DeSantis Swirling Down the Toilet
By 
Even outside the utter failure of Ron DeSantis to take a single primary voter away from Donald Trump and then having to bend the knee to the ex-president when the latter was charged with crimes, I long believed that DeSantis’ toxic politics are not going to work out in a general election. Yes, yes, he has figured out Florida. But Florida is also Land of the Old Angry White New Englander and Midwesterner and it’s not a great mirror of the rest of the nation. I just can’t see how he was going to attract swing voters by being meaner than Donald Trump. I mean, moderate voters are pretty stupid people, but at least Glenn Youngkin had to try to pretend moderation and being a nice guy in a Patagonia vest. DeSantis acts like Mussolini is a cuck.
In any case, the Republican funders are bailing too.
Top Republican donor Thomas Peterffy is halting plans to help finance the US presidential bid of Florida governor Ron DeSantis due to his extreme positions on social issues.
“I have put myself on hold,” the billionaire told the Financial Times.
“Because of his stance on abortion and book banning . . . myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry.”
Though DeSantis has not formally announced a run, he has for months been considered former president Donald Trump’s main rival for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
But in recent weeks, the Florida governor’s popularity among likely voters has wobbled as he has tried to appeal to Trump’s far-right voter base while also presenting himself as an opponent with broader appeal.
DeSantis has aimed to ban books dealing with sexual and LGBTQ themes from Florida schools and supported a ban on abortions after six weeks in the state.
Peterffy said he no longer believed that DeSantis had the same odds to unseat Trump in the Republican primary than he did at the start of the year. “DeSantis seems to have lost some momentum.”
What I love is what counts as a step too far for these people:
Peterffy noted that he still supported the governor in his approach to business, including his battle with Disney. The company has gone head to head with the governor over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts speech about gender and sexuality in schools. “I think it’s insane that a company would take a stand on gender issues,” he said.
Ah.
In any case, at least some of these people, as awful as they are, have some standards.
What is going to happen in 2024 is already almost preordained. Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee. The entire election will be about Donald Trump and nothing else. And due to his base loving him, everyone else hating him, and the difference that four years of old white assholes dying and younger voters who despise Republicans coming of voting age and the cohort above that starting to vote more, Trump will lose by about 2 percent more than he did in 2020, which means the exact same electoral map as that year, except for maybe North Carolina.