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Is there anything liberals can do about Ron DeSantis other than quietly seethe, loudly condemn him every time he makes headlines and hope that his political flaws — his distaste for glad-handing, his less-than-inspiring public-speaking style, his conspicuous unlikability — will take him down before he gets anywhere close to the presidency?
It would be tempting to write off DeSantis, the bombastic Republican governor of Florida, as another unelectable right-wing lunatic unfit for national office.
We've made that mistake before.
It's reliably depressing to revisit 2016 and the misbegotten liberal conviction that America couldn't possibly elevate Donald Trump to the presidency. But here we go again. As Democratic political strategist Lis Smith has remarked, the left's reaction to DeSantis looks just like its reaction to Trump: "He's picking these fights. He's saying and doing abhorrent things. And all the same characters — whether in the media, Democratic politics, the punditry class, whatever it is — have the same freakout."
Let's pay closer attention this time.
First, we shouldn't underestimate DeSantis. He may resemble Trump in his politics — but not in his intellect or resolve. Compare their respective backgrounds: