Summarize in up to four sentences.: If he doesn’t win, which DeSantis will return to Florida? Embittered or enlightened? | Opinion
Robert F. Sanchez
Fri, August 25, 2023 at 2:14 p.m. EDT·5 min read
Did Wednesday night’s Republican debate help or hurt Ron DeSantis’ presidential prospects? It’s far too early to tell, although the polarizing pundits on Fox News and MSNBC won’t hesitate to tell and tell and tell as the campaigning continues.

Among the seven candidates sharing the debate stage with DeSantis were two or three whose campaigns thus far have positioned them as reasonable and electable alternatives to the man who was not there, former President Trump.

If nominated and elected, those candidates could spare Americans from having to endure four more years of Joe Biden or, worse, the possibility that Kamala Harris could become president if the 80-year-old Biden dies or his obvious cognitive decline worsens.

Even so, given the current state of the Republican Party in Iowa and other states, where it has devolved into a personality cult that worships a “martyred” leader who’s facing the real possibility of going to prison, no reasonable alternative to Trump currently appears to stand a chance to win the GOP nomination.

It’s still early
However, it’s important to remember a lot can happen in the five months that remain before the Iowa caucuses and the ensuing early primaries in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.

In recent years, for instance, candidates such as Howard Dean quickly faded after taking an early lead in Iowa. Moreover, through the years, many other candidates who seemed to be cruising toward certain victory plummeted in the polls after committing gaffes, whether during a debate or on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, these early stages of the 2024 campaign also raise a concern unique to Florida. While the nation’s focus is primarily on what the candidates say they’d try to do if elected president, many Floridians have good reason to wonder what DeSantis might try to do if he ended up back in Tallahassee instead in the White House.

Would an embittered governor try to set the stage for a comeback by doubling down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, his culture-war battles against Disney and other targets, and his not-so-subtle appeals to right-wing bigots?

Or would he try to moderate his image, focus on issues that are less divisive and attempt to reinvent himself as more personable and even somewhat likable, as his worried campaign advisers and donors have urged?

In charting a course for finishing the final two years of his second term, DeSantis would be well advised to pay attention to Florida history, where a recurring theme reflects Floridians’ long-standing aversion to strong-man rule.

Looking into Florida history should not be difficult for DeSantis. He’s a fan. His minions have been busy expunging some of the state’s more unpleasant chapters while recasting slavery as a pioneering experiment in vocational education.

Florida’s tinkering with Black history is especially untimely now as we approach the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.

In comparison with King’s eloquent appeal for progress toward the highest ideals of racial justice, the state’s recent actions seem petty, regressive and — for many Floridians who thought we were better than this — deeply embarrassing.

A grip on power
That DeSantis has been able to impose his views on education from K-12 through the university system is a reminder that he arguably wields more political power than any previous governor because he has something they did not: an unfailingly compliant Legislature and a Florida Supreme Court dominated by his appointees.

Moreover, while the members of Florida’s independently elected Cabinet might have stood in the governor’s way on at least some issues, as many Cabinet officers have done in the past, that no longer seems to be the case.

When I consulted a group that had years of experience dealing with the Cabinet, whether as reporters or aides to these elected officials, they were shocked to hear that the governor and Cabinet had met only four times this year, whereas in the past they typically met every two weeks. But why meet if you’re merely going to rubber-stamp the governor’s agenda?

While all the levers of power in the state government now seem to be within reach for DeSantis, he’d be well advised to be careful how he uses them. If he goes too far during his final two years in office, he could easily find that the voters who gave him a landslide victory in 2022 are turning against him. That ought to worry him if he has plans, say, to run again for president or seek a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Our state’s history reflects Floridians’ general wariness of giving governors or anyone else too much unfettered authority. As a result, in Florida the powers of the executive branch were not vested solely in the governor but deliberately diffused among the governor and the Cabinet.

Moreover, until a new state Constitution was adopted in 1968 to replace the post-Civil War Constitution of 1885, governors could not even seek re-election while the Cabinet’s members could and did get re-elected again and again, with some serving for decades.

Here’s a key question for Floridians to ponder if DeSantis’ presidential campaign falls short and he returns to serve out his final two years as governor: Will he now have the self-discipline to refrain from acting like a dyspeptic tinpot dictator?

Maybe his stint on the national stage will offer a clue.

Sanchez
Sanchez