DeSantis is painting a similarly stark choice for Republicans. He says the United States is in decline because of the Democrats’ left-wing policies, and renewal can come only if Americans choose a conservative agenda. He holds up his record in Florida as an example of what the country could be if he becomes president. “Decline is a choice,” he says, urging his audiences to choose renewal instead.
That would be fine if DeSantis were already the Republican nominee. His problem is that he isn’t, and the choice he’s posing — one between the policies of Democrats and Republicans — does not distinguish him from the other GOP hopefuls.
Does anyone think that Nikki Haley would pursue a woke, green agenda? Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) is also saying that 2024 is a time for choosing, and he offers the similar panoply of pat conservative solutions that DeSantis proffers. Vivek Ramaswamy inveighs against woke capitalism, as well.
How does DeSantis stand out from this crowd? He doesn’t. If anyone offers “a choice, not an echo,” it’s the runaway GOP front-runner, Trump.
This is a time for choosing for Republican voters. The trouble is it’s not between Biden’s Democrats and the GOP electorate’s conservatism: It’s between Trump and any alternative.
That fact starkly shows why DeSantis is flailing: He has declined to give Republicans a choice.
Trump displays none of this hesitancy. He regularly castigates the man he’s labeled “Ron DeSanctimonious.” Trump blasts him regularly and started the campaign by running ads attacking the governor’s prior support for cutting Social Security spending. He has recently returned to that tack, reviving ads attacking DeSantis in Iowa. Trump isn’t afraid to tell GOP voters that this is a time for choosing — and that they should back him, not the boring loser from Florida.
Wrestling superstar Ric Flair often said “to be the man, you gotta beat the man.” Napoleon echoed the sentiment when he stated, “if you want to take Vienna, take Vienna.” DeSantis needs to recognize that the nomination is Vienna and Trump is the man: If he wants the former, he has to smack down the latter.
Reagan came to a similar realization during his own nomination battle against a Republican president. He started his 1976 challenge to incumbent Gerald Ford by offering his philosophy as the alternative, but he hesitated to violate his “Eleventh Commandment” and criticize a fellow Republican. Ford was not so reticent and attacked Reagan mercilessly.
Reagan finally made his critique of Ford’s presidency personal after he suffered five straight primary defeats. He pummeled Ford in North Carolina over his foreign policy stances, and won in an upset. He followed it up with a nationally televised address in which he made clear distinctions between himself and Ford. Reagan started winning, taking his battle all the way to the convention floor. A narrow loss set up his 1980 victory, but it also raised the question of whether he might have won in 1976 had he earnestly joined the fight earlier.
DeSantis faces his own time for choosing in the coming days. It’s not too late to beat Trump in the Republican primary, nor is it too late to reestablish his reputation as a formidable politician who has a future in national politics even if he doesn’t win this time. The stakes could not be higher.
Will DeSantis choose to try to move up to the nomination or down to the ant heap of political losers who were never heard from again on the national stage? Republican voters await his decision.
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