Ron DeSantis' culture war is turning Republicans off

Respectfully, I'm not so optimistic. It's why I'm annoyed at so many headlines playing Trump and DeSantis as some sort of huge difference: they're both trying to accomplish the same thing.

The Trump presidency gave us the supreme court that took down Roe, not because Trump truly handpicked these people, but because they are all Federalist Society goons. The same goons that DeSantis would support. It gave us the landscape that has allowed DeSantis to be in power. If DeSantis seems like he is more extreme, or more dedicated, or more whatever, it's because he's the governor of a red state that is greenlighting his every move. If Trump was the governor of red a state, it would likely be the biggest hellhole of the union. Just because one is a loud idiot and the other is trying to be more of a snake about it, doesn't mean they're both not going to basically the same destination.

DeSantis resonates only with the culture war stuff, he doesn't seem to connect with people past that, Trump has the same culture war shit and people still love him. Hopefully not enough to get him elected, but I'm not taking chances or being complacent, I saw 2015-2016. I have seen people lately being like "Trump doesn't actually mean it and DeSantis does, DeSantis will be worse." It doesn't matter if Trump means it (and he does mean a lot of this, hate is one of his only consist drives). Did it matter that he doesn't care about abortions when Roe vs Wade was shut down? I agree his chances are likely lower than 2016, but I don't think he should be counted out and I don't think he should be used as a weapon against DeSantis without continually noting that he stands for all the same shit.

Trump feeds on being in the conversation. He's like chocolate ice cream, whatever you put it with, it takes over. So if the conversation is DeSantis by way of how he compares to Trump (when the differences are not noteworthy in practice and effect, imo), then he's taking over the conversation the same way the chocolate ice cream took over your bowl of neopolitan after like 4 bites. I'm not saying to ignore him either, but the heat should be on him at all times, imo. Being like "oh, he called him pudding fingers, Trump got him good!" is the sleight of hand bit that allows him to pull off the same stupid trick again.

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