Am I The Only Person In America Who Likes Both Trump and DeSantis?

We live in a world today in which there is no middle ground.

It seems everything has become black or white.

There is no nuance.

You are either totally pro-life with no exceptions or pro-choice up to the minute of birth.

You have to believe that Covid is nothing more than a cold or it is so dangerous you need six vaccine shots and be wearing an N-95 mask wherever you go.

You need to be for abolishing the IRS or be in favor of hiring 97,000 new IRS employees.

The same seems to also be true as people in the Republicans party state their preferences between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

This is particularly the case if you spend any time on social media platforms.

If you favor Trump, DeSantis is the worst candidate of all time. He is boring, inauthentic, lacks charisma and does not make connections with voters.

It is Trump or bust with them.

Trump is the biggest loser around if you favor DeSantis, Haley or another GOP candidate the next time around.

For example, this guy was probably the biggest cheerleader in the country for Trump on Twitter in the 2016 election and in his four years in office. He now has decided that Trump is a loser and does nothing but screw things up. He now loves DeSantis.

Am I the only persons in America who likes both Trump and DeSantis?

I can get behind any of the other Republican candidates as well.

As I have said before, there has never been a President in my lifetime who governed more consistently in comparison to what he said he would do when he was a candidate than Donald Trump.

There was no bait and switch.

Yes, I wish Trump toned down his personality and was not as bellicose and bombastic. It wouldn't hurt if he was a little less authentic.

However, I have watched Trump closely over the years and what he says is largely an act to give himself some strategic or negotiating advantage.

The stuff he says may be over the top but what he actually does when it counts is not.

He doesn't make crazy decisions. He makes practical ones that are well grounded in reality.

Look at his Supreme Court picks. His dealings with North Korea. The negotiations on NAFTA. The deal he worked out with Mexico on the border. When it came down to doing a deal he was practical and reasonable.

Despite all the predictions that Trump was going to be a disaster as President, none of it proved true. The economy flourished, energy supplies were abundant, ISIS was destroyed and he made significant inroads in brokering peace in the Middle East and with North Korea.

It is hard to see how Trump would not have been easily re-elected if if was not for Covid.

If I have anything to fault Trump about during his time as President it would be his handling of Covid. His instincts were clearly correct that locking down the country over Covid was insane. However, he deferred to Fauci and the so-called experts. He took the mainstream position to avoid controversy and he made the wrong call.

One of the things I like about DeSantis is that he did not fall into that trap. He initially followed the consensus but soon analyzed the data and listened to other experts who disagreed with Fauci. As a result, Florida came through Covid better than almost any other state. He opened the economy and schools faster than most everyone else and Florida benefited as a result.

DeSantis has also been ahead of the game on challenging much of the liberal woke agenda. I don't know of another governor who has pushed back harder.

The 20-point win that DeSantis produced in Florida, which used to be considered a swing state, is a strong endorsement of the job he has done in Florida.

Many make the argument that Trump can't win because he is not popular with suburban women.

Trump is weak with this demographic and it is concerning.

DeSantis may be a more attractive candidate for this group.

However, it is also clear that Trump has a unique ability to connect and bring out the vote of disaffected voters who don't normally see the need to vote. Many of these voters are traditional working class Democrats.

That is why you see general election poll results that do not show much difference in how Trump or DeSantis perform against Biden.

This is the most recent CNN poll.

This is a poll from Echelon Insights.

From Morning Consult.

 

A poll from Premise Data that shows Trump running much stronger against Biden than DeSantis would.

As I said, I like both Trump and DeSantis.

I saw what Trump did as President. I have seen what DeSantis did as the Governor in Florida.

I am confident that both would steer the nation in the right direction.

Most importantly, it would be far removed with what we have seen with Joe Biden.

However, as I have written before, I favor DeSantis right now because I don't think Biden will be the Democrat candidate a year from now.

Trump will do better against Biden than any other Democrat candidate for the simple reason that voters can easily compare their lives under Trump to what they have experienced with Biden.

Trump will not have that advantage against a younger potential Democrat candidate that does not have a clear record for comparison and which voters do not have established views about.

Trump has a high level of unfavorability with many voters. However, Joe Biden's  unfavorables are much higher now than when he ran in 2020. 

Trump beat Hillary in 2016 because of her unfavorable rating with many voters. Trump also had a negative approval rating in that election but he was a more attractive option than Hillary in the end.

DeSantis and the other GOP challengers trail Trump badly right now in primary polls but it is a long road to the nomination. A lot can happen between now and the first votes. That is true for both Trump and Biden.

At this time in the primary process for the Democrats in 2008 no one thought Barack Obama would beat Hillary and no one in 2016 was putting money on Joe Biden.

I am content to sit back and watch this play out with the voters confident that the best candidate to take back the country from the Democrats will be identified.

I like both Trump and DeSantis and Haley, Scott, Ramaswamy and the rest.

Even if I am the only person in America who will say it.