It won’t matter if he can’t get his message out above the DeSantis-Trump din. So what would have been the point of all his talk about optimism?Įither way, I have to wonder: Who is the optimistic talk for? The moderate Republicans longing for a candidate to focus on the economy instead of harping on drag queens? Or the Republicans at risk of siding with the racist wing if Scott couldn’t offer them an alternative? (Given the messy breakup, it’s doubtful Trump and Mike Pence would try to get the band back together.) It’s a depressing thought, because that would mean at the end of the primary season, Scott would just be joining Trumpism anyway.
Some politicos have suggested Scott isn’t really trying to win the GOP nomination as much as position himself as a viable running mate to whoever does. If the senator can gain traction with a message of hope, maybe he can be the conservative Obama … you know, minus the acknowledgment of systemic racism and attacks on voting rights, because that’s a Republican turnoff.įor the moment, Trump is complimenting Scott, so that should tell you what the front-runner thinks of his chances. Ultimately that’s a question more about Republican voters than about Scott. This is why I question whether Scott can maintain a campaign fueled on optimism when red meat is cheaper and racism burns hotter. He seems nice enough, but I haven’t looked at him the same since he tried to make “woke supremacy” a thing back in 2021. Without getting his clean image dirty, can he convince Republicans that he’s willing to get in the mud? And more importantly, with so many white nationalists using Trumpism as the vehicle for their grievances and rising in the GOP, how does Scott compete for Republican primary votes without sacrificing integrity?Ĭorrection: without sacrificing any more integrity. Maybe Scott can fight, but it’s not his default mode. It’s the Catch-22 of politics: Voters say they want decorum, but they’re drawn to fights.
Ted Cruz have gotten significantly more airtime. Although he’s been in Congress since 2013, his more brash, antagonistic colleagues such as Sen. Or maybe Scott, the first Black person from the South to be elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, just needs more time to build his campaign. Maybe Scott’s decency and reasonable positions explain why he has about a quarter as much campaign money as DeSantis has. He also recently told NBC News that he would not try to overturn the election, which is an odd but nevertheless encouraging thing to hear. “We have to believe that our ideas are so strong and so powerful and so persuasive that we can actually take it to the highest points in the world and be successful, but we also have to be able to take it all the way down to places that today are hopeless and prove that who we are works for all Americans.” “We have to have a compassion for people who don’t agree with us, “ Scott said recently. But at least they weren’t arrested after leaving office.) (Though it’s important to note Ford and Reagan’s brand of decency wasn’t decent for everyone. Scott is giving Republicans a chance to return to the decency of Gerald Ford and the aspiration of Ronald Reagan. He is offering a kind of nostalgia that is very different from the one suggested by the slogan “Make America Great Again.” He’s a bona fide conservative on social issues. He’s respected by peers on both sides of the aisle. However, the fact that Scott did it the old-fashioned way - a rally in his home state - suggests he is the candidate exhausted Republicans are looking for. I appreciated DeSantis’ attempt to incorporate social media in his announcement, glitches and all. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who also announced this week that he was running for president. But instead he’s known for his efforts to stop people from saying the word “gay.” He’d be known for, say, trying to save the estimated 900,000 homes at risk of being underwater in his state as the ocean rises. If DeSantis were really an alternative to Trumpism, his record would look very different.
#Catapult kit series#
DeSantis used Trumpism to catapult himself into this position by signing a series of laws curtailing access to voting, attacking diversity efforts and picking fights with businesses he does not like.
0 kommentar(er)
