‘Blowhard jerk’ Ron DeSantis is the GOP’s best chance to ‘move on from Trump’: conservative

Countless Republicans live in terror of former President Donald Trump saying anything against them. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Never Trump conservative Matt Lewis stresses in a March 17 opinion column for the Daily Beast, is one MAGA Republican who has shown some independence from Trump — and Lewis believes that at this point, “jerk” and “blowhard” DeSantis may be the GOP’s best chance to “move on” from Trump.

Lewis explains, “Unlike the progressives who love to hate all viable Republican contenders — let’s not forget what they did to Mitt Romney in 2012 — and the Never Trump conservatives who have mostly given up on the GOP, there exists a breed of intellectual conservative…. that is anxious to find a post-Trump Republican who will inspire the party faithful to say, ‘Trump was great! But it’s time to move forward into the future’…. These DeSantis conservatives believe he’s the goldilocks candidate, which is to say he’s conventional enough to suit them…. while still being controversial enough to satisfy the MAGA crowd.”

Lewis doesn’t gloss over the fact that DeSantis is a very divisive and polarizing figure, and the point of his column is not to praise him or promote him, but rather, to point out that DeSantis may the Republican best equipped to loosen Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP.

“Yes, DeSantis is a jerk,” Lewis notes. “A blowhard. Which is to say, he represents the id of the Republican Party’s current incarnation. As such, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that DeSantis has the best chance to replace Trump as the GOP’s standard bearer.”

Lewis continues, “The hope is that the hybrid will be Trump — ‘He fights!’ — minus the unnecessary chaos, humiliating campaign defeats, and attempted coups…. Now, if you’re a progressive who is upset about his COVID-19 response or Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, you might even argue that, by virtue of being less chaotic and more strategic, a President DeSantis would be more dangerous than Trump.”

DeSantis is as unpopular among Never Trumpers as he is among liberals and progressives. But if the GOP does “move on” from Trump, Lewis writes, it will be with a MAGA Republican like DeSantis — not with a traditional conservative like Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.

“Would Republicans swapping DeSantis for Trump be a lateral move, a step backward, or a step in the right direction? Regardless of where you land on that question, here’s what you're not going to get from Republicans: a mea culpa,” Lewis argues. “There will be no moment where Republicans denounce Trump, vote en masse for Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney, and admit you were right — at least, not anytime soon. That’s not on the table.”

Here are some responses to Lewis' column: