Ingrassia Channels His Inner Campus Snowflake

In a post I titled "Will MAGA Sink DeSantis?" back when Donald Trump first began raising cane about his hush money troubles, I opined:

... DeSantis ... has managed to pander to Trumpists so far, but now faces the choice of losing the support of this contingent of voters (at least some of whom he'll need to win the Republican nomination) by signing [extradition] papers -- or losing the support of non-Trumpist Republicans and independents (whose support any candidate would need against a Democrat) by refusing to sign.

The whole issue of extradition was premature then, but it has already come up and we have about as close to an answer as our slick governor is going to give until and unless he actually has to deliver:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made clear he would not allow his state to be party to extraditing Trump -- if it somehow came to that, seeing as Trump resides in Palm Beach -- and said, "The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head." [link to March 30 DeSantis tweet added]

It is interesting to see how much this is worth to the Trumpist base, who crashed a stop on DeSantis's book tour Saturday, where he doubled down on that announcement:

After a long parade of cars with Trump flags streamed into the parking lot -- at a local aviation museum -- ahead of the DeSantis book event, the two sides reportedly clashed face to face.

"Go home, DeSantis!" one protester yelled at DeSantis backers, a scene captured by local WABC Channel 7 investigative reporter Kristin Thorne.

...

During DeSantis' evening address inside the venue, the governor was heckled by at least one very vocal Trump supporter.

Trump White House alum and Claremont Institute fellow Paul Ingrassia interrupted the governor's speech, urging him to "support" and "endorse Donald Trump for president."

In a subsequent interview with The Daily Beast, Ingrassia accused DeSantis of being "in bed with the globalists."

That's a poor return on basically setting oneself up for a choice between a standoff with the federal government -- or having to start reneging on campaign promises before even throwing one's hat into the ring.

That last quote -- in bed with 'the globalists' -- says a lot, both about the hard-core Trump-or-nothing mentality and the kind of politician who wants to appeal to it. (I see this as different from wanting to appeal to people who, say, supported Trump with reservations or merely voted against the Democrats.)

The kind of mentality that buys into conspiracy theories doesn't judge ideas -- or people -- rationally. Regarding the latter, I think there's more of a kind of low-cunning emotionalistic weighing going on that tells someone like this, he is/is not one of us.

I am beginning to think that DeSantis, in pandering to the hard-core Trump base, risks coming off as someone who wants to be one of them -- and I am pretty sure that can only backfire with that kind of voter.

Also worth noting is this: Consider what you would do on the occasion of a likely political candidate for an election a year away showing up for a book tour in your neck of the woods. Protest, perhaps, but interrupt a speech and heckle -- like the snowflakes on today's college campuses?

No. The rational thing to do with someone espousing views you don't agree with is to let him do so, to inform others and give yourself something to argue against. Consider this another datum RE: hard-core Trumpists, and maybe today's conservative movement as a whole.

-- CAV