Perhaps one of the most important results to come out of the upcoming mid-term elections will be the interpretation of the winners & losers as a referendum on President Trump. You’ll note that I’m not saying the President’s policies, because much of his appeal lies in his personality and his promises, kept or unkept. The performance of those Republican candidates who’ve clasped him to their breasts will keep my attention, because these candidates have bought as much into his personality as they have his policies.
So, in this respect, the governorship of the state of Florida is up for grabs this mid-term, and the leader for the Republican nomination, Ron DeSantis, has only assumed this position because of the formal endorsement by President Trump, reportedly because DeSantis became a favorite interview subject of Fox News, where he reportedly praised Trump and his policies.
Now he’s taken the next step, and this is where his venture becomes very interesting, because his new commercial, despite the suggestion that he’s more than a Trump-clone, does absolutely nothing to actually bring him to life as anything other than being a frenzied Trump-lover.
For those who didn’t want to waste those 30 seconds, DeSantis is featured with his small children, teaching them to build a wall, teaching them to read from Trump materials, and the like. It’s quite the unimaginative bleat of the sheep following the leader.
Minus unforeseen disasters for DeSantis, I expect he’ll win the nomination, because the character of the GOP is now “The party of Trump.” But will the Trump-clone play well with the Florida independent voters to which he’ll need to appeal in order to win? Is his imminent nomination the opening Florida’s Democratic Party has been waiting for? Or does the elderly Florida population favor the xenophobic attitudes of President Trump and are ready to elect the guy clinging to Trump’s butt-hairs?[1]
A little over 90 days left to find out.
1The saying used to involve “coat-tails,” but it seems discourteous to use such an euphemism in today’s atmosphere of brutal remarks.
