Governor Ron DeSantis's Florida Isn't DeFuture of America. He Isn't Even DeFuture of Florida...

Ron DeSantis won't survive the vetting of a national candidacy

Can DeSantis assemble the Cracker Coalition?

We’ve written a lot about Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida at this Substack. We will continue to do so. We might even write a book about him, should the time permit.

He’s a compelling character, especially now with many in the GOP considering him as the future president.

But is he DeFuture? Hardly. DeSantis is DeHelp.

Here’s traitor venture capitalist David Sacks weighing in. (You might recall I’ve written about Sacks before and I have a few posts forthcoming about him.)

David Sacks @DavidSacks

Well, consider me not a believer.

Here’s why.

Congressman Matt Gaetz convinced President Donald Trump to back DeSantis against Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam. DeSantis was not expected to win and Putnam, backed as he was by the Fanjuls, was the favorite.

The deal was quite straight forward. Gaetz would help DeSantis win the primary and the general elections and Gaetz would run the gubernatorial transition. Gaetz, a championship debater, coached DeSantis through the contentious debates first with Putnam, then with Andrew Gillum. It didn’t hurt much that the 2017 tax reform got a lot of Northeasterners to move to Florida.

In short President Donald Trump created Governor Ron DeSantis.

During the primary President Trump delivered what I’ve called the “cracker coalition” — those redneck voters who remain loyal to him. Trump is the redneck Obama. There is no path to the presidency for Republicans without winning a sizable share of the Scotch-Irish. I repeat: There is no path to the presidency without winning a sizable of the Scotch-Irish. Just as Biden depended on the blacks to win the primary, so too does Trump depend on the Scotch-Irish to win the primary. Trump’s endorsement elevated DeSantis in 2018, in what some have estimated provided DeSantis with over $1billion in earned media

I was introduced to Ron DeSantis by someone in the State Department who was dating an Israeli intelligence officer. DeSantis and I met, as fate would have it, in what was then the Trump Hotel. (An attorney friend of mine also knew DeSantis and had introduced us previously but as with so many things, the introduction didn’t totally stick.)

At the time DeSantis was planning a run for the governorship of Florida. He wanted billionaire Peter Thiel to support him. And I was seen as one of Peter’s guys so presumably I was the path to getting Thiel to donate big money to DeSantis.

This was, of course, not strictly true. I was and I remain my own person — Peter Thiel alliances and dalliances in the past notwithstanding — but Ron DeSantis didn’t know that and I didn’t tell him. I introduced DeSantis to Thiel. Thiel demurred on backing DeSantis. DeSantis narrowly won in 2018, in large measure because his opponent — Andrew Gillum — is a criminal who will soon be tried by the Department of Justice.

Then macroeconomic conditions created the DeSantis successes.

Just look at these charts. They explain the Florida migration.

President Donald Trump passed the Trump tax bill which, as we know, capped the State and Local tax deduction, or SALT, at $10,000. This forced the first exodus to the low tax Florida. COVID — and the insane lockdown policies — did the rest.

Recall that much of the money behind Trump is real estate money, much of which is heavily dependent on low interest rates. Those low interest rates no longer exist.

People are moving from expensive housing, high tax states to cheap housing, low tax states. You don’t get points when other countries and other states kill themselves, try as do.

Now who would benefit from sanctions on Venezuelan oil? Could it be the mob world which is backing Ron DeSantis? Or is it the Chisraeli mob which uses the sanctions on Venezuelan oil as a means of paying off China? This alone doesn’t scratch the surface of the Chisraeli benefactors and beneficiaries of DeSantis. We will go there. We will expose all the money behind DeSantis and its price but not yet. Soon.

Yes, yes, he’s a darling of the billionaire class. They love themselves a puppet, especially a poor one. DeSantis is DeHelp.

Florida relies on slaves immigration and retirees to prop up its economy.

Not a bad model but it’s not the future. It’s God’s waiting room or the Northern Caribbean. But it sure isn’t America. If the GOP is to have a future in the new America it has to offer a compelling vision that appeals to future voters. (Millennials and Generation Z will make up the majority of the electorate in 2024.) It has to be about more than “nihilistic negation” to borrow Peter Thiel’s phrase.

If Tuesday taught us anything, it’s that there is a heavyweight fight coming between DeSantis and Trump. The media wants it. The GOP needs it to see who will carry the soul of the party moving forward. I, too, am looking forward to the Ron vs. The Don fight, but I know who is going to win it — Joe Biden. Any victory for DeSantis will be Pyhrric, as many speculate Trump would run as an Independent, all but guaranteeing a second Biden term. Trump would not survive a fight with his protégé without having to answer damaging questions to his General Election electability.

As for the future of Florida, there is a leader who stood up to DeSantis and the blackmailers — and won. It is he who deserves to inherit the Sunshine State. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves and that person isn’t yet ready.