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DeSantis Sanctus
The title in the headline is a more appropriate moniker for the Governor of Florida. DeSantis, to my view, understands much better than Trump the Founding Fathers’ pledge to each other in the Declaration, to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their Sacred Honor. Trump understands the fortune part, but not the Sacred Honor part. For me, Trump’s shot at DeSantis is a bridge too far. Trump dragged DeSantis over the finish line in Florida against Gillum, which was a blessing for the State and the Nation. And now he is obviously unnerved by the prospect of DeSantis as a competitor in the 2024 primaries. I know which way I’m going on that. With Ed Rollins.
Why? DeSantis is far more intelligent and competent both technically and politically than Trump. He doesn’t have the larger-than-life personality, but, in this case, I see that as a major plus. And I may be wrong, but I believe DeSantis is much more of an actual conservative than Trump.
Had DeSantis been the President when COVID hit, we would have had monoclonal antibodies available everywhere, very limited school lockdowns, if any, no economic lockdowns, no vaccine mandates, possibly no vaccines approved without adequate testing, and without the liability gift for Pharma.
Even Pfizer has acknowledged that their vaccine was not adequately vetted. And any vaccine that has a complication rate of almost 8% requiring medical attention after receiving the vaccine has no place in any medical armamentarium. The long-term risks of the mRNA vaccines remain unknown. There is evidence that the vaccines, shortly after administration, make people more likely to contract the virus, rather than the opposite (consider the case of Gibraltar).
With DeSantis, we would not have had Fauci, Walensky, and Redfield calling the shots. They would have been gone. The death rate would not have been any higher, possibly lower, and the economy and the populace would have been much better off. We would not have an educationally lost generation as we now have. (Oh, and Aaron Rodgers would not have been vilified.)
Jay Bhattacharya would have been directing the response under DeSantis, and the entire world would have been better off with an actual epidemiologist, economist, and physician heading the effort. Scott Atlas was great, but Trump didn’t empower him.
The warp-speed effort on the vaccines may have been and still may be popular, but, in my view, it has been a disaster, and did not compensate for the vast violation of individual liberties and Constitutional rights. That is on Trump, who didn’t know enough, or was too intimidated by the “Scientists” or the “Science” to do the right thing. No guts. He shouldn’t claim any glory for anything regarding the pandemic. Only that it would have been far worse with the Democrats running the entire show, including from the White House. So we were lucky to have Trump there, rather than Hillary, but that’s about the best I can say. DeSantis read, understood, and applied the actual medical and epidemiological literature better than the “Scientists” did, by far.
I don’t like tariffs. They may juice the economy short term, but in the long term, they hurt. Trump was right on China, but DeSantis would have been just as good, if not better. Protectionism is a Progressive policy. It hurts us in the long run.
Trump spent like a drunken sailor; granted, he didn’t spend like a Democrat, which is vastly worse than spending by drunken sailors. And the tax cuts are great. But he managed to shoot himself in the foot as often as he championed and implemented good policies.
He didn’t touch Social Security or Medicare, both of which are headed off a cliff. Obviously, we’re going to go off a cliff with both of those, if we are not already airborne. And of course Republicans, despite the media’s accusations, are remaining silent on those issues.
Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump were in the White House, and I trust he would have handled the Afghanistan withdrawal better. But I believe De Santis would have been far better than Trump on that issue. And he would be on future issues of the same sort.
He would be as good on energy. He would be better on social policy. His treatment of Disney demonstrates that. I know, flaming libertarians like Charles C. W. Cooke don’t like what DeSantis did, and seem to favor providing public support for a company dedicated to using its vast corporate resources to promote child sexual grooming, but I go with DeSantis wholeheartedly on that one.
Special tax districts, though Florida is full of them, seem to me somehow inequitable. Those living in them may like them, and perhaps they get better services (I once lived in The Woodlands north of Houston, a private community, and understand why people like them; but they smack of the wealthy living in guarded enclaves; like Charles in Florida–I also lived in Florida and left when the private community I lived in tried to force me to join the golf club, to the tune of about $100,000 up front, and took legal action against we non-joiners when we declined — which they attempted in contravention of their own by-laws; the message was that the empowered home-owner associations in Florida possess dictatorial powers over their residents, which Charles C.W. Cooke doesn’t seem to have discovered yet) but it does seem a bit elitist.
Then there is the mother of all personnel errors: Trump’s selection of Christopher Wray as head of the FBI. If a worse choice could possibly have been made, I can’t think of it. Wray appears to be the epitome of the entitled elitist woke deep-state denizen who is happy to promote the agenda of the Biden administration and Biden’s perverse and deranged Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Trump should be held to account for all of this. He did a lot of good things. He did a lot of boneheaded things. For me, his penchant for attacking and demeaning his allies (and don’t think DeSantis isn’t grateful for Trump’s help in getting elected governor of Florida). The fact that DeSantis has not retaliated is both an indication of his political savvy and his class.
And, by the way, DeSantis’ efforts to respond to the hurricane are the best that I have ever seen, and I have been through many hurricanes in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. No one has ever responded as well to such a destructive storm as DeSantis. In my view, at least.
Excuse me while I try to reach Ed Rollins.
Published in General
I’ve never been frightened by government shutdowns. It’s going to take something drastic like that to reverse this catastrophic urge to spend, spend, spend……
Agree, mostly. I sometimes exaggerate a point as a counter-weight to conventional, uncritical thinking, and I did that here to an extent.
I don’t have the energy or focus right now to argue the subtle points of this issue. I’m just glad that there is still someone who cares enough to point out the weakness of my point.
I think that right thinking may even lie closer to my exaggeration than to the one you suggest, in spite of its strengths. If I could gather my thoughts, they would include something about the poison pill of the Continuing Resolution, which is purely a Congressional invention for enabling habitual overspending and corruption of the intended process. The People’s branch of government were supposed to regulate the fisc. The CR is now a perennial “emergency” solution to legislative stalemate. Standard procedure. It is somewhat veto-proof, a form of blackmail against an honest President should we ever get one again.
So, a certain feeling of weary hopelessness about the American ideal–free, honest, informed, rational public debate–has led me to toss a rock into the discussion and not care that I have become part of the problem, and that as an iconoclast I don’t even get the joy of social approval.
Your explanation of #1 probably doesn’t work either, since the legislatures are more… granular?… than that. California, New York, and a few other lefty states may be all that are needed for “Congress” to spend money like a drunken sailor. Even if NOBODY that I or anyone else in my state votes for, approves.
Is that for real?? I heard Trump on a Sebastian Gorka interview the other day and he sounded like a ten year-old kid. It was cringe inducing. I liked most of his decisions as President but I’m always scratching my head on how a guy like that arrived at them.
Yes, hiring Wray was unforgivable. But not firing Collins and Fauci for their roles in financing and participating in the creation of the WuFlu is equally bad. Not to mention that the Wall Street Journal editorial board urged Trump to not name Comey as FBI director shortly before Trump’s inaugaration and he did it anyway.
The two biggest debacles that took place during Trump’s term, covid policies and the out of control FBI, were due to a lack of spine. DeSantis had to overcome the policies of the Trump administration to protect the freedom of Floridians. He gets my vote.