As I sit back and watch the 2024 GOP race unfold, I have one simple question for Republican primary voters to ponder before they head to the polls early next year.
The question is not meant to be rhetorical, nor is it meant to be tongue in cheek.
Here it is: do Republicans care about winning anymore?
As the race currently stands, former President Trump is leading every single Republican candidate — in every publicly available poll, at both the national and state level, by a considerable margin.
Do I believe the polls are an accurate reflection of voter sentiment on the ground? Not particularly, but the numbers are what they are.
For the record, the polls also show Trump beating a man who has the remarkable distinction of being one of the greatest civil rights leaders of our time, while also eulogizing a former klansman — a man who, “was raised in the synagogues,” a guy who just like Muhammad Ali in Manila, stepped into that ring and took on the baddest SOB of them all, a man named Corn Pop. I’m referring, of course, to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a man who is definitely not senile, certainly not corrupt at all, and definitely fully with it.
But all joking aside, we are kidding ourselves if we think that Trump gives Republicans the best shot of winning back the White House.
Yes, we all know the weaponized Biden justice department indictments against Trump are a disgrace that serve no legitimate purpose other than to weaken him politically in the general election — should he win the primary.
But 91 sham indictments or no indictments, most Americans already have a view of the former president that is fully baked into the cake and is unlikely to change based on any court ruling.
According to an AP-NORC Center survey that was conducted in August, 53 percent of Americans said they would “definitely not” support Trump next November.
What that means is that a considerable share of the electorate will gladly vote for a barely sentient man, a man who is responsible for overseeing the greatest decline of our country since Jimmy Carter.
Yes, as illogical and destructive as it is, the Marxists would rather pay $8 per gallon of gas, let China run roughshod over us, expose minors to inappropriate sex-education and watch as their urban cities turn into crime infested hell holes — rather than vote for the evil orange man.
Sure you can refer to those baby-killing, open border radicals, globalist loving, climate change freaks, as morons all you want, but it does nothing to change the facts.
And the reality is, we simply cannot afford to remain on the path to hell that is our current trajectory, which means we need to nominate someone who can win and reverse the decline as quickly as possible.
When President Nixon was considering whether or not he should run again for President in 1968, he wrote in his memoirs, “A good candidate must have five qualities: brains, heart, judgment, guts, and experience.”
There is no denying that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis unequivocally possesses all of those qualities.
By now, most people should know his story.
He graduated with honors from both Yale (where he was captain of the baseball team) and Harvard Law School, he served as a Navy JAG Officer, and was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus.
But most importantly of all when COVID struck, the governor stood firm and never wavered in his commitment to protect the freedoms and defend the liberties of every single Floridian.
To this day the governor still does not receive half the credit he deserves for how he rose to the occasion and exercised true leadership.
Where is the apology from the radical teachers’ unions that fought him tooth and nail to keep the schools closed?
Surely even the communist loving parents living in the Sunshine State must be happy their children did not suffer learning losses, the way those living in blue — and yes some Republican-led states, did.
Where is the apology from the pundits and the laptop class who criticized DeSantis for allowing businesses to prosper and for refusing to let people lose their jobs if they were not deemed “essential.”
Where is the thank you from the college athletic recruiters in Florida who did not see youth sports leagues canceled, and athletic dreams crushed?
The fact is, in the face of relentless attacks from all sides, the Governor never wavered in his commitment to do what was right, not for him, but for the people who elected him.
And that is exactly how he approaches every aspect of his job, every single day.
There is not a single state in the country that has done more to protect the life of the unborn, has expanded school choice, promoted education, not indoctrination, supported the 2nd Amendment, provided record-breaking tax relief, enacted harsh penalties for drug dealers and sex offenders, supported law enforcement and veterans, and has actually enforced our immigration laws.
It is for these reasons that the New York Times hit-pieces keep coming, because they not only know how effective DeSantis is at governing, but they know that when he says he will do something, he does it.
Unlike other politicians who now say, “it’s a terrible thing,” to sign a heartbeat abortion bill, or seem confused about the distinction between men and women, or who promised to drain the swamp, but instead elevated the swampiest creatures of them all at both the NIH and at the FBI — DeSantis does not lead based on which way the wind blows — he leads by standing firm and never backing down.
Isn’t that a winning formula?