President 47?
By Caroline Downey
When Donald Trump entered the political arena, he roused the grievances of millions in the American heartland, the Bible belt, and other regions long derided by coastal elitists and armchair academics as “flyover country.” While no textbook conservative, the savvy businessman resonated with many Americans who felt forgotten and forsaken by the Washington establishment elected to serve them. Trump’s message was compelling, and many Americans fell under its spell. However, for all the adoration he garnered, he also received an enormous amount of vitriol. While many on the Left developed a sort of obsession, derangement really, with despising the man from day one, many moderate Republicans had a different dilemma with the GOP nominee. What was their qualm? His demeanor.
While they’re paying the price now for what they thought was a dealbreaker, many Republicans in both 2016 and 2020 couldn’t stomach a vote for Trump because of their distaste for his personality, which they found corrosive, narcissistic, capricious, and provocative. Still, among 16 original contenders, Trump emerged as the clear winner, rallying the masses in a way no former senator could. It begged the question: could there be a successor who could generate that level of enthusiasm? This past year has seen a conservative rising star who marries Trump’s powerful ideas with a refined charisma that doesn’t repel the GOP’s politically-elastic members.
Enter: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
If the presidency is the real performance, the governorship is the dress rehearsal, and DeSantis has wowed on stage month after month. For a Republican 2024 hopeful, his record in Florida is hard to beat. From banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools to prohibiting transgender athletes from unfairly competing in women’s sports, DeSantis has held fast to the conservative line where other Republican governors buckled under pressure.
DeSantis won these victories for Florida with fortitude, conviction, and determination, and without brashness, theatrics, or spitefulness. An Ivy League graduate and military veteran, DeSantis brings an impressive resume, intellectual prowess, and ability to articulate conservatism with poise and power where Trump sometimes fell short. Much like Trump, DeSantis carries the outsider aura and doesn’t reek of the Washington Swamp. It has been readily apparent to most Republican voters that DeSantis genuinely and deeply cares for his constituents with a refreshing authenticity that only Trump matched.
Mimicking Trump, he’s also taken repeated beatings from the mainstream media in stride. Between accusing him of directing the Florida Department of Health to fudge the state’s COVID data (since debunked), claiming he delayed FEMA aid to the Surfside condo collapse, and even trying to implicate him in the Matt Gaetz sex scandal, the media has been relentless in trying to kill a wildly popular governor’s political career. But each time DeSantis escapes unscathed, with a happy grin to boot. He confronts the hostile press head on, sending them retreating to the enemy camp. Much like Trump, he has never once stopped fighting for the citizens of the Sunshine State, the media be damned.
Though his Democratic opponents may try, they have yet to break Ron DeSantis. With every attack, he seems to grow stronger, following the Trump phenomenon. DeSantis’ legacy with managing the pandemic, when all is recorded in the history books, will be vindicated. Though many alarmist Northeasterners were quick to decry the state of Florida as a no man’s land and COVID cesspool that no one dared to visit, there were many New York license plate sightings on the Florida highways this year. Those same fear mongers and naysayers just had to see what all the hype was about, and shortly after found themselves hunting on Zillow for a South Florida property. After tasting freedom, there was no leaving DeSantisland.
Photo via Tallahassee Magazine
