Permission Structures

The flaw in Kim Reynolds’ endorsement of Ron DeSantis.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds during a campaign rally on November 06, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

We owe a little praise to the governor of Iowa, who did something on Monday that’s unusual in Republican politics. She put the interests of her party and her country ahead of her professional ambition.

Sort of.

I won’t break my arm patting Kim Reynolds on the back for endorsing an underwhelming authoritarian for president over a more charismatic one. If doing right by the GOP and America was her priority, she would have backed the recognizably liberal Nikki Haley instead of a post-liberal who’s running as “Trump, but more aggressive.”

But I’ll pat her on the back for declining to endorse the frontrunner despite the fact that he’s 30 points up in her state and will now bear her a grudge that’ll make her life unpleasant in all sorts of ways.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    What is your solution, Nick? You have a ready audience right here? Any ideas on what we could do or what anyone could do that might work?

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  2. Coyneric

    This is an inflection point in the withering away of MAGA, people. Iowa is ground zero for populism, and Trump/MAGA hit the state like a hydrogen bomb in 2015/16, to the point that it made a purple (often VERY slightly blue) state into a solid Red State within a couple years. And being that it's such an out-of-the-way place, it's so easy for people to look out over the hundreds of square miles of flatness and small town, and see TRUMP - FJB - TRUMP - LET'S GO BRANDON - TRUMP everywhere (The election was clearly stolen, EVERYONE here for hundreds of miles in all directions loves Trump????). Reynolds has been extremely popular with the IA GOP base not just because of her policies, but even more so because she's heretofore been a consistently vociferous Trump loyalist. And vaunted as a 'rising star' in national GOP politics.

    It's staggering that she's risked everything by endorsing DeSantis. The reaction from IA GOP voters (of which hardcore MAGA consists of roughly 3/4 of the GOP base) has been an avalanche of flooding her social media with angry comments. And yes, as the author muses, she is most assuredly getting violent hate mail and death threats. Being from Iowa, I know the Ted Nugent-worshipping/small town bubba/monster pick-up/Don't Tread on Me/the-Woke-can-suck-my-shotgun/God/Guns/Trump types VERY well. Unconditional support to Trump has become the cornerstone of their identity, it is intractably interwoven into their psyche. There's a sense of very open, aggressive hostility toward anything that has a whiff of being 'left-leaning', is not sufficiently balls-to-the-wall MAGA, or most importantly, critical of Trump. Now that she's incurred their wrath (and that of their Back the Blue bleach-blonde wives and "Iowa Nice" old folks who've rarely left their county of < 10,000 people and will offer you a piece of mincemeat pie and weak coffee if you come visit), she's politically dead in the water.

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    Charley Warns

    It's criminal that Nikki Haley isn't getting her support. "She also chose to endorse Ron DeSantis at a moment when he’s never looked weaker and Trump has never looked stronger."

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  4. Aaron

    Trump is on a glide path back to the WH. Time to get used to it, as awful as it is

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    Barry Alexander

    They're still trying to rescue the doomed hostage, but all they're doing is prolonging his miserable existence. The hostage is going to die.

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  6. Randall Briggs

    “There is only so much tap dancing you can do on MAGA and Trump. It’s either the full Liz [Cheney] or the full Newsmax and everyone has to choose eventually.”

    There it is.

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    1. Avatar photo
      David Burke

      If…..if, it is as you say….

      The Republican Party will be the demise of the USA.

      how ironic. Considering my observations growing up.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Retired Prosecutor

    Perhaps I am wishcasting here, but the Trump "electability" proposition will look much different next year if he has suffered a criminal conviction, and after the electorate (most of whom aren't paying attention at this point) is reminded by his campaign of just how unhinged Trump really is. The crosstabs of the recent NYT poll suggests this, at least as to the conviction issue.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Marty

      Let us pray.

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    2. John

      That’s what I’ve been thinking for awhile. Let’s hope we’re correct

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  8. AJLiberty

    "Reynolds has been forced into an absurd, transparently false argument about Trump’s alleged unelectability"

    I disagree with this. Trump cannot survive the negative press of two high-profile trials starting in March and May, respectively. Think free attack ads for months. Yes his base will be "energized" but everyone else will be repulsed. It's true that independents will always contrast their pocketbook circa 2018 with their pocketbook today. But they don't want a felon running the justice department and speaking for the country. The polls can't flesh out this awful truth until it's served up blatantly to voter's faces.

    Trump will be unelectable. The same anger after J6 will be there...and he will lose suburban women. Yes, he'll pick up a yokel here and there who enjoys that Trump has brought WWE bombast to politics, but independents swamp them out. Reynolds may be premature with her prognostication in terms of what polls say today....but she won't be when the GOP convention must process an imploding candidacy.

    I'm no fan of DeSantis...though AllahNick correctly notes the tricky balance that was required for him to dethrone the king. I think some of his campaign's decisions have been questionable. I think Haley is a better choice to rally around as an alternative to market in the general. The GOP's recent performance in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia strongly suggests Haley's compromise over DeSantis' stridency. We should fight for what is right rather than what the current polls say is expedient. The remnant normals in the GOP need to make their argument, not wither in Nick's despair. Trumpism will run out of gas...there needs to be clear argument for something better than Don Jr. or Tucker Carlson.

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      Dsfelty

      Thanks for your interesting , optimistic observations! Hope you're right on!

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  9. Homer.Rainbow

    "Trump’s grip on the American right"? It's the other way around, the real problem is the American right's grip on Trump that needs to loosen up. A younger, more narcissistic version of Trump can do it. You have to be much more cynical to see this truth, sadly.

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      Dan Baldwin

      This here is the sad truth. Trump is not the tiger--Trump is riding the tiger, who's nipped him a few times but has yet to actually bite him hard.

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    Javier Seravalli

    Best sentence in the piece IMO: "Misgivings about him must be framed as concerns about the welfare of the tribe, never on their own moral merits, if you aim to retain your status as a member in good standing."

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