Republicans and the 2024 Speech Conundrum

Republican Party members are currently debating whether Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should soften his conservative stamp enough to win the US general election. Everything indicates that DeSantis will be Trump’s main opponent in the party’s primaries that will define the Republican representative in the 2024 presidential race.

The internal debate was addressed in a recent article in the journal The Hill. For Republicans who oppose Trump, the former president will inevitably be defeated by the Democrats, as he exaggerated the polarization, opening many fissures in American society, making it necessary to choose another name to avoid an announced defeat.

On the other hand, Ron DeSantis is not far behind Trump in terms of reactionaryism, and while his right-wing stance may help him rise to prominence in the Republican primary, some in the party doubt that his views will appeal to a wider swath of voters.

For GOP (Grand Old Party, term used to refer to the Republican Party) strategist Kevin Madden, this “this is a legitimate concern that will need to be addressed at some point“.

“Right now, the focus on cultural issues doesn’t really resonate as much in the parts of the country that really matter in a general election, which is the suburban areas of the United States.”, said the consultant.

Florida’s annual legislative session is scheduled to begin this Tuesday, and DeSantis could have another round of wins on several of his policy priorities.

These include proposals to allow residents of that state to carry concealed weapons without a permit, ban diversity and equity programs at public colleges and universities, as well as weaken laws that protect the media from prosecution, he noted. The Hill.

The legislature may also eventually include an effort to further restrict abortion in that southeastern region of the country.

In the newspaper’s opinion, these political victories could give a boost to DeSantis’ presidential campaign, although he has not yet announced his candidacy for the White House.

Analysts expect Florida’s highest official to make his aspirations official sometime after the state legislature ends its session in May.

The governor will still have to win the GOP nomination before he starts worrying about a seat in the Oval Office, and polls show him in second place behind former President Donald Trump. The latest survey by Reuters/Ipsos Among those affiliated with the Republican Party in February, it points out that 43% preferred Trump, while 31% said they supported Ron DeSantis and only 4% chose former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

However, DeSantis’ far-right policies, while gaining a conservative following, have made him a target of Democrats.

Recently, deputy Maxwell Alejandro Frost classified the governor’s initiatives aimed at black people and the LGBTIQ+ community as fascist.

The congressman stated that the republican is “acting to turn vulnerable communities into scapegoats. It’s just an issue for Florida right now, but in a few years it could be an issue for the country.“, he added.

According to The Washington PostFrost’s comments come after Republican lawmakers in Florida proposed new legislation to require teachers to use pronouns that match a child’s sex assigned at birth and establish a universal school voucher program that in effect directs public resources to private schools to the detriment of the public school system.

DeSantis also signed the Parental Rights Education Bill known as “Don’t Say Gay” (don’t say “gay”, in literal translation), which prohibits state teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in schools.

In addition to all of this, DeSantis also banned the advanced course of African American Studies in high school public schools in Florida.

The Democratic National Committee labeled the Republican as an extremist and successor to the “MAGA agenda” (acronym for Make America Great Again, Trump’s slogan).

Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist, said DeSantis’ ultraconservative persona would be a “tremendous weight” in a national general election campaign, adding that “the further he goes to the right, the harder it is for him to turn back to the center”.

Repeating a sentence by the late Leonel Brizola, who also had no illusions about the false progressivism of the Democratic Party, the dispute between DeSantis and Trump for the nomination looks like a fight between the devil and the devil. In the end, hell wins.

From the newsroom, with Prensa Latina and agencies