Op-Ed: DeSantis: MAGA Understudy or Saboteur?
By Brian Parsons • October 4, 2022“You never see the entire script of political theater until long after the last scene has been acted out.” – Gary Hopkins
Since my foray into politics, I have come to understand that our system comprises insiders and outsiders and that Donald Trump was the consummate outsider. He was opposed by the system on both sides of the political aisle. Admittedly, I counted myself amongst the opposition. It was only when faced with a choice of yet another Clinton, whom we were told held a 95% chance of victory, that I felt a throw-away vote for Trump was in order. To my surprise, the bastard actually won. He wasn’t supposed to win.
Having come up through the ranks of the Ron Paul Revolution, I was keenly aware of a system whose entire existence is to perpetuate itself. Politics has been referred to as theater, and I would consider that an accurate description. As in theater, politics employs playwrights, directors, actors, stage managers, set designers, etc. We call them by different names, campaign managers, consultants, pollsters, activists, and politicians themselves. The goal of telling a story and arriving at a predetermined resolution aligns. Nothing is happenstance.
In 2012, Mitt Romney was a made man. Before he ever declared his candidacy, he was crowned the frontrunner by a captured press. They sold the public on the foregone conclusion that an LDS candidate from deep blue Massachusetts was the most electable candidate in the deep red Bible belt. Having squeaked Romney through the 2012 primaries, the party went out of their way to deny the insurgent Ron Paul a speaking opportunity at the Tampa convention that he had earned utilizing a legitimate delegate acquisition strategy. Then they went out of their way to ensure that it never happens again by changing the game’s rules. It’s not all that different from what both parties are doing now by trying to change Electoral Act loopholes that Mike Pence claimed didn’t exist in January 2021.
Similarly, Hillary Clinton was a made woman in 2016. It wasn’t until the contents of her leaked emails and in former DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile’s book, Hacks, that we were made aware of an arrangement to trade the party’s presidential nomination for paying off the DNC’s debts. Favorability extended beyond press coverage and went as far as burying Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign. They also notoriously preloaded the Clinton campaign with debate content.
It’s difficult to wrap one’s mind around what happened in 2020, but the post-mortem all but gives up the jig. There is little question that Joe Biden is in the sunset years of his career, and to suggest that his mind and speech are dulled would be an understatement. While Donald Trump performed two and three stadium-filling campaign stops daily, Biden called a lid by lunch after speaking to a handful of unenthusiastic voters in chalk-outlined COVID circles. Without rehashing the totality of the carnage to follow the election, the results belie the statistical probabilities and don’t match the electoral patterns we’ve established for 245 years. Then the insiders gave us an outline of how they made Biden President in Time magazine. Joe Biden was a made man.
If politics is theater, then Washington, D.C. is Broadway. It is the pinnacle of political destinations. It demands the highest-paid actors, and its sponsors demand the largest returns. It is because of this that the casting of the leading role is so tightly controlled. To understand who the chosen lead is, merely look at who gets the airtime. Who is sold to the public by corporate donors as the best person for the role? In 2012, it was Mitt Romney. In 2016, it was Hillary Clinton. In 2020, it was Joe Biden. Who will it be in 2024?
If I’m a betting man, Ron DeSantis stands unopposed. Despite seven governors rejecting COVID lockdowns, it was DeSantis alone as the model for COVID response, even though DeSantis did issue lockdowns. Despite seven governors banning indoctrination in the classroom, DeSantis received the bulk of the airtime with a phony “Don’t Say Gay” campaign. Despite twenty-five U.S. states allowing the permitless carry of firearms, Florida still does not. Despite abortion being all but banned in twelve conservative states, the best DeSantis mustered was fifteen weeks. When it came time to tackle immigration, DeSantis was left borrowing from Texas’ border to grab headlines in Martha’s Vineyard.
DeSantis’ red flags are harder to find than most, but there are a few head-scratchers. At a time when conservatives are pushing back against a totalitarian, global climate agenda, DeSantis established Florida’s first Chief Resiliency Office to tackle climate change. His first appointee was Julia Nesheiwat, a member of both the World Economic Forum, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, DeSantis signed climate resilience legislation that was strongly promoted by left-wing insurance lobby Zurich Advocacy and the World Economic Forum. The same organization was happy to announce its presence at DeSantis’ inauguration. For a guy who likes to rail on Davos, passing Davos-inspired legislation and hiring their people raises some eyebrows.
DeSantis is not a foreigner to the good old boys’ club either, having come up through the Ivy Leagues at Yale and Harvard. He was a standout baseball player at Yale, as was our forty-first President George H.W. Bush, whom their field is named after. DeSantis was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Yale, just as notable members George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh were. For a fraternal organization, that’s an impressive list of notable Republican membership.
In a conversation about MAGA politics, DeSantis is the lone heir apparent of the MAGA movement in rhetoric and airtime. While his good looks, charisma, and forthright temperament make him an attractive choice for the lead role as President of the United States, his résumé takes a backseat to the publicity. A deeper dive into the casting crew raises eyebrows as well. To date, DeSantis has raised more than $142 million for a statewide race, largely from a small but wealthy national insider audience. Speaking of a national audience, it cannot be discounted that every time Trump endorsed a Republican primary candidate around the country, DeSantis has shown up to speak on their behalf and co-opt the MAGA brand while remaining at arms-length from Trump himself.
The RNC would give everything in its arsenal to quash the MAGA brand. They already have. This is a playbook that we’ve seen before when the RNC set out to shut down the Tea Party movement of the early 2010s. They stuffed the movement full of phonies like Scott Brown and Pat Toomey so that they might steer the ship of American conservatism in their own moderate direction. They were successful.
Suppose Ron DeSantis is a legitimate heir to the MAGA movement. In that case, I see one of only two options moving forward: Donald Trump declines to carry the torch forward, maybe out of age or tiring from the unending harassment from the D.C. regime and passes the torch to Ron DeSantis. Donald Trump carries the torch he lit, and DeSantis gets in line, preparing for twelve years of MAGA dominance. In politics, as in theater, nothing is happenstance.
This Op-Ed was submitted by Brian Parsons and originally published on WithdrawConsent.org. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
Tags: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, MAGA, Mitt Romney, President, President of the United States, Ron DeSantis, Ron Paul, U.S. President
If Ron DeSantis is legit, he will stay in Florida. We can never trust our elections again until the stolen election of 2020 is repaired. In the meantime, we need good governors to protect their people against an increasingly tyrannical and corrupt federal government.
States were always intended by the Founding Fathers to be more powerful than the federal government. The States created the federal government–the creator is mightier than the created.
The federal government is as strong as it is because the states have either 1) delegated certain powers to the federal government (and can, at any time recall them); or 2) have unwisely ceded their powers (and sold out their citizens) to the federal government in exchange for dependency on distribution of federal taxpayers’ $$.
So yes, DeSantis should stay governor. He can do the most good from Tallahassee right now. Hopefully, his ego and/or the GOPe won’t get in the way…..
Trump for four…..DeSantis 4 to train, 8 more to complete the reign.
The article seems to be much more about Ron Paul than Ron DeSantis, TBH. Paul tried running for President several times and couldn’t gain traction – primarily because of his isolationist foreign policy views. That’s not to say that I, personally, didn’t root for Paul. I did and still cheer on his son, Rand. But I also recognized that Paul was the quintessential libertarian candidate and the system is rigged against third parties thanks to the Twelfth Amendment and the general ignorance of the US populace when it comes to political science in general. When 2/3 of college students can’t name the three branches of government, you know we have an educational crisis.
DeSantis has his flaws, surely. Name one candidate who doesn’t. But DeSantis stands tall in actually _leading_ his State through crisis after crisis AND for going toe-to-toe with the progressive media hacks who seek to demonize him. If that’s MAGA then I want more of it.
DeSantis’ record is actually no better than Little’s. Little banned abortion. Little signed permitless carry. Little banned indoctrination in schools. Little locked down for two months vs DeSantis’ one month. The reality is that DeSantis gets the air time and he’s vocal.
Ron Paul was never a serious candidate. It wasnt his objective. His objective was to change how we think about things. In that regard, he was successful.
Spot on!
I love what Trump did for our country and will vote for him again.
Saboteur? Why would the writer of this piece use this word? Is he trying to cause division between conservatives? Pit one conservative against another? Apparently Mr. Parsons doesn’t like President Trump and is making some subtle remarks to undermine the unity in our party. Count me out from these divisive articles.
Your comment makes no sense.
Actually it does make sense. Whether the author realizes it or not it is divisive to call out “saboteur” here. Nobody here is sacred and we need to be realistic. While Trump has set a high bar for accomplishments due to his backbone, so has Desantis just on the state level. Stoking division just weekens the party. So does fanning cheap rhetoric -which Trump himself excels at, as do more and more in the political arena. Fact is all candidates have liabilities- we are all human after all. Best we can hope for is to maximize the strengths while minimizing these negatives. This requires being well informed before forming our opinions. Something which seems far too rare these days. Time is overdue to look past personalities and return to principles. I hope we -and both these potential candidates- manage this because they are looking like they may be our best options. It is still early so time will tell. Lord knows we cannot afford anything less than exceptional given the sad state of our world and country. Study up and pray hard- our country depends on it!
I agree. We need to watch very closely. Not sold on DeSantis. I’ll take whatever wins he delivers for our movement, but kissing his ring is not on my To-do list. Still a MAGA lover, standing behind Trump!
Take a look at the campaign of Kari Lake. Today she was vacuuming the carpet prior to Donald Trump’s speech. She is a servant and loyal. She has made no bitts that she is a supporter of Trump. She should win by a lot. Trump carried DeSantis the first go round. No reason he shouldnt show loyalty now.
Trump ordered the emergency which allowed the lockdowns, OWS and the money grab. I’m an RN- I’ve watched people get very sick after the vaccine and now seeing kids with cardiac conditions. As more info comes out, he still touts these. I voted for him twice. At this point, I’m tired of boomers in charge. Give me DeSantis any day of the week. It’s time for a new generation of leadership.
Kick Little out as well.