Among the books still available in Florida despite Ron DeSantis’ ongoing purge of “unsuitable” material is one the Republican governor might want to read.
Dale Carnegie’s 1936 bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People appears to be the antithesis of DeSantis’ stuttering push for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, as Donald’s closest challenger Trump crosses the country, turning voters away from his lackluster personality and extremist policies.
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By almost every measure, the right-winger had another lackluster week on the campaign trail, with “awkward” missteps in New Hampshire, Texas, California and New York. Now, barely a month after his failed Twitter launch, DeSantis finds himself sinking in the polls, closer to the broad group of optimists below him than the twice-indicted, twice-impeached former president who maintain control over the Republican Party.
“The more voters learn about him, the less they can bear the idea that he leads the country,” concluded the online magazine Jezebel.
There are competing theories about the reasons for DeSantis’ decline. Analysts warn that with seven months left until the primary season and with Trump mired in legal issues, it’s far too early to write him off.
“Primary elections are volatile and unpredictable. Don’t believe anyone who says they know how this is going to turn out,” said Stephen Craig, a political science professor and campaign expert at the University of Florida.
But it’s clear that many of DeSantis’ wounds are self-inflicted. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, he angered grassroots Republican women by scheduling a campaign event that clashed with Trump’s appearance at their flagship luncheon, a ‘dumb’ and ‘rookie’ mistake in the eyes of strategists republicans.
In a similar breach of protocol in New York, he upset local Republicans by hosting a fundraising event without the courtesy of a warning that he was in town, Politico reported.
Another dollar-raising trip to California with Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, whom he openly argues over his controversial migrant flights to Sacramento, was also the occasion for mockery. After DeSantis denounced homelessness and claimed in a campaign ad seeing people ‘defecating in the streets’ on a ‘comically short’ 20-minute trip to San Francisco, images of misery in Florida’s big cities started popping up on Twitter.
And in perhaps the most high-profile “miss” of the week, DeSantis’ big immigration policy reveal, made during a visit to the Texas-Mexico border on Monday, fell largely flat. Aggressive proposals such as lethal force against drug traffickers, separating migrant families, building a border wall and pledging to end birthright citizenship, have enraged advocates of the immigration and offered no more to the Republican base than Trump’s own agenda.
“I used to characterize DeSantis as hugely like Trump, but smarter, and I’m not sure that applies more,” said Craig, the UF professor. “He just seems to do things that aren’t so smart, his war with Disney for example, and some of the other things he does show an awkwardness that wasn’t so apparent before he started being a figure. national.
“I think he’s still a credible threat. But he will have to pull himself together. He shows some weakness and you can’t really do that if you want to take the big guy down.
Craig said DeSantis was in a tricky position as Trump’s main challenger, targeted by both him and the field below.
“He is vulnerable to his actions [and] if the other candidates all ganged up on him, hoping that one of them could replace him as an alternative to Trump, then I see the potential for him to sink long before the primaries,” he said.
“I’m not predicting that’s what’s going to happen. I say the primaries are inherently so unstable that I don’t think we should take a poll now as definitive proof of what’s likely.
Some senior Republicans are even less convinced. Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, said DeSantis underperformed. “[His] campaign is one of the worst I’ve seen so far, and it fell like a rock. I think it’s about to be done,” he told CBS’s The Takeout.
Veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson told the Guardian last month that the anti-revival governor was “all hats, no cattle.”
The DeSantis campaign continues to project an air of confidence. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he told reporters in Texas, according to NBC, after the network’s poll showed him with just 22% support among Republican primary voters, down from 31%. in April.
“[Joe] Biden beats Trump in swing states and I beat Biden easily in swing states. It’s finally the election right there. If you don’t have a way to do it, then nominate [Trump] has no sense.
Despite the challenge, there is evidence to suggest that DeSantis is increasingly aware that some of his extreme actions in Florida may not be popular on the national stage.
He largely avoided the abortion debate after signing a six-week ban in his home country; and, significantly, made a legal move this week seeking to postpone the trial in Disney’s lawsuit against him until after the 2024 election. A wave of Republicans, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival for the presidential nomination, accused DeSantis of betraying conservative values by hitting back at a private company for disagreeing with him.
One national issue that DeSantis thinks is a winner for him is his stance on immigration. He made several trips to the border, where he hired police resources in Florida to fight what he calls “Biden’s border crisis.”
But immigration advocates believe DeSantis’ agenda and proposals will turn off even more voters.
“He wants to overturn the 14th Amendment, detain children indefinitely, and create a mass deportation regime that would uproot families and destabilize communities across the country. It’s as ugly as it is unenforceable,” said Zachary Mueller, political director of America’s Voice.
“This sums up the Republican Party’s continued descent into dangerous immigration extremism, all politics and red meat for the base and no real solution or effort to move beyond perpetual chaos, fear and extremes. sectarian.”
Craig, meanwhile, thinks DeSantis lacks time and personality.
“I used to think of him as quite charismatic, but his recent performance seems to belie that,” he said.
“Maybe he can smooth it out. Richard Nixon was not Mr Charisma and he was elected, so it’s certainly not impossible.
“But DeSantis faces the big guy and I don’t think he has much room left. He needs to gain momentum somehow over the next two months, or some people who would like to leave Trump might also decide it’s time to leave DeSantis.