The Tragedy of Ron DeSantis
He could have been a moderate Trump. Instead, he’s a less charismatic Ted Cruz.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s memoir threads the impossible needed. Instead of discussing “climate change,” The Courage to Be Free depicts DeSantis campaigning against algae blooms, flooding, and rising home insurance premiums. Miraculously, he wraps this all in red-bait Christian packaging: “I laid down the marker that we would take bold action to restore our waterways,” DeSantis writes. “We had an obligation to leave Florida to God better than we found it.” DeSantis’s magical environmental policy makes him seem like a moderate, smarter, more palpable Trump. Unfortunately, as the debate last night showed, it ends up that he’s a less charismatic version of Ted Cruz.
DeSantis’s memoir came out months ago. Like earlier DeSantis press cycles, the book presented him as a MAGA Republican who might also be able to appeal to moderate, college-educated independents. As a moderate independent myself, I’ve never voted for a Republican for president, but DeSantis seemed like a possibility. He’s no longer a possibility.
DeSantis’s shiver-inducing, awkward conservatism was all over the stage during the debate last night. Take foreign policy. Unlike in his memoir and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he pushed nuanced policies, DeSantis showed the complex thinking of a college freshman. He proposed that you couldn’t spend money on America while helping Ukraine. Sure, we spend a lot on Ukraine–which many millennials, who came of age during the Iraq War, oppose–but sacrificing Ukraine to Russia tells China we’ll let them take Taiwan, which manufactures much of our critical technology. DeSantis’s foreign policy solution isn’t a solution at all.
On top of the substance problems, DeSantis showed huge style issues. When pressed on issues, he awkwardly laughed and shouted, “It’s not true!” He uttered strange one-liners like “Midland over Moscow” about gas. At times, he came across like a Real Housewife, shrieking “Nikki, Nikki, Nikki” in response to Governor Nikki Haley pressing him on fracking.
Subscribe now
Since the previous debate, DeSantis clearly underwent media training. He smiled after he spoke, but there was often a few-second gap between speaking and smiling. As someone who media trains executives, I recognized the recommendations of a media trainer. But I also recognized a candidate incapable of being trained. Attempting easy media techniques made DeSantis look awkward because he was so clearly not a natural speaker. He would be better off being himself.
The problem is that DeSantis himself is his problem. The DeSantis of the page vanished the second he stepped in front of a camera, and COVID-19 and algae blooms appear to be the only issues where DeSantis can commit to nuanced, smart policies. Take abortion. At first, DeSantis pushed a 15-week abortion ban, which fell in line with much public polling on abortion. Then, after anti-abortion policies led to Republicans losing in states far more red than libertine Florida, he signed a six-week abortion ban. The decision led to DeSantis losing both public support and critical donors.
DeSantis is nearly as out of step on LGBTQ issues. Currently, much of the public–including many gay men, lesbians, and trans people–reject giving puberty blockers to minors. They’d like the government to follow the science, which shows the health risks of puberty blockers. Yet many Democrats fail to align themselves with the public because of activists in their party. How does DeSantis react to this environment? He goes as far right as Anita Bryant, pushing homophobic and transphobic policies out of step with most Americans. Although people may reject puberty blockers for tweens, they are overwhelmingly in favor of LGBTQ rights already granted to the queer community.
DeSantis has chosen policies that would be popular if all fifty states were Alabama, but that’s not the country he lives in. Each step of the way, DeSantis goes too far to one extreme, even in popular local policies, such as his Disney war. Although DeSantis’s demolition of Reedy Creek was unpopular with corporate donors and much of the country, it was a massive win in Florida. For years, the state granted Disney so many special treatments, it was essentially lawless. Many Democrats opposed Disney’s status, including DeSantis’s local enemy Carl Hiassen, the Miami Herald columnist who penned a book, Mouse Trap, all about Disney’s overreach in the state. It was a shock to Florida liberals for DeSantis–a Republican, of all people–to take up a sword against Disney. Sure, it was over “wokeness,” but he was getting the job done. Till he wasn’t. DeSantis, once again, went too far, and now he’s stuck in court against some of the highest-paid corporate lawyers in the land. Good luck to the state attorneys.
Since the start of the campaign, DeSantis changed up his team, but ever since he flew from Florida to Iowa, he’s shown that he’s incapable of national public life. A new communications strategist group–no matter how talented–can’t fix someone who wasn’t built for national public life. The tragedy of DeSantis is he isn’t the man that his memoir or controlled Florida press appearances showed him to be. He’s an awkward, backward conservative who has no place stepping into the White House. Thankfully, he lacks the communications or political skills to win even a presidential primary.
