Has the Republican Party sunk that low? Does the party want a Trump clone for its Presidential candidate in 2024?
NBC News says that is a distinct possibility. They reported, "Ron DeSantis wouldn't be governor of Florida without Donald Trump."
Now he is positioning himself to replace Trump, and the GOP seems to be supporting the effort.
Trump's "endorsement in 2018 turned a young congressman into the runaway winner of a Republican primary that featured a far more seasoned establishment favorite, Adam Putnam.
Not quite three years later, many in the party see DeSantis as the person best positioned to carry on Trump's legacy as their national standard-bearer in 2024."
The abrasive governor who is often at odds with local leadership is in the Trump mold. Trump arguably was the most abrasive President in American history and he was easily the least popular.
In other words, DeSantis fits.
And he has been lucky. Although often rejecting the science of the pandemic, "Florida has, since the beginning of the pandemic, seen
fewer per-capita coronavirus cases and deaths than many states, including many that instituted the more restrictive measures. And DeSantis' poll numbers are rebounding a year ahead of his re-election bid. A
Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey last month found him with a 53 percent job-approval rating," NBC.
"At last month's Conservative Political Action Conference for hardcore GOP activists, he
finished second to Trump in one presidential straw poll and first in another from which the former president was excluded.," NBC added.
But is this what the Republican Party wants? Have they sank that low because of their uninformed, extremist grassroots?
Trump lied his way through the four years of his administration. The
Post reports, "By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency — averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day."
Trump lost his reelection by over seven million votes. To this day he is not able to admit that he lost. Because of his refusal to admit defeat, because he claimed the election was stolen from him, he was able to incite an insurrection against our government on Jan. 6. Trump has been impeached twice.
Is the Republican Party yearning for a repeat?
Unfortunately, the answer appears to be "yes."