Donald Trump would happily burn the Republican Party to the ground if it suited his own ego.
We saw it two years ago when he sabotaged two crucial runoff elections in Georgia with his baseless claims of voter fraud and his own vanity as to how he underperformed in the state. We saw it on January 6th when he needlessly stoked the flames of anger with his incendiary rhetoric, doing incalculable damage to the conservative cause and giving Democrats a rallying cry to attract voters who felt sick at the images of assaults on Capitol police officers and the storming of Congressional buildings.
I have never agreed with the Lincoln Project or Bulwark schools of thought that the only way to purge Trump’s grip on the GOP was to fully support the Democrats in every nationwide race. My hope was that when he was defeated in 2020, and in the embarrassing aftermath of January 6th, the Republican Party would make a conscious choice to return to true Conservative policies and be free from Trump’s overreaching influence.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
In defeat, Trump managed to barricade himself in Mar-a-lago and cast himself the victim of countless imagined conspiracies and disclaim all responsibility for the indictments and convictions of those closest to him and in his inner circle, including Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn. He turned against many of those he appointed and vouched for in the past, all because they refused to blindly support his inane persecution fantasies, including Bill Barr and John Bolton. Trump was implicated in the mishandling of top secret classified documents and again admitted no responsibility and turned it into yet another opportunity to cast himself as the target of a government witch hunt. He implied that journalists who didn’t give him the information he wanted should be imprisoned and violated.
All the while, he developed no policies of significance, advanced no conservative causes, and did nothing of substance.
And instead of moving on from this man, the Republican Party handed him the keys to the kingdom, and allowed him to hand pick candidates in several crucial races, Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia among two of them. These were extremely flawed candidates that only succeeded because they bent the knee deeper, and kissed Trump’s ring more often. They were not elevated because of political acumen or even electability, but simply because they were the best at catering to Donald Trump’s ego.
Unfortunately voters do not cast their ballots based upon who is more effective at carrying Trump’s water. Trump was angry because he felt that the 2020 election was stolen, and the leaders of the Republican Party in their misguided foolishness believed that the American people were equally as angry and would vote for his candidates to punish the Democrats for their imagined transgressions.
But the truth is that the 2022 midterms have shown that Americans actually care about much more core issues, like inflation, the economy, crime, and yes, and even abortion. Trump’s hand picked sycophants wasted half of their time bloviating about stolen elections, hacked voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes, when so few people actually found those issues important. They had to do this because it was Trump’s will, and it cost them.
Dr. Oz lost in Pennsylvania to John Fetterman, a man who had a stroke and has obvious cognitive difficulties. Through no fault of his own, Fetterman’s stroke left him unable to complete sentences or answer basic questions without closed captioning. His questionable past and record as a mayor raised many questions, and yet Oz couldn’t capitalize.
Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff in Georgia that should give every conservative trepidations after what happened in 2020. His own past issues on abortion (a very important issue this cycle) are a very legitimate concern, as are his lack of any tangible political experience outside of his embrace of Trumpism.
All of this is cast against the massive victory of Ron DeSantis in Florida. Unlike Trump, DeSantis has been at the forefront of crafting policy that has a tangible effect on issues that voters care about, both inside and outside of Florida. He has given parents a voice in their children’s education, exposed Democrat hypocrisy on immigration, and fought for conservative values. While I have my own foibles with how DeSantis has used government power to achieve these ends, one cannot deny that he is taking proactive steps to further things that matter to voters.
And it shows.
He defeated Charlie Crist in the race for governor by 19 percentage points, the largest margin in over 40 years. It was an epic victory in a race so many Democrats were rabid to see him lose, precisely because of his successes advancing conservatism, and the threat he poses to them. This election showed exactly why he is that threat.
He kept Trump at arm’s length and ran a strong campaign based not on ego, but the tangible accomplishments of his office. He avoided a direct confrontation with Trump even as his star rose, by focusing on Florida and downplaying any wider ambitions.
But if there is one thing that the 2022 midterms have shown, it’s that DeSantis is the future.
Trump knows this, and he is scared. And like a frightened old man, knowing his power is waning, he is lashing out, blind and tactlessly. Not days after Trump’s “Red Wave” fizzled, he went on the attack, dragging DeSantis down and overestimating his own prowess in true know-nothing fashion. The dust hasn’t even settled yet on his failed plans and he’s already putting the torch to any hope this party has to move on and move forward.
My only hope is that conservatives take the time to look at what trump has actually done since he left office in 2020 and truthfully evaluate how those failures have held back the GOP in myriad ways. Then, I hope they take a look at what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida, the real, measurable wins and gains that he has achieved, and then that they realize the simple truth.
Trump is a millstone that will drag the Republican Party into oblivion. We cannot allow him to take us down with him. We must free ourselves of his detrimental influence and embrace reason, sanity, and sound conservative policy once again.
We must embrace Ron DeSantis.