Without listening to any of the other victory speeches — and without a shadow of a doubt — I’ll say that the best electoral victory address was that of Ron DeSantis, who has handily won a second term as Florida’s governor.
Tuesday noon is when David Vance and your columnist pre-record a new segment of our Hard Truth podcast. Aired on Thursdays, Tuesday’s recording saw us discuss Trump’s venal attack on marvelous Governor DeSantis. It was then that I again pledged (LinkedIn came first) my 2024 vote in support of the governor, should he run for president.
We discussed Casey DeSantis, the governor’s gorgeous, regal wife, who is nothing like Ivanka and her houseboy, Kushner. Those two will traipse right back into saboteur positions at the White House with Daddy, who has never said no to his daughter.
“Jarvanka”: Davos Before Deplorables
As with most of my assessments; I do not need the one about Boss Lady Ivanka’s cerebral acuity confirmed. It so happens that it has been amply seconded by some top men, as recounted in “Meet The Kushners: First Couple In-Waiting“:
It’s quite clear that President Trump’s promise to hire only “the best” ought to have begun with firing The Family. Instead, Mr. Kushner’s national security portfolio [had] expanded in a manner incommensurate with his skills. It [soon included] … China, Mexico, Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The same can be said of Ivanka, who was soon briefing the South Korean president on sanctions against North Korea. That Ivanka lacked a permanent security clearance was the least of the country’s worries, given Steve Bannon’s assessment of her: “as dumb as a brick.”
In no time at all had Jared and Ivanka Trump moved to consolidate power. This, as men like Steven Bannon and Stephen Miller were either fired, or confined to the basement, so to speak. Bannon was soon just a flinty glint in Ivanka’s eyes.
Indeed, political connections ensured that the two branding experts [Jared and Ivanka] beat Braveheart Bannon of the mighty Breitbart.com! ‘The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,’ he lamented, in August of 2017….
“Jarvanka” (the Jared-Ivanka organism) were also said to have orchestrated the ousting of the last of the old MAGA Guard, John Kelly, a most excellent man [take it from me]. Kelly took his role as chief of staff seriously. He was a hardliner who limited Ivanka’s access to Pater.
One of Trump’s superb personnel choices, Kelly’s fate, however, was sealed when he stated openly how sick-and-tired he was of the first daughter “playing government.” The Goldman-Sachs wing of the White House, commandeered by the Kushners, had always wished him away. So, Kelly got the boot (or, rather, the Choo), too.
Of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, archconservative intellectual Heather Mac Donald observed the following:
Sessions was “the only member of the Trump administration who was absolutely staunch in speaking up for the right of Americans to determine what the character of their country should be.”
It takes a strong woman (Mac Donald) to recognize a scheming one (Ivanka).
Later, Heather Mac Donald was to express “no confidence” that President Trump would stop being advised by his daughter, Ivanka Trump, on the issue of immigration.”
Ivanka had also vaporized Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a tough ice-princess who instituted the zero-tolerance policy on the border and never caved over family separation.
Nothing will change should Trump waltz back into the White House. Ivanka is “The Donald’s peculiar problem.” “What Ivanka wants Ivanka gets.” Together, Jarvanka place Davos before The Deplorables.
From Day One, I had cheered “The Trump Revolution” and in particular, “The Donald’s Creative Destruction,” both components in the title to a book, published June 29, 2016. In it, Trump was celebrated as a “political Samson that threatened to bring the den of iniquity crashing down on its patrons.… An entrenched punditocracy, a self-anointed, meritless intelligentsia, oleaginous politicians, slick media, big money: You name it; Trump was tossing and goring it.”
I supported Donald Trump until he began to make nice with some of the most malignant neoconservatives around, bombed Syria for Ivanka, approved H-1B visas, and began firing and feuding with the architects of MAGA.
DeSantis: Principled Pragmatist
In Ron DeSantis we have a man who is acutely aware of the systemic rights violations to which Deplorables are subjected and is attempting to pragmatically govern in accordance with first principles.
Let us recount some of the ways:
When Texas’ Greg Abbott “flat-out banned vaccine requirements,” Florida Governor DeSantis quickly followed suit. Rejecting the jabs-for-jobs deformed public policy, DeSantis vowed to sue the Biden administration. These two governors have been unique in upholding natural, inalienable, individual rights — the right of self-ownership and bodily dominion.
As inoptimal as DeSantis’ “Big Tech” bill was, he was the only Republican to have proceeded against Deep Tech in any meaningful way.
The governor was also unique among powerful men to spring into action on behalf of the Canadian Truckers for Freedom. The Canadian Truckers converged on Ottawa, early in 2022, to reclaim their Charter rights and protest Trudeau’s anti-constitutional Covid-driven apartheid.
GoFundMe is an American crowd-funding site. It had happily collected and distributed funds to detritus such as BLM (Black Lives Matter), which, by the most basic of measures, are scum of the earth. Having received $9 million dollars in donations for the Canadian truckers, GoFundMe right away announced it would steal the funds and funnel them to charities of its choosing.
Here was a crime in progress. DeSantis’s response to the GoFundMe cyber-robbery was righteous, principled, and proactive. He tweeted, “It is a fraud for Go-Fund Me to commandeer $9M in donations sent to support truckers and give it to causes of their own choosing. I will work with AG Ashley Moody to investigate these deceptive practices — these donors should be given a refund.”
The thieving outfit soon backtracked pursuant to DeSantis’ show of force.
And how is it that only Governor Ron DeSantis grasps that it’s illegal for state attorneys, whose job description is to uphold the law, to nullify the very law they are paid to enforce?
As the only elected official smart and dedicated enough to grasp and govern in accordance with first principles, DeSantis fired State Attorney Andrew Warren for “effectively nullifying Florida’s criminal law.” Unheard of. The great governor of Florida has also been steadfast in accelerating his pipeline of criminal aliens to the affluent areas of the northeast.
Service to the Citizen; Not Emotion on Twitter
A DeSantis tweet invariably concerns not his emotions, but his duties and obligations to constituents operationalized.
Contrast a typical DeSantis tweet with one put out by, say, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert. She by no means deserves to be singled out. Her Republican colleagues are no different.
To wit, voters don’t seem to expect our Republican representatives to work for their pay, as in improve our lives. Politics being an extension of the cellphone Selfie; a good TV appearance or a “feisty” tweet is considered as good as work. Consequently, our U.S. elected representatives think their role is to tweet their outrage. Or, rant flamboyantly on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
In any event, both the TSA and the DHS (departments established by Genghis Bush Republicans, if memory serves) have decided to extend President Biden’s Proclamation banning unvaccinated non-citizens from entering the United States at least until January of 2023.
(Naturally, if you are among the millions crossing the Rio Grande illegally into the United States, are of a swarthy complexion, and can produce a current, up-to-date criminal record — low scores on IQ and literacy tests help, too — you may enter America no questions asked, all expenses covered.)
Boebert tweeted her outrage over the renewed ban. The end. If she and the rest of the Republicans were working for their pay, like DeSantis, she’d have tweeted along these lines:
“The ban is an outrage. It flouts all scientific evidence, hurts Americans by hampering business and social ties with friends and family across the world. I intend to call on x, y, z in TSA, DHS as well as biz representatives; also meet with the caucus…. Will keep you posted…”
That’s DeSantis style service to the citizen. That’s also the text of a working representative.
But no. Colorado Representative Boebert, and most of her colleagues, conducts herself as though she’s just a popular girl tweeting out to her Deplorable followers on social media; just an outsider to power — one of us — when our representatives are the consummate insiders.
Notice too that no TV ego in an anchor’s chair ever quizzes these representatives thus:
“What are you doing about said urgent matter? Specify the steps you are taking for the people to repeal assorted Covid tyranny,” as an example.
Laziness notwithstanding, I suspect that the intellectual quality of our representatives and the voters has so degraded that neither voter nor candidate knows the channels and ropes through which action is to be taken to rectify wrongs.
Not so Ron DeSantis. Both effective and highly intelligent, the man understands the federal scheme and knows how to pull the levers of power, having faithfully and forcefully done so for the people of Florida. Such an intellectual grasp evades Trump. Moreover, a vote for Trump in 2024 is a vote for the Jarvanka organism, or familial mutations of it. The family will be back in the People’s House, minus the MAGA agenda.
Thursday’s Hard Truth podcast with David Vance and your columnist further discusses DeSantis’ unique gifts vs. Trump’s.
WATCH: “Trump Trashes a Triumphant DeSantis”
