Can Ron DeSantis Teach Media Relations to Weak Republicans?
BY STEPHEN KRUISER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
The DeSantis Factor Keeps Getting Stronger
Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Anyone know where I can get a used submarine in good condition?
The Republican party’s Biden-era adjustment period is a bit all over the place, to put it mildly. We knew that there would be more than a few adjustments to be made after Donald Trump left Washington for the sunshine of Florida, but it’s turned out that there are more than that.
Naturally, most of the party drama involves D.C. Republicans. Too much time inside the Beltway infects even the best people with a severe case of the drama queens, so that’s to be expected. Even the ones you want to like eventually end up not being able to get out of their own way while trying to knock someone else over trying to get to a camera. Expect the worst, and the Beltway Republicans will never disappoint you.
Most of my conservative friends and colleagues prefer not to dwell on this hot mess too much and dream of better days, like 2024. I’m not a big fan of getting too far ahead of ourselves like that, and I’ll be writing a column about that in the next day or two. Still, it’s a useful coping mechanism for many and fleshing out a partial plan is never a completely bad idea.
Whenever the hopes for 2024 are discussed, the name of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida comes up a lot. There are a lot of Trump supporters who would like to see him return and run again. Among those people, DeSantis seems to be the favorite to run if Trump doesn’t decide to put himself through that again.
It’s easy to understand why DeSantis would be so popular with conservative Republicans who aren’t in the mood for the GOP to backslide and start capitulating to the Democrats all the time. He doesn’t do much of that.
OK, any of that.
Throughout this plague, DeSantis has heeded his own instincts rather than react to the shrieking of the Democrats and their hysterical flying monkeys in the media.
That’s precisely what the Republican party needs — leaders who don’t fall for the false promise of respect from the mainstream media. It was bad enough before Trump won in 2016. The MSM hacks would dangle carrots for witless Republicans. If the Republicans in question did what they were told — like backstab other Republicans — they’d be treated slightly less awfully in the press. As soon as their service was no longer required, it was back to crap treatment as usual.
All of the biased media malpractice was more veiled and coy before Trump made everyone involved rip off their masks and expose themselves for the cancer that they are. That the insidiousness of their ways is now a fully known commodity and there are still so many Republicans who want to play into their hands is rather disturbing to those of us who found Trump’s media battles such a refreshing change of pace. Decades of watching Republicans like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush gleefully submit to being whipping boys for the MSM had left us searching for reasons to stick with the party.
Trump changed all that. If the GOP wants most of those 74 million votes Trump got last year to stick around it better not fall in line behind squishes who are saying, “Thank you sir, may I have another?” while being embarrassed by the likes of CNN.
Speaking of media, we saw social media wield real bias and power in the 2020 election, and all of it for the Democrats. To date, the only pushback Republicans in Congress have managed has centered around strong finger-wagging during sham hearings.
DeSantis and his legislature are working on some actual pushback, which Bryan wrote about on Tuesday:
A new proposal expected to be filed Tuesday would prohibit companies from suspending the account of a political candidate and be subject to a fine of $100,000 for each day the account of a statewide candidate is blocked, or $10,000 a day for other office seekers.
The proposal would also allow consumers to sue if they have been treated unfairly and would authorize the state attorney general to take on the country’s largest tech companies because of anti-competitive practices. Social media companies would be required to reveal how they became aware of any content they censor.
That might not be a complete fix, but it’s more concrete than anything the D.C. GOPers have attempted.
Ignore the mainstream hacks, push back legally against the social media barons when possible. If only DeSantis could impress that attitude upon his fellow Republicans. Some are getting the vibe — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem comes to mind — but a lot more need to get with the program or the GOP will be relegated to a double-masked Democrat mandate hell forever.
Or until China occupies the United States.