By Becket Adams
Sunday, March 19, 2023
One of the funnier quirks of the Trump era is how closely the former president and his critics in the press mirror one another. From indulging in absolute gutter rhetoric to embracing rank illiberalism to promoting unhinged conspiracy theories, Trump and his press critics tend to have more in common than not.
And right now, Trump and his media counterparts agree (albeit for slightly different reasons): Ron DeSantis is the worst.
Amusingly enough, the shared animosity for Florida’s Republican governor has become increasingly deranged in proportion to DeSantis’s growing popularity with the conservative base. Curious! Another especially amusing aspect of the press’s growing anti-DeSantis chorus is this simple fact: They are trying in earnest — in the Year of Our Lord 2023 — to convince the public that the Florida executive poses a greater threat to our core democracy than even Trump does. Yes, the same people who spent four years trying to convince you that Trump posed a unique, once-in-a-lifetime threat to the republic are trying now to convince you that an even greater threat to the republic is now upon us. Just ignore the part where they do this bit every four years. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that Mitt Romney, the sweetest, most wholesome presidential candidate you ever saw, was out there being accused of manslaughtering a woman diagnosed with cancer.
“Believe It: A DeSantis Presidency Could Be Even Worse Than Trump,” warns the New Republic. “DeSantis fully intends to remake America the way he believes God would want it to be, and his knowledge of law and governmental structure allows him to do it on a scale, and with a precision, that Trump could only dream about.”
Elsewhere, Vanity Fair warns that DeSantis should not be “covered like just another Republican.”
“There’s a fair bit of evidence to suggest DeSantis is as dangerous as Trump — if not more,” the story claims.
It continues, alleging the governor is a “wannabe autocrat,” that “he’s already governed the Sunshine State like a banana republic,” and, for good measure, suggests he is “the Genghis Khan of social issues, using every opportunity to target and demonize groups that have already been targeted and demonized throughout history.”
Genghis Khan: A man infamous for targeting and demonizing marginalized groups, such as the Jin Empire.
Trump is clearly terrified that DeSantis will beat him in the 2024 GOP primary. Call it a matter of personal pride. Members of the press are likewise terrified DeSantis will defeat Trump, not least of all because Donald Trump is a guaranteed ratings and subscription gold mine. Oh, come on, don’t feign ignorance or indignation. Everyone knows former CBS chief executive officer Les Moonves said the quiet part out loud in 2015 when he enthused about Trump’s political ascendancy, the 2016 GOP primary, and all the associated campaign spending: “The more they spend, the better it is for us. And go Donald! Keep getting out there! Let them spend money on us, and we love having them in there.”
But there is also a nonfinancial reason some in the media are sounding the alarm over DeSantis: It’s called force of habit. The governor may be the next president, and, as far as the commentariat is concerned, every new GOP president is worse than the last. It doesn’t matter who the person is, but should he make his way into the White House, he’s Hitler. Or Mussolini. Maybe both. It’s not until the Republican no longer poses a risk as a serious candidate for higher office that the people warning about “threats to our democracy” develop what is commonly known in conservative circles as “strange new respect.”
Which is to say, now that there’s a chance Trump may not, in fact, be the 2024 nominee, some in the press have already moved on to the rehabilitation portion of the post-Trump presidency, but only insofar as it can be used to convince voters that a possible new Republican contender is even worse than the last guy.
“Ron DeSantis Would Kill Democracy Methodically and Slowly,” warns New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait. “Trump poses a greater danger of triggering an immediate constitutional crisis, while DeSantis is more likely to methodically strangle democracy through a series of illiberal Orbanist steps like he has modeled in Florida.”
For what it’s worth, Chait argued this exact position in 2015, claiming Trump would be a safer nominee than Senators Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Chait went on to spend the entire Trump administration peddling Russian-collusion theories, including an exceptionally wild-eyed article arguing that Trump has been acting as a Russian asset since as far back as 1987.
Atlantic contributing editor and columnist Norman Ornstein, when pondering Trump vs. DeSantis, appears to give the governor the slight edge in the “who is worse” category. “It’s like a debate about what’s better — syphilis or gonorrhea,” he said. “Trump and DeSantis are different versions of the same danger.”
“I don’t think [DeSantis] has any deep-seated beliefs about much of anything,” Ornstein added. “He may not be the same level of narcissistic sociopath as Trump but he’s smarter and more subtle. And he has no moral core.”
One MSNBC headline declared: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a far more dangerous politician than Donald Trump.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid has accused DeSantis of being “anti-black.” MSNBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss compared the Florida governor to Benito Mussolini, which is funny considering Beschloss also compared Trump to Mussolini. One would think a professional historian would have a more varied supply of references available, but he was fresh out.
You get the gist. Donald Trump is the greatest threat the republic has ever seen. Actually, no. Wait. It’s Ron DeSantis. You think Trump is bad? Guess again!
If DeSantis does take the White House, it’s a safe bet that, after his moment has come and gone, the greatest threat to our core democracy will be whoever succeeds the governor as the next Republican with major and realistic presidential aspirations. Then we will be told that person is worse than DeSantis. And we’ll keep playing this song until the sun burns out.
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