DeSantis: A less dangerous alternative?
As speculation grows that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will challenge Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, a key question comes to the fore, said Max Boot in The Washington Post: “Which man is a bigger threat to the republic?” As governor, DeSantis has “engaged in one of the most alarming assaults on free speech and academic freedom since the dark days of McCarthyism.” He ran “roughshod over private property rights” by banning businesses from establishing their own mask and vaccine mandates, signed the “Don’t say gay” law stifling public school discussion of gender and sexuality—then punished Disney for criticizing that law by taking away its special taxing district. His Nixon-like actions reveal “a troubling pattern of authoritarianism and vindictiveness that would be extremely dangerous in the Oval Office.” And unlike Trump, DeSantis is disciplined and hardworking—making him an even bigger threat.
Actually, liberals and Never Trumpers should “welcome DeSantis’ rise,” said Rich Lowry in Politico. Yes, he reflects “a new more Trumpian Republican Party,” with a “willingness to use government power in the culture war.” Liberals complain that he’s gone after “woke” state universities, and that he’s redrawn Florida election districts to heavily favor Republicans, and that he’s made ex-felons pay fines and fees before they regain the right to vote. But these “supposed sins are peccadilloes compared with those of Trump,” who tried to overturn an election by setting “a braying mob” against his own vice president. As a traditional conservative who believes in limited government, said David French in The Dispatch,
I cringe at many of DeSantis’ policies. But there’s “a difference between flaws that are normal bad and those that are existential-threat bad.” DeSantis is just normal bad.
You’re underestimating the man, said Jonathan Chait in New York magazine. DeSantis is a “deeply authoritarian figure” who is shrewdly harnessing the “fanatical” populism Trump unleashed. DeSantis has promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, created a bogus election-crimes task force, and openly “courted anti-vaxxers, QAnon believers, and insurrectionists.” On balance, said Tim Miller in The Bulwark, DeSantis probably poses less of “an existential threat” to democracy than the unhinged Trump. But saying so “might be the faintest praise ever uttered in American politics.”