Soft Landing
It starts like a barroom joke. “What do Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis have in common?” The answer, “When either one laughs, no one believes them”. But their “affect” similarities aside, the Governor of the “Free State” of Florida introduced himself as a candidate for President in 2024 last night, and he did it in an “odd” way. There was no rally in Tallahassee, no confrontational gathering across the lake from Mar-a-Lago and his chief competitor for the nomination. There wasn’t even a reminiscent introduction from the DeSantis “homestead” in Dunedin, Florida.
Instead, Governor DeSantis officially began his quest to “slay” Donald Trump in a podcast, actually a “twitter-cast”, with the controversial billionaire owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. They were excited – mostly because the Twitter feed broke down, the technical “room” on Twitter couldn’t deal with the volume of subscribers. It turned into a good old fashioned “radio” interview, something that Herbert Hoover or Wendell Wilke would be proud of. The “next level” of American politics ended up going back to the old days of “Fireside Chats”, though the fire seemed to flicker from time to time.
Woke is the Word
DeSantis got to give his “speech”, again doubling down on his wedge issues: crime, virtue signaling and pandemic controls. He pledged to take on important issues, but seems to spend a lot more time on “wokeness” then results. In fact, “woke, woke, woke” – whatever that really means – was the central theme of his statement. DeSantis wants Florida to be the place “…where woke comes to die”. And he would like to make the nation the same.
From a purely political standpoint, DeSantis has a tough task. The Republican Party membership (as opposed to the leadership) is “locked down” by the twice impeached, once indicted, defeated former President of the United States who lives on the east coast of Florida. The Governor is trying to get to the “right” of Trump without attacking that most popular Republican. And he wants to contrast himself as a “winner”, indirectly portraying the man of Mar-a-Lago as the ultimate loser – all without using his name.
It’s an interesting dance, trying to avoid getting swatted by Trump, while running against him. So far, he’s avoided many Trump attacks, but hasn’t made much political headway against the MAGA leader. Trump’s best line so far, Ron DeSanctimonious; isn’t working.
Non-Elite Elites
It’s also interesting to hear both DeSantis and Musk rail against “elites” and big tech. If elite is determined by education, both Musk and DeSantis are Ivy Leaguers, the very definition of American elitism. And, of course, you can’t be more elite than being one of the top-ten wealthiest men in the world, or bigger tech than the creator of Tesla. But that’s all straight from the MAGA playbook; “I’m not a common man, but I know what you need”.
The Musk Twitter-cast descended into a long discussion of Covid policy, with Musk, the moderator, and DeSantis’s own “expert” all bemoaning the Federal Covid response. It’s reminiscent of Steve Bannon’s desire to “deconstruct” the so-called “administrative state”. The podcast went on to talk about how they could remove bureaucratic power from the Federal agencies. That’s probably not the most important point for most “regular” voters.
Then it was onto Disney. DeSantis made the corporation of Mickey Mouse the “lawless bad guy”, backed by the corrupt media. The reality, again: this can’t be resonating with “Joe MAGA” – it’s a political-business feud.
Twittering
Ok, after an hour of listening to Twitter, I guess I’m showing my age. I’m not a podcast guy, other than it serves as a good way to fall asleep. Looking back at recent “opening arguments”: Obama on the steps of the Illinois Capital in Springfield, Biden coming “out of retirement to save the Nation”, and even Trump coming down the Golden Escalator; this Twitter-cast seems pretty lame, more like C-Span Radio. You have to be deeply invested in the subject to even pay attention.
An hour of Musk, DeSantis and “guests” was hardly groundbreaking conversation, and seems an unlikely “launch pad” for the DeSantis campaign. He’s officially in, hoping to be the Trump-like alternative to the man himself for the MAGA world. But my take: he’s ready for softball questions on “Twitter time”, but not ready for “prime time”. I look forward to seeing him on a debate stage with Trump.
His only hope there: that the Network crashes as fast as Twitter did.
