Ron DeSantis' campaign may be done, but his brand of MAGA petulance will continue to plague us

[marmar]

Ron DeSantis' campaign may be done, but his brand of MAGA petulance will continue to plague us
Republican men who have power, money, and status can't stop acting like they're the victims

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED JANUARY 23, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida finally pulled the plug on his mortally wounded bid to be the Republican nominee for president. In a typical fashion for the man who drew speculation about what fingers he uses to eat pudding, DeSantis went out trying to act tough but only ended up highlighting his servility to bigger bullies. He described himself as "leading with conviction, championing an agenda marked by bold colors." In reality, however, DeSantis bent the knee to Donald Trump, a man who routinely called him names like "Meatball Ron" and "DeSanctimonious."

....(snip)....

And yet, every day on the DeSantis campaign trail started from the wrong side of the bed. No matter the subject, DeSantis sounded perpetually aggrieved. Sometimes he was snappish, and sometimes just whiny, but always bristling. Even when he was trying to sound upbeat, the river of resentment would burble up in his mannerisms and his peevish voice. Reporters got used to the way he seemed to always have sand in his underwear, but stepping back, it's just plain weird that DeSantis was so irritable all the time.

....(snip)....

Trump himself is barely literate, and his rise accelerated the exodus of college-educated voters from the GOP. Subsequently, most coverage of MAGA has focused on supporters not known for remembering what they scored on the SATs: Fox News-addled Boomers eating bacon in a rural diner. Proud Boys with more "drunk and disorderly" arrests than diplomas. Christian fundamentalists who believe Jesus rode a dinosaur. Bug-eyed conspiracy theorists raving about QAnon. What they share is whiteness and a distaste for reading anything longer than a bad meme.

....(snip)....

DeSantis often speaks in incomprehensible acronyms like "ESG" or "DEI," revealing that he was so immersed in the world of elite right-wing discourse that he lost the ability to speak plain English. Or witness the contemptuous way he dismissed criticism from actual historians when he passed a law forcing public schools to scrub lessons about the full extent of racism in America's past. "These are the most robust standards in African-American history probably anywhere in the country," he groused. It's all there: The insistence he knows more than the experts, and the bitterness towards those who disagree. He often subjects medical experts to the same treatment, sneeringly dismissing the science behind COVID-19 prevention, as if decades of research on the biology of immunity has no more validity than a Tarot card reading. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/01/23/ron-desantis-campaign-may-be-done-but-his-brand-of-maga-petulance-will-continue-to-plague-us/

[Timeflyer]

1. Perfect analysis, and so witty: "he seemed to always have sand in his underwear."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. DeathSantis spent more on private planes than on advertising

DeathSantis and his wife refused to fly commercial.

Link to tweet

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/654316-the-top-10-catastrophic-failures-of-the-ron-desantis-campaign/

PJs: What can I say? The DeSantises developed a taste for the imperial trappings of office, and even as the campaign peasants were scrounging for kernels of grain they continued to insist on private jets and white glove treatment. Perhaps the single most shocking statistic of the campaign was that it spent more on private jets than TV advertising. This speaks to an enormous sense of entitlement and an almost pathological detachment from reality.