I've been aware of the "odd" anti-gay video that the Ron DeSantis campaign promoted on Friday, but I hadn't bothered to actually watch it. A few minutes ago I finally did.
It is not "odd." It is completely, beyond-all-parody batshit deranged. What the possible fuck could any of these people have been thinking? Be sure to watch to the end:
To wrap up “Pride Month,” let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 30, 2023
My jaw hasn't picked itself off the floor yet. I get that DeSantis is willing to say or do anything to show his anti-woke credentials, but this? What is he trying to prove, anyway?
I think he’s confused sexually. Yes, it’s truly deranged gat bashing. But this is also the most homoerotic political advertisement in history. As Mayor Pete observed, it’s difficult to see how Desantis is demonstrating his heterosexual manhood by essentially standing next to a bunch of shirtless, oiled up bodybuilders.
That nailed it. I'd also reflect on some of the recent trends of the late Tucker Carlson. Not meant at all as a criticism, but the harder side of gay culture definitely has a hyper-masculine flavor.
I'm not trying to go all Godwin, but the same trends appeared in late 1930's German National Socialism.
Trump engages in a some of chest-beating, but it certainly is weird to see DeSantis push so much harder in this particular direction in his obvious efforts to out-Trump Trump.
weird to see DeSantis push so much harder in this particular direction in his obvious efforts to out-Trump Trump.
And it's going to fail as miserably for DeSantis as it did for Ted Cruz. Making Trump look like the moderate, of the field, if that's even possible, wins him states like Illinois, California, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, states with lots of delegates.
You know, a "moderate" Trump could have been a pretty good President. But because he had to engage in the rhetoric and tics of goofball and crazy Right to get their support, some of which believed in and some of which he probably viewed as transactional, it was impossible to make the deals with the Dems in Congress to make his government work.
I agree. One difference between this Desantis ad and the now customary GOP gay-bashing is that Desantis and the people who made the ad seem to be “gay curious” and that gives the ad a sort of “Cabaret” vibe. It does make me wonder about Meatball Ron that he’d appear in something so homoerotic.
Well said. Seems the GOP has reached the gay panic stage of its devolution.
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From the geniuses that gave us "Mike Gravel stares at the camera and throws a stone into a pond," maybe?
Engagement!
Yeah, Florida Ron is a weird, fucked up guy.
All elites in this country live in weird (to normal people) bubbles. But Republican elites live in a very strange place. Think about having to talk about real things while also talking around the Trump clan's craven depravity for close to a decade. And then multiply that by every other consensus lie you have to keep track of. It has to become a weird form of self-brainwashing.
And manufactures freaks like Ron here.
Like he's got his tongue way up the zeitgeist and his cartoon wife walks in and he has to come up with something fast, so, uh, Wolf Governor! He don't care!
He's destroyin' stuff, --like men do when they get great looking guys to stare at them.
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DeSantis has a large & devoted fan base in the political press. He is putting on a show, which is why they love him.
large and devoted fan base in the conservative political press perhaps. they see him as trump without the baggage and his reelection romp last fall helped burnish his image. but i've not seen a lot of flattering coverage otherwise, especially as he and his record become better known. he has absolutely no personal skills, can't connect with individual voters and has beaten the word woke to the point of meaninglessness. and i don't think stunts like this video will help his cause at all.
I mean like this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/01/desantis-obama-presidential-campaign-parallels/
As George Bush said of Trump's inaugural address, "That was some weird shit."
Like him or not, the man truly had a flair for words.
When DeSantis was early in his first term as governor in 2019, he was conservative, to be sure, but also cautious. He put billions into Everglades restoration, which gained him early points among the centrist voters (there are many voters here termed NPAs for No Party Affiliation - it's the most rapidly growing segment of the electorate). Only these last couple of years has he gone full-on crazy, apparently in an effort to flank Trump on the right. He's been getting worse and worse with time.
In 2022 he did a bunch of bad things, high on my list being a horrendous gerrymander that even the legislature opposed at first, but then capitulated. Maybe drunk on power after getting reelected by 19 points, in 2023 he's elevated his capriciousness, from Disney to drag shows to college takeovers to book banning to abortion. Also he's done a lot of performance actions like sending those immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.
In so doing, he has driven both young people and immigrants out of the state in noticeably large numbers. He's also neglected the hard policy problems we have here, the biggest by far being unavailable property insurance. I think he's sowing the seeds of a really chronically bad Florida economy in the next half decade.
But hey, when you look in the mirror and see the 47th President, the end justifies the means I suppose. I also had the jaw-dropping reaction to the video. Perhaps I should be more cynical. Trump proved that moving the outrage meter further and further can induce apathy in most people while pleasing the cult.
In so doing, he has driven both young people and immigrants out of the state in noticeably large numbers
Is that true? Are there any numbers to that effect? I've been wondering whether Florida's utterly ludicrous politics might actually begin to take a toll (my sister and her husband recently left the state for ideological reasons, but I've been wondering how widespread this phenomenon is).
Digby summarized a paywalled WSJ article on the economic effects of Florida's crack down on immigrant labor:
https://digbysblog.net/2023/07/03/where-the-economy-goes-to-die/
Probably more important are the cost of living issues in FL. It's no longer a "cheap" state even with no income tax. Housing has gotten terribly pricey-- and someone above mentioned the property insurance crisis, which as bedeviled politicians since I lived there twenty years ago. And meanwhile Florida wages are painfully low even for professional positions.
i have owned my home since 1993. never had a single claim for anything. but in that span, i've had two insurers drop me as they purged thousands of properties in the name of limiting risk. citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort, is bloated with policies, yet the legislature couldn't be bothered to deal with the issue because they were too busy running desantis's war on woke to fuel is presidential campaign.
I just a bit ago commented on the brothels post, and now I'm reading this one and I have to come to a similar conclusion. DeSantis must have a team of porn-addled incels working for him.
It's not that these people, or DeSantis, are gay-curious. Not at all. It's that they see themselves in the pornography actors they watch. The muscle-man stuff in the ad is a logical extension of that.
This won't make any sense to you if you're from Planet Earth. But on the Klingon MAGA home world, this is a sign that his chances are improving. Getting ahold of the news cycle with a "Mexicans are all rapists" outburst that forces everyone to respond is exactly the kind of dominance LARPing that animates their base.
Now if he can follow it up every few days with something even more repugnant that you comment on then he'll be onto something.
Not just the MAGA base. The political press absolutely thrives on this kind of thing.
DeSantis: In Florida, we are banning all LGBTQ people from public restrooms!
Political press: Oh that Governor DeSantis. Isn't he something? What will he do next?
Too true about the media. Whatever gets the clicks or eyeballs is, by its very definition, good. Who was it who said "It may not be good for the country, but it's been very good for CBS"?
Seems clear to me: He wants Trump to win the nomination.
Someone who uses words like "wolf" and "evil" to describe himself, is probably appealing to less people than he thinks. I think we on the left often tend to caricature the right, but not nearly as much as Republicans themselves do.
From the perspective of MAGA primary politics, I don't think it's so much "deranged" as just poorly executed. There's no subtlety, it look haphazard and slapped together in rushed fashion, and the production values are laughable. It comes across as amateurish and utterly lacking in polish.
But attacking Trump for being too friendly to the gays isn't necessarily a bad strategy from RDS's standpoint. These are GOP primary voters they're targeting after all. But you've gotta execute.
My sense at this point is RDS is a sinking ship, and if anything Chris Christie may (at this point, but tune in three months from now) be that party's best bet at coming up with an alternative to Trump.
No, Christie is too fat. Women will not vote for him. Youngkin is by far the most electable Republican. He's been popular in Virginia, a swing state that was leaning "Blue". He's ACTUALLY a successful businessman. And he's very telegenic.
Watch out if Republicans wake up to his "ITness".
And I do truly wish that Joe would step aside. He's likely to get crushed because, though he actually has the PERFECT "demeanor" for a President -- he's calm, stays out of peoples' faces most of the time, and shares credit when it's due -- there is way too much ageism to elect him in a non-pandemic election.
Agreed. Biden is sure he'll beat Trump but I'm less sure he'd beat Youngkin. But don't count Christie out. He's a very good talker. And often when leading and radical contenders suddenly flame and burn, the last centrist standing runs off with the bone. Think the latest two French presidents, Hollande and Macron. DeSantis thinks he must outtrump Trump, but if the latter falls methinks the race will move to the center instead.
"if the latter falls methinks the race will move to the center instead."
I hope you're right, but I doubt it. Fox News and the whole constellation of right-wing radio/podcast talkers make their living pushing the base to the right, and they've become very good at it. Any R candidate who courts the center will get tarred as RINO across the conservative media. I doubt it's possible for a sane R candidate to win a national campaign anymore.
If Joe stepped aside, the Democratic nominee would be Kamala Harris. And in this racist & misogynist nation (see 2016), the Republicans could nominate a block of wood & it would win in a landslide.
The problem isn't Trump or DeSantis or whatever horrible person the Republicans choose to lead them. The problem is that the large majority of white American voters are ignorant, hateful bigots.
👍👍👍👍👍
There may be more Youngkin voters in Virginia, at least among independents, who are feeling buyer's remorse as the governor can't get a budget for his signature or stop doing a lot of travel to promote himself for the presidential run he pretended wasn't forthcoming but now says only that he isn't announcing "this year." He HAS kept his snark going, as he leaped with joy on a campaign video announcing "The future is ours, not theirs," but has since whined about other people being divisive. He rejoices in division, too much like trump, but never acknowledging his part in it. I'm waiting to see just how far he takes his promise to "gleefully" deny abortion rights.
Youngkin is NOT popular in Virginia. The rural folks like him but since a majority of VA is NOT rural, nope he's not that popular after sneaking into office with a close election and then governing as if he was Emperor or something.
He knows his audience (Republican primary voters). And he's desperate.
I dunno
DeSantis is practicing the art of one upxmanship
The problem is that it has gone to such extremes as to be laughable
You can see this in many other people, particularly politicians
It's very weird
Got your attention.
Got ya talking
You think Ron cares what anyone here thinks?
Why did I listen to you? I really didn't need to see that....
Though I have to say, Mayor Pete nailed it in his response.
It's a good time to revisit this Maggie Haberman classic from 2016:
"Donald Trump’s More Accepting Views on Gay Issues Set Him Apart in G.O.P."
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/us/politics/donald-trump-gay-rights.html
As long as DeSameAs hates who MAGA hates nothing else matters, though the anger of libtards is a bonus. In the end, Trump is the idol of idiot worshippers and DeSadness will bend his knee in reverence.
Patrick Bateman?
"Let's see Ron DeSantis's card."
I don't get all of the comments (and Kevin's). Did no one notice that Trump got elected in 2016 after being the biggest joke candidate ever? We (people with a heart and a brain) all said no way that buffoon can get elected. Now he did that once by pulling the wool over some people ("He's a great businessman and won't be that bad.") certainly.
That said DeeeeSantis' problem is convincing Trump voters he's one of them but in a way that gets them to drop Trump. His approach is to go Trump squared especially in the hate department. It doesn't seem to be working but from a purely political and amoral point of view I can't say it wasn't worth a try. If somehow he got the nomination, though, it's hard to see how he'd have any credible pivot-to-the-center path though.
I just shake my head after watching that. Are you sure it wasn't produced by enemies?? Ugh.
interesting that the GOP is using the line that this election is their "last chance"
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-july-4/
.......he then warned "the 2024 election is our last great chance".......
Due to his age?
Nah, it's SOP. They always claim the country is on the brink of collapse and Democrats will push it over the edge if they win again.
The DeSantis campaign apparently forwarded this, so either it's not parody or it's good enough to have fooled DeSantis' people. Most political ads have some sort of credit at the end, but this doesn't, and I haven't seen anything about who actually produced this. That they made a homoerotic anti-gay ad would seem to say something about the producers. Perhaps just that they understand their audience. Who must enjoy gladiator movies.
Routine hatred that is spewed from Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus etc every day. We’re used to it. So… fuck you!
I think DeSantis is after the GOP nomination and nothing more, because he figures the chances of a GOP candidate winning 2024 nationally are nil. So owning the libs and maintaining a high profile in the GOP is enough, and performative macho ads like this are perfect for that purpose.
I suppose he and Casey are stunned that their support is going south instead of building steadily on the bump they expected after he declared he was running. Consequently they've dumped whatever campaign themes they had originally planned and resorted in a panic to old-fashioned gay-bashing. Reversing his downward slump is all he's worried about for the moment.
He's got a strange idea about gay bashing. More like self hatred on display. That really is one disturbing and weird ad.
I think you nailed it. He’s trying to get the homophobic vote, plus those of other self-hating gays, whose numbers he greatly overestimates.