Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks on stage on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Delegates, politicians, and the Republican faithful are in Milwaukee for the annual convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party’s presidential nomination. The RNC takes place from July 15-18. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Ron DeSantis may have a future in the Republican Party after all, judging from the rapturous reception the Republican National Convention gave to an eight-minute speech in which Florida’s governor tickled the party’s rage and pleasure centers.
The speech was a recitation of conservative grievances and liberal putdowns well known to audiences in Florida but previously untested on any stage this large, DeSantis having suspended his own presidential campaign in advance of the Iowa Caucus.
Donald Trump, who’d savaged DeSantis after the latter had the temerity to take him on, looked on, smiling benignly.
DeSantis cast the Democratic opposition as decrepit. “Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” he said.
“Joe Biden has failed this nation. As a veteran, I was appalled when 13 of our service members were killed in Afghanistan due to Joe Biden’s dereliction of duty. As a citizen, as a husband and as a father, I am alarmed that the current president of the United States lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office,” DeSantis continued.
“Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ presidency,” he added.
“Let’s be honest here. Biden is just a figurehead. He’s a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people. They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities. But just don’t send any to Martha’s Vineyard; then they get really upset.”
DeSantis recited a litany of conservative complaints: COVID restrictions; an “unelected bureaucracy” that imposes its will on people “without our consent;” encouragement of a shift to electric cars; attacks on “Second Amendment rights;” imposition DEI or, in his parlance, “division, exclusion, and indoctrination.”
“They weaponize political power to target their political opponents like they’ve done to our own nominee,” DeSantis said.
“And they want to impose gender ideology on everyone from our infantrymen to kindergarteners,” he said. “They can’t even define what a woman is.”
‘Coddling criminals’
DeSantis, who suspended progressive state attorneys in Hillsborough County and the Orlando area over what at least one judge described as political differences, complained that those prosecutors “care more about coddling criminals than about protecting their own communities.”
Republicans, he said, “support law and order, not rioting and disorder. We seek a strong, focused United States military, not one distracted by a social agenda. We reject entrenched political class, and we demand term limits for members of Congress.”
“We stand for strong borders and believe that our nation must have a shared civic culture, and we oppose any immigration that stands apart or in contrast to our American values. We believe in the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that our rights come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of the Almighty, including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
DeSantis continued:
“Now, Donald Trump stands in their way, and he stands up for America. Donald Trump has been demonized, he’s been sued, he’s been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down and we cannot let America down.”
He bragged about Republican gains in Florida.
“Today, due to bold leadership, the Democratic Party lies in ruins. The Left is in retreat, freedom reigns supreme, the woke mind virus is dead, and Florida is a solid Republican state. Now, electing Donald Trump gives us a chance to do this all across America.”
“Let’s make the 45th president of the United States the 47th president of the United States.”
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