US Politics, December 2022: "They're now the working class party, man."

so 4x Covid deaths, roughly

per capita

The real revelation people should have had from COVID was that a lot of people will be perfectly happy for you to die rather than inconvenience themselves. The naked selfishness of pandemic politics.

100%

Yea the death stat is one Ronnie's stans blame on the elderly population, which ignored other populations that skew that way that didn't have our death.

We had large pockets of low vaxxed areas thanks to his politicized DOH, and these often tended to be elder areas

The exceptions: Cuban seniors, who believe their doctors as much as God and, as I've heard many times, were willing to say "Trump was wrong" about masks.

Cocoa Beach area REALLY bad. During the first wave, I would drive down there because I missed my visits there, but I wasn't willing to go to the beach/bars/etc. I'd just make the drive and jam tunes to recreate something fun while waiting for shit to get better.

But I went into a corner store to get a soda and had a mask on and some fossil snickered behind his back.

Nobody out there has masked since like...one month in April 2020

yeah, to my relief, I'm seeing slightly more masking in Publix (where employees have somewhat masked since spring '22).

DeSantis is awful, but I don't see too many impediments to him eventually taking over the republican party. I'm not sure I believe people who are saying he could never be elected because he is too short/too uncharismatic/too unappealing or too unlikable. He is likable enough to a lot of people who are of a similar mindset.

His eagerness to inflame culture wars though, in the most crass possible ways - that is really creepy and maybe it will be his undoing

Believe the Floridians. Can he win the nomination? Sure. But ask Scott Walker.

He is likable enough to a lot of people who are of a similar mindset.

The problem is getting the other 10% of the population. If everything has gone to shit by Nov. 2024 he could win, sure - but it's an uphill battle because most people find this form of culture war off-putting.

Trump 2016 was nowhere near as revolting for normies - xenophobia and racism are as American as apple pie and you get to hide behind cover like "illegal" immigration. Psychotic denunciations of doctors and classroom litter box and Satanic Panic 2.0 shit seems insane to people who just want to get by in life with a little less stress.

I understand the tendency not to understate any GOP candidate's chances after 2016 (I did too)...but that was a one-off year. Six years later and the midterms have if anything proved that the swing voters who really care about this shit are fucking bored of Trumpism no matter who embodies it.

I wore a Fuck DeSantis shirt for five minutes and got a compliment

Yeah, friend’s partner wrote this, the weirdness is probably unpalatable https://newrepublic.com/article/169050/masters-vance-weird-right-republicans

I regularly get compliments on my Obama t-shirt. No one has ever said anything negative about it.

re: milo's and alfred's posts - I guess, I hope so

Trump 2016 was nowhere near as revolting for normies

Because Trump was a TV star. He was pre-existing IP. Once he was in office and had to actually, you know, be President, people who had previously been neutral-to-"how bad could he be?" fucking hated him. DeSantis doesn't have that built-in cushion. He's not a celebrity, just a politician.

Basically everyone who read The Invisible Bridge in 2014 and noted Reagan's deep talent on radio and TV forgot how Trump had been following a similar path for nearly a decade before 2015, not to mention another decade of headlines.

I still remember one of my partners in 2016 saying that Trump wouldn't be so bad because he would be surrounded by good, competent people.

I think that DeSantis's cushion might be that culture war shit, which he is really playing up

A lot of people in 2016 were also saying that Trump would be a lot more moderate than he was, and it wasn't totally unreasonable at that point, but DeSantis has an actual record that he can't hide from, he isn't fooling anyone.

Not many feathers left in that cushion, Dan, as the midterms proved.

Look, I'm just trying to keep ILE from scareporning over this guy.

:)

;)

A ridiculous amount of OTM in the last 10-15 posts

Honestly, on the most superficial grounds there's no way DeSantis will ever be president.

1) His speaking voice
2) His inability to stand or walk like a normal human
3) His inability to feign happiness or pleasure in front of cameras
4) He looks like Michael Dukakis after one semi-successful eyebrow-threading appointment

lol I sincerely hope that's how people see him

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeV7CkCXkAMEgzB?format=jpg&name=medium

and it wasn't totally unreasonable at that point, but DeSantis has an actual record that he can't hide from

2016 newcomer to public life, Donald J. Trump

He certainly presented himself as being more moderate on some issues than he turned out to be and there wasn't really a political record to contradict that. Doesn't make supporting him any more justifiable as he was clearly terrible, but this was definitely something a lot of people used to rationalize it. A
I don't think DeSantis can expect to get that benefit of a doubt.

Running against the GOP establishment/calling Bush a war criminal/etc. helped him with a crucial bloc of dumbasses.

credit where its due the running against the gop part was honestly pretty good

_and it wasn't totally unreasonable at that point, but DeSantis has an actual record that he can't hide from_

2016 newcomer to public life, Donald J. Trump

since he never held any political office they could project their hopes and fantasies onto him.

He encouraged this by making crazy promises, such as a replacement for the ACA that would be much better and much cheaper for everyone. And fabulous trade deals that would revitalize US manufacturing and bring back all the jobs that have been off-shored in the past three decades.

Yeah, friend’s partner wrote this, the weirdness is probably unpalatable https://newrepublic.com/article/169050/masters-vance-weird-right-republicans

― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Tuesday, December 13, 2022 7:49 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I think this hits the nail on the head I think. Trump could get away with this because he was just an odd and unserious person. He got away with "I could shoot someone". He got away with mocking a handicapped person. He got away with "grab 'em by the pussy". This was because he was not a politician, he was Donald Trump. The dude from Celebrity Apprentice and three decades of tabloids. He was a pure reactionary: he never seemed like he had any real political beliefs at all. you could imagine him being talked into anything.

like I don't think political gravity just disappeared after 2016. I think it just never existed for a guy like *him*. pretty much all these weirdos lost in spite of generally favorable conditions. Roy Moore lost them a Senate seat in Alabama. Kari Lake lost the governorship that Ducey won by 15. I do think they'll find a way to rebound as they just have so much fucking money to burn but it's not immediately clear how

it's not immediately clear how

there's a section of the GOP, typified by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), that desperately wants Trump to die asap, but who will never repudiate him publicly for as long as he lives.

I think he's still their most electable candidate right now! he's the only guy they got who can motivate the crazies while not turning off a ton of independents who still like him because he's entertaining and "sticks it to the media" or whatever. CNN used to air hours of footage of empty podiums that Trump was supposed to speak at "any minute now". can you imagine them doing anything like that for a guy like RON DESANTIS??

Trump didn’t have a political record!

he had a record of statements and actions tho

I'm not saying people weren't bamboozled in their own good faith, it's "not totally unreasonable" that I'm poking

massive xp
5) Unlike GWB, he's the last person on earth you'd want to have a beer with.

Probably a Mike's Hard Lemonade drinker

republicans in general are having the not guys youd want to have a beer with problem, not guys youd want to be in the same room as, not guys youd want to turn your back to

https://i.imgur.com/JSBKbCo.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/4WV1d3d/675d5a84998196ea91fffc1aabc7080c.jpg

xpost ^ A man who has studied many pictures of smiles and spent many hours practicing in the mirror. He's getting there. Baby steps.

And finally, Trump was, you gotta hand it to him, funny. DeSantis is a humorless fanatic.

The best line Trump ever came up with: during the primary, after Jeb! babbles about how Barbara is the kindest, sweetest mother he could've had, Trump hurls back, "Well, she should've run for president then."

A man who has studied many pictures of smiles and spent many hours practicing in the mirror. He's getting there. Baby steps.

In other words, what they call "Ted Cruz Energy".

you have to salute the effort. not easy for a man whose face is a grafted-on 1950s catcher's mitt