Ron DeSantis has written and published the obligatory book for a Presidential candidate. He calls it The Courage to be Free. I read the book with interest, but this article for Jack’s Journal is not a book review. Instead, it’s what I think and feel about the author after reading his I’m-running-for-President book.
He’s smart, he’s well-educated, he’s literate, these qualities in stark contrast to his main rival for the Republican nomination. But Trump looms large in DeSantis’ list of problems.
A brief biographical background: DeSantis was born in Jacksonville, Florida, 44 years ago, Italian descent, mother a nurse, father blue collar. He went to Dunedin High School in Florida, and played Little League baseball. The latter is important because he was a good ball player and was able to go to Yale on a baseball scholarship. Then Harvard Law School and the Naval Justice School. He served in Iraq as a JAG officer and received a Bronze Star.
After military service, DeSantis ran for Congress and was elected in 2012. He served on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and chaired its subcommittee on National Security. He also served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee. Notably, he founded the Freedom Caucus, which is considered the farthest-right bloc within the House Republican Conference.
DeSantis is married to Casey DeSantis, an Emmy Award winning television host. Their daughters are Madison and Mamie, their son is Mason.
Congressman DeSantis also served as a federal prosecutor, where he targeted and convicted child predators. He advocated for congressional term limits and a balanced budget amendment, and he led efforts to expose malfeasance in the IRS in abusing their authority during the Russia collusion conspiracy theory. Congressman DeSantis was also a leading champion for America’s veterans and helped enact reforms to the VA and place an emphasis on mental health.
He’s got it all, right? Now, back to what I gleaned from The Courage to be Free.
Politically, what is DeSantis passionate about? Answers come easy, and there’s a lot of them. He passionately dislikes liberal elites. (Having been to Yale and Harvard, he must know them well.) He hates all Progressive wokeness, especially when it attempts to introduce LGBTQ values into Florida’s K through 3 grades. He doesn’t like Wokeness in higher grades, too. He just plain does not like Woke. Florida, he says, is where Woke goes to die.
DeSantis strongly dislikes what he calls the “legacy media”, a lot. And he dislikes bureaucrats who, he says, overstep their bounds and try to take over the executive role of government.
For sure, and surely with passion, DeSantis does not respect or like the FBI, the Justice Department, or the Federal government generally. Especially the CDC.
He also definitely does not like corporations who express liberal or woke political opinions not related to their business, as Disney apparently did. And he is willing to use his power to punish them, as he did Disney.
He really, really does not like Fauci. Or masks. Or mandates, or any restrictions on the freedom of people. During the COVID pandemic, he kept the beaches open and, to his great credit, kept kids in school. He is very proud of his record fighting COVID without restricting freedom. Objectively, though, it’s a mixed bag compared to other states. Florida deaths per 100,000 population were 402, New York 396, California 255, and Maryland 272.
I don’t think DeSantis understands that public health people use statistics, and that statistics (not a science but a branch of mathematics) has limitations. Or maybe he just doesn’t like or trust the whole idea of public health.
What kind of President will he make? The first thing that comes to mind is that he will be competent, active, assertive, and probably aggressive at pursuing a very conservative agenda. Democrats who wish Trump would go away may be sorry what they wished for when they get DeSantis. As President, DeSantis may well be very effective at out-trumping Trump.
The second thing that comes to mind is that he won’t be President if he can’t beat Trump for the Republican nomination and, of course, Biden in the election. But first things first: the nomination. DeSantis has been a strong Trump supporter, and now is having trouble shaking that off. He has yet to take Trump on, to outright oppose him even though Trump’s behavior has provided ample opportunities. Clearly, DeSantis is afraid of losing the base of dedicated Trump supporters.
In addition to What to do about Trump and his followers? DeSantis has some other very real problems running for President. He’s new to the big National stage, and will likely make mistakes. He already made a big one by saying, like Putin, that the Ukraine war is merely a “territorial dispute.” He’s walked that back, but the comment exposes his lack of foreign policy knowledge or experience. His book says zero about foreign policy. I think he has no world view. It’s a dangerous and complicated world (Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan, etc.); we need a leader who has the knowledge, humility and perception to deal with it.
Another issue with his Presidential candidacy, I think, is all those negative passions noted above. You know: elites, wokeness, FBI, bureaucrats, the legacy media, corporations who express political opinions, Justice Department, and on and on. Are his negative passions thought through, or are they just kneejerk reactions to all that’s not conservative doctrine? If the latter, he’ll misspeak sometime, soon. Even now, when he speaks, he’ll sometimes across the red line of far-right radicalism. His authoritarianism worries and scares me.
What could DeSantis say to the Trump base to win them over? Well, he could say, but won’t, that “I’m a winner, Trump’s a loser.” (DeSantis won re-election in Florida by 20 points!) He could also say “My policies are just as trumpian as Trump’s, or moreso, but I don’t have all the turmoil and drama and lawsuits that Trump carries.” He could say, but won’t, “I’ll get you as much or more retribution as Trump.” He could say, but won’t, “I need your help; with it, we can soundly beat whoever the liberal elites throw at us. Let’s do this!”
I think he’s a good man, DeSantis, and I wish him well. May he have the courage to be free of Trump. Maybe then he’ll be able to also free himself of his doctrinaire opinions of so much of the real world.
Just Sayin’.
John R. Dixon 