For many conservatives, the results in this week’s Iowa Republican caucuses are deeply discouraging.
Only the most hardcore Donald Trump supporters are seriously interested in another Trump-Biden matchup, which now seems inevitable.
The rest of us are experiencing a mix of disgust, resignation and total despair that this is the best political contest our country can produce — for the second straight presidential election, no less.
But at the risk of sounding like a pollyanna, I would strongly urge everyone itching to write the Ron DeSantis campaign’s obituary to hold off a little longer.
And if I had his ear, I would strongly urge the Florida governor himself to channel the courage of the Spartans and hang on to the very end.
I say this not because I believe he has a reasonable shot at overtaking Trump at this point (he doesn’t) but because it’s only January in a political year like none we’ve seen before.
The country is deeply divided, even more than it was four years ago.
And a septuagenarian and an octogenarian are about to enter a repeat contest for the most powerful office on the planet, one that neither has the mental or psychological wherewithal to occupy.
One’s physical and mental health is visibly failing; it’s questionable whether he’s actually in charge anymore.
Honest people in his own party are wondering if he can hack it.
The other is facing a torrent of civil and legal challenges that (justly or unjustly) could land him in prison or worse, incite unrest among his devoted followers.
It’s a tenuous political time.
Anything could happen. Rest assured, something will.
When it does, what then?
We need a competent leader ready to step in and provide stability that seems to elude our current standard bearers.
Who better to do that than the most successful conservative governor of a large and populous state, who won his most recent election by a whopping 20 percentage points, garnering support from the ever-elusive independent vote?
I can’t think of a better option. And yet, in a world that seems to prefer bombast and chaos, DeSantis’ competency and intellect hasn’t caught fire.
Despite a relatable personal story — he’s a veteran and baseball champ who could have made a fortune with his Ivy League education and chose public service instead — he hasn’t connected with voters.
The public has all but forgotten about his smart and measured governance during the COVID pandemic, perhaps in part because he has failed to make voters remember.
And his campaign’s efforts to remake his image from a highly effective, coalition-building executive into an anti-woke champion in the model of Trump have fallen completely flat.
Probably because we don’t need another Trump in this race.
We need DeSantis, even if we don’t know it.
It’s true that the upcoming primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina are not promising for the governor’s campaign.
And fears that his financial support will begin drying up are real.
There are plenty of good reasons for him to get out now.
But anyone who thinks that a Trump-Biden redux is going to be smooth and decisive is probably kidding themselves.