We spent a decent amount of time during the primary season calling out Democratic leadership for their hypocrisy. OK, we do that all the time, during every season. But in this case, we’re specifically talking about calling out Chuck Schumer et al. for spending tons of donors’ money to promote the hell out of MAGA candidates in GOP races while pretending to be terrified about the threat that MAGA poses to Our Democracy.
Once those MAGA candidates were locked in as the GOP nominees, the MSM stepped up to run tons of pieces about how awful those candidates were. Many of those pieces included musings on how those candidates were actually potentially even more dangerous and Trumpier than Donald Trump himself.
Well, the midterms are over now, and the media have turned their attention to the 2024 elections, especially the presidential election. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was already on a lot of people’s minds as a possible Republican presidential contender, and after he blew Charlie Crist out of the water and flipped Florida deep red, there’s even more speculation about him getting into the presidential race — and winning. As it stands right now, DeSantis probably poses the biggest threat to Joe Biden in 2024 (or Kamala Harris or whoever the Democrats end up putting up there). And that means there’s no time to waste when it comes to painting DeSantis as Worse Than Trump. National Review’s Jim Geraghty is warning us right now to brace ourselves for the coming onslaught of hot “DeSantis is actually worse than Trump” takes from intellectually dishonest hacks who are terrified of Ron DeSantis’ potential to get the GOP back on track.
Read this thread, folks. It’s a good one:
In the coming year, you’re going to see a lot of “DeSantis is actually worse than Trump” op-eds like Jamelle Bouie’s bonkers “DeSantis lacks Trump’s soft edges” contention from a few months ago.https://t.co/zRXQgYd1X8 pic.twitter.com/8c0GptYIoM
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
In this year’s midterms, Democrats spent at least $53 million to promote 13 extreme, fringe, and election-denying Republican candidates in GOP primaries. Six of those candidates won their primaries; all of them lost in the general election. https://t.co/zRXQgYdzMG
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Promoting the more extreme and weaker GOP candidates worked for Democrats, at least this year. Thus, I suspect we’re going to see a lot of liberals and Democrats subtly and not-so-subtly seeking to help Trump win the GOP presidential nomination/https://t.co/zRXQgYdzMG
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Just like they did back in 2016.
And the damnedest thing is… we've been all through this before! Liberal columnists spent early 2016 cheering Trump on in the GOP primary, convinced he would be so easy to beat!https://t.co/zRXQgYdzMG pic.twitter.com/blA6Wj8GF8
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
That's just liberal columnists; this isn’t even getting into the estimated $2 billion in free media that he received in the form of the endless deluge of news & commentary about his campaign on television, in newspapers and magazines, and on social media.https://t.co/zRXQgYd1X8 pic.twitter.com/USS76UJkpJ
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Remember CBS executive chairman Leslie Moonves expressing glee over Trump's campaign?
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” he said of the presidential race. “ The money’s rolling in and this is fun."https://t.co/zRXQgXVqyy pic.twitter.com/z5kHkQEC2B
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
How’s everyone feeling about all that “fun” now?https://t.co/zRXQgYd1X8 pic.twitter.com/oSPKn9jAUp
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Some of us tried to warn them, but they refused to listen. They refused to acknowledge that Hillary Clinton was such an awful candidate, she was probably the only person who could lose to freaking Donald Trump.
It appears that no one learned anything from 2016. As the character Rust Cohle lamented on True Detective, “time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve ever done, or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.”https://t.co/zRXQgXVqyy pic.twitter.com/aoObllwhPK
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
What do you think happens if the GOP nominates Trump, and we get a result along the lines of 2020 again — a Biden or Kamala Harris victory that comes down to a slim margin in one or several key states in the Electoral College? https://t.co/zRXQgYd1X8 pic.twitter.com/jBLJXHfLWP
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Do you think Trump will concede graciously and retire from public life? Or do you think we get a bigger, angrier, more widespread, and even more violent effort to overturn the election results?https://t.co/zRXQgYdzMG pic.twitter.com/exktfCYkXz
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
There are good and smart people who tell me, with mind-blowing confidence, that the scenario I described could never come to pass.https://t.co/zRXQgYd1X8 pic.twitter.com/3zLDvonzQk
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Biden and Harris are just too popular, the country is thrilled with what Democrats have done in office so far, the economy will be roaring in autumn 2024, and there could never be some sort of giant curveball such as Covid-19 that turns the political environment upside down. pic.twitter.com/XFRTpWaKwl
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it; apparently the same goes for those who don’t remember recent history.https://t.co/zRXQgYdzMG
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 15, 2022
Hey … GOP voters? Don’t fall for the Dems’ tricks this time, OK? Conservatism literally can’t afford it.
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