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DeSantis scrambles after seen as insulting Trump voters and MAGA movement [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-21
It's entirely possible that Ron DeSantis wasn't directly referring to Trump voters when he said this an interview published Friday by a right-wing, online news outlet called the Florida Standard:
“The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people,” he said in the interview. “And that’s got to be based in principle. Because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.”
But ultimately whatever he intended won't make one whit of difference. Because stuck on the receiving end of a virulent backlash from the Trump campaign just days before the first GOP presidential debate is hardly where DeSantis wanted to find himself.
As reported by Mariana Alfaro, writing for the Washington Post, Trump's backers immediately jumped on DeSantis' remarks, claiming they insulted the very voters who DeSantis desperately needs to cultivate to rescue his flailing campaign.
To Hillary Clinton, Trump supporters are ‘deplorables,’” Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Trump-aligned PAC Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement. “To Ron DeSantis, they are ‘listless vessels.’ The truth is, Trump supporters are patriots.”
Trump's campaign ginned up the outrage over the weekend, demanding that DeSantis apologize, to the point where DeSantis' people felt compelled to clarify their candidate's statements.
The DeSantis campaign said that the governor was speaking about Trump and some of his congressional allies, not his followers. It also accused the media of refusing to “report the facts surrounding” his comments.
But Donald Trump's supporters don't do nuance. They don't do context, least of all when their own identity is concerned. No Trump voter is going to give DeSantis the benefit of the doubt on this one. Because it hits too close to home.
Even allowing the possibility that DeSantis was only referring to elected Republican officials when he suggested the MAGA movement was made up of "listless vessels," what does that say about its constituency?
This is a solid bloc of voters willing to put themselves and their families at risk when told by their leaders to mock against a lethal virus. This is a group of people so indoctrinated that they're willing to ignore or disregard four indictments, simply because Donald Trump and Fox News have taught them that Democrats are the root of all evil. And this is a "movement" so bereft of critical thinking skills that they dont bother to question how an election could be "fraudulent" towards one unique individual but perfectly legitimate regarding every other candidate on the same ballot.
DeSantis was venting his frustration because it's finally sinking in that despite all of the performative cruelty, despite all the anti-woke nonsense, and despite being once anointed by some in the conservative media as Trump's heir apparent, it's impossible to co-opt a cult while the cult leader is still around.
As Alfaro notes, in the same interview DeSantis declared that "a movement cant be about the personality of one individual."
Of course it can. Read your history, Ron. Assuming your state still allows that.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/21/2188603/-DeSantis-scrambles-after-seen-as-insulting-Trump-voters-and-MAGA-movement
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