Ron DeSantis Was Never Going To Win, GOP Voters Want Trump

Florida Governor and now-former 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis listened to an viewers member’s query at a marketing campaign occasion in Davenport, Iowa, on January 13, 2024. | Supply: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / Getty

Florida governor Ron DeSantis introduced he was dropping out of the presidential race on Sunday, and he endorsed his rival, Donald Trump, as he did so.

This may need come as a shock to some folks. The 2 males who’re two sides of the identical racist coin clearly don’t have any love for one another, however as Ron DeSantis conceded in his farewell speech, the GOP voters need Donald Trump again in workplace.

In a video posted on his private Instagram account, Ron DeSantis mentioned, “It’s clear to me {that a} majority of Republican main voters wish to give Donald Trump one other likelihood.”

Ron DeSantis acknowledged that he and Donald Trump have had their variations (which was placing it evenly), however he additionally made it clear that he believes Donald Trump ought to be the selection over former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

“I signed a pledge to assist the Republican nominee, and I’ll honor that pledge. He has my endorsement as a result of we are able to’t return to the previous Republican guard of yesteryear – a repackaged type of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

Ron DeSantis made a key level in his concession speech that all of us must be being attentive to: He was by no means going to be president as a result of GOP voters need extra of Donald Trump.

Make no mistake, the Republican Get together would have beloved to have put Ron DeSantis forth as its chosen candidate. He checks a number of Republican bins, and he’s actually extra polished than Donald Trump. He comes with a stage of political expertise that Donald Trump lacks. He doesn’t include all of the pointless baggage that Trump is dragging with him. He’s smarter and he’s savvier than Trump. He’s a Yale graduate with a Harvard legislation diploma. He might have been a contender, and in the beginning of his marketing campaign, many thought of him to be the most important menace to a second Donald Trump presidency.

The issue is, Republican voters need Donald Trump, and the GOP voters – not the GOP itself – are the loudest voices on that entrance.

Whereas the GOP could possibly be mentioned to consist primarily of wealthy and highly effective white males, the GOP voter base is a combined bag of wealthy and highly effective white males, racist white folks, uneducated white folks and indoctrinated white individuals who imagine their demise is nigh until they guarantee white supremacy is allowed to live on unfettered. On the middle of the Venn diagram the place all of those teams come collectively is Donald Trump.

Whereas Ron DeSantis made it OK to be brazenly racist within the state of Florida, Donald Trump made it OK to be brazenly racist and xenophobic in America, and the folks need extra of that. It’s the “you made it a sizzling line; I made it a sizzling music” conundrum.

GOP voters wanting extra Donald Trump is a giant a part of why Ron DeSantis is out of the race, however it’s not the one factor that brought on his demise.

Ron DeSantis is just an unlikeable particular person, and that’s his personal doing. He’s liable to emotional outbursts when responding to any kind of opposition, and whereas that may work for Donald Trump, at the least the criminally indicted candidate has the standing of being a former actuality TV star who folks nonetheless imagine is a millionaire. Ron DeSantis is simply the boring governor from Florida compared.

Donald Trump has a certain quantity of “appeal” about him – the kind of “appeal” that people who find themselves a fan of Donald Trump purchase into. He’s not charming any of us, however he’s charming the hell out of the kind of white individuals who want somebody to brazenly affirm and say all of the issues they need they might say out loud with out being canceled. Donald Trump offers them that.

Compared, Ron DeSantis comes off as smug and off-putting, and he lacks the affable kind of character that might assist him pull that vanity off and nonetheless permit him to be a winner.

It additionally didn’t assist that Ron DeSantis obtained on nationwide tv and let California governor Gavin Newsom beat him mindless in a debate that, in my view, did extra hurt than good for the DeSantis marketing campaign.

A current Washington Put up opinion column referred to Ron DeSantis as “Jeb 2.0,” and I can’t consider a extra apt description as a result of his candidacy was each bit paying homage to the Jeb Bush marketing campaign from eight years in the past.

Nobody was ever going to elect a president named Jeb, and GOP voters usually are not going to elect Donald Trump-lite after they can have the precise Donald Trump again in workplace.

It’s a must to surprise the way it feels to be that extremely educated and have a squeaky-clean prison file and nonetheless lose to an precise loser at the moment going through 91 felony costs. To his credit score, Donald Trump has used these 91 felony costs to place himself forth as a martyr and a sufferer, and his GOP voter fanbase is consuming it up and licking the plate afterward.

Ron DeSantis might by no means and can by no means.

Whether or not Ron DeSantis will attempt to throw his hat within the presidential election marketing campaign once more stays to be seen, however at the least on this occasion, he’s fully carried out.

Ron DeSantis was by no means going to be president, and it’s not as a result of the Republican social gathering doesn’t need him to be.

It’s as a result of the Republican voters need their president to be the poster baby for racism, xenophobia, open bigotry and ignorance.

Stick 1 / 4 in your ass, Ron. You performed your self.

Monique Decide is a storyteller, content material creator, and author dwelling in Los Angeles. She is a phrase nerd who’s a fan of the Oxford comma, spends approach an excessive amount of time on Twitter, and has extra graphic t-shirts than you. Comply with her on Twitter @thejournalista or test her out at moniquejudge.com.