OPINION:
On the spectrum of things that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is good at, politics apparently is not one of them.
When Hillary Clinton was struggling to beat then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, she famously attacked his voters.
“You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables — the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it,” she said.
In an interview Friday, Mr. DeSantis offered his own description for Mrs. Clinton’s basket of deplorables.
“We have a strand in our party that views supporting Trump as whether you are a RINO or not,” he said, using the common epithet for fake conservatives: “Republican in name only.”
“And so, you could be the most conservative person since sliced bread — unless you are kissing his rear end, they will call you a RINO,” Mr. DeSantis complained. “If you’re not rooted in principle — if all we are is listless vessels who follow whatever comes down the pike on Truth Social every morning — that’s not going to be a durable movement.”
Using a naval term for a disabled ship, Mr. DeSantis attacked Trump supporters as stupid, bootlicking suck-ups who cannot think for themselves. They are “listless vessels” who only repeat whatever they read on Truth Social and attack true conservatives — presumably, he is talking about himself here — as RINOs for not falling in line.
DeSantis campaign operatives later clarified that Mr. DeSantis was referring only to members of Congress who support Mr. Trump — not regular voters.
But regardless, in politics, if you are explaining, you are losing. And in terms of political malfeasance, Mr. DeSantis’ attack on Trump supporters is worse than Mrs. Clinton’s.
In the first place, Mr. DeSantis needs to win over these unthinking “listless vessels” if he wants to win the nomination. Attacking them as thoughtless slugs does not help.
Second, Mrs. Clinton got caught trashing Trump supporters while speaking at a private fundraiser and immediately walked back the comments. Mr. DeSantis made the remarks in a taped interview.
On the record.
Internal documents obtained last week by The New York Times revealed panicked DeSantis consultants advising Mr. DeSantis to start showing emotion. Not sure this is the best way to do that.
Mr. DeSantis has a tremendous record — both politically and in terms of conservative accomplishments in Florida. But from the moment he launched his campaign — on Twitter, of all places — he campaigns like he is trying to win the endorsement of National Review magazine.
But, boy, is he doing a terrible job convincing Republican voters outside of his home state that he has the guts, smarts and political savvy to inherit the America First political movement started by Mr. Trump.
A new poll out Saturday shows an 11 percentage-point collapse in Mr. DeSantis’ support among Republican voters over the past two months. He is now tied at 10% with a surging Vivek Ramaswamy. Both men trail Mr. Trump in the poll by 46 points.
Mr. DeSantis’ highest level of support in that poll — at 29% support among Republican voters — was registered back in January, months before he got into the race. Since he announced — again, on Twitter! — it’s been all downhill for him.
Talk about a “listless vessel.”
A rule of thumb in politics while running for public office is to never talk about political mechanics. If you are a candidate and you find yourself playing political strategist in public, then you are pretty much doomed.
The reason Mr. Ramaswamy is surging is because he is always talking about his positive vision for the country. Mr. Trump is a ferocious fighter — but he is always fighting in the name of a clear, positive vision for the country.
It’s like Mr. DeSantis is stuck at nerd camp for politics, trying to check all these boxes about RINOs, listless vessels and sliced bread.
Show some emotion, Ron! So, he fat-shames a kid eating ice cream in Iowa.
“What is that? An Icee? That’s probably a lot of sugar, huh?” he says before moving to on the next small human to insult.
If Mr. DeSantis wants a future in national politics, he needs to learn how to connect with voters — not attack them. So far, the only thing Mr. DeSantis has done is reminded everyone that he never would have become governor of Florida in 2018 if Mr. Trump hadn’t endorsed him and campaigned for him.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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