04-18-2023, 12:04 PM
(04-17-2023, 06:56 PM)samhain Wrote: I think He's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He could no doubt raise the money to fund a campaign, and he'd have a better chance in the general just by not being Trump.
His advantage in the general is his weakness in the primary. He's definitely willing to take the culture war angle that the right loves, but that's not going to be effective vs Trump. Trump also, despite his countless faults, has a weird charisma that DeSantis does not. The guy's been a celebrity and TV star for most of his adult life. Public performance is part of what got him where he is. Trump is also completely without loyalty and has zero qualms about destroying anyone in his way, party be damned. DeSantis can bully a lot of people in his home state, but Trump isn't one of them, and if the presidency is the goal, he's the only one that matters.
It seems like DeSantis and other republicans are in a battle for the time being where they have to be as unelectable to the general public as possible to win the primary and then attempt to scale things back in order to win a bi-partisan election. We can talk about how both sides are stuck in echo chambers and feedback loops, but at the moment only one side insists on running candidates who promote policies that 60%+ of americans exuberantly do NOT support and then believe that the only way they can lose is if the other side cheats.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
