any earlier time in the state’s history. And they got there by merit.
Then crucially on education. The fact that the state ranks third in the whole country in fourthgrade reading and second in fourth-grade math among black students. Such facts don’t just run counter to the left’s stories. They blow them apart.
And here it seems to me that there are two options for this country.
What America deserves
It is possible that the 2024 race is going to be a re-run of 2020. Trump is still leading the polls among Republican voters, and Joe Biden looks set to head into his ninth decade as the Democrat candidate.
Personally, even thinking about that race makes me want to lie down in a dark room. Biden will spend the whole time pointing at Trump and saying, “But look at what’s his name.”
Trump, meantime, will keep banging on about the last election being rigged while not having any apparent plan of how he intends to unrig it next time. Does he just plan to lose to Biden again?
It would be so much better for this country if both these candidates got out of the way and America finally had the debate it needs to have. As I have said here before, the Republicans have a good bench full of talent. The Democrats do not. Assuming the Democrats would never be so foolish as to allow Kamala to run for the top job they will have to go a generation down and run someone like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (above right). And there is a race. There is the debate this country needs.
The choice could hardly be clearer. Both Newsom and DeSantis have had an opportunity to run a state. Both can run on their record. We know the success of the Florida model, during COVID, for business in general, and much more.
And Newsom? Well a major city-commissioned survey in San Francisco released this week found that just half of the sidewalks in the city’s commercial areas have feces on them. So there’s that. In Gavin Newsom’s America, you’ve got a roughly 50-50 chance of being in the s--t.
Somewhere in the difference in how these two states have turned out is the debate that’s worth having. A debate about the future of America. When it comes to Florida vs. California, it is also a debate that the Republicans can win.