in the soul of USA Two opposing spirits fight in an eternal tussle: one is conservative and the other is liberal-progressive. The conservative spirit is moralistic, fundamentalist in religion and professes the worship of the market. Furthermore, he loves free gun ownership as much as he hates economic regulations and social policies.
His other side, the liberal-progressive spirit, He is not against the market but rejects the miniaturization of the State, because he considers it key to promoting social equity. And he is a supporter of secularism in the laws, in public health and in the educational system.
At the midterm elections, the liberal-progressive spirit seemed to arrive dejected, without the strength to resist the onslaught of the counterpart. But at the polls he surprised by coming out to cut off the conservative spirit. He stood up for the setback that implied the overthrow of the right to abortion (in force since 1973) by a Supreme Court that Donald Trump had unbalanced by imposing a conservative majority, betraying his tradition of balance.
It was not the leadership of Joe Biden which raised the wall of Democratic votes that cut the “red wave” that Trump announced and the polls predicted. What turned the expected conservative hurricane into a blizzard was the fear generated by the New York tycoon and the ultra-conservative jihadism that took over the Republican Party.
There were always exponents of an exacerbated rightism in the party of Ronald Reagan. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy and his “witch hunts” labeled the 1950s “Mccarthism”. Barry Goldwater led the most aggressive reaction against civil rights and welfare sate in the Kennedy and Luther King years. Other extreme figures would appear later, such as Pat Buchanan.
Extremism reappeared against the government of Clinton, with the Tea Party and outlandish characters like Newt Gingrich. But the radicalization that Trump printed led to the coup, with his attempt to destroy the electoral process in which he was defeated.
Biden’s mediocrity discouraged the vote of their own and encouraged Republicans to go out and vote in flood. If the hurricane that was going to devastate the Democrats could not even ruffle their hair, it was because it awakened the liberal-progressive spirit. It was not love for Biden but fear for Trump and the extremist drift of the Republicans, which awakened the vote in self-defense of those who do not want to lose rights they have won.
In the midterm election Biden he could sigh in relief. Instead, Trump received two slaps in the face: the Democratic reaction left him without the victory that would give him the best framework to launch his candidacy and, in Congress, without majorities to impose an impeachment that would remove Biden from the Oval Office. Instead of finding the highway back to the White House, he found a bumpy, winding road to even the Republican nomination.
The result was the best possible for Ron DeSantis and the worst for the real estate mogul. The governor of Florida achieved an overwhelming re-election, which strengthens him even more within his party because the Republican hurricane ended barely in a blizzard.
Trump kept bragging because it’s in his nature. But he was weakened because the candidates he appointed were defeated. The contrast with the Democratic wall cutting through the “red wave” and Trump’s candidates spread out further highlighted DeSantis’ victory.
If Trump could control the negligent rage that unleashes his wounded egomania, he would not have accused DeSantis of “disloyal” when what he should have done was congratulate him. For the former president, when journalists asked him if he would compete in the primaries for the presidential candidacy in 2024, DeSantis should have said “no; the candidate will be Trump.” But that was not what he responded and Trump exploded showing anger and weakness. He also put on the most miserable side of himself by threatening to reveal secrets that would destroy DeSantis’s reputation. Open blackmail.
It will be necessary to see if that extortion works with a moralist who poses as a sanctimonious person. What is already in sight is that the great march back to the White House hit a wall of Democratic votes.
The ball was hitting the door of the goal but the republican priest did not reach his leg to make it enter. By itself, in the midterm elections, whoever is in the opposition normally wins, because the rule is to balance the relationship of forces. Certainly, there are exceptions, such as the Republican victory in the first half term of George W. Bush; exception caused by the apocalyptic 9/11: it was the first attack on the territory since Pearl Harbor, and when the Americans are attacked they try to strengthen the government, not weaken it.
Added to this “midterms” rule was the mediocrity of the Democratic administration and the impact of persistently high inflation. Biden began with the shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan, partly offset by the subsequent assassination in Kabul of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Immediately afterwards, the president was shipwrecked on the southern border, where waves of immigrants accumulated. And he reached the middle of the term with inflation, rising crime and the biological reason that could prevent him from seeking a second term: he will be 80 years old, with a body and a mind that often show fatigue and weakness.
Aggravating the Democratic weakness, there are no figures that guarantee competitiveness in the 2024 elections. Kamala Harris’s political volume was supposed to grow in the vice presidency, but that did not happen. To make matters worse, an internal fissure appeared that shows the weakness of Biden’s internal leadership, when Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan, causing a reaction from China that impacted the efforts of Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, so that Xi Jinping does not help Vladimir Putin to get away with it in Ukraine.
With all that going for him, Trump was unable to claim victory. De Santis and the Democratic resistance at the polls left him without celebration.
Does the appearance of a figure with the possibility of wresting the candidacy from the conservatives imply that the Republican Party veers towards the center after decades of extremist drift? No way.
Ronald Dion DeSantis is less cartoonish than Trump, but closer to evangelical fundamentalism and ultra-conservatism.
