The real reason Republican Senator Bill Cassidy just broke from Ron DeSantis
Large chunks of the mainstream media have spent all year portraying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the big rising star in the Republican Party, and inevitable for 2024. This narrative is great for TV ratings and such, because DeSantis is a cartoonish villain who scares people into staying tuned in. But in reality, DeSantis is also an idiot with meager political skills who’s in over his head and floundering.
Specifically, DeSantis is the kind of dummy who keeps pandering to his base, because he saw Donald Trump do it for four years, without understanding that pandering to the base is why Trump lost reelection. In order to survive in office you have to expand your support in order to make up for inevitable lost enthusiasm from your base. Instead DeSantis is siding with the 38% of Floridians who oppose school mask mandates, and siding against the 62% of Floridians who support school mask mandates. No wonder DeSantis’ poll numbers are dropping and his reelection in 2022 is now in doubt.
On the Sunday morning talk show circuit, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy made a point of disagreeing with DeSantis’ anti-mask position. Cassidy even went so far as to paint DeSantis as being overbearing, and instead argued that DeSantis should abide by the longtime (and rarely followed) conservative “small government” mantra of leaving things to the local authorities.
Some observers are expressing their shock that a Republican Senator is making a point of standing against Ron DeSantis. But if you’ve been reading Palmer Report all year, this shouldn’t surprise you at all. Even as right wing voters across America are increasingly becoming scared of the COVID Delta variant, and a number of Republican politicians are trying to adjust accordingly so they don’t get blamed for it in the next election, DeSantis is idiotically doubling down on a losing position. No wonder Bill Cassidy is breaking from him. He won’t be the last Republican to do so. At some point it’s just about self preservation, and DeSantis is a sinking ship.
