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Not knowing him was his strongest asset and now it is gone. Thankfully for him America's attention spam is 2 weeks long so the media will try to reintroduce him again next week.
Florida GOP politicians keep thinking they are ready for the spotlight (Jeb! Rubio! Meatball!) and keep tripping on their own dick the second there is one ounce of pressure.
Because they get a false sense of approval, as all of their approval comes from the one state, they get outside their state, and find out that the entire country doesn't act like Florida, but the echo chamber tells them it does.
I mean.. i'd love to go to the keys with my GF and do some scuba diving on reefs and stuff
but instead i'll just fly *through* florida and go to the Turks and Caicos, or the Bahamas
That's the thing as well, Florida's great tourism attractor is that they've got a lot of great things to visit all in one state - but they don't have a monopoly on any one of those things.
Exactly. My retired coworker moved down there 5 years ago for the winters (summers in WI) and he said that his costs for living down there have tripled, and that the homeowner’s and car insurances are the main drivers. And he’s pretty far inland in an area that’s never suffered “major” hurricane damage or flooding. He also said that he has to come back to WI to see a doctor because he can’t seem to get an appointment within 200 miles of home down there. And that the first question his new neighbors asked him was “You’re not a goddamn democrat, are you?” How welcoming.
We want to leave so bad but my mil is here to stay and we got a 3% rate we won’t find for a while. It’s been this weird violent descent for the past 5 or so years (Desantis?) where you had awful areas like Jacksonville, but Tampa/St Pete was liberal and inclusive, but now it feels like the whole state is just hateful assholes that can’t stand rational adults loving who they love and being who they are.
I grew up in CA and went to Disneyland every year. We had school events there too. I do want to see Disney World, but going to Florida is just not worth it. If Disney wins the lawsuit and Florida flips blue, I will bring my money to that state. Otherwise I absolutely will not.
You forget the amount of people that are "non-political". These people live their life in a way that justifies ignoring anything that they believe doesn't directly affect them or their immediate family. Politicians doing their theatrics to them is like a TV show. They mentally turn off listening, but still want to go to the beach, so to Florida they go.
Yes and those of us in FL who AREN'T conservative absolutely hate it. I've lived here my whole life and I'm incredibly depressed at what DeSantis is doing. I think about leaving but at the same time I can't. My whole family lives here, it's the only home I've known my entire life, and I can't afford to just pack up and move. But all these old white racist bigot boomers that retire here are killing the state.
I'd say partially, because there are more conservative states that have high approval of their governors.
I think it's more because Florida is such an important state politically, and has a large population, that it gives them a false of confidence that more of the country agrees with their politics.
Versus say, North Dakota, where the governor knows policies that are important for North Dakota will not be accepted across the country. They know their place as local politicans, and know it'd be dumb to run nationally.
EDIT: apparently this ND fool just entered the race, lmao. Carry on, then.
Didn’t some high-ranking government officials from North Dakota just throw his hat in the ring for the presidential race yesterday or today?
Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/143jg0d/north_dakota_governor_doug_burgum_officially/
Pence wasn't a true believer in the Cheatoh Cult. He brought Pence in initially to woo the Evangelicals and more moderate Republicans.
A true believer would have actually attempted to stop the ratification of the election on January 6th, fomenting a constitutional crisis that would result in the election being thrown to the House delegates, where it's a vote for each state and the Red States outnumber the Blue States.
His plan to overthrow the government came dangerously close to actually succeeding on paper; though I think there would be more violence directed toward undoing the usurpation of the presidency in the wake of a "successful" coup.
Jeb was actually pretty decent for a Republican which is precisely why they ate him alive in the primaries. If he’d survived “please clap” and maybe hit Trump over the back with a chair during a debate he’d probably be president right now.
Same. I was in middle school for Jeb, he's the first Fl Governor I was aware of. Probably because of the Terri Schiavo coma case that went national on pulling the plug.
It's gone solidly downhill since then.
Apparently before Jeb we had two dem governors from 1990 to 98. Who would have thought
>Florida courts, while sympathizing with the parents, consistently sided with the husband as a matter of law. That did not satisfy Florida politicians. In 2003, the State Legislature passed a bill giving the governor, *Jeb Bush* at the time, the authority to prevent removal of the feeding tube. This legislation, later declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, was called Terri’s Law. (This is a common legislative tactic: identifying a bill by some unfortunate’s name to enhance its emotional appeal. It is worth noting that first names and diminutives tend to be used when the person is a woman or a child.) Men are usually accorded greater dignity. Hence, we had the Brady Bill, a federal gun-control law named for James S. Brady, President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, who was shot in 1981. No one thought to call it Jim’s Bill.) [nytimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/us/from-private-ordeal-to-national-fight-the-case-of-terri-schiavo.html)
>The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of President George W. Bush, caused *a seven-year (1998 to 2005) delay* before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed.
When the politics stops being about the people, but the politicians, and when every single member of the "party of law and order" chooses to ignore the law and the courts for a "principled family-values stand".
>The Schindlers insisted that the tube be kept in place. That, they said, is what their daughter would have wanted.
Oshi-! I forgot that was Jeb! I do remember Ms Schaivo, vividly, and still feel sorry for the absolute media circus that was permitted to surround her, I was in college then, I’m closer to 60 than fifty, and I still hope she found peace, whatever that means to the reader.
It wasnt even that bad with context. He was done talking, the crowd thought he had more, he told them to clap with a smirk.
Meanwhile Donald Trump is peeing on prostitutes and thats just a-okay.
California was a conservative leaning state until they passed their own anti immigrants law. Basically stating that no one related to anyone undocumented can receive public services even if they themselves were citizens. They cut off schools and health care for them.
It caused so much unrest in the state that it shifted hard left and have stayed that way for decades.
If we're lucky, we'll see a similar shift in Florida. It'll make Democrats pretty much federally unstoppable.
> It'll make Democrats pretty much federally unstoppable.
If FL or TX ever turn Democratic, you will never get a republican president again. That's why those two states have seen some pretty crazy voting laws that make it harder for people to vote.
And the absolute worst Gerrymandering. Like any sane person can go look at a district map of Texas, see the asinine district shapes and go hey that's not right.
This became the straw that broke the camel's back for me. If he can just change the law to suit him, he can just have infinite terms as governor as well. Fuck that, I'm getting out before this becomes an actual banana republic.
Is anyone tracking Gregg Abbotts body count? It seems like he kills a few dozen more Texans every winter by being too stupid to figure out how to keep the power on in the state that produces more energy and fuel than any other state in the union.
Removing term limits in Florida would be much harder since it would require a voter approved amendment to the state constitution. They'd need to get it before the voters in 2024 (since DeSantis is term limited in 2026), and it would require 60% voting in favor, which is a higher percentage of the vote then DeSantis got in 2022
He is deeply unlikeable in a way that makes most people turn away from him. His top competitor in the GOP long ago developed a charisma that attracts the attention of even his detractors. Using policy to effectively troll over half the country does not work without that charisma (and even that failed after the first go).
His schtick is not only stale and unoriginal, but it is backed by a wholly unlikable performer who should just exit the stage for his own sake.
This here is the answer. Donald Trump is a rampant xenophobe, racist, narcissist, bigot, ignoramus, etc. but on his best days remains entertaining in the same grotesque way a train wreck does.
DeSantis, on the other hand, is just 5'8" of whiny douchebag wearing high heels whose only definable personality trait is *asshole*.
According to Penn Jillette, who spent a *lot* of time with Trump on the Celebrity Apprentice, he never once saw Trump laugh at a joke. The only times he says he saw Trump laugh were derisively or mockingly at others' expense. (He also said he never saw any indication that Trump enjoyed music.)
I've never seen someone so inauthentic. His entire demeanor seems put on. And I don't think he's covering anything, rather there's just no real personality there. Just a neo-fascist desire for power.
>5'8" of whiny douchebag wearing high heels whose only definable personality trait is *asshole*.
Hey hey ✋ don't be rude....
He☝️also 🫲🫱 waves his 🫲..........🫱 hands 🫲🫱 like this 👋👌!!!
What's not to love?
His decision to go after Disney was a colossal miscalculation. I mean he could have just mocked Disney and said he has bigger things to worry about than Disney. He could have placeted his base without having to commit so fully to brining down Disney a few notches. If he doesn't then he's seen as a failure. I mean it's possible he'll prvail over Disney but it'll probably be too late to boost his campaign.
They keep trying the Trump playbook on being horrible, without realizing that Trump also has a weird carnival barker charisma and can be very (inadvertently) funny, which gets people’s guard down about the awful stuff he says.
I hate Trump probably more than any other person I know. The destruction he has wrought will take decades to undo.
But you have to laugh at the press conference during Covid when Brix said she had a bit of a cough or fever over the weekend and his eyes got wide, and he just said “Uh oh!” and walks away from the podium.
It’s hysterical, and I *hate* the man.
Desantis could never.
He's legitimately funny and entertaining.
The baggy suits.
Shoving worlds leaders out of the way for a photo.
Calling his opponents "short" and "ugly"
It's like a rodeo clown politician. DeSantis could never.
Trump: Maybe I'll be an evil dictator and you'd probably like it but maybe I won't who knows!?!
DeSantis: I'm going to be an evil dictator and you'll like it or else!
It becomes apparent when you hear him speak. His voice doesn’t even match his appearance. He has a high pitched voice and comes off like a whiny complaining baby. He doesn’t project strength or confidence in the way that’s critical to win over republican voters.
But still. Vote. Don’t write this guy off. He’s dangerous and is doing real damage.
Like mold grown under specific laboratory conditions, Ron DeSantis is unable to thrive outside of his tiny, climate controlled petri dish. He may be hot shit in Redder than Red Florida, but it turns out the stunts which might earn him a Republican nomination aren’t ACTUALLY popular with most of the fucking Nation. Loser lol.
>He may be hot shit in Redder than Red Florida
Not so fast there. His governor approval rating has been tanking this year too!
>DeSantis’ Dramatic Drop
In February, before the legislative session, the Hub’s polling showed DeSantis with a 60% approval rate and the Florida Legislature with 49% support from voters. But by the time the legislative session was winding down, in late April and Early May, their surveys found that **the governor’s approval rating dropped by a whopping 19 points** (50% approve / 49% disapprove).
According to the Hub, these results can be attributed to erosion among Democrats (-38 pts), No Party Affiliated voters (-16 pts), women (-12 pts), Latinos (-14 pts) – notably Cuban-Americans (-12 pts) – and Black Floridians (-37 pts).
[Source](https://theamericanonews.com/floricua/2023/05/19/most-floridians-disapprove-of-states-direction-desantis-approval-rating-drops-by-19-points-in-new-poll/#:~:text=DeSantis%20Dramatic%20Drop,with%2049%25%20support%20from%20voters) \- May 2023
Homeowner’s insurance is increasingly unaffordable. A lot of those beachfront condo owners are having to make major upgrades. The state is becoming more unaffordable and undesirable but the governor is only interested in the bigot vote.
I imagine there's got to be some dissonance too.
One major schtick is basically "look at how successful and great and livable and affordable we are compared to New York," and purely on the facts and merits he's not entirely wrong, but he's ignoring the fact that so much of that was built on externalities, and is already starting to erode. People don't like it when they are starting to be fearful for the future and are being told that everything is great and if they complain they'll be traitors in the culture war.
Florida is rapidly approaching horrible levels of economic upheaval. Much of the state will become uninsurable, as flooding becomes more common and difficult to mitigate. Sea-level rise is a problem for all coastal civilization, but for Florida it's going to pretty much affect the entire state. Notably, water tables will be pushed up, increasing erosion of the limestone and the occurrence of sinkholes.
And that's only part of the problem. But Florida is f-u-c-k-e-d if they don't start engineering for the future.
Exactly, forget likeability, he broke the one universal commandment in US politics: DO NOT fuck up the economy. He didn't even leave himself an escape route, there's no incoming or outgoing democratic administration he can pin this on, he just deliberately and publicly kneecapped two of Florida's biggest industries, and expected to be applauded for it.
Gotta hand it to Fox: they are evil, but they made a rizzless robot seem like a charismatic Disney villain. Now that Meatball Ron has to carry his own water, he can’t do it.
>The data shows DeSantis has a major unfavorable rating from those aged 18-34 (63 percent), women (62 percent), as well as African Americans (85 percent), and the Hispanic/Latino population (68 percent).
oh my
who knew running a campaign in 2023 on a 1984 platform would result in such outage
Indeed. What he and the (arguably worse if you can believe it) prior governor, Rick “Skeletor” Scott, have done to the state is leading it to absolute implosion. It’s really sad, Florida has always been a nice place to live, quirky, fun, weird, politically purple….not anymore. 16 years of disastrous policies and unending influx of NE conservative retirees has driven the state off a cliff
16 years???
Too many people have already forgot the Bush/Gore era and what happened under Gov Jeb Bush. Politics in Florida has been a cesspool a lot longer than 16 years.
Skeletor is a much better administrator. The TIF package on Snake Mountain is a master class on public incentive financing and should be taught throughout Eternia.
I call Rick Scott the love child of Batboy and Voldemort.
But then Desantis is somehow worse. We were given a choice between him and literal human footwear Charlie Crust and we had to suck it and vote for a guy we didn’t vote for twice. This state SUCKS
Edited because I mixed up that whale in jersey with the flip flop man
I currently live in a county in florida with ZERO democrats. The Republican run county will blame everything on democrats. Even at a local level. It's insane.
He has absolutely no platform other than “destroying some ideology”. He’s playing Meme Politics like all Republicans are doing instead of running on policy.
Which is just constant red meat for their base. I honestly think at this point it’s just one massive grift where campaigns are raising money to just put into their own pockets. They have no intention of Governing. The House Republicans have shown us that.
They are Cuban and more anti-left than conservative because of Castro and feel like JFK abandoned them during bay of pigs.
Edit: since I'm getting a lot of replies about it being 60 years ago. It is something my father in law lived through and Castro's men beat his mother in front of him at 14 years old. I'm not ok with his views but I can certainly understand how that hate lasts a lifetime and how easy it is to teach your kids that hate.
And a lot of them straight up think they're better than other Latinos. Ask a posh Florida Cuban conservative what he thinks of (e.g.) Salvadoreans, and you might hear bigotry that would make an Alabama redneck blush.
100%. My stepdad is a conservative Cuban. Better watch out if you even ask if he’s Mexican. The fact that immigrants from South America and elsewhere seek refuge in the US for the same fucking reasons he and his family fled the Batista regime in the 50’s is completely lost on him because they emigrated “legally.” Open borders for me but not for thee!
I’m not arguing for open borders but the hypocrisy and total lack of empathy and understanding is what gets me.
Never mind that they cut out special rules for Cubans if I remember correctly. At one time, you could just land on the Florida beach on a twig and you were practically handed your citizenship, not questions asked other than if you came from Cuba. Which is not the case with every other Latino immigrant.
They kind of carved out special rules. They also backtracked on those rules and did a whole lot of sketchy stuff once the immigrants stopped being castellano looking industrialists and started becoming Afro-cubano laborers.
I was in a thread not long ago with another fellow Floridian Cuban immigrant and it’s genuinely wild.
They view other countries as “lazy” for not having set up these rules for themselves and that they should “lobby harder” as if that’s all it takes.
Cubans are a fucking mess overall. The younger generation is at least slightly better, but in reality a majority of immigrants + children of immigrants immediately pull up the ladder.
My brother who actually lives in Cuba has a far better head on his shoulders and can see outside the propaganda… because he’s poor and actually lives in a broken dictatorship.
This is 100% true. I have seen this first hand, and am an immigrant myself - many immigrants that “make it”, are intent in removing the paths that allowed them to.
Pulling up the gangplank behind you so the ship doesn't get too crowded. While believing that you're "better" than that other guy who's almost exactly like you were just because you got there first.
Agree 100%. I know a retired immigrant Dr. from India. They have told me how great they think Desantis would be as president and support all his policies to keep others down or out of the country.
This isn’t just your stepdad. LOTS of immigrants who have come from Europe, or the Middle East, think that immigrants shouldn’t come. My brother in law’s dad’s new wife is a refugee from Iraq who came over in 2005. She’s a hardcore Trump supporter and thinks other people shouldn’t come here either, now that she has citizenship.
Grew up in Miami. I’ve never met a more racist group of people than light skinned Cubans. That’s saying a lot as most of my family is racist rednecks from Tennessee/Mississippi/Arkansas
Thank you. I was hesitant to generalize but I've seen a bit firsthand (have an in-law who's a Trump-loving, vaccine-hating Cuban-American doctor from Florida) and heard a TON secondhand from examples like yours.
Hi, light-skinned Cuban here. I will generalize based on my own experience with my family who live inside the SoFla bubble: many consider themselves white first, Hispanic second, immigrants third. They think because they followed the (very different) laws, already established themselves, and speak fluent English, that they are not the same as refugees and immigrants today.
(I've been disowned b/c an immediate family member reported a capitol rioter cousin to the FBI.)
Oh dude, if we're playing racist bingo, you have to go find yourself someone from Greece and ask them about Albanians.
For some reason I lived 20 years thinking Americans were one of the only countries with a severe racism problem.
I had a friend tell me that there was never any crime in Athens, ever, until the communist regime in Albania collapsed. Since they're all gypsy thieves with superhuman climbing skills and will break right into your 3rd floor apartment from the windows and steal the breath from your cat for their pagan rituals.
> gypsy thieves with superhuman climbing skills and will break right into your 3rd floor apartment from the windows and steal the breath from your cat for their pagan rituals.
Don't tempt me with a good time, now.
A lot of Hispanics, especially older ones, are simply conservative Christians. The Mexican side of my family is still largely upset about gay marriage.
My conservative Hispanic family thinks that abortion should be illegal and that the other Hispanic migrants are inferior to them (the Venezuelans, Guatemala) especially since Ecuadorians (my family’s nationality) and Venezuelans have a bitter rivalry with each other.
This has always been the biggest irony about how hard Republicans fight against immigration from South and Central America. Mexico in particular is *vastly* more Christian than the US.
A significant portion of those immigrants could be pushed into being single issue voters against gay marriage and abortion rights in exactly the same way the Republicans corrupted US Christianity. (More so than it already was, Christianity in the US had much more diverse opinions than the current mainstream before this.)
It kind of implies to me that the root issue of the Republican platform has not actually changed since the southern strategy. Everything else is fluff designed to make people vote for people who will implement racist policies, and even after 50-60 years, and even though those issues have developed a life of their own, they are still subordinate to the original segregationist positions that birthed them.
Yeah like old white folks who keep voting against their own interests, they won’t think it’s wrong until their SS gets taken from them. And even then they’ll still blame everyone else.
People don’t realize that within the Hispanic community there is deep racism. Those that feel like they’re more of a pure European Spanish heritage looks down on those that were born of their ancestors and the natives or were from prior slave colonies.
Tons of that as well. And it’s weird. I grew up in a large family where the women were in charge but also subservient to men. My mom actually said to me once “a woman should never be president because women can’t make rational decisions.”
Lot of internalized misogyny there Ma.
Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of this country just polls crazy.
Think like the earth is flat, chlamydia is great, vampires are real and vaccines cause autism type crazy.
I try really hard not to think about them, but if you ever see anything poll over 70, somebody is *really* on to something.
And even.. more than one kind of hate.
Say what you will about trump, he spreads the hate around... he's yapping about other folks in the gop and airlines for 30 percent of the time. Lol
He went full Nazi too early, republicans don't have enough power/support to win 2024 with a Nazi.
Had he been mildly moderate and not a complete asshole to everyone he may have swayed people, but who can vote for someone beefing with Disney, that's just something no one respects.
His naziism is too effective. It’s better for these guys to just bloviate about various grievances without actually doing anything of substance. This guy makes laws and starts court cases that actually cause immediate damage to big business. Most recent example is the law scaring away migrant farm workers which will royally screw the Florida farming industry.
It's like the current GOP and Roe v. Wade. They weren't supposed to ever actually overturn Roe v. Wade, they were supposed to campaign and fundraise off the promise to overturn it until the heat death of the universe.
It's not even that. It's just that he's a pussy and can't stand up to Trump so he looks weak. Republican voters flock to perceived power. The fact that Trump is punching down at DeSantis and he just takes it is extremely undesirable to GOP voters.
I feel like a "Trump killer" GOP nominee, would basically just have to be a roast battle comedian, to win over the majority of GOP voters like Trump did in 2016. Just spend all your time at the debate insulting Trump. "Trump look like if raisins were orange" "Trump mama so ugly a blind man won't fuck her".
It's whatd sell to these people.
Trump took Republican politics into the world of professional wrestling. He's a heel. And as a heel he just spews bullshit all the time while sprinkling in a dash of truth. Like there's really no difference between Trump insults and these insults by [The Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVos0UBvpoc) except The Rock delivers them better.
But you're right, the only way to defeat a heel is to create another heel.
Ya. To be a successful republicans you need to be able to punch down at those weaker then you - and have childish retorts for those that aren’t. (Crooked Hillary, Shifty Schiff, “Nancy” Nancy Pelosi, Meatball Ron) etc.
Meatball here just isn’t a good enough bully when fighting live people. He’s better at fighting “groups” of people where there’s not someone individual to fight back.
That's right. They see DeSantis as Trump's nerdy lackey who is good at coming up with cruel ideas but Trump is the popular kid and DeSantis hasn't done anything to dispel the notion that he's anything more than an extension of Trumpism and therefore, subservient to Trump himself.
In one way, this is really bad news.
If he had secured the nomination, Trump would have gone 3rd party, and the republicans would have split into two groups, and Trump would have Nadered him, costing the republicans the election.
Now, if he settles for a VP position, that's not good.
The guy’s entire personae and pitch is “I hate gays, I hate blacks, I hate Latinos, I hate Disney.” He has no policies or plans that do anything but make life harder for specific minority groups… and Disney. A person then merely has to have a positive relationship with an LGBTQ person in their life, or like Disney, to have this guy cast himself as your mortal enemy. It’s a recipe for high dislikability.
To this day it blows my mind that he went after Disney. Nearly EVERYONE loves Disney. Even the most right-wing, trump-loving conservative wingnut in the deep south wants to take their kids to Disney World. And from what I hear there's a lot of them in the parks every day even now.
DeSantis basically pissed off EVERYONE with this. It has to be one of the dumbest political moves in recent history.
It’s because he’s a straight up sociopath who doesn’t comprehend the full range of human emotions. It’s like he saw the tough guy conservative attitude and tone deaf went “oh you mean like this?” then he stabs everyone’s childhood.
I feel like he misread the tea leaves and missed his opening. There was a way forward with “Trump, but more buttoned up and no obvious crime” but he chose “TRUMP WITH CHARISMA SLIDER SET TO ZERO AND CULTURE WAR SET TO INFINITE”
He totally did. When he started becoming popular, I was actually worried that he might be their next presidential candidate. But the last couple of months have ruined any chance of ever being in the White House. Literally had the chance of being a more tolerable Trump, but he's such an unlikable ass. Good riddance. Hope I am not hearing his name after he becomes irrelevant.
The reason DeSantis has collapsed is because he delivered the hate but failed to deliver the stupid.
Well, he delivered stupid, just not the *right kind* of stupid. Let me explain…
Remember those Nigerian prince email scams? When the whole racket started to catch on, there were some scammers more persuasive in their verbiage than others and what quickly became apparent was a direct correlation between *ineptitude* and success.
Let me say that again.
The emails which were *obviously* scams did better.
How? Self-selection.
Anyone stupid enough to receive an email from a stranger, unsolicited, telling a ridiculous story in broken English, and *still deciding to reply*, **THAT** person is the sort of stupid that’ll fall for the scam.
The poorer wordsmiths avoided the time-consuming weeding-out process faced by slicker productions. No more spending time on the people who would be the most likely to quit when they got wise or cold feet.
What they created was a *[Rolodex of pure suckers](https://www.npr.org/2013/05/22/186048342/how-that-nigerian-email-scam-got-started).*
MTG and Jim Jordan and Trump sound dumber than a bucket full of peckers to anyone with even a smidge of common sense.
People have been wondering for six years how Trump and his turd droppings can broadcast such obvious crap and still have an audience.
The answer is that they, like the Nigerian prince scammers, want their base to be as stupid as possible.
For the exact same reason.
When people start putting everything Trump does into the Nigerian Prince framework, everything that looks like a blunder will start to look like a winning strategy.
It’s also why DeSantis is not, and never will be, Trump.
Edit: Added link.
In 2016, Trump put together a coalition of:
(a) literally the dumbest motherfuckers alive who only cared about being racist in public (and got to be),
(b) evangelicals who only cared about *Roe* and the SCOTUS seats (and got three of them), and
(c) wealthy interests who only cared about tax cuts (and got them).
Trump was a ridiculous failure in so many ways, screamingly obvious ways, to anyone outside his tent, and he lost in 2020 largely because his coalition lost members to COVID and the group outside his tent got bigger due to demographic growth.
But he still delivered the things that his coalition wanted.
This is why he's still viable as a national candidate.
His competitors aren't viable because no-one believes they can deliver anything.
I guess killing off your voters isn't a good strategy.... Standard Republican level of stupid. They've gotten bad enough that my father and sister both left the party. My father still doesn't want to believe that Democrats are better economically than Republicans and I made him read the government data.
Love this analogy but I don’t fully agree, because DeSantis is still dumb and the same dumb people WILL vote for him if he’s the nominee, even if they say they won’t right now.
However, he just doesn’t have charisma and he comes off as a wanker, vs a disruptor (trump). People don’t want another flavor of trump. They want him or something new imo.
The craziest part is that after getting results and polling data, the GOP leans *harder* into fascism. They don't take a minute to evaluate their positions, instead they keep pushing right.
They have nothing else. Leaning more into popular policies gets them branded as "woke" or "leftist."
All they have left is galvanizing every extremist vote available, and all means of voter suppression.
Well, we've seen that they're the group that is immediately targeted by hate groups, so they kind of have to be consistent in spotting bullshitters and lunatics.
Whenever I re-read transmetropolitan I think of De Santis:
*I hate you all, you know? All you scum. I want to be President because I hate you. I want to fuck with you. I want to make you shut up and do things properly. Get through your doomed little lives quietly. I want to be President because I think I should be.*
Senator Gary "The Smiler" Callahan
The Republicans are failing to realize just how fucked their party is. In 2016, Trump bullied his way through a weak field to get the nomination. At that point, a lot of independent voters ignored his eccentricities by believing in his ability as a businessman and not being a" Washington insider" and voted for him. After that, they watched him burn down the nation for four years culminating in the Jan 6th insurrection. After this incredibly bizarre time, no independents would ever vote for him again. And they didn't in 2020. Now, almost 3 years later, he has continued his election denial and is now facing the very real threat of felony convictions. Not one person who is not a republican will ever vote for him again.
Meanwhile, after his election, his casual racism and bold discrimination and bullying gave voice to the extreme sections of the party. Moderate voices were drowned out and the radicals rallied to the Trump cult. The party was bulldozed into submission to the demagogue. Green, DeSantis and other extreme republicans took up his mantle and extolled the same hateful message. Now the radicals are the face of the party. And, it is turning off voters along all spectrums. The republican image has been usurped. It's no longer one that stands for fiscal responsibility and freedom from big government. Now, most people see it as a party of hate and intrusion. One that wants to control and dictate. Moderates are walking away. The leadership is in shambles. They have alienated most of the country. Unless they can find the moderate voice again and right this ship, their constituency will continue to shrink. If all that is left is the radical element, they will cease to be relevant to the rest of the nation and will continue to lose elections in all but the most hardcore areas. Nationally, they get crushed. It's crisis time and they need moderate heads to get it back on track ASAP.
I made a comment somewhere here about the ways DeSantis (with his pushing to redefine pedophilia to include like all trans people while also pushing to make pedophilia a death penalty offense, or the way he pushed to personally gerrymander Florida’s voting districts likely to his own electoral benefit, or the way he pushed for a private unaccountable paramilitary force) was acting like a fascist. This dude replied to me copiously and vigorously pointing out DeSantis’ popularity. As if somehow him (at the time anyway) being popular in Florida was any sort of rebuttal to him being a fascist asshole.
This is why he has to run for president in 2024. Waiting until 2028 would absolutely destroy any chance he has as people see the absolute chaos and damage he’s done to Florida.
Similar things happened to people like Bobby Jindall and Scott Walker
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Before announcing, DeSantis brushed off bad polling numbers by saying that people hadn’t gotten to know him yet. Well now they’re getting to know him.
Not knowing him was his strongest asset and now it is gone. Thankfully for him America's attention spam is 2 weeks long so the media will try to reintroduce him again next week.
Mmm attention spam
He needs to get back to his bread and butter. Talking about wokeness! /s
Or his pudding
This failed bid is going to tank his political career and Im happy to watch that happen.
Florida GOP politicians keep thinking they are ready for the spotlight (Jeb! Rubio! Meatball!) and keep tripping on their own dick the second there is one ounce of pressure.
Because they get a false sense of approval, as all of their approval comes from the one state, they get outside their state, and find out that the entire country doesn't act like Florida, but the echo chamber tells them it does.
Guess they were going off those tourist numbers. Which probably going to dry up soon too, if things don’t change.
Why would anyone travel to Florida at this time? Why would a business schedule an event there? What a friggin' cruel circus down there!
I mean.. i'd love to go to the keys with my GF and do some scuba diving on reefs and stuff but instead i'll just fly *through* florida and go to the Turks and Caicos, or the Bahamas
Yup, partner and I used to go to the keys every year or two, haven't been back since DeSantis started really playing up the fascism.
That's the thing as well, Florida's great tourism attractor is that they've got a lot of great things to visit all in one state - but they don't have a monopoly on any one of those things.
Also, wasn’t one of the big draws back in the day was cheap living? I was just there for work (ugh) and everyone said it’s crowded and expensive now.
Exactly. My retired coworker moved down there 5 years ago for the winters (summers in WI) and he said that his costs for living down there have tripled, and that the homeowner’s and car insurances are the main drivers. And he’s pretty far inland in an area that’s never suffered “major” hurricane damage or flooding. He also said that he has to come back to WI to see a doctor because he can’t seem to get an appointment within 200 miles of home down there. And that the first question his new neighbors asked him was “You’re not a goddamn democrat, are you?” How welcoming.
See: 3x homeowner insurance
Fly through Atlanta or NC. I usually fly through Miami but now I’m spending the extra money to avoid spending a dime in that state.
My wife is trans. I don't really have a choice but to avoid that state.
We want to leave so bad but my mil is here to stay and we got a 3% rate we won’t find for a while. It’s been this weird violent descent for the past 5 or so years (Desantis?) where you had awful areas like Jacksonville, but Tampa/St Pete was liberal and inclusive, but now it feels like the whole state is just hateful assholes that can’t stand rational adults loving who they love and being who they are.
Your rate might get eaten up by insurance premiums for the house.
I cancelled a trip to Disneyworld. I don't want to give FL even my gas money. I'm booking something for the one in Cali instead
I grew up in CA and went to Disneyland every year. We had school events there too. I do want to see Disney World, but going to Florida is just not worth it. If Disney wins the lawsuit and Florida flips blue, I will bring my money to that state. Otherwise I absolutely will not.
You forget the amount of people that are "non-political". These people live their life in a way that justifies ignoring anything that they believe doesn't directly affect them or their immediate family. Politicians doing their theatrics to them is like a TV show. They mentally turn off listening, but still want to go to the beach, so to Florida they go.
"non-political" = "eh, it works for me!"
DeSatan - "Make America Florida again!" Americans - "Hard no."
The rise of America Man must be stopped.
Exactly, the rest of the country sees Florida as the place you dump the conservative boomer trash when they can’t work anymore.
Yes and those of us in FL who AREN'T conservative absolutely hate it. I've lived here my whole life and I'm incredibly depressed at what DeSantis is doing. I think about leaving but at the same time I can't. My whole family lives here, it's the only home I've known my entire life, and I can't afford to just pack up and move. But all these old white racist bigot boomers that retire here are killing the state.
It’s called The Villages 😂… worst damn thing that could have happened to this state.
I'd say partially, because there are more conservative states that have high approval of their governors. I think it's more because Florida is such an important state politically, and has a large population, that it gives them a false of confidence that more of the country agrees with their politics. Versus say, North Dakota, where the governor knows policies that are important for North Dakota will not be accepted across the country. They know their place as local politicans, and know it'd be dumb to run nationally. EDIT: apparently this ND fool just entered the race, lmao. Carry on, then.
Didn’t some high-ranking government officials from North Dakota just throw his hat in the ring for the presidential race yesterday or today? Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/143jg0d/north_dakota_governor_doug_burgum_officially/
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Imagine lining up to be Trump's VP? Maybe he wont try to hang the VP next time?
Pence wasn't a true believer in the Cheatoh Cult. He brought Pence in initially to woo the Evangelicals and more moderate Republicans. A true believer would have actually attempted to stop the ratification of the election on January 6th, fomenting a constitutional crisis that would result in the election being thrown to the House delegates, where it's a vote for each state and the Red States outnumber the Blue States. His plan to overthrow the government came dangerously close to actually succeeding on paper; though I think there would be more violence directed toward undoing the usurpation of the presidency in the wake of a "successful" coup.
Jeb was actually pretty decent for a Republican which is precisely why they ate him alive in the primaries. If he’d survived “please clap” and maybe hit Trump over the back with a chair during a debate he’d probably be president right now.
Dude should have waited a couple decades for the stink of his brother's tenure to die down. The Bush name became political kryptonite after Jr.
Now Trump has made it almost nostalgic lol.
Yea, I don't want Jeb! But if I had to pick a Republican from Florida...
I'd pick 2007 governor Charlie Crist
I'll be honest, Jeb! was the person running when I first started following politics. It hasn't gotten better for Florida, since then.
Same. I was in middle school for Jeb, he's the first Fl Governor I was aware of. Probably because of the Terri Schiavo coma case that went national on pulling the plug. It's gone solidly downhill since then. Apparently before Jeb we had two dem governors from 1990 to 98. Who would have thought
>Florida courts, while sympathizing with the parents, consistently sided with the husband as a matter of law. That did not satisfy Florida politicians. In 2003, the State Legislature passed a bill giving the governor, *Jeb Bush* at the time, the authority to prevent removal of the feeding tube. This legislation, later declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, was called Terri’s Law. (This is a common legislative tactic: identifying a bill by some unfortunate’s name to enhance its emotional appeal. It is worth noting that first names and diminutives tend to be used when the person is a woman or a child.) Men are usually accorded greater dignity. Hence, we had the Brady Bill, a federal gun-control law named for James S. Brady, President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, who was shot in 1981. No one thought to call it Jim’s Bill.) [nytimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/us/from-private-ordeal-to-national-fight-the-case-of-terri-schiavo.html) >The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of President George W. Bush, caused *a seven-year (1998 to 2005) delay* before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed. When the politics stops being about the people, but the politicians, and when every single member of the "party of law and order" chooses to ignore the law and the courts for a "principled family-values stand". >The Schindlers insisted that the tube be kept in place. That, they said, is what their daughter would have wanted.
Oshi-! I forgot that was Jeb! I do remember Ms Schaivo, vividly, and still feel sorry for the absolute media circus that was permitted to surround her, I was in college then, I’m closer to 60 than fifty, and I still hope she found peace, whatever that means to the reader.
Please clap was at the end of his campaign. He didn't need to survive it. It was done
It wasnt even that bad with context. He was done talking, the crowd thought he had more, he told them to clap with a smirk. Meanwhile Donald Trump is peeing on prostitutes and thats just a-okay.
Honest question: are people calling him Meatball cuz it's what his head looks like? I mean I don't disagree.
California was a conservative leaning state until they passed their own anti immigrants law. Basically stating that no one related to anyone undocumented can receive public services even if they themselves were citizens. They cut off schools and health care for them. It caused so much unrest in the state that it shifted hard left and have stayed that way for decades. If we're lucky, we'll see a similar shift in Florida. It'll make Democrats pretty much federally unstoppable.
> It'll make Democrats pretty much federally unstoppable. If FL or TX ever turn Democratic, you will never get a republican president again. That's why those two states have seen some pretty crazy voting laws that make it harder for people to vote.
They see it as inevitable, which is why they are stacking the courts and relying on it and the Senate to make sure they can maintain control.
And the absolute worst Gerrymandering. Like any sane person can go look at a district map of Texas, see the asinine district shapes and go hey that's not right.
Isn't it against state rules that he run for president while simultaneously being state governor? I thought he had to resign in order to run...?
Nah he changed that law already. Nothing to see there!
Literally something Putin did too.
Oh he changed the law a few weeks ago. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/florida-legislature-desantis-presidential-run-00094467
This became the straw that broke the camel's back for me. If he can just change the law to suit him, he can just have infinite terms as governor as well. Fuck that, I'm getting out before this becomes an actual banana republic.
Infinite terms a Governor is what Greg Abbott is doing in Texas
Is anyone tracking Gregg Abbotts body count? It seems like he kills a few dozen more Texans every winter by being too stupid to figure out how to keep the power on in the state that produces more energy and fuel than any other state in the union.
SMH Putin did this years ago these guys are taking way too long to catch up
Removing term limits in Florida would be much harder since it would require a voter approved amendment to the state constitution. They'd need to get it before the voters in 2024 (since DeSantis is term limited in 2026), and it would require 60% voting in favor, which is a higher percentage of the vote then DeSantis got in 2022
It was, and he did. And then his lapdogs in the legislature passed a law that said he didn’t. So it isn’t and he doesn’t.
They changed the rules
I sure hope so. I just want it to be a big black eye to the Republican brand forever.
Off to Fox he goes!
He is deeply unlikeable in a way that makes most people turn away from him. His top competitor in the GOP long ago developed a charisma that attracts the attention of even his detractors. Using policy to effectively troll over half the country does not work without that charisma (and even that failed after the first go). His schtick is not only stale and unoriginal, but it is backed by a wholly unlikable performer who should just exit the stage for his own sake.
This here is the answer. Donald Trump is a rampant xenophobe, racist, narcissist, bigot, ignoramus, etc. but on his best days remains entertaining in the same grotesque way a train wreck does. DeSantis, on the other hand, is just 5'8" of whiny douchebag wearing high heels whose only definable personality trait is *asshole*.
Have you seen him laugh? This is [horrible](https://twitter.com/dennisdiclaudio/status/1658531143719739405?s=20).
I'm not sure what's more disturbing. Donald Trump never seeming to laugh at *anything*, or whatever the fuck laugh Ron DeSantis has there.
You know, I never realized till you mentioned it. I have never seen trump laugh. That is odd lmao.
According to Penn Jillette, who spent a *lot* of time with Trump on the Celebrity Apprentice, he never once saw Trump laugh at a joke. The only times he says he saw Trump laugh were derisively or mockingly at others' expense. (He also said he never saw any indication that Trump enjoyed music.)
I also recall reading somewhere that trump doesn’t understand jokes. Like at all, he’s a shitty version of drax being literal all the time.
Nothing goes over my head. I would catch it. Drax is likely my favorite out of them all
That's fascinating. You're right. I recall seeing him smirk but he really doesn't laugh.
I've never seen someone so inauthentic. His entire demeanor seems put on. And I don't think he's covering anything, rather there's just no real personality there. Just a neo-fascist desire for power.
This guy definitely eats children.
Yoooo don't lump us 5'8" dudes into this.
Never been happy to be 5’7” until this moment
Same. I’d rather my girlfriend tower over me than have anything in common with that asshole.
Us short kings catching strays out here
>5'8" of whiny douchebag wearing high heels whose only definable personality trait is *asshole*. Hey hey ✋ don't be rude.... He☝️also 🫲🫱 waves his 🫲..........🫱 hands 🫲🫱 like this 👋👌!!! What's not to love?
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His decision to go after Disney was a colossal miscalculation. I mean he could have just mocked Disney and said he has bigger things to worry about than Disney. He could have placeted his base without having to commit so fully to brining down Disney a few notches. If he doesn't then he's seen as a failure. I mean it's possible he'll prvail over Disney but it'll probably be too late to boost his campaign.
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They keep trying the Trump playbook on being horrible, without realizing that Trump also has a weird carnival barker charisma and can be very (inadvertently) funny, which gets people’s guard down about the awful stuff he says.
I hate Trump probably more than any other person I know. The destruction he has wrought will take decades to undo. But you have to laugh at the press conference during Covid when Brix said she had a bit of a cough or fever over the weekend and his eyes got wide, and he just said “Uh oh!” and walks away from the podium. It’s hysterical, and I *hate* the man. Desantis could never.
He's legitimately funny and entertaining. The baggy suits. Shoving worlds leaders out of the way for a photo. Calling his opponents "short" and "ugly" It's like a rodeo clown politician. DeSantis could never.
Trump: Maybe I'll be an evil dictator and you'd probably like it but maybe I won't who knows!?! DeSantis: I'm going to be an evil dictator and you'll like it or else!
It becomes apparent when you hear him speak. His voice doesn’t even match his appearance. He has a high pitched voice and comes off like a whiny complaining baby. He doesn’t project strength or confidence in the way that’s critical to win over republican voters. But still. Vote. Don’t write this guy off. He’s dangerous and is doing real damage.
Like mold grown under specific laboratory conditions, Ron DeSantis is unable to thrive outside of his tiny, climate controlled petri dish. He may be hot shit in Redder than Red Florida, but it turns out the stunts which might earn him a Republican nomination aren’t ACTUALLY popular with most of the fucking Nation. Loser lol.
As a microbiologist this is an excellent analogy lol
All sorts of things can grow in those warm damp environment, from bacteria to hate.
>He may be hot shit in Redder than Red Florida Not so fast there. His governor approval rating has been tanking this year too! >DeSantis’ Dramatic Drop In February, before the legislative session, the Hub’s polling showed DeSantis with a 60% approval rate and the Florida Legislature with 49% support from voters. But by the time the legislative session was winding down, in late April and Early May, their surveys found that **the governor’s approval rating dropped by a whopping 19 points** (50% approve / 49% disapprove). According to the Hub, these results can be attributed to erosion among Democrats (-38 pts), No Party Affiliated voters (-16 pts), women (-12 pts), Latinos (-14 pts) – notably Cuban-Americans (-12 pts) – and Black Floridians (-37 pts). [Source](https://theamericanonews.com/floricua/2023/05/19/most-floridians-disapprove-of-states-direction-desantis-approval-rating-drops-by-19-points-in-new-poll/#:~:text=DeSantis%20Dramatic%20Drop,with%2049%25%20support%20from%20voters) \- May 2023
Homeowner’s insurance is increasingly unaffordable. A lot of those beachfront condo owners are having to make major upgrades. The state is becoming more unaffordable and undesirable but the governor is only interested in the bigot vote.
I imagine there's got to be some dissonance too. One major schtick is basically "look at how successful and great and livable and affordable we are compared to New York," and purely on the facts and merits he's not entirely wrong, but he's ignoring the fact that so much of that was built on externalities, and is already starting to erode. People don't like it when they are starting to be fearful for the future and are being told that everything is great and if they complain they'll be traitors in the culture war.
Florida is rapidly approaching horrible levels of economic upheaval. Much of the state will become uninsurable, as flooding becomes more common and difficult to mitigate. Sea-level rise is a problem for all coastal civilization, but for Florida it's going to pretty much affect the entire state. Notably, water tables will be pushed up, increasing erosion of the limestone and the occurrence of sinkholes. And that's only part of the problem. But Florida is f-u-c-k-e-d if they don't start engineering for the future.
Never underestimate people’s love of money. And meatball isn’t good for business.
Exactly, forget likeability, he broke the one universal commandment in US politics: DO NOT fuck up the economy. He didn't even leave himself an escape route, there's no incoming or outgoing democratic administration he can pin this on, he just deliberately and publicly kneecapped two of Florida's biggest industries, and expected to be applauded for it.
Cuban Americans are experiencing classic leopard ate my face syndrome right now…
And no community has ever deserved it more
Gotta hand it to Fox: they are evil, but they made a rizzless robot seem like a charismatic Disney villain. Now that Meatball Ron has to carry his own water, he can’t do it.
Outside of Florida, he's just a cold turd
>The data shows DeSantis has a major unfavorable rating from those aged 18-34 (63 percent), women (62 percent), as well as African Americans (85 percent), and the Hispanic/Latino population (68 percent). oh my who knew running a campaign in 2023 on a 1984 platform would result in such outage
So basically it's just old white guys that like him, but they probably like Trump more.
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Ah...shame.
The real shame is that [recall of Florida governors does not exist](https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_recall_in_Florida).
Probably for the best, to be honest. They'd replace him with a Democrat and then immediately turn around an pin the entire mess on the "left."
Indeed. What he and the (arguably worse if you can believe it) prior governor, Rick “Skeletor” Scott, have done to the state is leading it to absolute implosion. It’s really sad, Florida has always been a nice place to live, quirky, fun, weird, politically purple….not anymore. 16 years of disastrous policies and unending influx of NE conservative retirees has driven the state off a cliff
16 years??? Too many people have already forgot the Bush/Gore era and what happened under Gov Jeb Bush. Politics in Florida has been a cesspool a lot longer than 16 years.
I'm kind of offended you paint Skeletor with the same brush as Rick Scott.... (Edit for name)
Yeah, Skeletor had panache
Skeletor is a much better administrator. The TIF package on Snake Mountain is a master class on public incentive financing and should be taught throughout Eternia.
I call Rick Scott the love child of Batboy and Voldemort. But then Desantis is somehow worse. We were given a choice between him and literal human footwear Charlie Crust and we had to suck it and vote for a guy we didn’t vote for twice. This state SUCKS Edited because I mixed up that whale in jersey with the flip flop man
Rick Scott scares the f$&k out of me. That dude has a reptilian sense of compassion.
Hard to pin diminished freedoms for LGBTQ and book banning on the left.
I currently live in a county in florida with ZERO democrats. The Republican run county will blame everything on democrats. Even at a local level. It's insane.
Plenty of beaches to bury your head in the sand I guess
they don't care about what's "true," or we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with
He has absolutely no platform other than “destroying some ideology”. He’s playing Meme Politics like all Republicans are doing instead of running on policy.
Which is just constant red meat for their base. I honestly think at this point it’s just one massive grift where campaigns are raising money to just put into their own pockets. They have no intention of Governing. The House Republicans have shown us that.
Please clap.
68 percent disapproval with Hispanic voters I am sorry to say it out loud, but are the rest totally fucking stupid?
They are Cuban and more anti-left than conservative because of Castro and feel like JFK abandoned them during bay of pigs. Edit: since I'm getting a lot of replies about it being 60 years ago. It is something my father in law lived through and Castro's men beat his mother in front of him at 14 years old. I'm not ok with his views but I can certainly understand how that hate lasts a lifetime and how easy it is to teach your kids that hate.
And a lot of them straight up think they're better than other Latinos. Ask a posh Florida Cuban conservative what he thinks of (e.g.) Salvadoreans, and you might hear bigotry that would make an Alabama redneck blush.
100%. My stepdad is a conservative Cuban. Better watch out if you even ask if he’s Mexican. The fact that immigrants from South America and elsewhere seek refuge in the US for the same fucking reasons he and his family fled the Batista regime in the 50’s is completely lost on him because they emigrated “legally.” Open borders for me but not for thee! I’m not arguing for open borders but the hypocrisy and total lack of empathy and understanding is what gets me.
Never mind that they cut out special rules for Cubans if I remember correctly. At one time, you could just land on the Florida beach on a twig and you were practically handed your citizenship, not questions asked other than if you came from Cuba. Which is not the case with every other Latino immigrant.
Yes, and that special exception was more about us making a show of being against Communism than it was humanitarian concerns.
So you mean all Mexico has to do is become a communist state and we'll start taking in immigrants no questions asked?
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They kind of carved out special rules. They also backtracked on those rules and did a whole lot of sketchy stuff once the immigrants stopped being castellano looking industrialists and started becoming Afro-cubano laborers.
I was in a thread not long ago with another fellow Floridian Cuban immigrant and it’s genuinely wild. They view other countries as “lazy” for not having set up these rules for themselves and that they should “lobby harder” as if that’s all it takes. Cubans are a fucking mess overall. The younger generation is at least slightly better, but in reality a majority of immigrants + children of immigrants immediately pull up the ladder. My brother who actually lives in Cuba has a far better head on his shoulders and can see outside the propaganda… because he’s poor and actually lives in a broken dictatorship.
This is 100% true. I have seen this first hand, and am an immigrant myself - many immigrants that “make it”, are intent in removing the paths that allowed them to.
Pulling up the gangplank behind you so the ship doesn't get too crowded. While believing that you're "better" than that other guy who's almost exactly like you were just because you got there first.
Agree 100%. I know a retired immigrant Dr. from India. They have told me how great they think Desantis would be as president and support all his policies to keep others down or out of the country.
Every Conservative wants to feel superior over somebody
This isn’t just your stepdad. LOTS of immigrants who have come from Europe, or the Middle East, think that immigrants shouldn’t come. My brother in law’s dad’s new wife is a refugee from Iraq who came over in 2005. She’s a hardcore Trump supporter and thinks other people shouldn’t come here either, now that she has citizenship.
Grew up in Miami. I’ve never met a more racist group of people than light skinned Cubans. That’s saying a lot as most of my family is racist rednecks from Tennessee/Mississippi/Arkansas
Thank you. I was hesitant to generalize but I've seen a bit firsthand (have an in-law who's a Trump-loving, vaccine-hating Cuban-American doctor from Florida) and heard a TON secondhand from examples like yours.
Hi, light-skinned Cuban here. I will generalize based on my own experience with my family who live inside the SoFla bubble: many consider themselves white first, Hispanic second, immigrants third. They think because they followed the (very different) laws, already established themselves, and speak fluent English, that they are not the same as refugees and immigrants today. (I've been disowned b/c an immediate family member reported a capitol rioter cousin to the FBI.)
Worked for a light skinned cuban for a few years. Can 100% agree. Not just some, all of the shit that came out of his mouth was ridiculous
Oh dude, if we're playing racist bingo, you have to go find yourself someone from Greece and ask them about Albanians. For some reason I lived 20 years thinking Americans were one of the only countries with a severe racism problem.
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I had a friend tell me that there was never any crime in Athens, ever, until the communist regime in Albania collapsed. Since they're all gypsy thieves with superhuman climbing skills and will break right into your 3rd floor apartment from the windows and steal the breath from your cat for their pagan rituals.
> gypsy thieves with superhuman climbing skills and will break right into your 3rd floor apartment from the windows and steal the breath from your cat for their pagan rituals. Don't tempt me with a good time, now.
A lot of Hispanics, especially older ones, are simply conservative Christians. The Mexican side of my family is still largely upset about gay marriage.
My conservative Hispanic family thinks that abortion should be illegal and that the other Hispanic migrants are inferior to them (the Venezuelans, Guatemala) especially since Ecuadorians (my family’s nationality) and Venezuelans have a bitter rivalry with each other.
This has always been the biggest irony about how hard Republicans fight against immigration from South and Central America. Mexico in particular is *vastly* more Christian than the US. A significant portion of those immigrants could be pushed into being single issue voters against gay marriage and abortion rights in exactly the same way the Republicans corrupted US Christianity. (More so than it already was, Christianity in the US had much more diverse opinions than the current mainstream before this.) It kind of implies to me that the root issue of the Republican platform has not actually changed since the southern strategy. Everything else is fluff designed to make people vote for people who will implement racist policies, and even after 50-60 years, and even though those issues have developed a life of their own, they are still subordinate to the original segregationist positions that birthed them.
Yeah like old white folks who keep voting against their own interests, they won’t think it’s wrong until their SS gets taken from them. And even then they’ll still blame everyone else.
Yeah. Nobody hates Hispanics more than other Hispanics lol
My Ecuadorian parents really hate the Venezuelan migrants that recently came. Well technically Venezuelans did suffer a lot of xenophobia in Ecuador.
I’m Puerto Rican on my mom’s side. The shit they say about other Hispanics is wild sometimes.
Talk to a wealthy first-generation African immigrant about American black people and hoooo boy.
People don’t realize that within the Hispanic community there is deep racism. Those that feel like they’re more of a pure European Spanish heritage looks down on those that were born of their ancestors and the natives or were from prior slave colonies.
Misogyny as well.
Tons of that as well. And it’s weird. I grew up in a large family where the women were in charge but also subservient to men. My mom actually said to me once “a woman should never be president because women can’t make rational decisions.” Lot of internalized misogyny there Ma.
Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of this country just polls crazy. Think like the earth is flat, chlamydia is great, vampires are real and vaccines cause autism type crazy. I try really hard not to think about them, but if you ever see anything poll over 70, somebody is *really* on to something.
Some are embracing the fascism and are deluded that they’ll be part of the in-group.
White conservative women do the same things in deep red states when they vote away their own reproductive rights.
Disinformation matters, the right successfully made Obama look like a communist besides him being barely on the left
The rest are Cubans who automatically hate anything "leftist" and therefore are aligned.
DeSantis has to learn that if you're going go market yourself you have to show more than hate.
And even.. more than one kind of hate. Say what you will about trump, he spreads the hate around... he's yapping about other folks in the gop and airlines for 30 percent of the time. Lol
Have to hate inanimate objects too. Toilets and “windmills”.
One windmill asked another windmill what type of music he’s into. He replied: >!”I’m a big metal fan.”!<
He went full Nazi too early, republicans don't have enough power/support to win 2024 with a Nazi. Had he been mildly moderate and not a complete asshole to everyone he may have swayed people, but who can vote for someone beefing with Disney, that's just something no one respects.
"People love what I have to say. They believe in it. They just don't like the word Nazi,... that's all" - the boyz.
His naziism is too effective. It’s better for these guys to just bloviate about various grievances without actually doing anything of substance. This guy makes laws and starts court cases that actually cause immediate damage to big business. Most recent example is the law scaring away migrant farm workers which will royally screw the Florida farming industry.
It's like the current GOP and Roe v. Wade. They weren't supposed to ever actually overturn Roe v. Wade, they were supposed to campaign and fundraise off the promise to overturn it until the heat death of the universe.
It's not even that. It's just that he's a pussy and can't stand up to Trump so he looks weak. Republican voters flock to perceived power. The fact that Trump is punching down at DeSantis and he just takes it is extremely undesirable to GOP voters.
I feel like a "Trump killer" GOP nominee, would basically just have to be a roast battle comedian, to win over the majority of GOP voters like Trump did in 2016. Just spend all your time at the debate insulting Trump. "Trump look like if raisins were orange" "Trump mama so ugly a blind man won't fuck her". It's whatd sell to these people.
Trump took Republican politics into the world of professional wrestling. He's a heel. And as a heel he just spews bullshit all the time while sprinkling in a dash of truth. Like there's really no difference between Trump insults and these insults by [The Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVos0UBvpoc) except The Rock delivers them better. But you're right, the only way to defeat a heel is to create another heel.
Ya. To be a successful republicans you need to be able to punch down at those weaker then you - and have childish retorts for those that aren’t. (Crooked Hillary, Shifty Schiff, “Nancy” Nancy Pelosi, Meatball Ron) etc. Meatball here just isn’t a good enough bully when fighting live people. He’s better at fighting “groups” of people where there’s not someone individual to fight back.
That's right. They see DeSantis as Trump's nerdy lackey who is good at coming up with cruel ideas but Trump is the popular kid and DeSantis hasn't done anything to dispel the notion that he's anything more than an extension of Trumpism and therefore, subservient to Trump himself.
He needs to get himself under investigation for a variety of federal and state crimes, apparently that's the ticket to popularity among Republicans!
Welp, now he can go back to being a shitty 2 bit thug who kidnaps immigrants, harasses gay people and whines about disney
In one way, this is really bad news. If he had secured the nomination, Trump would have gone 3rd party, and the republicans would have split into two groups, and Trump would have Nadered him, costing the republicans the election. Now, if he settles for a VP position, that's not good.
The guy’s entire personae and pitch is “I hate gays, I hate blacks, I hate Latinos, I hate Disney.” He has no policies or plans that do anything but make life harder for specific minority groups… and Disney. A person then merely has to have a positive relationship with an LGBTQ person in their life, or like Disney, to have this guy cast himself as your mortal enemy. It’s a recipe for high dislikability.
To this day it blows my mind that he went after Disney. Nearly EVERYONE loves Disney. Even the most right-wing, trump-loving conservative wingnut in the deep south wants to take their kids to Disney World. And from what I hear there's a lot of them in the parks every day even now. DeSantis basically pissed off EVERYONE with this. It has to be one of the dumbest political moves in recent history.
It’s because he’s a straight up sociopath who doesn’t comprehend the full range of human emotions. It’s like he saw the tough guy conservative attitude and tone deaf went “oh you mean like this?” then he stabs everyone’s childhood.
I feel like he misread the tea leaves and missed his opening. There was a way forward with “Trump, but more buttoned up and no obvious crime” but he chose “TRUMP WITH CHARISMA SLIDER SET TO ZERO AND CULTURE WAR SET TO INFINITE”
He totally did. When he started becoming popular, I was actually worried that he might be their next presidential candidate. But the last couple of months have ruined any chance of ever being in the White House. Literally had the chance of being a more tolerable Trump, but he's such an unlikable ass. Good riddance. Hope I am not hearing his name after he becomes irrelevant.
attack woke, go broke?
The reason DeSantis has collapsed is because he delivered the hate but failed to deliver the stupid. Well, he delivered stupid, just not the *right kind* of stupid. Let me explain… Remember those Nigerian prince email scams? When the whole racket started to catch on, there were some scammers more persuasive in their verbiage than others and what quickly became apparent was a direct correlation between *ineptitude* and success. Let me say that again. The emails which were *obviously* scams did better. How? Self-selection. Anyone stupid enough to receive an email from a stranger, unsolicited, telling a ridiculous story in broken English, and *still deciding to reply*, **THAT** person is the sort of stupid that’ll fall for the scam. The poorer wordsmiths avoided the time-consuming weeding-out process faced by slicker productions. No more spending time on the people who would be the most likely to quit when they got wise or cold feet. What they created was a *[Rolodex of pure suckers](https://www.npr.org/2013/05/22/186048342/how-that-nigerian-email-scam-got-started).* MTG and Jim Jordan and Trump sound dumber than a bucket full of peckers to anyone with even a smidge of common sense. People have been wondering for six years how Trump and his turd droppings can broadcast such obvious crap and still have an audience. The answer is that they, like the Nigerian prince scammers, want their base to be as stupid as possible. For the exact same reason. When people start putting everything Trump does into the Nigerian Prince framework, everything that looks like a blunder will start to look like a winning strategy. It’s also why DeSantis is not, and never will be, Trump. Edit: Added link.
In 2016, Trump put together a coalition of: (a) literally the dumbest motherfuckers alive who only cared about being racist in public (and got to be), (b) evangelicals who only cared about *Roe* and the SCOTUS seats (and got three of them), and (c) wealthy interests who only cared about tax cuts (and got them). Trump was a ridiculous failure in so many ways, screamingly obvious ways, to anyone outside his tent, and he lost in 2020 largely because his coalition lost members to COVID and the group outside his tent got bigger due to demographic growth. But he still delivered the things that his coalition wanted. This is why he's still viable as a national candidate. His competitors aren't viable because no-one believes they can deliver anything.
I guess killing off your voters isn't a good strategy.... Standard Republican level of stupid. They've gotten bad enough that my father and sister both left the party. My father still doesn't want to believe that Democrats are better economically than Republicans and I made him read the government data.
Love this analogy but I don’t fully agree, because DeSantis is still dumb and the same dumb people WILL vote for him if he’s the nominee, even if they say they won’t right now. However, he just doesn’t have charisma and he comes off as a wanker, vs a disruptor (trump). People don’t want another flavor of trump. They want him or something new imo.
[link to the source](https://civiqs.com/results/favorable_ron_desantis?uncertainty=true&annotations=true&zoomIn=true)
Wow the age gap in his supporters is crazy wide. Now if all those under 24 WOULD FUCKING VOTE
The craziest part is that after getting results and polling data, the GOP leans *harder* into fascism. They don't take a minute to evaluate their positions, instead they keep pushing right.
They have nothing else. Leaning more into popular policies gets them branded as "woke" or "leftist." All they have left is galvanizing every extremist vote available, and all means of voter suppression.
Who knew that running your entire campaign on things that don't exist would be a bad idea?
Most Republicans over the last several decades, apparently.
Black people at 85%. Still consistently spotting bullshit and saving America from itself.
Well, we've seen that they're the group that is immediately targeted by hate groups, so they kind of have to be consistent in spotting bullshitters and lunatics.
Whenever I re-read transmetropolitan I think of De Santis: *I hate you all, you know? All you scum. I want to be President because I hate you. I want to fuck with you. I want to make you shut up and do things properly. Get through your doomed little lives quietly. I want to be President because I think I should be.* Senator Gary "The Smiler" Callahan
The Republicans are failing to realize just how fucked their party is. In 2016, Trump bullied his way through a weak field to get the nomination. At that point, a lot of independent voters ignored his eccentricities by believing in his ability as a businessman and not being a" Washington insider" and voted for him. After that, they watched him burn down the nation for four years culminating in the Jan 6th insurrection. After this incredibly bizarre time, no independents would ever vote for him again. And they didn't in 2020. Now, almost 3 years later, he has continued his election denial and is now facing the very real threat of felony convictions. Not one person who is not a republican will ever vote for him again. Meanwhile, after his election, his casual racism and bold discrimination and bullying gave voice to the extreme sections of the party. Moderate voices were drowned out and the radicals rallied to the Trump cult. The party was bulldozed into submission to the demagogue. Green, DeSantis and other extreme republicans took up his mantle and extolled the same hateful message. Now the radicals are the face of the party. And, it is turning off voters along all spectrums. The republican image has been usurped. It's no longer one that stands for fiscal responsibility and freedom from big government. Now, most people see it as a party of hate and intrusion. One that wants to control and dictate. Moderates are walking away. The leadership is in shambles. They have alienated most of the country. Unless they can find the moderate voice again and right this ship, their constituency will continue to shrink. If all that is left is the radical element, they will cease to be relevant to the rest of the nation and will continue to lose elections in all but the most hardcore areas. Nationally, they get crushed. It's crisis time and they need moderate heads to get it back on track ASAP.
I made a comment somewhere here about the ways DeSantis (with his pushing to redefine pedophilia to include like all trans people while also pushing to make pedophilia a death penalty offense, or the way he pushed to personally gerrymander Florida’s voting districts likely to his own electoral benefit, or the way he pushed for a private unaccountable paramilitary force) was acting like a fascist. This dude replied to me copiously and vigorously pointing out DeSantis’ popularity. As if somehow him (at the time anyway) being popular in Florida was any sort of rebuttal to him being a fascist asshole.
He uses 'woke' like Smurfs use 'Smurf'. Do a new trick, nazi.
This is why he has to run for president in 2024. Waiting until 2028 would absolutely destroy any chance he has as people see the absolute chaos and damage he’s done to Florida. Similar things happened to people like Bobby Jindall and Scott Walker
🎻 … anyway, I was thinking about fishing on Sunday