Mike Tyson, the legendary world boxing champion, once said, “Everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the mouth.” Ron DeSantis also has a plan to become president of the United States. The Florida governor would like to sell himself as “Trump with a brain” and outdo his former sponsor.
On paper, this plan makes sense: a certain Trump fatigue is also spreading within the Grand Old Party (GOP). The ex-president’s election campaign got off to a lukewarm start and his constant nagging about alleged election fraud is annoying and boring at the same time.
DeSantis is counting on the wake craze
Consequently, DeSantis envisions winning over the Trump base by unleashing a culture war against what he sees as “awakened.” That’s why he is standing up to Disney, has libraries stripped of supposedly harmful books and has banned teachers in Florida from discussing homosexuality in class.
He wants to get the traditional conservatives on board by escaping the antics and blatant idiocy the ex-president regularly engages in — windmills breed cancer, etc. — while emphasizing his top-notch education at the elite universities of Yale and Harvard .
That sounds convincing, and while he hasn’t officially announced his candidacy yet, DeSantis is the only GOP challenger Trump has to fear. He is even ahead of the former president in some polls.
But now DeSantis got one in the mouth, and especially on “Fox & Friends”. It came like this:
When asked what he thought of Biden’s visit to Kiev, DeSantis replied, “They (the Biden administration) are running a blank check policy with no clear purpose. Things like that can escalate, and I don’t think it’s in our interest to get involved in a proxy war with China over a conflict over the borders of Ukraine and Crimea.”
This cavalier response is at odds with the attitude DeSantis has taken to date towards Vladimir Putin. A long-time hardliner, he once scolded Trump for showing too much sympathy for the Russian president. So why the turnaround?
Trump has long avoided the Ukraine problem. At first he described Putin’s invasion as “brilliant”, but then there was radio silence. Now the ex-president is about to position himself. “This has got to stop now,” he said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host. “The United States should negotiate peace between the two countries, and I don’t think we should send any more (weapons) to Ukraine.” Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer couldn’t have done better.
So the ex-president takes the side of the isolationists, ie those who explain what is going on between Russia and Ukraine should not concern us. We have no interests in this part of the world and are better off minding our own business, especially our problems on the border with Mexico.
An explicit representative of this thesis is Tucker Carlson. Not only is he a demagogue, he’s now become the chief ideologue at Fox News and has dethroned the somewhat sedate Sean Hannity. Night after night, Carlson drums up to his viewers how pointless American support for Ukraine is, that Volodymyr Zelensky is an irresponsible gambler, that Ukraine is deeply corrupt and that Russia will eventually win the war.
Being on the other side of Trump and Carlson may be overkill for DeSantis, too. If he were to support Ukraine, he would have to fear being insulted as a typical ‘globalist’. Trump would happily punch him in the face in the primary, and Carlson’s past softball interviews would immediately give way to demagogy attacks of the worst kind.
DeSantis is trapped because the Republicans are divided. 40 percent still support Ukraine and demand even more support for it. About 40 percent follow the isolationist line. DeSantis threatens to get caught between the fronts.
He already tasted it in the Wall Street Journal. There, columnist Kimberley Strassel, actually a seasoned right-winger, warns him not to follow Trump on his isolationist path. “It would be a mistake for Mr. DeSantis to align himself with Trump on this issue. Politically, he would disagree with the ex-president on a crucial issue,” she writes. “It would also tarnish DeSantis’ clean slate, which has proved steadfast against rogue states and China as well.”
spot from the left
Meanwhile, on the left-liberal side, it is amused that DeSantis may not be “Trump with a brain” after all. He acted like a deer in the headlights of a car on “Fox & Friends” and “seemed to be ill-informed and incoherent,” Eugene Robinson scoffs at the Washington Post, adding, “He doesn’t even come up with ‘Fox & Friends clearly.”
The war in Ukraine is also increasingly becoming a domestic political factor in the US and could even have a decisive influence on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Many are reminiscent of the situation in 1940. At that time, a bitter war between isolationists and President Franklin Roosevelt, who massively supported the British in their fight against Hitler with the Lend-Lease program. A similar constellation crops up again today – and DeSantis clearly has no idea how to handle it.
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
