OK, I’ll admit it: I used to like David French. He seemed like a pretty normal, commonsense kind of guy, and I, for one, really appreciate those qualities in people. But then Donald Trump happened, and Bill Kristol started talking about drafting David French to run against him, and I don’t know if that went to David’s head and that was the thing that finally broke him or if it was something else that infected him with brain worms, but ever since Trump clinched the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, it was like normal, commonsense David French had been replaced by a reactionary liberal pod person.
And that brings us to the present day, where he only seems to have gotten worse over time. Donald Trump still lives rent-free in his head, of course, but now Ron DeSantis is living there, too, and he’s taking up even more space in there. And we know that there’s not much room anymore. David has done pretty well for himself as an outspoken Resistance Defender of Principled Conservatism™. But if Ron DeSantis succeeds in beating out Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, David French’s entire raison d’être just disappears.
That’s why David’s making it his mission to ensure that the public believes that Ron DeSantis is poised to hammer the final nail into conservatism’s coffin. And he’s got an opinion piece about just that in the New York Times:
Trump and DeSantis are not the same. Trump fights for himself above all else.
DeSantis is likewise ambitious, but his political commitments have an underlying consistency that extends beyond that ambition: He fights the left. https://t.co/8TcjHwriGJ
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 25, 2023
Ron DeSantis is consistent in fighting the Left. That sneaky bastard! French writes:
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Trump, fighting for himself, relentlessly attacks DeSantis, including with gross and unsubstantiated rumors. DeSantis, hoping to fight the left and not Trump, largely ignores his competitor and instead doubles down on attacking his progressive enemies, including “woke” universities and “woke” companies such as Disney.But whom DeSantis attacks is ultimately less important than how he does it. Republicans, after all, have long fought the left, but DeSantis does it differently, in part by abandoning fusionist commitments to free speech and limited government.…
For conservatives like me who want both to defeat Trump and to begin a restoration of the fusionist principles that once defined the G.O.P., DeSantis presents a dilemma. As I’ve written before, I disagree with DeSantis on many things, but I see Trump as an entirely different order of threat — one who is demonstrably willing to help precipitate mob violence to sustain his hold on power. So should someone like me quiet his critique of DeSantis in the interest of defeating Trump?
I say no. I believe we can walk and chew gum at the same time, opposing Trump while upholding a vision of state power that limits its ability to “reward friends and punish enemies” so that all Americans enjoy the same rights to speak, regardless of their view of the government.
I know David’s not being funny on purpose, but it’s pretty hilarious to me that he’s couching his critiques of DeSantis in concern for free speech and commitment to limited government. David French has spent the last seven years not just defending but advocating for the Democratic Party, who have repeatedly shown brazen animosity toward free speech and limited government, through their words and their policies and actions. But David never seems to have the time or energy to devote to really holding Democrats and the Left accountable.
Does French write articles against the left ever?
— Jeremy (@JeremyHeesen) May 26, 2023
Maybe because that’s what Ron DeSantis has been doing and would continue to do, and that’s what really scares David. If Ron DeSantis goes to war with the Left, he could actually win some battles, and where does that leave David but in the crosshairs?
You are the left.
— Carl Benjamin (@Sargon_of_Akkad) May 26, 2023
Just admit it, David. Wouldn’t it be so liberating?
— ReLuxe (@Mo_Porkburger) May 26, 2023
Since announcing, Ron DeSantis has broken:
The internet
Fundraising records
David French’s brain pic.twitter.com/KQ31S7Y0Se— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 26, 2023
And you don’t even have to like all of Ron DeSantis’ policies to be able to appreciate that last accomplishment.
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Related:
David French thinks that Mike Pence presents a clear alternative to MAGA-adjacent Gov. Ron DeSantis
David French is gonna sit there and pretend Joe Biden hasn’t been a ‘notorious fabulist’ for decades
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