Owning the List, Bothering the Right People

 

“Owning the List,” Bothering the Right People

The GOP strategy for the next two elections?

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis still comes in a distant second in GOP polling for the 2024 primary nod to be the Republican candidate for president. 18.5% behind Trump’s 50.6%, rising to first place (28%) among likely competitors if Trump does not run. Numbers based on an Election Central averaging of national poll as of late March. We are facing a rather increasingly successful shift by the GOP away from bread-and-butter issues (like jobs, healthcare, childcare, COVID protection, etc.), their traditional anti-tax, and anti-regulation supply side mantra. 

They are trying to neutralize Biden on Putin’s war by agreeing with him, focusing on what they are calling individual rights: From antivaxxers to right to lifers but most importantly and successfully, arguing for direct parental control over public school curricula. The big culture war issue. Most of the GOP message is predicated on fabrication of an issue that simple does not exist. See my recent Red States Tell You Teachers are Radicalizing Our Kids blog for statistical proof of exactly how fabricated this conflict really is.

Effectively, the GOP is courting independents – that aspect of the voting bloc that decides elections – with what the Dems call a “racist and biased” culture, anti-CRT war and what the GOP calls parental rights to control their children’s education and let a COVID-weary public revel under the notion free choice on what is put into their bodies without government rules and pressures… oh, unless free choice over one’s body involves abortion. The GOP is trying to force Dems into that culture war debate, labeling anything Dems want on the economic front as inflationary “creeping socialism,” a moniker that still terrifies older voters, even as the words are misused. They point to the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party as proof of that leftist lean. Abstract social values that generally don’t really benefit “most of us” with tangible “life improvements,” often decried as elitist priorities out of touch with ordinary people.

Meanwhile, as pointed out in my recent The Democrat’s Achilles Heel: An American Criminal Justice System that Still Fails African Americans blog, the Dems are also on the verge of losing that “people of color” constituency which is essential for them to win elections. If the Dems fail to address hard economic realities for middle- and lower-class Americans, playing into GOP hands to fight the culture war instead. Polls are showing that a slight majority of Americans back bills limiting what can be taught in public school classrooms rising to over 60% regarding limiting the language regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in K-3 classrooms. This concept is rapidly gaining traction as Republicans have found the right words to resonate with so many voters.

Ron DeSantis is even to the right of Donald Trump on culture wars, but he does not suffer from Trump’s proclivity to shoot from the hip, prey on anger at his rallies, or rely on lies and vitriol to cause constant destabilizing chaos… nor has he ever complemented a very hated Vladimir Putin. Trump still holds sway over the entire GOP, literally threatening Republicans who do not support his every whim that he will campaign for their GOP primary opponents. But that control is beginning to show evidence of slipping. The presidential election is more than two-and-half years away, and that is a lot of time for change. DeSantis is rising fast.

Having further marginalized minority voters, DeSantis and his crew have just unrolled a litany of fabricated right-wing mythology to solve non-existent but catchy political issues. Yet his slogan driven campaign has resulted in the number of Florida Republicans edging out Dems by 2%. “The Parental Rights in Education measure in line for DeSantis’s signature [he signed], which critics are calling the ‘Don’t say gay’ bill, would ban teachers from leading lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to third grade — which isn’t happening, — and in any grade if it’s deemed developmentally inappropriate by parents. Parents would be able to sue schools over the issue… But the bill is vague enough that it could discourage teachers from commenting, for example, on a student’s two dads or a boy’s preference for dresses for fear that commenting could be interpreted as classroom instruction. LGBTQ students protested that the bill seeks to make them invisible.

“The other bills that DeSantis [signed, include] the Individual Freedom bill. Teachers and [college] professors will have to tiptoe around discussions about race and the country’s racial history to avoid prompting ‘anguish’ in White students. Employers will also have to tread carefully when training or hiring workers. Books in schools will be easier for activists to ban. And women will have less time to contemplate an abortion.

“State Sen. Gary Farmer, a Democrat, summed it up as the legislature raced to finish. He said Republicans were pursuing a ‘4H agenda’ — ‘hurtful, harmful, hateful and homophobic.’” NBC News, March 8th. Truth? Who cares? Certainly not Florida legislators. Maybe that’s why Florida, the third most populous state in the union, doesn’t have a single college or university listed in the top 25 such institutions (US News & World Report 2022).

For Americans, tired of Trump’s turmoil and his obsession with the 2020 election, DeSantis is trying to shift the party towards a future-looking candidate who looks like Trump without that massive negative baggage. He has set a culture war trap, which he hopes will draw Democratic focus in the coming campaigns. If the Dems are smart, which they often strangely avoid, they would be well-advised to move meat-and-potato issues to the fore. 

The Dems should showcase Biden’s explosive job creation, slowing of the COVID pandemic after a GOP fumble, the rise in overall pay rates, the infrastructure bill that did pass (climate change friendly, job creating economic benefit for us all) and the proposed further infrastructure enhancement that should pass, blame Putin for inflation (noting that he is admired by Mr. Trump) and speak about the executive orders Biden really needs to start signing to promote his agenda. A few more efforts to raise the bar on African American voting rights and their treatment in the criminal justice system with a strong mention of nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court become a niched necessity when addressing that constituency.  Supporting cheaper childcare and championing abortion rights need to cast the Dems, versus the GOP, as the “woman-friendly” party.

Trump won fans by baiting and bothering the right people, often “liberal mainstream media,” but he just didn’t know when to stop or when to stop snarling and resorting to what most people believe to be over-the-top personal insults. DeSantis attacks the same “enemies,” but chooses his words much more carefully. Clearly, he wants to own that checklist of populist values, with the culture wars, anti-CRT (critical race theory), individual liberty not to follow medical precautions, and stopping “creeping socialism” in favor of God-fearing values topping the list. Note the nebulous, loose and often undefined issues that offer very little in the way of specificity. Meat-and-potatoes Dems?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder why the “it’s the economy, stupid!” maximum keeps slipping into the background when it so essential to winning elections.