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I Want to Believe
RDS — in answer to a Democrat Media Operative journalist’s question – explains why he (unlike Glenn Youngkin) will not allow local bureaucrats to impose lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
Florida is protecting the rights of employees and families.
The free state of Florida will stand in the way of bureaucrats who want to take away our jobs and freedom through heavy-handed mandates. pic.twitter.com/Owzn2zMDdZ
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 18, 2021
This is the kind of talk that gives David Brooks the whim-whams. It is in stark contrast to the Authoritarian Bureaucratic Micromanagement that is central to the governing philosophy of the National Ruling Party. (“Keep Parents out of schools!” “Render the Unvaccinated Unemployable!” “Prosecute the Enemies of the Party!”) I wish every Republican spoke like RDS. More importantly, I wish the talk were followed up with action. The remarks were in the context of RDS signing a bill banning vaccine mandates. It’s a stark contrast with the National Controlled Opposition Party’s record of failure theater, betrayal, and collaboration with the Ruling Party.
And therein lies my dilemma. I like what RDS is saying, and the example he is setting. But after so many years of being kicked in the teeth (and lower places) by his party… over and over and over again… I’m not ready to trust him. And I certainly don’t trust the party, or Conservatism, Inc. We saw what they did to Trump. And we saw how many members of Conservatism, Inc., were just grifters who readily abandoned their “principles” when wealthy leftists waved checks in front of them.
It’s hopeful to think RDS is an antidote to the black pill, but important to remember for every DeSantis, there’s at least twenty Youngkins, Hogans, DeWines, Kinzingers, Cheneys, Romneys, and Bushes in the Republican Party. (“But we need a big tent.”) I don’t give a Bill Kristol about your big tent. Winning means nothing to me unless I have more Liberty after a Republican win than I did before.
Published in General
Where are the other Republican governors? Why is DeSantis alone in fighting for the freedoms of citizens?
He was in Brandon, FL. What is likely cheered at their HS football games?
I think skepticism, at the very least, is smart–and he’s my governor. Don’t forget, though, that he’s been in the swamp and if he’s elected, he’s got a pretty good idea of the pressures he’d experience. Thanks for celebrating him!
Edit: Are you skeptical about Youngkin already?
Phil Scott (Vermont) is pushing gun control.
Charlie Baker (Massachusetts) is all-in on climate change.
Larry Hogan (Maryland) is all about the mask and vaccine mandates.
Mike DeWine (Ohio) went all-in on lockdowns and mask mandates; first governor to order schools shutdown.
Yes. See below your comment.
Just getting ahead of the inevitable letdown.
Dave Reaboi: “It’s Nice But It Won’t Be Worth Much.”
Probably the main plus about Youngkin is that he isn’t McAuliffe. Anything else is “gravy.”
I think it is better to keep expectations high and remain vocal. The lower class needs to keep piercing the bubble of their Betters with to let truth and light in.
I’m reasonably happy with DeSantis. I think he handle Covid fairly well. We had an awful summer but there isn’t too much he could do that he hasn’t already done. I actually don’t think he should’ve raised teacher pay but in Florida you ultimately end up paying off the teachers. They are hard to fight. Covid got him to (belatedly) fix our unemployment insurance portal which was good. He’s held plenty of important lines. He can do that in FL. I don’t get asking other governors to govern their state based on twitter though. VA isn’t FL. There is no “we” unless you are that governors’ constituent. It can be nice to point to examples as a matter of general taste but I don’t this for governors.
Pedro’s tweet strikes me as incorrect in the issue. The last few weeks or so of the governors’ race turned on issues of education because some high profile revelations created interests that campaigns had to address, but this wasn’t actually extreme (in affect, or “tone”). It almost certainly had nothing to do with DEI or pronouns in the bio (this is still VA). Youngkin was always trying to find a midpoint on the issue. He was clear that he wasn’t trying to ban books, but instead was sensitive to the concerns parents had about exercising more control over their curricula. He’d argue no one wanted Beloved banned, just that parents should have options. Youngkin’s race was about the economy and taxes and that is what brought him victory.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2021/exit-polls-virginia-governor/
Figure from WaPo exit poll. Intuitios can vary but this strikes me as a decent thermometer. Youngkin’s major margins were on taxes and then the economy (very similar issues which I don’t believe can meaningfully be separated, and Youngkin got the people who thought it was doing poorly by a good margin). Mcaullife and Youngkin ran fairly close on the education debate and it strikes me as mix of teachers and teachers’ unions contributing to the percent that thought this was important (the intensity on school control question leaned heavily towards McAullife even among the poorly worded moderate option). To the extent that he wins education, he doesn’t have any comparatively huge margins to establish that the race or his campaign was about this. There is way too narrow of a governing coalition. Also, the issues were probably more discrete than considered by people on twitter who were heavily invested in the outcome. Most parents just wanted more input into curricula and to avoid books with pornographic material featuring HS age kids. It’s still beltway Virginia types. I think Pedro is just wrong. Youngkin was on Ruthless twice and he isn’t and won’t be an anti-CRT crusader.
Charlie Baker drops out of TCI, admitting initiative ‘no longer best solution’ for state (bostonherald.com)
From the article: “He backs out of the Transportation and Climate Initiative just days after Connecticut did.” … “The Baker-Polito Administration always maintained the Commonwealth would only move forward with TCI if multiple states committed,…”
So, basically, lefty Ned Lamont bailed and Charlie followed him out the door because the pact was no longer politically tenable.
I think Youngkin’s victory was mostly because of McAullife’s very high unlikability factor.
Sorry, @EB, I didn’t see your comment before posting mine.
Yes. And they said that he was leftish well before election day, when he was gaining steam. We should have been expecting squishiness.
I love this guy!
That seems a reasonable metric. When I look at the voting pattern of our various representatives in Congress, I see that the bills I most strongly object to are consistently voted against by most Republicans, and voted for by most Democrats. And when I look at the laws of the various states, I find that the so-called “red” states tend to have fewer laws to which I strongly object, whereas the so-called “blue” states tend to be full of them.
And when I look at the people who voted for President Trump, versus the people who voted for President* Brandon, I notice that, once again, Republicans overwhelmingly supported the man I supported — the man bent on furthering liberty rather than bureaucratic control.
All of which leads me to believe that, however imperfect, Republicans are better at protecting my liberties than are Democrats.
But wouldn’t it be nice if the “center” shifted rightward instead of always always leftward?
Yes. But wouldn’t it be worse if it rocketed leftward because there was nothing slowing it down?
I suspect we all want the best possible outcome, and probably just differ about how we go about achieving it. It’s my belief that no alternative to supporting the Republican Party — criticizing candidates who are too squishy, insisting on better, primarying those who are particularly bad, but in the end supporting it nonetheless — will give us a better outcome; in fact, that any alternative will lead to Democratic dominance and disaster. I know others disagree. Maybe I’d join them if anyone could suggest any plausible path to something else.
I don’t object to criticism of the party. It deserves criticism. I just object to hyperbolic condemnation, and to what I think is the fantasy of some unstated viable alternative.
It’s already rocketing leftward. What difference does it make if it goes at 100 mph or 200 mph?
I guess that’s true in a “The guy who punches me in the gut is preferable to the guy who kicks me in the Yondos” sort of way.
Technically true. But Republican “protection” of my (and your) liberties is mostly about slowing the rate at which they are being taken away from me. Our liberties are in decline. The difference between Republicans and Democrats is only about how quickly that decline occurs.
So I’m trying to understand something here. Most of us are not OK with a President trying to impose a nationwide vaccine mandate, and we’re certainly not in favor of governors imposing state-wide mandates, but we are OK with a state governor imposing a “mandate” (NO mandates, peons) on his own volition on the counties and cities in his own state? And do we define county supervisors and city mayors that are elected by their local citizens as “bureaucrats?”
I’m absolutely opposed to mandates, vaccine or otherwise, but I’d say it’s up to the voting citizens of a particular county/city/etc. to decide whether or not their local elected officials deserve to be smacked down because of pandemic overreach. I’ve had enough of Governor Blackface/Klan Hood/”We’ll make the infant comfortable” unilaterally imposing his and his bureaucrats’ mandates on the state with no peeps whatsoever from the elected state legislature.
If Glenn Youngkin wants to impose his own mandates, whatever they are, he needs to go through the legislature, and because the State Senate is still Democrat-controlled, it’s probably not gonna happen.
JMHO
I have heard others reasonably wonder the same thing. Given how much positive feedback Gov. DeSantis is getting, why do so few (if any) other governors find it so hard to buck the herd mentality that seems to imprison Democrats and Republicans?
100 mph.
That’s my point. We don’t live in fantasyland where you get to take your ball and go home if the game isn’t going your way. It isn’t a game. When it isn’t going in your own direction, you have to keep it from going in the other direction any faster than it is.
When your team is always losing, whether by a little or by a lot, you REPLACE THE TEAM MEMBERS WITH WINNERS.
I introduced this analogy, so I’m happy to torture it a little more. (It reminds me a bit of the cartoon movie Megamind that included a funny segment of battling and overstrained metaphor.)
You start by benching the players who are already convinced that they can’t win and that the game is over. Because they’re toxic.
Then you encourage the rest to try harder, and — during the pre-season primaries — pick the best players you can find.
But you don’t declare your team to be a bunch of losers and announce defeat while the game is going on.
The Republican Party are the Washington Generals of politics.