Second-place DeSantis in Iowa is a win for beleaguered Florida — and nation. Here’s why | Opinion
Update: After saying he wouldn’t back down, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis abandoned Sunday the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and endorsed his four times-indicted campaign foe former president Donald Trump.
The icy Iowa caucuses have brought to sunny Florida some good news: Our arrogant, autocratic governor has been humbled by voters who weren’t stirred by the “Florida Blueprint” Ron DeSantis touts as America’s future.
What a relief.
Imagine the absurdity of DeSantis’ Florida politics, from corrupt Miami to pliable Tallahassee, as the way forward for the nation, should the GOP presidential ticket prevail over President Joe Biden in November.
Everyman in the USA would evolve into Florida man and woman stereotypes, no room for self-identity or “big tent” views.
Thou shall walk the white, straight, Christo-conservative way as guiding light, with a gerrymandered Congress, like the gerrymandered Florida Legislature, passing legislation to throw civil rights back into the 1950s in Everywhere USA.
No checks and balances. No compromise, ever. No seat at the table for anyone other than the party faithful.
Whew. Thank you, Iowa.
His political clout diminished, the loss should shake up all-powerful GOP politics in Florida.
As for the national election, Biden and his democratic, inclusive values defeated Trump in 2020 — and the president can do it again if he uses his executive powers to tame the Southern border and negotiate immigration initiatives with Congress.
That’s what election years are for, to rein in excesses.
Trump-DeSantis danger
No doubt Trump is a danger to the nation and democracy, plus a horrible specimen of a human, but DeSantis, with his deceptive clean-cut image, is worse. He easily confuses voters.
Trump loves to wield executive powers, but they can be undone. DeSantis cements his personal views in law.
Now, the “I-get-it-done” DeSantis fantasy as a Trump stand-in may be over, unless the former president ends up locked up or negotiates plea deals in exchange for leaving the presidential race for the rest of his life.
The Iowa caucuses results were definitive: Trump the winner at 51 %; DeSantis a distant second at 21.2%; and Nikki Haley 19.1%, scoring extra points for showing that the GOP will never choose a better woman over lousy men.
The loss is harsher for DeSantis than Haley. He gave his all to stealing Iowa from Trump, abandoning a Florida teeming with controversy and lawsuits threatening his agenda. But, despite Gov. Kim Reynolds’ endorsement, he barely out-performed South Carolina’s former governor.
DeSantis, 45, brought to snowed-in Middle America his next-generation-youth and Old World-order ideas. Lacking in social skills, he tried to fake smiles, but didn’t inspire. Awkward, but an improvement over his cantankerous personality in his home state, DeSantis played by the caucus playbook, visiting all 99 counties, vigilant wife and cute children in tow.
Yet voters resoundingly rejected the Florida King of The Legislative Scroll in favor of a criminally-indicted 77-year-old grifter who tried to up-end U.S. democracy, and has vowed to launch dictatorship-styled rule on Day One of a second term.
Score a win for Biden, and, if only in symbolic payback, for beleaguered Floridians.
Iowa showed DeSantis that it’s not always politically profitable to worsen the lives of women, immigrants, gay and transgender children, and prosecute doctors and advocates. He lost every single county, 98 of them to Trump and Johnson County to Haley.
No quitting
Not surprisingly, DeSantis won’t leave the presidential campaign trail.
In his mind, crudely bombastic Trump is finished.
He’s counting on winning by default when Trump falls to his legal troubles. He has reason to be certain that the GOP will embrace the racism, uniformity and rigidity he has to offer.
But voters can look to Florida and clearly see that DeSantis is only about fulfilling every GOP wish for control with the help of ultra conservative institutions and donors.
They, and not democratic principles, would rule the nation.
This story was originally published January 16, 2024 at 12:10 PM.
