Several months ago the mainstream media made a concerted effort to manufacture a war between former President Donald Trump, who is popular with the Republican base, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also popular with the Republican base.
The idea, of course, was to sow dissension and whip up infighting within the party at a time President Biden’s approval ratings were cratering and to take some heat off of Biden as the supply chain crisis worsened and the inflation issue was blowing up.
That narrative crumbled after both men went on record and shut down the media-fueled rumors and the fake news that swirled at the time about supposed “tensions,” saying in interviews in so many words that they understood exactly what type of game the mainstream press was playing and urging their supporters not to fall for it.
Fast forward to summertime, and as Joe Biden continues to flounder and flail, Ron DeSantis’ star continues to rise in his state and among Republicans across the country. Along with that, speculation is also ramping up regarding DeSantis’ 2024 intentions, with Democrats and their media allies going with the assumption that he will throw his hat into the race after he (presumably) makes it through his 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign unscathed.
That has The Usual Suspects absolutely terrified, especially considering the fact that at this point there is a lot of uncertainty as to whom the 2024 Democratic nominee will be: Joe Biden, who seems incapable of functioning without his handlers on standby, or Kamala Harris, who hasn’t been given an assignment yet that she hasn’t screwed up?
With that in mind, the Democrat/media industrial complex have decided on the new narrative about DeSantis. As Mike noted in April, he’s “worse than Trump,” to them, and that’s a message they think will have the effect of blunting his momentum and rising popularity with voters.
Here are some examples of this narrative being pushed:
From Boot’s anti-DeSantis column:
Smart and disciplined but reclusive and unpleasant: Who does that remind you of? That’s right: Richard M. Nixon. And I don’t mean the Nixon who created the Environmental Protection Agency, implemented affirmative action, went to China and took other surprisingly liberal steps. DeSantis has never shown any similar willingness to challenge his base. I’m thinking of the Nixon who smeared his opponents (he accused Adlai Stevenson of having a “Ph.D. from Dean Acheson’s cowardly college of Communist containment”) and warred with the press (“You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” he said in 1962, “because gentlemen, this is my last press conference”). I’m thinking of the Nixon who employed the government against his “enemies list,” catered to White bigotry (the Southern strategy) and exacerbated social divisions in an attempt to mobilize the Silent Majority against liberal elites.
NY Mag‘s Jon Chait re-upped a March piece he wrote on the supposed similarities between Trump and DeSantis as “evidence” that DeSantis was “worse”:
Chris Rufo was among many who shot down Chait’s argument and that of others who have moved on from calling DeSantis “racist” to “authoritarian” because the former obviously hasn’t worked (just as it didn’t work with Trump):
Twitter user Amish Dude provided a handy template going forward for people to keep in mind for when these attacks backfire and the next round of similarly desperate attacks start:
Perfect.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY