Jon Chait notes that the "appeal" of Ron DeSantis was that he would give Republicans everything they loved about Trump without all the side drama and dysfunction. That has not been the case, as he has run a dysfunctional campaign himself and has crooks and creeps all up in his shit.
The conclusion that Chait leaves unstated is that Trump's dysfunction was largely attributed to his own host of personal foibles. What we are seeing from DeSantis' own dumpster fire is that this dysfunction extends beyond Trump's many personal flaws.
The far right in this country is full of garbage people. They are not fundamentally smart or competent. Many of them are grifters who are simply trying to bilk ignorant cultural warriors of their spare money. Few of the "professionals" in either campaign have real principles; they are there for the lucre. Those that are true believers are largely ignoramuses.
Anyway, the presidential polling is still neck and neck.
Chait also notes that Nikki Haley is the latest on whom the establishment GOP has bequeathed its mantle. I think this sums it up nicely:
The trouble for Haley is that the faction she is rallying is inherently bounded. The Establishment wing is limited not only in size but also by the intense hostility it inspires among the party’s Trumpier voters. She is following a formula that can propel her into consideration for the vice-presidency, or position her to step in if Trump is felled by heart disease, but gives her little chance to actually defeat the party’s reigning cult leader and self-styled president-in-exile. Whatever you might say about the hapless DeSantis candidacy, it is at least built upon a recognition of the actual state of the Trump-era GOP. Haley’s candidacy is less a way of dealing with the party’s problems than an attempt to pretend they don’t exist.
In a sane world, Biden would have a 20 point lead on Trump. In a sane world, he'd be running against Nikki Haley next year.
Guess what kind of world we live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment