Yes, I think he’s just your basic authoritarian.
About the only good thing about Trump is that he doesn’t seem interested in war or killing people. But I do think he is a fascist at heart and would be dictator if he had the chance. I don’t think DeSantis wants to do that.
I never said he was a fascist. I said he was competent though he adopts evil policies, and used the myth of Mussolini as an analog. (And it’s a myth; Mussolini did nothing to help the trains, but he and his party used that as propaganda.)
I never said he was exactly like Mussolini or anything close. Just that he’s the kind of person you can say actually gets things done even though some of those things are really bad,
Who in the world thinks: “DeSantis seems like a bad dude, but some lib on the internet incorrectly labeled him a fascist when he doesn’t meet the textbook definition of fascist so I’m voting for him now.”?
Yes, and the MSM isn’t going to call him that, and that’s all people are going to hear anyway unless they are liberal and seeking out left-leaning information.
I will say that if DeSantis gets the nomination, the attack ads will probably be vicious and accurate. He has done so much bad shit right out in the open, I don’t think it would be hard to motivate people against him.
It is as simple as… These are things he did to Florida. Do you want him to do this to America?
Yes. The migrant trafficking stunt alone is a sweet 2x4 to smack him with again and again. I know that some/most/all of the following plays well with the rabid Trumpist base, but not with people of good will:
He fucked himself with this stunt.
I disagree. To many, what he’s done here was the good and righteous thing (and earned him “owning the libs” cred). Attack ads highlighting it will only entrench those who were going to vote/not vote for him any way. Many do want him to do that to America, sadly. Will it persuade the undecideds in swing states, where it counts most? Maybe or maybe not.
You’re missing the point. It’s not a matter of convincing people not to vote for him, it’s a matter of convincing people to vote for his opponent to prevent him from taking office.
It’s not about changing the minds of people on the right, or even convincing the undecided voters (though it might help there), but it might inspire people who don’t want that to get out and vote against him. People on the left who don’t cast a ballot are not going to make a difference.
…and this is why it’s a mistake to call the election this far out.
If DeSantis gets the nomination should the Democrats hammer home all the vicious, anti-democratic extreme things that DeSantis has done? Probably.
Will they? Probably not.
Will they instead focus on things like the economy and jobs and typical “rust belt” issues that they think will help them in swing states? Probably.
Will it win the election? I sure hope so.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
There are two groups of Democrats here.
The ads from the candidate’s team (“I approved this message”) will be limited to those that are approved by swing/wavering voter focus groups – since the Democratic nominee wants to win, and few candidates are deeply ideological at heart.
However, there will be other ads, from Democratic interest groups, who will attack the Republican for positions that they find to be “viscious, anti-democratic extreme” despite being actually popular. And, at fund-raising events, the Democratic candidates themselves will do some of that overreaching themselves in an attempt to generate enthuiasm from the base so they can buy more ads. Then the GOP will run their own ads attacking the Democratic ticket for unpopular statements.
Add it all up, and the ads, and the speechs, will do little to move the needle, with another close election.
…you will note that I didn’t say “attack.” And I did that for a reason.
This would seem to be a general statement about the efficacy of political ads, and not a point that is particularly germane to DeSantis’s migrant trafficking stunt.
Insofar as political ads work at all, I should think that this stunt is excellent fodder for them. Unbeatable, really, since the concrete yet emotional nature of the stunt (putting actual vulnerable people on actual airplanes and sending them in the cold to a place they know nothing about) is very easy to imagine and understand.
Further, the stunt is fodder not only for ads but for talking points on political shows, debate material, etc. It’s a little goldmine in its own right.
I think you greatly over estimate the number of Americans who care one iota about what happens to those kinds of people. In fact the cruelty is attractive. It was a brilliant political stunt.
Wait a sec, isn’t there a contradiction here? Almost no one cares one iota–yet people find it attractive?
Also, if it was brilliant, doesn’t that mean people care? If people care in a positive direction, can’t they also care in a negative direction?
Could you send a source for the ‘vicious, anti-democratic extreme things’ ? I kinda like DeSantis for the GOP nomination. Better than Trump. You might be overestimating Biden’s support. More that half of the Dems want someone other than Biden for 2024. Other than Biden, which Dem candidate would you vote for?
It’s an interesting theoretical question but largely irrelevant to the topic, since Biden will be the nominee unless he’s dead or incapacitated. No one is going to primary him, and Dems will turn out for him. I think Dems wanting someone else is really about his age and health, not his policies or performance.
I agree, but Biden doesn’t seem all there sometimes, and I think we need new blood in the Democratic party, especially since world politics seem to be getting a little troublesome these days. Biden doesn’t seem to project a strong-leader vibe.
That’s exactly it for me. I don’t need the president to be able to run a 5K or bench press a refrigerator, but I don’t think it’s fair to Biden or the country to have an octagenarian in the position with that much stress. I’d be thrilled if he stayed on as an advisor or even a cabinet position.
My dad is a few months older than Biden, and also in quite good physical and mental condition. But: aging is real. One of the reasons I think DeSantis has a good shot is that both Biden and Trump are aging past the point where they should be president. (If I were Biden’s wife or kids, I’d be insisting he plan a successor now and step down. I’m grateful for his sensible leadership, but for his own sake I think he should spend his early eighties not working a thankless high-stress job.)
Plenty of people don’t actively care what happens to undesirables, but if they find out something bad happened…well so much the better.
And plenty of people do. We’re called “Liberals.”