DeSantis’ Attack Ad On Trump Even Lamer Than You’d Expect

Ron DeSantis had to do something after yesterday’s horrific pudding man ad, put out by MAGA War Room. So he did something.

He put together an ad of his own, which is emblematic of not only how afraid he is to really attack Trump, but shows to a tee how terrified he is of offending the MAGA base. This ad is tepid at best, in response to an ad that was vulgar and vicious. Maybe that’s how the dividing lines are drawn, at least this early in the game.

What DeSantis doesn’t seem to get — yet — is that the hardcore cultists will allow no criticism of their orange overlord. He is above it all, floating on clouds, and must remain that way. They have no discernment where Trump is concerned, nor do they want any. So if this is as down and dirty as DeSantis get this primary season, we’re in for a real yawner.

Pro-Desantis Super PAC aired their first ad against Trump today on Fox. pic.twitter.com/7ogywdk1Hb

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) April 16, 2023

Now here’s an interesting anti-Trump tidbit.

That line, "Trump cut and run like a coward", makes no sense in the context of the ad about Trump and guns.

It's only there to remind the MAGA faithful: Trump abandoned you. Vote Ron DeSantis and *his* coup will succeed.

— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) April 16, 2023

That is the scary part. Because as the GOP becomes smaller and weaker, the likelihood of somebody starting the stolen election dirge and actually succeeding with a coup becomes greater. Make no mistake, this is being discussed as an alternative in back rooms. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And never forget, when conservatives realize hey can’t succeed by winning democratically, they won’t abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy. If MAGA madness has taught us one thing, it’s that this country is ripe for a takeover by the right charismatic cult leader.

pic.twitter.com/RruTWqpepZ

— Natasha💫BeTheChange (@natashablue22) April 16, 2023

Anybody else getting a Ted Cruz 2016 deja vu? The Dispatch:

The Florida governor looks like he has a bad case of Ted Cruz-itis: Overfunded and underwhelming. And he contracted the malady in much the same way. Like his 2016 forerunner, DeSantis has done a good job of convincing conservative donors and party elites that he has the special sauce for gulling yokels with culture war politics while still quietly delivering normal reformist policies and stable governance.

It’s not about giving the mainstreamers what they want, but what they think they can get through a primary electorate that gave the party close brushes with the likes of Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee over the years before finally pushing Donald Trump down everybody’s gullet. DeSantis isn’t the radical they want, but the one they thought they needed.

He’s even got Cruz’s strategist on his team. And right now, at least, seems destined for a similar finish: blowing $140 million and wrapping up the Republican National Convention by getting taunted by his home state’s delegates. […]

Cruz rode his backbench spot in the Senate into national celebrity by willing a government shutdown into being, but he lacked an exit strategy for what was always fated to be a symbolic effort to “defund Obamacare.” The Senate is boring by design and lame by the mutual agreement of its members, so being the bad boy of a failed faux filibuster is a distinction of deeply limited appeal. […]

DeSantis had a better perch than Cruz did to begin with. Governorships provide many more opportunities to look presidential. And DeSantis took the job in Florida as the Sunshine State was eclipsing Texas as Republicans’ favorite Sun Belt success story. But it was the coronavirus pandemic—not the culture war, not the press hating, not the airmailing migrants to Martha’s Vineyard—that made DeSantis the biggest gator in the pond.

DeSantis had to take a way bigger risk to get there than reading Dr. Seuss books on the Senate floor, though. The Floridian had to start out by bucking a president of his own party on a topic so serious that even normal people were disinfecting their groceries. There were other even more enthusiastic risk takers, like Gov. Kristi Noem in South Dakota, but if South Dakota were in Florida, it would only be the eighth-largest county. Also, the bison would be very confused.

But DeSantis’ gamble paid off and made him the face of the effort to end the lockdowns long before Democrats were able to address their own internal divisions on the question. It was a stance that won him admirers among traditional conservatives and raised his status to the sky with the nationalists. His 19-point improvement from his first win in 2018 to his 2022 re-election tells the tale. The battles over drag shows and Disney made it clear that he was no squish, but the Reagan Library speech and huddles with big fundraisers kept the right heads nodding.

They’re always looking for the Second Coming of Ronnie Raygun and I don’t think Ronnie DeSatan is going to be it.

If the Republican Party is as profoundly MAGAed as DeSantis seems to believe, how does one accumulate mainstream votes over the course of many months without alienating too many Trump voters? Maybe the former president succumbs to the mounting legal threats he’s facing, but not any time soon and not without forcing his own governor into some very uncomfortable places. DeSantis’ own well-cultivated brand of bluntness wouldn’t seem to allow it.

DeSantis has been lucky many times before, and he has shown some strong political instincts. Maybe he can do the dance. God knows he’ll get a lot of latitude from conservatives and moderates desperate to avoid a third Trump nomination. Or maybe DeSantis repeats Cruz’s performance of being the last dog hung, but gets strung up all the same. Or maybe the race starts breaking open and somebody does with the mainstream what Trump did with the nationalists, and shoots the gap between two bogged-down factions with solid support from a plurality.

Anything goes. At this point nobody knows what is going to happen. The only thing to be certain of is that Trump will duplicate 2016, believing that to be a winning formula and it will be ugly. Plus, Trump was an unknown quantity in 2016, no longer the case, and he wasn’t encumbered with all the legal trials he’s in now. The turf is very different, but it might yield the same result of getting him on the GOP ticket, yet a third time.