Ron DeSantis and the Hollow Victory of Outrage

Last week was the week of Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor created a political firestorm last Wednesday when he flew two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. This flight ran afoul of numerous legal and ethical strictures. The men and women on the flight were likely lied to, lured by false promises of economic opportunities. DeSantis’s flight echoed an earlier stunt orchestrated by White Citizens’ Councils in the early 1960s, where African Americans were bused to Northern cities in an attempt to identify some sort of racial hypocrisy among white liberals. The most confounding fact of the case was that the migrants were not even in Florida. They were, instead, in Texas, where local authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the stunt.

Ron DeSantis is particularly good at stoking liberal outrage. He has shown skill at creating news headlines and taking symbolic acts that rile up the online left. DeSantis’s executive orders and press conferences create days of headlines and debate, even when they are reversed by courts or pursued by prosecutors. He also seems to be adept at keeping himself in the news for as long as possible. The Florida governor’s stunts are spaced out so he is never allowed to be forgotten by the wider press.

These skills are not insignificant to the Florida governor’s political chances. In our current news ecosystem, standing out from the crowd is enormously difficult. An adeptness with social media and large advertising budgets are the best way to become national political figures. But social media savvy alone does not mean that a candidate can become successful. Ad spending is also not a saving grace. Billionaires with unlimited media resources, like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg in 2020, are sometimes unable to gain political traction.

DeSantis definitely has political traction and a brand. But gaining fame and notoriety is different from winning a presidential election. In order to do this, DeSantis will have to present a concrete, popular program eventually. He will have to present ideas that he will enact with the help of Congress once he is elected. These ideas have to appeal to a wide swath of the electorate. They must win some legitimacy among mainstream political outlets, since many of the voters necessary to win the presidential election do not watch Fox News all day. A positive political program will also allow Ron DeSantis to win over stakeholders throughout the nation and the Republican Party, since they will involve promises to interest groups and lobbyists who will later advocate on behalf of the candidate.

A DeSantis observer may counter this assessment with the experience of the Donald Trump campaign. According to some of his critics, Trump ran a campaign based on nothing more than hate and vitriol towards women, minorities, and liberals. He wanted to lock up his political opponent. He criticized judges, disabled reporters, and war heroes who attacked him. Pure, unadulterated hate animated his supporters and pushed them towards the polls for his shocking 2016 victory. Why can’t Ron DeSantis stoke up the same outrages to launch a successful campaign of his own?

These observations are the impressions liberals and the media got from the Trump campaign. Independent voters in particular heard something different. They absorbed the many populist ideas that Trump mentioned in most of his speeches. They believed his promises to protect Medicare and Social Security and provide universal healthcare. Many sincerely believed that Trump was not corrupt because he had already made billions in real estate. They thought he could “drain the swamp” and reduce corruption in the national capital.

DeSantis is no Donald Trump. He does not have the 45th president’s personality or sense of humor. He also does not have four decades of celebrity backing his political reputation. Furthermore, running on pure hate would be something that even Trump could not do. Trump had to have a concrete plan. No matter how impractical or ridiculous that plan ended up being, it was a popular plan that spoke to the concerns of millions of Americans. Ron DeSantis must offer something real and concrete if he ever hopes to follow in the 45th president’s footsteps.