kontextmaschine:

At this point I would be satisfied with either a Biden or DeSantis win in 2024 as a positive consequence of the subplot that began in 2015

@centrally-unplanned said: While i don’t view DeSantis as a disaster or anything I find it hard to think what he would improve over Biden, curios what positives you think he has?

I think he would complete the culture war project Trump started, putting the 2010s to bed without supper.

Trump connected with that popular impulse but didn’t really implement it with any consequence while being shit at placeholder stuff, so “more of this but harder” was an easy nah, DeSantis has proven baseline competence to run a government, and to leverage the actual powers of office to put that government to service of particular ends

Biden represents a steady hand on government operations, with a Democratic instinct to rebalance the socioeconomy back towards something like the industrial unionism Golden Age if you squint, a spell of that is appealing right now. He seems quite unlikely to take up with wild-eyed factions or give them free reign, but doesn’t seem positioned to do a 90s Clinton-style purging of paraparty culture that would render the Democrats safe going forward in his absence.

It’s not clear what course yields what outcome. If DeSantis wins pitching “anti-wokeness” does that give Dem centrists a Mondale-like mandate to purge the party, or does it renew efforts to tie together a pussy-hatted #Resistance in opposition?

Of course, a DeSantis administration crackdown would have real costs! It might go too far! It might hurt people!

Yes, these things concern me. I am also concerned that a lame-duck Biden administration might not go far enough with calling an end to silly season out of concern for the sensibilities of Democratic stakeholders.

But as with DeSantis, I do not expect he would err so far as to be uncorrectable under future administrations. I would be satisfied with either.

Seen a lot of stuff accounting for Florida Gov. DeSantis’ spending on teacher salaries as buying labor peace with a critical state-level Democratic constituency, but remember Dubya’s domestic policy also relied on education grants with “No Child Left Behind”.

I think a key thing is state/federal education funding is effectively a subsidy to (Republican-voting) exurbs, which face operating AND construction costs without mature property tax rolls, from (Democrat-voting) established centers of wealth

Conservative media DeSantis stuff isn’t about the man himself, it’s about establishing to the audience in areas with stricter anti-COVID protocols that there was another way, their frustrations are the result of something between misgovernment and active malice, and should be charged against the incumbents at full price