The Iowa caucuses are over. Trump won over his closest rival by double-digits, two-to-one over Governor Ron DeSantis.
I wish the Governor of Florida the best, but let's face it: this primary is over. Granted, the Iowa caucuses have not been the strongest indicator of who the GOP nominee would be in many elections. In all those cases, however, you did not have a former incumbent running for re-election. This time, the indication is clear: Trump is going to be the GOP nominee.
Trump got 52% of the vote, and DeSantis straggled behind in a distant second with 21% of the vote. This election loss is a shellacking for DeSantis. I believe that he will "Never Back Down," and he will stay true to his core commitment to fight all the way. Good for him. He is a worthy presidential candidate.
The problem is that the voters are not worthy voters. American voters turned down the greatest governor in a generation.
Let me explain.
In 2016, I had supported Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for Presidente because he accomplished unprecedented reforms and advanced a robust conservative agenda for his time. Walker took on Big Labor in the Progressive epicenter of the United States (for the record, it was not California where the Progressive political movement took off, but Wisconsin). Walker won three statewide victories in what was then recognized as a blue state, including a bitter recall battle, in a state that voted for the Democrat presidential nominee every election since 1988. Walker continued to get the job done expanding gun rights, cutting taxes, cutting spending, paying down massive debt, expanding worker rights, school choice, protecting life and families: everything a conservative could want from a governor and a future president.
On the presidential trail, he fizzled out in September 2015, over-extending his resources without honing a strong, pugilist populist message against frontrunner Donald J. Trump.
In 2023 and into this year, DeSantis corrected all those campaign mistakes. He properly apportioned his campaign funding. He fought the media hard and won. He went after Trump and all his failures and false promises. He did the Full Grassley, he connected with everyday voters, he stepped up for every debate. He is a masterful communicator, refreshing if not riveting. Yet for all that, Iowa GOP caucus voters said "No thank you," and voted for the former incumbent.
DeSantis did everything right, and he still lost. The fault, dear reader, is not in the candidate, but in the voters. They see themselves as underlings who need Trump again. They long for the Trump administration, with its lower taxes, cheap gas, better economy, etc. Yet for some reason, they have no problem forgetting about COVID, all the broken promises, the bad management in the White House, his failure to secure the border, etc. For some reason, nothing is ever Trump's fault, and it doesn't matter that he didn't get the job done the first time.
Unlike Scott Walker, Ron DeSantis accomplished even more conservative reforms with a broader constitutional vision. For the record, Scott Walker went all in for corporate handouts. He provided taxpayer subsidies to sports arenas, and he was supporting The Trans Pacific Partnership economic program, which would have pushed more American jobs overseas. He was for more immigration, but following a massive backlash among primary voters, he switched gears and spoke out forcefully against amnesty. I was willing to trust him then because he repealed the DREAM Act in Wisconsin. In sharp contrast, DeSantis accomplished more robust reforms on immigration, life, the Second Amendment, the rule of state government in the livees of everyday Floridians, plus the fact that he stood up to Big Business and Big Labor and won! DeSantis is Walker on steroids, and Trump with results.
Where Walker reformed universities by cutting their funding and forcing them to streamline their spending, DeSantis focused on ideological changes so that they stopped churning out Marxist activists. DeSantis enacted constitutional carry and repealed gun control measures. DeSantis boldly and triumphantly declared: "Florida is where woke goes to die," and it is dying. The biggest promoted of woke cultural marxism is in fully collapse, as the Florida Democratic Party faces the same fate as the California Republican Party: becoming a controlled, dessicated, destroyed opposition movement that cannot muster a statewide election win in the near future.
And yet, Iowa voters went with Trump in 2024.
What is going on here?
A stunning and sobering reality, when it comes to politics, campaigns, and elections, Republicans are the liberals, while Democrats are the business-minded conservatives. Democrats assess the costs, the strategies, the efforts needed to get the job done. They invest campaign funding where they are most likely to flip a seat and win an election. They will search for every resource, legal and extra-legal, to win the election.
Democrats have to win to fulfill their promises. Republicans don't really have to win to get their supporters what they want. Darren Beattie and Congressman Andy Biggs furnished a great analysis of grift and graft in politics. For Democrats, the grift is taxpayer dollars, so they have to win elections to hand out the spoils. For Republicans, for the Right in general, the campaign itself is the grift. Consultants get 15% of the campaign funds, whether their candidate wins or loses. The incentive to win is not nearly as strong, and it doesn't matter in the long run. Also, many grassroots Republicans are more interested in conferences and gatherings, taking photos with media influencers are getting a chance to meet a Congressman. They just want to party.
Republicans often donate money to candidates because they are taking on big, bad Democratic monsters like Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi. It feels good. However, those Republican candidates don't have a chance against entrenched incumbents in uber-liberal Congressional districts. Voters would be better served donating their funds to candidates in swing districts, but most Republican voters go with "Look at the black conservative running against Maxine Waters!" or "I want to support that young lady running against Nancy Pelosi!" It's identity politics and emotion all the way. That kind of thinking does not win the war. You have to maintain a cold, rugged, naked desire to win power, and to use the best strategies to get that power. Governor DeSantis understand this desire for power, but the GOP voting electorate does not.
Let's look back to what a real winner DeSantis is.
DeSantis destroyed the Democratic Party in Florida. He didn't just score big wins for the Florida GOP and enact a robust agenda. You have hundreds of thousands of voters switching their registration or joining the Florida Republican Party. They are winning over county after county, and they are achieving unprecedented gains throughout the state. Democrats want to turn their states into one-party fiefdoms. Only Governor DeSantis has shown a robust attention to this kind of total victory against Woke, Cultural Marxism, and Racialized Communism.
He doesn't just fight, he doesn't just win, he wins bigly and demoralizes the Left.
And Iowa GOP voters went forT rump. Sad.
This outcome reminds me of a reality TV show in which a lucky lady gets to choose between two eligible bachelors. One is a wealthy investor, owns a home, multiple properties, has a strong, steady career, but he's a nerd. The other guy is a buff weightlifter, good looking and charismatic, but still loves at home with his parents.
DeSantis would be the best of both of those eligible bachelors. He is good on TV, he makes strong points, he has a vision for the future. He wins big culturally, economically, and even spiritually. Politically speaking, he is wise and good-lucking. And yet, the voters are turning down the rich stud and going with a flabby sellout who talks big and accomplishes little.
Why?
It all comes down to identity politics and feelings. Worse, it's like the domestic violence victims who have become so attached to their trauma, who identity all too closely with their abuser, that they cannot see themselves living with anyone else, or getting someone better. There are serious problems in the American voting electorate at this point. They are so desperate for former times, that they will take the wife-beater who at least paid the bills and provided a roof over their head versus Prince Charming who won't treat them like trash.
Instead of reason and research, voters are going with nostalgia and coping. They want to feel good, and they want to believe that they are saving the country because they show up to vote once every four years and watch Fox News faithfully. Not going to happen, and many of these voters are going to learn the hard way that feelings, thoughts, prayers, and lots of hope do not win elections and do not shape the culture.
Governor DeSantis was the president we needed, but not the President that the United States deserves. Iowa voters missed their opportunity to elect the most consistently conservative candidate in a generation, if not an entire century, because they wanted to chase the headlines and feel good about themselves. The problem was not the candidate, but the voters, and changing the voters is going to take much longer than one election cycle.
