After his poor showing in Iowa, Ron DeSantis, who had staked so much on that state, was finished as a viable candidate for the Republican nomination. Today, recognizing reality, he exited the race.
In further recognition of reality, DeSantis endorsed Donald Trump.
A year ago, I had high hopes for DeSantis as an alternative to Trump. It turned out, however, that Republican voters don’t want an alternative; they want Trump himself.
In their view, Trump did a good job as president, can defeat Joe Biden (or any other Democrat) in 2024, and is being persecuted by his political enemies.
There is at least some truth to each of these opinions, though not enough for me to favor nominating Trump.
I expect that DeSantis will face criticism from some quarters for endorsing Trump. However, the endorsement makes good sense, both in pragmatic and ideological terms.
Pragmatically, it’s clear that Trump will be the Republican nominee. Haley’s candidacy was on life support already. With DeSantis out of the race, most of his supporters will switch their allegiance to Trump — endorsement by the Florida governor, or not.
DeSantis was always going to endorse the GOP nominee. If I recall correctly, he promised during one of the debates to do so.
Now that it’s so clear Trump will be the nominee, there’s no pragmatic case for waiting to endorse him. To delay would only hurt the standing of DeSantis among party faithful, whose support he likely will seek in the future.
Ideological considerations also militate in favor of DeSantis endorsing Trump. Simply put, his policy views are closer to the former president’s than they are to Haley’s.
DeSantis is a hardcore, across-the-board conservative. Trump, whatever his private views, mostly governed as one.
The main policy-based difference between Trump and DeSantis, as I see it, is that DeSantis is the more effective of the two. He’s more focused (that is to say, less easily distracted) and detail oriented. He knows what to fight for, and wins cultural battles before others are even out of the blocks.
Haley is also a conservative. However, she’s less solidly so. She seems more sympathetic to woke views and more prone to compromise with the left than either DeSantis or Trump. Thus, DeSantis is more aligned ideologically with Trump than with Haley.
Haley’s advantage over Trump, in my view, lies in her superior personal qualities and, relatedly, her electability. These considerations might have justified DeSantis endorsing Haley over Trump or remaining neutral, if Haley still had a realistic shot at being the nominee. On the other hand, it would be reasonable for DeSantis to base his endorsement on ideological affinity, rather than personal qualities, even if Haley were more competitive than she is.
In any case, it’s all over but the shouting in the Republican race — and has been since that relatively small number of Iowa Republicans — about 15 percent of those registered in the state — caucused last week.
"I expect that DeSantis will face criticism from some quarters for endorsing Trump"
Those people know nothing (actually LESS than nothing) about politics.
I agree with all your observations. I have serious concerns Trump will lose and take others down with him, imperiling our chances to change the current social construct