COMMENTARY I once compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. My mistake. Chávez was a nationally electable politico. After Iowa, it appears DeSantis is not.
I owe Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis an apology.
A few years ago, when DeSantis was cranking up his autocratic, right-wing campaign of pre-empting any local government actions he deemed “woke,” I likened him to the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez — who was notorious for his own autocratic, left-wing obsession with canceling any state and local authority exercised by his political opposition.
But here’s where I got the comparison between the two men wrong.
Hugo Chávez was nationally electable.
It appears Ron DeSantis is not.
READ MORE: ¡Eso! Hugo Chávez would have felt at home in Florida, where home rule is under attack
As this week’s Iowa caucuses made brutally clear for DeSantis, he stands little to no chance of upsetting former President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Even his future national aspirations look as limp and labored as the political personality he toted out of the Sunshine State into the fairgrounds and diners of the Hawkeye State.
So I got it wrong when I suggested in 2020 that DeSantis shared Chávez’s presidential potency.
He doesn’t.
Chávez, of course, had morphed into a dictator when he died in power in 2013; and I’m certainly not suggesting DeSantis is that degree of human rights-trashing tyrant. But folks forget Chávez was legitimately, democratically elected in 1998. And what’s striking is that there were other leftist politicians in Venezuela at that time who tried to convince voters that they were just as ideologically credible as Chávez — but didn’t carry all the chaotic drama associated with Chávez, who had led a failed military coup attempt in 1992.
They assumed, as a result, that they were the nationally electable figures. Then Chávez buried them.
Remind you of anything playing out right now?
National voters figured out DeSantis was a right-wing wonk playing Donald Trump just as surely as he was playing a right-wing version of Hugo Chávez.
Fast-forward 26 years, and DeSantis is the Chávez-without-the-drama guy — or in this case, the Trump-without-the-drama guy. He has spent the past few years furiously, cynically trying to convince Trump’s MAGA base that he can out-Trump Trump, from demonizing immigrants to owning the libs, but at the same time be the adult in the GOP room who won’t turn off independents by, say, calling for a violent, insurrectionist assault on Congress.
But it turns out most Republican voters want the violent, insurrectionist assault — just as most Chávez voters a quarter century ago wanted the violent, insurrectionist coup attempt.
Even so, that doesn’t completely explain why DeSantis looks incapable of reaching the head-of-state heights Chávez and Trump have occupied. Whether you love or hate Chávez and Trump, a lot of this boils down to that intangible that separates the national electables from the state and local wannabes: an enthralling persona that captivates the electorate from sea to shining sea.
And there, again, DeSantis tanks from coast to coast.
Bully in the room
Face it, we all went to high school or college with a DeSantis. The young conservative who doesn’t just think he’s the smartest kid in the cafeteria — he’s sure he’s the only smart kid in the cafeteria, and he therefore has a green light, if not a mean right, to bully everyone else in that domain (or have you missed Best of Ron moments like contemptuously upbraiding Florida high school students for wearing COVID masks?).
Granted, we all went to school with DeSantis' liberal match as well — the self-righteous ideologue who’s sure everyone else in the room is a bourgeois dolt and needs Bolshevik bullying. But ever since he stepped outside the Free State of Florida, DeSantis has laid bare what an empty, sneering, people-allergic, soulless-smile vessel of a national candidate he really is.
As many other pundits have pointed out recently, DeSantis had a compelling personal story to tell — but that sort of human engagement turned out to be beneath the only smart person in the room. What voters in Iowa and across the country have identified instead is just a garden-variety right-wing policy wonk who’s been playing Trump just as surely as he’s been playing a right-wing version of Chávez.
DeSantis may be the smartest politico in Florida’s room, but it turns out he doesn’t know how to read America’s room.
And all that out-Trumping Trump that DeSantis has been up to has now left Florida looking like a national punchline of book-banning, racism and homophobia. Trump himself has come out and basically said, “Geez, Ron, not even I back a six-week abortion ban!”
So I’m sorry, Governor. In the future I’ll, uh, pre-empt any urge to compare you to a national leader.
