Next up is a blog post on FL governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, who I consider former President Trump’s main competitor out of the GOP field of candidates. This post will be a challenge for me to try to be a bit objective, because I really like DeSantis and hope he ends up being the GOP presidential nominee.
DeSantis is from a working class background. He’s 44 years old, attended Yale University, graduated from Harvard Law School, then joined the US Navy as a JAG officer. He served in Iraq. He was elected as a FL Congressman and served 5 years in the US House of Representatives. Then he was elected as the governor of FL and also reelected as governor of FL. Married and has three young children. That’s the short bio.
While in Congress DeSantis was one of founding members of the Freedom Caucus, a group of very conservative Republicans, who formed their group to promote a very conservative agenda. He’s considered one of the most conservative Republicans and he was a strong supporter of President Trump.
While I knew who DeSantis was when he was in Congress and as governor of FL, when he really started making national news was during 2020, during the pandemic. He began to defy the edicts coming for President Trump’s Warp Speed guru, Dr. Fauci. President Trump criticized DeSantis for defying Dr. Fauci and doing away with the lockdowns in FL. He also pushed for protecting people’s jobs if they decided against getting the COVID vaccine. He quickly become public enemy #1 of the Democrats and liberal media for challenging the pandemic social mitigation rules. He also has been in the midst of the battle against Critical Race Theory being taught in FL schools, pushing back against a lot of the trans movement and woke craziness.
I was sort of ambivalent about him though, because sometimes it seemed to me he was too much like Trump with the “owning the libs” press events and pushing back against liberal news media. Although, I agreed with most of his policy initiatives, the Republicans spending too much time in front of cameras, talking big and delivering little, has become all too common.
Trump’s sideshow politics, that Trump the reality star, “You’re fired!” image, is what many of his fans love the most and DeSantis seemed to be a Trump, Jr., with “owning the libs” with his clashes with the media as governor and I discount most of the political theater as just politicians suckering us. It was during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in the fall of 2022, that I really changed my opinion of DeSantis. I live in GA, so I usually watch hurricane and storm coverage news from the Southeast a good bit. Day after day he held press briefings and was all over the state. What struck me was he knew all the details of what was going on all over the state, what relief efforts were in the works, and he was surrounded by state and local officials, both Democrats and Republicans, with whom he seemed to have a very good working relationship. It was his attention to detail and being a hands on leader that caught my attention and changed my mind. He was a calm, competent, totally-engaged leader in a crisis.
When he entered the 2024 presidential race, he decided to go with announcing his campaign online on X (Twitter), rather than a conventional speech. It was filled with technical glitches and since only a small percentage of the country is even on X, I thought that was a bad idea. Then the Trump team smear attacks and the Dem smear attacks broke with a a fury and that’s a 24/7 thing on X and in the media. Trump’s team has stuck to vicious personal attacks, even attacking Casey DeSantis’ looks. There have been memes of her making her look like Eddie Munster or all sorts of stupid memes of DeSantis mocking his looks. Here’s July 2023 Newsweek story on the attacks on Casey DeSantis: Is the Viral Casey DeSantis’ Eyebrows Photo Real? One day the Trump/Dem smear crowds were attacking DeSantis and his wife for campaigning in Iowa and being terrible parents and accusing them of abandoning their three young children. They have their kids with them campaigning and when the kids are with them at events, they get attacked too.
There hasn’t been a single substantive attack on DeSantis on policy from the Trump campaign that has merit or is truthful, it’s all about being disloyal to Trump, vicious memes, and lies. I was outraged at so much of the liberal news media pile-on attacks, especially against Melania – she didn’t deserve any of that , so the attacks on Casey DeSantis really disgusted me and that they have been coming from the Trump campaign has been really disappointing – but not surprising.
There have been many attacks about DeSantis being on the spectrum, or autistic. DeSantis does appear a bit socially awkward at times and nerdy, but he’s sure done a lot of things in his 44 years – Yale, Harvard, Navy officer, Congressman, governor and he was a star athlete in college playing baseball, so despite being a bit nerdy, that sure hasn’t held him back. Rather than trying to be like Trump or stage-managed so much, he’d be better off just being himself.
There was an orchestrated liberal media attack on Melania’s Rose Garden renovation that made me realize that the liberal news media is so corrupt that they will run any Dem smear effort, without a moment’s hesitation, no matter how dishonest. I challenged the Rose Garden spin attacks against Melania on Twitter, because all the information on the Rose Garden renovation plans had been reported by Melania and the WH prior to her unveiling of the completed project. CNN and other news orgs, ran those stories, yet, they were trashing how the renovation turned out and spreading crazy lies about the project.
A “renowned historian,” who sits on MSNBC and constantly blabs about Trump being “an authoritarian,” was blabbing that Melania’s Rose Garden design was “authoritarian,” even though she put together a team of experts, who researched the Rose Garden history and came up with the plans. All of the flower choices were the subject of media pile-on attacks, here’s a Reuters fact check on one: Fact check: Melania Trump’s Rose Garden redesign did not remove rose bushes from all first ladies since 1913. I have been following this Dem spin info war for decades now and it really is a Dem/liberal media effort to control public opinion. One of the craziest spin attacks during the Rose Garden media meltdown was a charge that Melania removed all the colorful flowers and only used white roses, so it was a racist design. I actually used quotes from liberal news media – their own reporting on the Rose Garden renovation project from before this crazy spin attack to challenge these tweets. The white roses were JFK tea roses…
While this political meme stuff sounds silly – it’s meant to destroy people’s reputations and marginalize them. Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, provides the left’s playbook and he advocated ridicule as man’s most potent weapon and he also was all about “pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. It’s easy to dismiss crazy spin attacks as just trivial online stuff, but besides how destructive they are to civil discourse, they fuel partisan, class, and often racial divides 24/7. And they aren’t just online – the spin attacks get amplfied quickly online, then the other news media & other media venues take them and amplify them across all other media – so they permeate the culture. You wonder why America is so divided, well, this spin information war has been blowing across all American media now since the 1990s -dedicated to amplifying these divides – especially racial divides since the Obama years.
Even after Melania left the WH there was another effort to repeat all those Dem/liberal Rose Garden attacks again and that’s what’s important to remember – the Left will never stop repeating their spin lies – they will keep relaunching them, no matter how many times they have been debunked. Here’s a report from April 2021 in The Guardian: Restorationists urge Jill Biden to erase Melania Trump’s Rose Garden makeover. That’s why I keep warning about this spin information war – they will keep repeating their spin lies, over and over, until their lies drown out the truth.
DeSantis has not had an impressive campaign in the roll-out and opening weeks. He’s reshuffled his campaign, which was badly needed, and seems to be finding more effective ways to get his message across. His overly aggressive online team was overshadowing him and his message and they have toned it down a bit. They were trying to be just as in-your-face as the sleazy Trump smear team and it wasn’t working. Hardcore Trump supporters don’t have any standard they hold Trump to, but they get outraged if Trump is attacked.
Can DeSantis win the GOP nomination, sure it’s possible, because that Trump and Dem non-stop hyping polling drama is really just part of their effort to promote Trump in the primary. Dems want Trump as the GOP nominee, because they believe he’s easier to beat than DeSantis. They’ve used this strategy before – in the 2016 GOP primary liberal media gave billions of dollars worth of free media to Trump, to disrupt the GOP primary and in the belief Trump was the GOP candidate who was easiest to beat. Trump barely defeated Hillary. In 2022, Dems were pouring money & effort into promoting the worst, far-right, kooky GOP candidates in primaries again. Here’s a November 2022 USA Today report: Democrats spent millions boosting ultra right candidates in midterms. The strategy worked. For any who doubt that some Dem operatives are working with the Trump campaign to attack DeSantis, there was a Politico report yesterday: The Hard-Tweeting Defense Lawyer GOP Candidates Have Learned to Fear. Here’s a tidbit:
““I’m probably the top anti-DeSantis person on Twitter. So if [rivals] have something anti-DeSantis that they want to get into the mainstream, they’ll send it to me,” Filipkowski said, without disclosing the name of anyone on the Trump campaign he’s worked with. The Trump campaign declined to comment.
Loomer said they speak occasionally. “He knows I’m a Trump loyalist, and I know he doesn’t like Trump, and despite our differences, we have found common ground on making sure Ron DeSantis is never elected president of the United States, ever.””
The Dems, liberal media and Trump team are all making DeSantis their #1 target, but his campaign has made a lot of unforced errors too. Here’s a post from X about DeSantis being the Trump team’s main target:
Regarding this comment about Trump attacking DeSantis 3 days before the 2022 FL Gubernatorial election here’s a Nov. 2020 report from The Hill: Trump attacks DeSantis amid positive press: ‘An average Republican governor’.
Despite my dislike of Trump’s character, I can still see he’s been the target of the most relentless Dem/liberal media smear effort I’ve seen thus far and I thought the Kavanaugh smear campaign was as low as they could get. Clearly we haven’t reached the bottom yet. Unfortunately, Trump is willing to play by the Alinsky rules too and not only against the liberal media and Democrats – he’s out to destroy Ron DeSantis.
Despite all the media and Trump team hype that the 2024 GOP primary is over and Trump won, not a single vote has been cast yet. Trump definitely is the clear leader and most likely GOP candidate. Then again in the 2016 GOP primary, Jeb Bush was the most likely GOP candidate.
I still hope Ron DeSantis is the 2024 GOP candidate.
libertybelle diaries 
Might want to place a palm under and prop up your jaw LB before moving on to my next sentence.
I’m seriously considering voting Robert Kennedy Jr.
(I put the “trigger warning” up a’cause of the reaction I got from friends who I was in the midst of when they asked who I intended.)
It’s a free country, JK. I don’t understand this RFK Jr. thing, because I consider him a much more sophisticated conspiracy theorist, than other ones whom I gave more attention to than was wise.
I had a family member recommend that I should listen to his interview on Tucker and I’m really not interested, after listening to some of his other interviews since he entered the race. And frankly, the family member who recommended his interview is big on “character” and RFK Jr.’s had quite a past.
You have stated you’re an independent and so is my family member, but I have always been very conservative and look to the GOP first, but I did vote for Zell Miller, who was a D back then, for governor.
While I am a conservative LB I’ve always had this little tendency to “like” what in the old days was called “classic liberalism” (see for instance Bret Weinstein). However do not for a moment I hold any truck with today’s “Loony Left” ie: most of the Democrat party – and not a small number of in-name-only Republicans.
I’ve actually (hand) written out a more comprehensive argument /explanation for my seeming switch but I need to do some touching up before it’s ready to be posted to “our post” and highly likely, sent in email to Malcolm – he says “JK, you’re out of your ever-loving mind!” Hence, the written argument.
Still though while you’re (and he is) waiting for me to finish up you might take a look at this article:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-other-populist-in-the-race/