For many Republicans, though perhaps not enough of us, Ron DeSantis’s entry into the presidential sweepstakes is cause for celebration. He’s a solid conservative on most matters and an effective crusader against wokeism. He has a great record as governor of Florida and, crucially, he’s probably the only viable alternative to Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.
The Never Trump crowd was never going to celebrate DeSantis’s entry. However, because DeSantis is the most viable alternative to Trump, one might have expected members of this group — Bill Kristol, David Frum, etc. — to be okay, more or less, with DeSantis, as even George Will seems to be.
But those who have been paying attention will not be surprised that the Never Trumpers can’t stand DeSantis. And instead of celebrating his entry, they are celebrating his stumbles.
Following DeSantis’ botched announcement of his candidacy, Kristol thought it clever to note that the name DeSantis generates puns like “DeSaster,” or “DeBacle.” He also claimed that Trump, the man obsessed with the 2020 election, is the forward-looking GOP candidate and DeSantis the backward-looking one.
Frum derided DeSantis as differing from Trump “only by arriving at the office on time instead of watching television until 11 a.m.” The Lincoln Project told DeSantis: “We’re sure going to love watching you crash and burn.” I guess that means it will love watching Trump win the GOP nomination.
Unlike Kristol and Frum, Andrew Sullivan has managed not to lose his head during the Trump era. In this Substack post, he launches a devastating attack on the Never Trumpers’ Never DeSantis posture.
Sullivan obliterates Frum’s claim that DeSantis is just a Trump who arrives on time and watches less television. He writes:
Trump attempted a coup; he committed obstruction of justice; he was impeached twice; he abused the separation of powers; he has vowed to pardon criminals who support him; he is utterly irrational; he lies with staggering abandon; he vows to execute drug dealers without a trial; he supports war crimes; he has enriched himself at the public trough.
DeSantis has done and said nothing like any of this; he has governed aggressively within the bounds of his constitutional limits but he is not a sociopath and not a wannabe dictator-for-life. The notion that there is no difference between him and Trump except punctuality makes a mockery of everything Frum has written about Trump in the past.
(Emphasis added)
I don’t fully agree with every element of Sullivan’s indictment of Trump, but his point stands. Anyone who believes even half of what the Never Trump crowd has been saying about the former president cannot maintain in good faith that DeSantis is, essentially, another Trump. Nor, if Trump is the threat to democracy the Never Trumpers allege him to be, does it make sense to hope DeSantis’ candidacy falls flat.
You might think that DeSantis’ anti-wokeism would have some appeal to Kristol, Frum, and the others. There was a time when it probably would have.
But not now. Frum complains:
We did not want a more systematic and shrewd exploitation of tensions in American society, more deft manipulation of resentments along lines of race, faith, sex, region, and educational attainment.
Again, Sullivan’s counter is devastating:
How, I wonder, would David describe the imposition of critical race, queer and gender theory in public high school curricula? The enforcement of systemic race and sex discrimination across the entire federal government and much of corporate America? The creation of sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants? The introduction of sex changes for children before puberty — and mandatory pronoun choice in pre-K? Or the enabling of mass fraudulent migration?
These culture war initiatives are apparently not “deft manipulation of resentments.” But opposing them is. Heads the far left wins. Tails the right loses.
That seems to be fine with the NeverTrumpers.
Is there any plausible Republican candidate this crowd would support? Kristol seems to want Glenn Youngkin to enter the race. Yet, Kristol supported Youngkin’s liberal opponent in the Virginia governor’s race.
Mike Pence loyally served Trump as vice president for nearly four years. I don’t see how a NeverTrumper could support Pence. Nikki Haley also served in the Trump administration. Tim Scott carried a fair amount of water for Trump in the Senate.
Frum says “Never Trump Republicans want a free trade, free market economics conservative.” Sullivan responds that “unless Ronald Reagan returns from the dead, or we magically get transported back to 1987, this isn’t anything close to a realistic option.”
Until Frum names a candidate who meets his specifications and shows that this candidate has a shot at defeating Trump, I have to agree with Sullivan. In any case, the desire for a certain kind of conservative candidate does not justify pretending that there’s no difference between a conservative candidate who falls short of the ideal and the candidate they’ve been insisting poses an existential threat to decency and democracy.
My sense is that the NeverTrumpers are too bitter about Trump’s ascendancy, and their resulting irrelevance in the GOP and the conservative movement, to rationally assess realistic alternatives to Trump. They deeply resent the price they’ve paid for opposing Trump and can’t tolerate any Republican who hasn’t paid the same price — much less a Republican like DeSantis who managed to thrive during the Trump era.
Kristol’s colleague Jonathan Last gave the game away when he celebrated DeSantis’ stumbling entry by saying: “I am drunk on Schadenfreude. . .There is nothing better, not in this world or the next.”
The NeverTrumpers are, indeed, drunk on Schadenfreude. I wonder whether they crave it more for the Republican party, which let them down, than for Trump, from whom they never expected better.
It's really shocking what has happened to people like Frum and William Kristol. It's as if Trump truly has driven them insane. The less said about the now fully leftis Jennifer Rubin the better. These people have become entirely and totally irrelevant. They will never be accepted by the left and have cut all ties to the right and even the center right. It's quite sad.
Paul: You hit it on the head: "My sense is that the NeverTrumpers are too bitter about Trump’s ascendancy, and their resulting irrelevance in the GOP and the conservative movement, to rationally assess realistic alternatives to Trump. They deeply resent the price they’ve paid for opposing Trump and can’t tolerate any Republican who hasn’t paid the same price — much less a Republican like DeSantis who managed to thrive during the Trump era."
Their antipathy for DeSantis tells me they don't see any bank in him, either.
Their behavior reveals nothing but self-serving mendacity.