We are barely into the spring of 2023, and the list of candidates or possible candidates for the 2024 presidential election keeps growing.
On the total establishment side, there is Joe Biden running for re-election, or some might say re-selection. On the Republican side, there are establishment hacks like Nikki Haley, and thankfully she has little chance of winning.
From a libertarian standpoint, there is a lot to be optimistic about, despite the dark times we are in. There are many candidates or possible candidates who are at least somewhat pro liberty. And while there are valid concerns about all them, we should feel good that we will hear some alternative viewpoints from the establishment narrative.
We have Robert Kennedy Jr. on the Democratic side. He is pro peace and wants to stop the merging of state and corporate power. For a Democrat, I don’t think you can get any better than him.
On the Republican Party side, we have Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder, and possibly Ron DeSantis. While none of them are great libertarians, they all offer some positive hope.
On the Libertarian Party side, we may get a Dave Smith nomination, which would be incredibly exciting. He is a consistent and principled libertarian who is able to articulate pro liberty views to an audience.
While we shouldn’t believe that a new president will save the country, it is encouraging that the American people may hear more than an echo for the next year and a half. If we ever hope to achieve anything close to a libertarian society, we have to spread our message far and wide.
Trump Attacks
Donald Trump’s rhetoric is anti establishment. Unfortunately, his actions from 2017 to 2021 did not match his rhetoric. He surrounded himself by horrible people. The few good people he had around him ended up being taken out by made up indictments.
Trump sometimes acts like a third-grader. He likes to call people names. He is famous for assigning unflattering nicknames to his opponents. Some see it as bullying. Maybe it is, but I’m not going to shed a tear for Lil’ Marco, Low-Energy Jeb, or Crooked Hillary.
Trump is now on the attack against DeSantis. He views him as a threat. As long as Trump doesn’t totally implode, DeSantis is probably the only person that can take the Republican nomination from Trump.
Even though DeSantis hasn’t announced he’s running yet, Trump is relentlessly attacking him. He probably wants to put him down before he ever becomes a threat. He probably wants to just keep DeSantis from ever entering the race. It may or may not work.
In a recent interview, Trump was criticizing DeSantis for his handling of COVID. He said that Florida actually did poorly in terms of COVID deaths. (Just recently, Trump was criticizing DeSantis for locking down Florida, so this really makes no sense from Trump’s point of view.)
First, this is an unfair statement because Florida has a disproportionately high percentage of older people. If you adjust for age, Florida was quite average in the United States. It was not piled with corpses from COVID, in spite of what the establishment media wants you to think.
And by saying this, was Trump advocating that Florida should have locked down harder and longer than it did?
Advice for DeSantis
I have major concerns about DeSantis as president, especially in terms of foreign policy. So I am not cheering for him to become president unless I see more promising signs that he will not adopt the typical establishment foreign policy.
I feel fortunate to have lived in Florida for the last three years. DeSantis did issue lockdown orders for April 2020, but he quickly relaxed them and opened up Florida while most states were still under partial lockdown. Perhaps the only state better than Florida in 2020 was South Dakota, which had no statewide lockdowns.
So DeSantis was one of the least bad governors when it came to COVID, which admittedly isn’t saying much. But it did take some courage or foresight to not fall in line with the lockdowns in the summer of 2020.
In fact, this was the issue where DeSantis really shined. He became quite popular because he lifted the lockdowns so early. DeSantis barely won his election for governor in 2018. In 2022, he got close to 60% of the vote.
DeSantis needs to lay off attacking the woke stuff. He needs to lay off of Disney. I don’t want DeSantis in a battle with Disney. He can leave that to consumers. If I don’t want anything to do with Disney, I don’t have to give them my business.
While I’m not rooting for DeSantis, if I had to give him advice, I would say he should talk about COVID whenever he can.
Going All In Against Trump’s Vulnerabilities
If DeSantis officially enters the presidential race, he is going to get hit hard by Trump. He might not know what hit him. If you think the attacks are bad now, just wait.
If DeSantis gets into the race, the only possible way he can survive is if he hits back hard at Trump.
If he is incapable of doing this, I would highly recommend that he stay out of the race and focus on being the best governor he can. He can reassess in 2027/ 2028.
If DeSantis wants to have any chance of beating Trump, he has to hit him where it hurts. The biggest stain on Trump’s presidency is COVID and his reaction to it.
Trump allowed Fauci to essentially rule over the country for most of 2020. Trump could have fired Fauci. He could have just sidelined him. He could have told everyone to ignore Fauci because he’s a liar.
But Trump didn’t do those things. Trump allowed Fauci to act as a dictator. He allowed Fauci to spread lies and misinformation.
DeSantis can throw Trump back. He can hit Trump like Trump’s never been hit before. In fact, maybe DeSantis should stoop to Trump’s level and give him a nickname. He can call Trump “Fauci’s secretary”.
After all, Trump just lined up and did what he was told by Fauci. What excuse will you have Donald Trump? You were President of the United States. You can’t claim you didn’t have the power to do anything.
Another possible nickname is “Lockdown Donald”. Just about the entire country was locked down under Donald Trump.
Another Jab
Of course, that’s just on the lockdowns. If you really want to get the knockout blow to Trump, hit him with the vaccines. It will be a jab on the jabs, if you will.
Trump has continued to brag about “Operation Warp Speed”. Thanks a lot Donald Trump. You gave us a deadly vaccine at taxpayer expense, and just in time for Joe Biden to take over and try to force it on the entire country.
How many people died because of these shots? How many people are disabled? And why didn’t they do anything at all to stop the spread as you promised?
And then Biden comes in and continues with the jab promotion. He forces millions of people to get it in order to retain their job, while some got fired. It caused total chaos with businesses and millions of people being compelled to take a medical injection they didn’t want.
It’s great that Trump says he wouldn’t have forced it on anyone, but how should we know? Maybe he would have. He certainly set us all up for it. How are those “vaccines” working out now, Mr. Trump?
Does DeSantis Have What it Takes?
DeSantis would have to show great courage to say all of this, but it is the only way he can beat Trump. Trump would look like a wounded animal crawling back to his hole. DeSantis could completely devastate Trump and send him off in the sunset.
Again, I’m not cheering for DeSantis because I have major concerns about him. And while Trump may be one of the few slight possibilities we have of taking on the establishment, I really get irritated when I hear Trump making up false things about COVID. Trump was a total coward on COVID, and he let the establishment take him down on that issue.
2020 was an absolutely terrible year for America and the world. 2021 was also terrible because of the vaccines that Trump was promoting.
So if Trump gets taken down by DeSantis over COVID issues, I will say that he deserved it. If DeSantis takes Trump head on with this issue, it will also give me a little more confidence that DeSantis may stand up to the establishment if he becomes president.