He Fights?

Trump, DeSantis, and the politics of dominance.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during an Iowa GOP reception on May 13, 2023 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Yesterday my boss paused for a perspective check about the most provocative passage from an unusually provocative legal complaint, one accusing Rudy Giuliani of sexual assault.

We won’t hear that allegation mentioned in the coming primary, of course, for the simple and obvious reason that Republican voters would resent the candidate who brought it up more than they’d resent Trump for the behavior it describes.

“But wait,” you might say. “Republican voters love a ‘fighter.’ Wouldn’t they respect a Mike Pence or a Nikki Haley for getting in Trump’s face about this?”

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  1. Cpbogdan

    I fantasize about Trump interrupting someone on the debate stage with his usual idiocy and Chris Christie* turning to him, and channelling Walter Sobchak, saying “Shut the f*** up, Donnie”

    What’s Trump going to say? “You’re very nasty”?

    “Cry for me, One Term”

    Too bad it’ll never happen *sigh*


    *I believe Christie is the only politician who could deliver that line with any authenticity

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    Pgrossjr47

    Anytime I am feeling too happy and optimistic, I read Nick.

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    1. Ufodaddy

      lol. Me too.

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  3. Marla Hughes

    Oh good Lord. Blah blah blah blah I hate DeSantis blah blah blah.

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  4. Kittcomm

    This is a disaster, no matter how you look at it. As a Floridian, I am not anxious to see DeSantis succeed. He’s done some good things here and there, but fundamentally he’s a nasty guy and an authoritarian. I hate to think what he might accomplish as president, should he get a republican Congress. Which would be likely.

    On the other hand, Trump? Jesus. I guess I have to vote Democrat, but I dread that too . Biden looks more frail by the day, and his replacement is not even serious. I keep thinking that somethings got to happen, but there’s no guarantee that it will.

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  5. InadvertantObfuscation

    DeSantis and Trump get a lot of free political ads in the press. Ever heard of Gov. Hutchinson (AR)?
    We can say he doesn't have a chance because he is sane. But his chances are more likely reduced by that vicious cycle of news services covering only known candidates ensuring that other candidates are not known.

    Regarding attacking Trump, I remember Ross Perot's oft-repeated statement, "If your wife can't trust you, how can I?"

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  6. Tom Johnson

    “To protect its political investment in him, the GOP has declared moral bankruptcy.”

    Sums it up beautifully.

    As for why DeSantis wants to lead this miserable party, he’s obviously not a good fit for the other one. If not for our stifling two-party system, quality candidates like Larry Hogan would have other viable lanes to run in.

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  7. Dougrhon

    Things have reached a pretty pass. It looks it will take an act of God or something similar to deliver us from the nightmare of the Orange maniac vs. the 82 year old failing cypher.

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  8. Brian The 2nd

    Clearly there is only one way to get in front of Trump at this point, and it would be to out-deplorable him. Out awful him. DeSantis would need to go Roman Emperor style, and have mass executions on TV of undesirables. Put trans kids and their families in an arena with hungry lions like they used to do with Christians. The base would eat it up!

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      Dan Baldwin

      The base would--they would sell tickets and attend and cheer it on just like they did with public executions over a century ago.
      I am not calling such people morally depraved and degenerate; I am saying that on the authoritarian/reactionary side of our collective psyche there are a sizable amount of people with naturally low-to-no empathy, a considerable amount of sadism, an inherent need for conformity, and a tendency to use tribalism as a vehicle for determining one's own identity.
      They are American citizens with all the rights and privileges thereof, they are a large enough voting block at the local, state, and national level that they must be taken into account, and Donald Trump is their Messiah because he has paid the wages of shame for them, and allows them to openly be their awful, mean, and bigoted selves without social reprisal or silencing.
      They no longer have to obey social conditioning, and they would *cheerfully* advocate for and watch mass executions of their perceived enemies, because that is what tribalists do.
      I will never use the term "conservative" in association with this group, because nothing they do or are is in any way conservative; the term was simply the most convenient social mask for this group to hide behind. They are reactionary authoritarian tribalists instead... or fascists for short. And I wish more media outlets and writers would clearly and candidly make this distinction going forward.

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    Kbroot

    Describing Trump’s evil as “moral failure” is like the Duke in The Thirteen Clocks saying “We all have faults, mine is being wicked”.

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  10. Paul in NC

    The Republican Party is not a serious political party anymore. If every person running for the nomination is too scared to challenge an obvious traitor and buffoon like Donald Trump, there is no reason to believe they have the testicular fortitude to handle the job of president. This, of course, is the fault of the low-intelligence Republican voters who choose to elevate a moronic coup plotter who openly calls for suspending the constitution. MAGA cultists are not just braindead followers of a wannabe fascist, they are lesser people, phony patriots who are easily taken by propagandists, and should be treated as such. I'm sick of giving the GOP voters a pass. They are the problem.

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      Erik.Kravets

      I wish it were true that a strong critique of this behavior would lead to reflection, but it doesn't seem to.

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    2. Bill

      Oddly, enough I haven't found what you say about the Republican voter to be true. I live in the rural Midwest, the heart of Magaland so many of my neighbors are staunch Trump supporters. They range from pragmatic about it to completely devoted to him, but many of them are neither stupid nor nasty. Many are actually deeply religious, intelligent, good people, which makes their devotion to an amoral, self-centered, incompetent, and stupid ex president nearly incomprehensible to me. The only way I've been able to account for it, is that their willful blindness to what everyone could see about Trump early on in his candidacy produced a much greater blindness about him the longer they indulge in it.

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      1. OldBoomer

        Bill

        Either Trump is NOT amoral, self-centered, incompetent and stupid, or your neighbors are not "actually" deeply religious, intelligent, good people.

        You can't have it both ways.

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        Erik.Kravets

        My reasoning is that they just want to see the "other side" damaged and angry as much as possible, and that this is higher up in their value system than maintaining coherence with their ethics and morals.

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      3. Paul in NC

        I'm surprised you have not seen this. Maybe it depends on where you are from. As for why Trump cultists remain willfully blind, I think it comes down to personal embarrassment. I would imagine it must feel pretty painful for one to admit that they had been taken by obvious lies told by an obvious liar.

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          Barry Alexander

          Or maybe it depends on where you're *coming* from. If you're predisposed to see a certain group as contemptible, it may be that you'll use any reason to confirm that view.

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          1. Paul in NC

            I am predisposed to finding people who worship a traitorous coup plotter contemptable, and make no apologies for it. If you ever supported Trump, even in 2016, you were taken by a two-bit con artist. If that hurts your feelings, f**k your feelings (as the Trump cult used to love to say, ad nauseum).

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        Kmregan7

        Sunk cost fallacy. That’s what I’m going with…it would be too much cognitive dissonance, too much shame, etc. so they’re all in….

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