But what if they… did?
I agree, it’s illegal as hell. That never seems to stop them. I mean, let’s face it: The only reason DeSantis is promising to veto the legislation is out of spite and malice.
I don’t know of any laws in Florida or in the federal system that would prevent a legislature from spending their funds in such a manner. But I’m certainly not an expert on either federal or state laws. It’s obviously a bad idea of course, but I don’t know if it’s illegal.
That’s a better way to put it. And if it’s not illegal, it should be.
And possibly also to stop Florida’s courts from being clogged up with applications for injunctions, and the inevitable appeals. Surely, DeSantis knows this, and is trying to head off anything that would bog the legal system of Florida down.
You give him far more credit than I do. 
This increases his chance of being Trump’s running mate. Did you think Trump would repay deSantis, or show any kind of gratitude? If you give Trump money, you no longer have something he wants from you. Trump does not do loyalty. If you want something from Trump, you must have something to give him in return. By holding out now, deSantis can offer money for Trump’s legal fees, to be released only after he is named as the running mate.
That doesn’t make sense. When DeSantis suspended his campaign he endorsed Trump.
Trump is about the furthest thing from a libertarian the Republican party has ever produced. DeSantis is a close second. All those lily-white libertarians are almost certainly a substantial reason Haley did as well as she did. Grantham is notorious as one of the densest libertarian towns in the nation. It is the locus of the Free-State project. In Grantham Haley got 59% of the vote:
Needs a reference to a “Very small $5million gift”, to really capture Trump’s attitude towards money*.
*“It’s a trivial amount to a Rich Guy™ like me, you peon, but I still want it!”
“I’d focus on #1 uniting the party”
McEneny worked for Trump so should know him better than most. Does she think she ever saw him working toward uniting the Republicans? Why would she think it is even possible? All Trump is good at is dividing the country, dividing the Republicans. Oh wait, he is good at uniting the party if she is referring to the Democratic Party.
It totally makes sense if you’re a politician like DeSantis who wants a future in the Republican party and have few avenues open to you after your governorship is over. But I think even DeSantis understands that giving away taxpayer money to a grifter running for president is a flat loser in his state (especially if the grifter isn’t DeSantis).
Donald Trump has made motions to unite the Republican Party - the selection of Pence as his running mate, for example - but only when he is sure that he is in a dominant position over that party.
This is the fundamental advantage Donald Trump has over anyone who might challenge his headship over the party - he doesn’t care about the party, only about Donald Trump. He will do some work for party unity as long as it’s Donald Trump’s party, but when it becomes no longer his party, he won’t lift a finger to help it or any of its politicians. At best, he might take his ball (and followers) and go home, which will hurt Republicans at the margins; at worst, he’ll create a party split out of sheer spite, which would be a GOP disaster.
The entire Republican Party is aware of this asymmetry of needs, and that Trump can and will blow the whole thing up if he doesn’t get his way. They’ve been trying to figure out how to reassert themselves without pissing off Trump and his followers since 2015, and no one’s figured out how to square that circle.
So, yeah, while Chris Christie and his 1.21% of the Republican electorate will be cast into the outer darkness to weep and gnash their teeth, folks like Ron DeSantis will be given a chance to redeem themselves by kissing the ring, and Nikki Haley will get an offer sometime between the SC primary and Super Tuesday as long as she assumes a position of subservience, and Republicans will spend the next eight months having regular Two Minutes Hate sessions with Joe Biden starring as Emmanuel Goldstein, and it’s all going to come down to a quarter of a million or so low-information voters in six or seven states. Ain’t politics grand?
Cite? All I see are a bunch of spineless cowards who have pandered to and empowered the MAGA crowd for decades. The Republican party know, and have known since the Southern strategy, what their base is: social conservative theocratic, hate-filled people who crave authoritarianism and fear change. And the party has, again for decades, dressed that base up as God fearing, small government patriots. Now, however, all the dressing up has faded and the whole world sees the party base for what it really is.
The Republican Party leaders made a devil’s bargain to gain power, and they knew it. And, as long as they stay in power, they’re too cowardly to do what is right. As long as they can say: at least we’re not lib’ruls, nothing will change.
“Unite the party” (or the country) just means “you should do what I say”. During Trump’s impeachment (I forget which one) I heard Republicans giving speeches saying that the impeachment was “divisive”. I said (to no one in particular) “you could make it less divisive by voting to convict”.
MAGA did not exist before Trump announced for president in 2015. It’s not possible to have pandered to them for decades. It only feels that long.
Hence my use of the term “MAGA crowd” rather than MAGA. MAGA, the term, is the only thing new about the Republican base.
MAGA was MAGA before MAGA was cool!
I don’t think we’re far from one another’s point on this, so I’m not sure what the call for a cite is for.
You’re correct to point out that the “MAGA crowd” has been an important part of the Republican coalition for decades. They’ve become even more important as the parties have polarized ideologically, and have gotten plenty of rhetorical (and some practical) red meat thrown to them over time. None of this was really enough for that crowd, for which compromise is synonymous with defeat, but party leadership knew how to keep them happy while doing the bidding of the donor class.
Donald Trump was the personality the cult had been waiting for. He made the crowd’s causes his own, and he portrayed himself as someone who wouldn’t do the bidding of that donor class (though take a look at the tax cut he passed to see that negated.)
But the rise of Trump didn’t end the political ambitions of other Republicans. 16 of them ran in 2016; eight more this year. But all of them knew that without Trump’s supporters, they’d never win the general election. To have a chance in the primary, they’d have to attack Trump; but if someone else (e.g. Christie) was attacking Trump, they’d prefer to hang back and praise the frontrunner while hoping they could pick up his followers should he somehow stumble (c.f. Ramaswamy). So they mostly hung around hoping that some bolt of lightning would strike and then they could rush in, assume the mantle of MAGA, and ride that to victory in the fall.
But nothiing stopped Trump, and the personality cult stuck with him.