Matt Lewis: Ron DeSantis and Dr. Oz Embrace Their Inner Pricks
Matt Lewis is even getting tired of their shit.
Ron DeSantis and Dr. Oz Embrace Their Inner Pricks
WEE LITTLE BULLIES
Mocking a man for having a stroke. Advocating physical violence. These sorts of behaviors used to tank political careers—and they still should.
Matt Lewis
Senior Columnist
Updated Aug. 27, 2022 2:08AM ET / Published Aug. 26, 2022 8:44PM ET
For most of my life, the joke among conservatives was that “Republicans were the stupid party, and Democrats were the evil party.” Those party generalizations may be past their prime.
Consider the confluence of events that swamped my Twitter timeline this past week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said of Dr. Anthony Fauci, “Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania for the U.S. Senate, said this about his political opponent: “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly.”
And it gets (arguably) worse. On Tuesday, alt-right activist Laura Loomer (whom Trump endorsed for her 2020 race) lost her Republican primary in Florida. “I’m not conceding, because I’m a winner!” the loser ranted.
In 2022, this behavior seems only mildly shocking. But not that long ago, making any of these statements would have been almost unthinkable. Yes, politics has always had its share of bad people. But at some point in recent years—no doubt, a byproduct of Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene—acting like an asshole became a smart political strategy.
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