Chris Geidner: Ron DeSantis is not a cat

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.lawdork.com/p/ron-desantis-is-not-a-cat

If you’ve been reading Law Dork, or even if you just follow me on Twitter (you really should subscribe to Law Dork, though, as well), you know that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a problem.

He’s an anti-democratic, racist, anti-LGBTQ — I repeat, anti-LGBTQ — would-be authoritarian who is jealous of how cool Tom Cruise is.

Enter the The New York Times Magazine, which has published a 9,000-word profile of the governor. Already, this is exactly what DeSantis wants. Much of the profile is good. It’s solid reporting on what DeSantis has done, who he’s wooed, and where he’s going. But the framing is honestly terrifying. From the third paragraph (which I was drawn to after seeing a post by Tal Kopan on Twitter):

DeSantis has been permitted to subsist as a kind of Schrödinger’s candidate, both Trump and Not Trump. He can present as an iron-fisted imitation, touring the country in August with a slate of Trump endorsees who lie about the 2020 election. He can cosplay as the post-Trump choice for those desperate for a post-Trump party — a Yale- and Harvard-educated man of letters just winking at the party’s extremes. He can pitch himself, especially, as the “Trump, but ...” candidate — an Evolutionary Trump, the 2.0 — defined most vividly by what DeSantis has learned by watching: Here is Trump, but more strategic about his targets; Trump, but restrained enough to keep his Twitter accounts from suspension; Trump, but not under federal investigation.

“… has been permitted to …” “… can cosplay as …” “… can pitch himself …”

All of these things, the wording suggests, might not be true. But the silent words — the absent words — are maybe the most important ones: Who has permitted Ron DeSantis to subsist as a maybe-alive-maybe-dead cat? Why can he cosplay as something he is clearly not? Why can he pitch himself as “Trump, but,” when, in reality, he is “Trump, and”?

The answer, in part, is the Republican Party. Clearly, much of the blame lies at its collective feet, as well as with Donald Trump himself. However, the answer is, also in part, media like The New York Times that — in profiles like this and elsewhere — have normalized this very not normal man. It is also pundits — like David Frum, who called DeSantis “a recognizably normal US politician” — who have done the same.

*snip*

[cachukis]

1. A problem: We lack the moral compass to contend with this

message. Satan is just doing his job, without which good has no value.
Evil is good. Machiavelli recognized its captividity.

[NJCher]

3. Huh?

captividity?

[cachukis]

5. A new word I just made up.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Machiavelli writes about those in power who managed well and those not so well. Those in power who manage to corral power with evil means are held captive to it.
Satan, in his soliloquy to Jesus in the desert in Paradise Lost, basically says, you wouldn't be here if it weren't for me.
Satan is held captive by his purpose as are most moguls who can't stop their perniciousness.
Captividity is the propensity to be pleased as a captive to something. When it is evil, you have a problem.
At least it's my definition of my word.

[Brainfodder]

2. Ron D. has too much baggage IMHO to be taken seriously as a contender.

But I am never recommending a Rep. candidate for president!

I hope he is the 2024 candidate, should be easily crushed, besides some consequences for wasting a lot of FL funds and that should be easy to prove?

Although Rick Scott.

[czarjak]

4. David Walker in Lubbock, Texas is a former news director for KCBD...

Trump-Taker extraordinaire though. Ask him for me please. Local version of Rupert Murdock.