Why Gov. DeSantis won in a landslide

[HAB911]

Interesting, if long read on the psyche of Ron DeSanctimonious

snip

Our own Gov. Ron DeSantis romped over his colorless Democratic opponent Charlie Crist, and left our state — which had once been a perky purple — a bright, suppurating, blood red. Liberals in our state have begun pulling down their window blinds when they watch MSNBC. Volvo dealerships are going to take a hit. With DeSantis taking Miami-Dade County, with his iron grip on the Legislature, it’s game over for us in Florida for the foreseeable future.

And yet. It may not seem to those of my persuasion as if the crazies have taken over. True, we still have, may always have, the unctuous Marco Rubio, the venal Rick Scott, the frat rat Matt Gaetz — 2020 election deniers all. But speaking for myself, the rout by DeSantis doesn’t quite feel like it’s part of some vast, vicious red tide.

Why is that? As your occasional Designated Senior at this paper, I’ve kept a grandfatherly eye on the antics in this state. As a kind of side hustle, I began covering DeSantis from the start, before he made a national name for himself. I did so with rising concern, sometimes with horror, once in a while with grim appreciation. It’s what he does, and he’s learned to do it with skill at an early age.

I’d like to offer one man’s view of what might await us Floridians in the next couple of years, now that we have a twice-elected governor, flushed with success, headed for higher places. Though I’m not a political reporter, just a humble country essayist, let me put it through the lens of a subject I have some interest in, education.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/11/17/why-gov-desantis-won-landslide-i-think-hurricane-handshake-helped-column/

[carpetbagger]

1. Florida is the new Missouri....

Places where Sothern racism meets Northern racism go far right quickly. It didn't help that Crist crossed over to a perennial candidate, the state Dem party has been napping since the 1990s, and hurricane relief became a way to present "awards" to people too hateful of their neighbors to hear the word 'welfare'. He's not a Kanye-Elom-Trump troll, but he is a troll, and his star will fade to a Rick Scott level once he's confronted with having to get out of troll mode and support unpopular GOP positions.

We will have to run on core economic issues to win in 2024, which we haven't done in earnest in a long time.

[SomedayKindaLove]

2. DeSantis said Florida is where woke goes to die

And here I thought it was where R’s went to die.

He seems like a modern Klansman to me.

[MayReasonRule]

15. David Duke and DeSantis

Same fascist shit, different state.

[Rebl2]

19. True

[area51]

24. +1 n/t

[anarch]

3. as a resident of the Lone Star State, I've thought for awhile that our governor is aiming higher

i.e. wants to be president...hence the pandering to the MAGAts over the past few years. Florida seems to have taken the lead in fascist state governments at this point, but they've still got a lot of competition.

[MayReasonRule]

20. Louisiana here...

The GOP rules where delusion dwells.

Y'all Qaeda Nat-C's are rampant all throughout Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida just to name a few.

Louisiana has Jeff Landry and John Kennedy planning a run for state governor. Each is a self avowed Y'all Qaeda Nat-C.

May reason rule.

[brooklynite]

30. Kennedy has said he's not running for Gov

[MayReasonRule]

34. Appreciate the update

Thank you

[Joinfortmill]

4. Worth reading.. Lots of good info on Desantis. This is what stood out to me.

'I have a personal theory about why DeSantis ran away with the 2022 election. Yes, he hit all the buttons the MAGA base demanded. Yes, with his stunts he raised high the sword against the woke, and he did mightily smite us dangerous liberals. But I don’t think that’s why he won Florida in a walk. I think it was the hurricane.

I think the Good Ron, his Jiminy Cricket, got wind of the winds — and realized he had to play this one straight, for real. No wild throws. He asked Joe Biden for federal help, and shook the president’s hand when he visited Fort Myers. He took care of business...Good Ron knew what he had to do, however briefly. People all over the state breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the handshake. We are just so starved for it. Dogs who are treated harshly will lick the hand at a decent gesture. That’s what got him the numbers, more than he deserved on his merits...We may not have that long to wait. With a final, combustible run by Trump now under way, DeSantis once again finds himself in the right place at the right time. Get set for the stunts. And the sanctimony.'

Guest columnist Barry Golson covers the Tampa Bay senior scene.

[dembotoz]

6. bingo..it let him look like a hero and folks vote for them

he looked competent is a crisis.

shit will hit the fan when folks have trouble getting insurance to pay out but right now he is golden

[Samrob]

18. Ron is as fake as they come and even more dangerous. nt

[JI7]

5. Right wingers from other states move to Florida

that's what it comes down to.

[In It to Win It]

7. Yup

And it sucks

[mountain grammy]

11. Yep.. there are several RWNJ from my little town

now living in Florida, my apologies to all. But they come back here every summer to annoy us. They probably vote in both states cause they're such good conservatives.

[2naSalit]

31. It's been happening here too...

For well over a decade and they are destroying the place.

[snowybirdie]

8. Wow, great read

As a transplanted Northern liberal here in redder than red SW Florida, I've struggled with how to describe just how awful a governor diesantis can be. This writer does it perfectly. Most of us are basically good and nice with that little devil on our shoulder trying to get us to do bad things. This guy is the opposite of us. Woe betide us if he becomes a President! He's basically a much smarter rtump with dictator like tendencies! Scary thought.

[303squadron]

9. As a Floridian I agree

Hurricane Ian helped seal the deal for DeSatan! And there is historical evidence for this in the past. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne turned a purple Florida red in the 2004 presidential election. I remember that one of my evangelical friends said God sent the hurricanes so that Florida would re-elect Bush. Of course, he didn't mention the 124 dead from these storms - obviously that collateral damage is acceptable to the religious right!

And while we are talking about the religious right let me say that if you don't think they are a HUGE factor in Florida, you don't know Florida. They are easily led, easily fooled, and easily scared! While they don't account for the lack of blue voters in blue areas, they do account for red enthusiasm in all Florida areas - the church of the self righteous is well organized and has meetings twice a week!!!!

What organization does the Democratic party have to counter that?

[Jade Fox]

10. "a disturbingly profound meaness"

Description of DeSantis in the article.

[Rebl2]

22. That's

how I think of our current AG in Missouri-mean. Unfortunately he will be our senator in DC starting in January.

[gulliver]

12. It was interlocutor shopping and straw man

DeSantis's job is way too easy. He just picks—also makes up, and exaggerates—extreme positions and idiot examples from the left side fringe and makes them representative of the Dems. And the Dems are reluctant to disown DeSantis's picks.

That's just something we need to get over. It's not just DeSantis doing it. It's a standard Republican play. When some (well-meaning but) unelected, self-selected dummy inserts a political message in a math book, then authentic, democratically credentialed Dems must be the first to say, "That's not us. That's dumb."

The article in the OP points out (on page 112) the silliness of DeSantis's big CRT panic over racially charged messages being inserted into math textbooks. Surprise, "reviewers found no such thing. Out of hundreds, there were three instances of so-called CRT spotted. Two came from a college sophomore reviewer, a third from an employee of a small Christian college, Hillsdale."

What should have happened? The democratically credentialed Dems (actual Dem leaders who have received actual votes) should have calmly (but emphatically) pointed out that we agree those three messages didn't belong in a math book, but the fact that there were only three shows that Republicans and DeSantis are crying wolf and clutching pearls over a non-existent problem.

[Jade Fox]

21. +1

[yardwork]

28. I don't recall ever being shown the supposed examples, either.

I'm not sure that they exist at all.

[paleotn]

13. Sorry, but Florida is hopeless....

The demographics suck for the Dems. But...on the bright side...it will be under water by end of the century.

[Celerity]

17. Yeppers. Utter waste of hundreds of millions for the most part.

[paleotn]

33. An ironic end to Henry Flagler's big venture....

He's the father of Miami and other cities along the Florida east coast.

[former9thward]

36. No scientist says that.

[judesedit]

14. Gerrymandering. I am beyond happy that I moved out of Florida October of last year.

I now live in Georgia, which used to be my favorite state, but that feeling is waning. lol. The trees are beautiful here. So many different types. I was so hoping Stacey would win. Again, I'm sure gerrymandering had something to do with the results. I will be first in line on the 28th to vote for Warnock, although now they're trying to say they won't have enough staff.

Education, or lack of education, certainly has everything to do with it, too. Thank you for giving us your perspective. Much appreciated.

[yardwork]

27. People say that gerrymandering can't affect statewide races, but I'm not so sure.

If there's a firebrand running for a district race who speaks to the base, I can see how that would motivate voters to turn out. While they're voting, they vote a straight ticket.

Gerrymandering does affect statewide races because it motivates the base to turn out and vote.

[judesedit]

37. In my opinion, it also affects the rules, polling places, staff, etc.

That's why it's important to have good people in city and county seats. To keep things even, lawful and under control. Way too much corruption in this country; from top to bottom.

[Amishman]

38. gerrymandering discouragement was a minor factor at most

it's in the data.

Overall turnout was down 300k vs 2018 - but they won by 1500k votes this time as opposed to 30k in 2018.

If gerrymandering discouragement - or just turnout for us in general - was the primary driver, I would have expected overall turnout to drop to largely parallel their increase in margin. It was nowhere close, their margin grew by 5x the turnout drop. a lot of people who voted blue in 2018 went Pub this time around.

It shows up in the county data. If it was discouragement, I would expect overall turnout to be way down in blue counties and way up in red.

This doesn't show in the data.
Overall turnout in some of the biggest red counties:
Oskaloosa - 2018 ~83k - 2022 ~80k
Santa Rosa - 2018 ~75k - 2022 ~75k

And our key areas of Broward and Miami:
Broward - 2018 ~706k - 2022 ~597k
Miami - ~794k - 2022 - ~709k

So about 2/3rds of the turnout drop can be traced to Miami and Broward, but that doesn't begin to account for the margin change. The only reasonable explanation is not turnout but voters switching.

blaming it on gerrymandering is appealing, because it avoids introspection. We really need to take that hard look in the mirror. We got lucky, the Pubs ran some really weak candidates in key races. This could have been a red wave - the national House vote total went their way by 3.3% and 3.5 million votes.

[judesedit]

40. Well, the fools voted against themselves and their families

Then they go crying to the federal government when they need something and expect to get it. Even though red states contribute much less. The media doesn't help matters at all, either, obviously. I'm still not convinced gerrymandering doesn't affect all races and everything tied to them, though, or it wouldn't be such a big deal.

[Native]

16. As much as I hate Trump, I think he nailed it with Ron DeSanctimonious.

[yardwork]

26. Trump has a very narrow but rather remarkable genius at being a carnival barker.

[certainot]

23. HAB911, i have a suggestion. 5 universities in Fla support at least 20 climate-denying radio station

stations - it's absurd that fla dem friendly orgs don't complain. desantis is a know proud dittohead who limbaugh was proud to name as a follower. it's clear he got his political from limbaugh's ass/mouth. scott and rubio and all republican politicians benefit from dems ignoring rw radio.

from fakenewsradio.org Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2

after hurricane IAN how can dem orgs there not complain to those universities? on all issues those stations are anti truth anti science anti education.

if theater is a public discussion at any university over this others will have to follow. it doesn't matter what the school actually does or can do - advertisers will get scared off. the potential disaster for the radio ad industry will force them to democratize RW radio.

[yardwork]

25. Very interesting article. Thanks for posting that.

[Icanthinkformyself]

29. Yes, interesting

and explains Death Sentence's, or is it now DeSanctimounous', low character, immorality and lack of ethics. His biggest problem with the GQP will be all of the other authoritarians in it who want the power of the highest office.
Ivy League schools are incubators of those who think they own the world. In fact, the world owns us, and we are soon to see why when the climate collapses and humanity is on the brink of extinction, assuming the planet killing asteroid or the Yellowstone super volcano doesn't do it first.

[BradBo]

32. Trump will win the primary.

[Buckeyeblue]

35. I suspect DeSantis will go to far in an attempt to out-Trump everyone else

He'll hurt his state without helping his own presidential ambitions.

When I drive around I still see a lot of Trump 2024 flags. I think Trump gets the nominee because too many people have gone all in on him.

Remember, the crazies who support Trump will never admit they were wrong about anything. That's why their lives suck. So they can't abandon Trump as long as he is running. To do so would be to say they are wrong.

At a certain point, I think DeSantis will decide to sit out 2024.

Trump will be the nominee (probably under indictment) and I I think he'll lose in a similar manner that he lost in 2020. The popular vote may be more lopsided bit the EC will probably be similar.

[allegorical oracle]

39. Entertaining, long indeed, read. A bit heavy on the erudite...and Yale U., but worth it. n/t