When did your perception of DeSantis change?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

My personal opinion of him was never positive, which is going to be the case with basically any Republican politician, but the first signs that he wasn't a master political operator came after the midterms--he let Trump take center stage in announcing his run early (while waiting until like April to launch his own campaign) and then signed a ban on abortion (which he was smart enough to avoid as an issue in 2022). It was clear that he didn't know how to translate his state-level success into a national campaign, and the ineptitude of his actual campaign has only compounded that.

[Alben Barkley]

The Patrick Bateman video is when I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt he was finished as a serious candidate.

The Disney saga, I could see Republicans maybe being dumb enough to rally around him against Disney. But it was definitely a moment where you had to start wondering if this guy was smart enough to know how to pick his battles. And the abortion ban, one could actually see that as starting to pivot to appeal to the GOP base for the primaries after he already got his win in Florida.

But that meme video? That was the kiss of death. So many Democratic politicians in 2020, including Kamala Harris, failed miserably running "terminally online" campaigns. The moment I saw that, I knew DeSantis was somehow making exactly the same mistake and thus had no shot.

[SN2903]

He does make Trump look sane, reasonable and human.

Only because DeSantis is to the right of Attila the Hun. Trump isn't that right wing he's just nuts. He has no real ideology other than maintaining power. In 2016 he had a working class message but he seemed to abandon it by 2020 as he got cozy with the GOP establishment when running for reelection.

[Aurelius2]

He does make Trump look sane, reasonable and human.

Only because DeSantis is to the right of Attila the Hun. Trump isn't that right wing he's just nuts. He has no real ideology other than maintaining power.

He does have a core ideology on trade and immigration. He's been banging that drum since the 80s.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Never. I hated him the moment he became relevant. At best he was a non-entity that then made me immediately hate him with that one ad brainwashing his kids about Trump that got him the nomination in the first place.

[afleitch]

A dealer should never ingest that what he sells.

[7,052,770]

The 6 week abortion ban was when I flipped from being worried that he could beat Biden to being confident that he won't.

[Darthpi - Crush the Oligarchy]

My perception of who he is as a person has not changed, he's been on the far right ever since I was first aware of him.

My perception of his capabilities as a candidate, however, has changed. I never thought he was favored in the primary, mind you, but earlier in the cycle I did think he would likely hold second place with a pretty steady margin from start to finish. That changing assessment of him as a candidate was a gradual process rather than a sudden shift, but if I had to pick one specific moment that is emblematic of it, I'd probably go with this, which really illuminated just how chronically online he and his entire campaign was: https://newrepublic.com/post/173242/ron-desantis-says-woke-out-of-touch-remarks

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

The 6 week abortion ban was when I flipped from being worried that he could beat Biden to being confident that he won't.

But Harry MUH GREG ABBOTT /s

[Whale Psychiatrist]

I only started to dislike him after the 2022 midterms when he decided the Republican base was stupid enough to fall for his low-hanging woke fruit.

Needless to say, Republicans are not dumb, and will not let the culture war offer a backdoor chance for the Mitt Romneys of the world to reaffirm control of the GOP.

Your conclusion from the last few months of DeSantis's campaign is that the biggest problem with him is he's too establishment?

[MT Treasurer]

When he demonstrated that he didn’t have the psychological skill to systematically deconstruct Donald Trump's appeal to much of the Republican base and dissolve the bond between Trump and those people, instead shying away from confronting him out of fear that he would pay a price (and now paying the price — the GOP base sees Donald Trump the true Alpha male of the two).

The key to beating Trump is to understand where he is the most vulnerable on a human level and in his grip on the base, and I don’t think DeSantis has figured it out.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I only started to dislike him after the 2022 midterms when he decided the Republican base was stupid enough to fall for his low-hanging woke fruit.

Needless to say, Republicans are not dumb, and will not let the culture war offer a backdoor chance for the Mitt Romneys of the world to reaffirm control of the GOP.

Your conclusion from the last few months of DeSantis's campaign is that the biggest problem with him is he's too establishment?

Yes. He's getting everyone hot and bothered with trans issues to disguise the fact that he's a generic movement conservative. We saw with Trey Gowdy how these types act once they get into power.

[The Economy is Getting Worse]

I only started to dislike him after the 2022 midterms when he decided the Republican base was stupid enough to fall for his low-hanging woke fruit.

Needless to say, Republicans are not dumb, and will not let the culture war offer a backdoor chance for the Mitt Romneys of the world to reaffirm control of the GOP.

Your conclusion from the last few months of DeSantis's campaign is that the biggest problem with him is he's too establishment?

Yes. He's getting everyone hot and bothered with trans issues to disguise the fact that he's a generic movement conservative. We saw with Trey Gowdy how these types act once they get into power.

His actual governing record of Florida says otherwise. He's an authoritarian, who has both the will and the means to destroy the constitution (even if Trump has the former, he clearly doesn't have the latter). Very different from someone like Youngkin (Youngkin does have very conservative private positions probably, but would not govern like an authoritarian).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I only started to dislike him after the 2022 midterms when he decided the Republican base was stupid enough to fall for his low-hanging woke fruit.

Needless to say, Republicans are not dumb, and will not let the culture war offer a backdoor chance for the Mitt Romneys of the world to reaffirm control of the GOP.

Your conclusion from the last few months of DeSantis's campaign is that the biggest problem with him is he's too establishment?

Yes. He's getting everyone hot and bothered with trans issues to disguise the fact that he's a generic movement conservative. We saw with Trey Gowdy how these types act once they get into power.

His actual governing record of Florida says otherwise. He's an authoritarian, who has both the will and the means to destroy the constitution (even if Trump has the former, he clearly doesn't have the latter). Very different from someone like Youngkin (Youngkin does have very conservative private positions probably, but would not govern like an authoritarian).

But that's my point - DeSantis will do some things. He was reasonably good during COVID. But lately all he has done are silly woke laws. He hasn't fixed the state's hurricane insurance program. He hasn't done much about housing costs. He isn't focusing on the bread and butter issues that grease the wheels of MAGA populism, he's just trying to be 2024's version of Rick Santorum.

Santorum ran in 2012 on a pretty solid platform, but sent so much times talking about THE GAYZ, Israel, and Hezbollah's non-existent presence in Venezuela that his economic platform got lost on the river.

[Meatball Slayer]

When I had come to the realization that he took Rupert Murdoch’s blood money to run for President and sweep the political establishment back into power against the will of the American electorate.

And at somepoint, during my tenure as a DeSimp, I decided that I simply couldn’t pretend any longer that Meatball’s policies were somehow better than Agenda 47.

[I love MAGA, don’t send me to the camps]

When he demonstrated that he didn’t have the psychological skill to systematically deconstruct Donald Trump's appeal to much of the Republican base and dissolve the bond between Trump and those people, instead shying away from confronting him out of fear that he would pay a price (and now paying the price — the GOP base sees Donald Trump the true Alpha male of the two).

The key to beating Trump is to understand where he is the most vulnerable on a human level and in his grip on the base, and I don’t think DeSantis has figured it out.

Yes, the problem with DeSantis is that he’s a coward, a beta male.

I’ve said this before, but the 2022 losses and the 2020 loss were the things to lead with, to pierce Trump’s delusions. But instead of standing up to Trump, reclaiming reality (which is very simple, you just point out that Biden is in office and that Trump lost every key election since 2016), all DeSantis has done is… be awkward? I don’t get it.

Republican voters gravitate toward this alpha fantasy, this desire for a strongman, and so long as DJT is viewed as a winner (and a martyr for all his winning, paradoxically, because he’s such a threat to the liberal order—that’s why the indictments only strengthen him), then the race is hopeless for everyone else. RDS could have been seen as a winner, but now he’s just a joke, another loser vanquished by The Winner DJT. No coming back from that.

[Aurelius2]

I only started to dislike him after the 2022 midterms when he decided the Republican base was stupid enough to fall for his low-hanging woke fruit.

Needless to say, Republicans are not dumb, and will not let the culture war offer a backdoor chance for the Mitt Romneys of the world to reaffirm control of the GOP.

Your conclusion from the last few months of DeSantis's campaign is that the biggest problem with him is he's too establishment?

Yes. He's getting everyone hot and bothered with trans issues to disguise the fact that he's a generic movement conservative. We saw with Trey Gowdy how these types act once they get into power.

Yeah, for awhile I thought he was something special, especially during covid, but like you say I've realized he's just another awful movement conservative (I'll call them 'mocons') banging the same drum as the rest of them on most ways, except way more authoritarian and power-grabby. I can't stand them.

This is sort of off topic, but one thing I hate about mocons is they seem to think and act like their ideology is the only thing that matters in the world. Like for example, in Montana a lot of people there say Greg Gianforte just regurgitates the standard national GOP platform as if he's some national talking head, without caring about any of the particular things that make Montana, well, Montana (idk how true it is, but people there have told me that their state GOP is nationalizing fast in this way). Florida is not Alabama and RDS doesn't seem to care or realize that. No recognition of different situations and circumstances and cultural peculiarities. Just utterly boring people who might as well all be clones of each other from a lab and want everyone to live the exact same way they do too. Lame and sad!

[For Trump, everything. For immigrants, the law]

Never been a fan, and I was always scratching my head as to why so many here thought that he was some moderate or “reasonable” alternative to Trump.

[Sumner 1868]

I never thought Trump was ever going to lose the nomination under any circumstances. That said, I did initially think DeSantis would at least poll Bill Bradley levels.

[Real Texan Politics]

I'd blame the Sonnenrad on his campaign being ran by terminally online zoomers than Ron himself.