Republicans and conservatives dismayed at the happenings on Capitol Hill may want to look southward. On January 3, as the race for speaker of the House went to multiple ballots for the first time in a century, Ron DeSantis began his second term as governor of Florida. As I watched the dual proceedings on a split screen, there was no doubt that the Floridians were having a lot more fun than the Washingtonians.
DeSantis’s inaugural address reaffirmed Florida’s centrality in Republican politics and the state’s pivotal role in the future of the GOP. Florida is home to the two leaders in the horserace for the 2024 Republican nomination—Governor DeSantis and former president Donald Trump.
If DeSantis launches a presidential bid, the debate between these two men will frame the early stages of this election cycle. It will reveal where the Republican Party, as well as the country, is headed. Both DeSantis and Trump are conservative populists. The question is what flavor of conservative populism will dominate the GOP in the years to come.
Florida is a fitting base for a Republican comeback. It’s a textbook case of the explosive growth in the Sunbelt since World War II that fueled the American economy and revived the GOP as a majority party. As DeSantis noted in his speech Tuesday, Florida continues to benefit from nationwide in-migration as families, workers, and businesses flee inhospitable climes and living conditions for a friendlier environment.
The culmination of Florida’s political realignment arrived last November. DeSantis followed up on Trump’s single-point margin in 2016 and 3-point margin in 2020 with a 19-point reelection victory of more than a million votes. DeSantis won Hispanic voters and the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County. The success extended across the ballot. No Democrat was elected to statewide office. Republicans picked up four U.S. House seats. Senator Marco Rubio won reelection by 17 points.
“Florida shows that results matter,” DeSantis said. “We lead not by mere words, but by deeds.” DeSantis also emphasized competence. He pointed to the rapid reconstruction—less than three days—of the Pine Island bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian last September.
The implied contrast is with Trump, whose achievements on taxes, deregulation, energy production, foreign policy, Operation Warp Speed, and the judiciary were often obscured by many, many words, and tweets. DeSantis’s reference to infrastructure was telling as well. Trump, of course, promised to build a wall on the southern border. It remains incomplete.
DeSantis mentioned his record of job creation but spent the bulk of his inaugural address discussing cultural issues. He blamed Democrats for embracing a “faddish ideology at the expense of enduring principles.” He declared, “We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy!”
DeSantis went after COVID-era lockdowns and school closures. He made an oblique reference to Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, which prohibits teaching sexual orientation and gender identity to kindergartners through third graders. “We will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence,” DeSantis said. The line drew his largest round of applause.
Trump covered somewhat similar ground in his presidential announcement last November. Unlike DeSantis, he used the word “woke” just once. DeSantis said it four times at his inaugural, including in a line he’s used elsewhere: “Florida is where woke goes to die.”
Most of Trump’s speech last year was a defense of his presidency. Interestingly, he did not mention his creation of an originalist majority on the Supreme Court or the pro-life policies he enacted while in office.
This omission was no accident. Recently Trump got into a spat with the pro-life movement over the role abortion played in the 2022 election. “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the midterms,” Trump posted on Truth Social on New Year’s Day. He blamed the “abortion issue” instead. Abortion undoubtedly played some role in limiting GOP gains in places like Virginia’s suburbs, but Trump did not mention the pro-life stalwarts, such as governors Mike DeWine of Ohio, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Greg Abbott of Texas, and DeSantis, who won huge victories on election night.
Just as he did in the early days of the 2016 campaign, Trump is playing up immigration. He links the border crisis to rising crime and the ongoing epidemic of fentanyl and methamphetamine overdoses. For months, he has been promising to impose the death penalty on drug dealers. On January 5, he released a plan to deploy the U.S. military against Mexican drug cartels. “We will show no mercy to the cartels,” Trump said in a video released online. Tough, visceral talk energizes Trump’s base of support. And it’s geared toward an issue—immigration—that is near the top of Republican minds.
DeSantis faces an immigration challenge of his own. In the past week, hundreds of Cubans and Haitians have arrived in the Florida Keys, overwhelming the humanitarian capacity of frontline communities. Senator Rubio has called on the Department of Homeland Security to respond to the emergency.
Last fall, DeSantis made headlines and earned additional conservative support by arranging for Venezuelan asylum-seekers in Texas to be sent to the liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard. Now the border crisis has come home to Florida. It’s another chance for DeSantis to demonstrate leadership ability and executive competence.
You can be sure that plenty of people will be studying how the governor responds to this latest development. I can think of one DeSantis constituent in West Palm Beach who will be watching closely indeed.
Published under: Donald Trump, Feature, Florida, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Ron DeSantis
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I think both Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump would be a great president for our country, But Donald Trump has an abrasive personality and he doesn’t know when not to say things. Way to many people hate Donald Trump either justifiably or unjustifiably.
Ron DeSantis to me is a better choice, Ron DeSantis has the backbone, demeaner and credibility to lead.
I really like Donald Trump but I think Ron DeSantis would make a better president in 2024.
Now if this GOP can make sure that we have a fair and legit elections without the treasonous Democrats manipulating the elections.
Trumps ego IMO is making him NOT willing to learn from his past mistakes.
SO MY vote is going to destantis.
I like a lot of the things that Donald Trump did as President. But unfortunately for him he doesn’t have a clue of when to keep his mouth shut. So I hope to see Governor DeSantis run in 2024. And I hope that Trump has enough sense to stay home and be quiet.
DeSantis now has the advantage over Trump of not having to spend wasted time justifying the past and can use that precious time to create a better future. Trump’s baggage now clanks, thanks to the malfunctioning media of unfairness, and is heaveir than the Christmas Carol Chains Jacon Marley bore iin death that he forged in life. Trump’s in life were forged by the media. DeSantis had better look to the weak links in his own chain of coming events, because still the ancient foe dost seek to work him woe. Their craft and power are great.
He was the right guy for the time. BUT NOT now.
Trump was the greatest President I ever had for the economy and for foreign policy, but Trump cut his own throat by not doing anything about the “deep state”. Trump let the Departments, that he oversees as President, keep their deep state actors and Trump appointed deep state actors at the FBI (Christopher Wray), Gina Haspel at the CIA, Sessions and Barr at the DOJ. During the Trump administration, Trump’s FBI had Hunter’s computer and Trump’s FBI has / had seized all of Jeffrey Epstein’s records and videos of politicians and CEO’s that were sleeping with underage girls and Trump did nothing to bring charges against the above mentioned, scum / criminal lowlifes. Plus, Trump cut his own throat by allowing the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ, the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the Pentagon to falsely and actively destroy his Presidency. Trump was a fool for not cleaning out these agencies with superstrength drano!!!! Oh, I am the President and I will let people in the deep state cut my throat and chop off my head. “Dumb and Dumber”!!!! Trump destroyed his own Presidency by playing footsie with the deep state, instead of cleaning out this trash. I believe DeSantis would clean out the deep state.
The GOP future is by no means in Florida alone. The Republican Washington House of Representatives and their ability to ferret out the corruption in the high-tech social platforms and media malfeasances before the next elections with full prosecutorial repercussions,,, will be the key to the future of the Republican Party, most importantly securing freedom of speech and freedom o descent without censorship the most important items to be secured. Fail in this and DeSantis will just become another Personal attack victim fit for democrat planned destruction, to defeat and demean in media lies, that which with integrity, fairness and secured reality they cannot accomplish. Sane productive debate of the two candidates seeking the best possible solution will again be proffered by the fearful media talking heads as exercises in party division rather than what we just saw happen in the House Speakership, which is open uncensored discussion leading to workable solutions in compromise via speaking the sometimes ugly truths that set men free. Democrat Hiding and covering up the ugly realities just allows them to live another day, or in the case of the Pelosi’s, Schumer’s and Biden’s,,,another decade or four.
That’s assuming they CAN/WILL do anything about the social media sites.