I’d like to say “I called it!” But really, who didn’t see this coming? Anyone who has been paying attention to politics over the years has certainly picked up the trend that every Republican nominee for president has been worse than the Republican president before him. If you thought their hatred of Donald Trump eclipsed the hatred of his Republican predecessors many times over and that any other Republican couldn’t possibly be worse in the eyes of the left, you were wrong. Three years ago, I wrote about how the left would one day be nostalgic for Trump. While we’re not there yet, the campaign to brand 2024 potential Republican presidential candidates as “worse than Trump” has already begun.
Technically, it began before Trump even left office. Liberals were even laying down the groundwork to label Mike Pence, Trump’s presumed heir apparent to the Oval Office, as worse than the big bad Orange Man. But Pence’s presidential aspirations are likely over, and so they’ve laid off of him in favor of those who seems likely to take the mantle of next Republican presidential nominee. The latest Worse-Than-Trump Republican, it seems, is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. That is, according to Samantha Bee.
Content Warning: Crude language and stupidity
In a recent straw poll, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came out as Republicans’ first choice for the 2024 presidential election. But before you celebrate Republicans turning away from Trump, take a look at all the ways Ron DeSantis could be…so much worse! pic.twitter.com/LqbwpcBVpx
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) June 24, 2021
When I wrote about the inevitable Trump nostalgia from the left, I pointed out how anti-Trump Republican S.E. Cupp had said that George W. Bush “looks better with each passing day” and attributed Bush’s restored image to Trump. “Bush’s improved public image has less to do with Trump than it has to do with the fact that the current Republican president [or presidential nominee] will always be the devil incarnate to the left,” I said at the time. “It’s politically expedient to vilify the titular head of the GOP as the worst ever while also feigning nostalgia for ‘the good old days’ when a more palatable Republican was president or was nominated by the party as their presidential nominee.”
Related: DeSantis Sends a Defiant Message to Woke Capitalism and the NCAA on the First Day of ‘Pride Month’
So, obviously, if Ron DeSantis is “worse than Trump” then, should he be elected president in 2024, we’ll inevitably hear Democrats long for the days when Trump was president because, they’ll say, DeSantis is even worse than Trump.
Don’t believe me? Let’s recap the pattern:
- George W. Bush being compared to Hitler was so common during his presidency that it practically became mainstream.
- In 2008, John McCain was compared to Hitler by Madonna at a concert. He was even likened to Nazis in an episode of The Family Guy, and the left-wing website Slate called the moderate McCain “worse than Bush.”
- The next Hitler was Mitt Romney in 2012. Former Obama advisor David Axelrod even made a Romney/Hitler comparison, and various Democrat leaders and delegates made similar comparisons. Heck, even Obama called Romney “worse than McCain.”
Even leftist Bill Maher “conceded” that it was wrong to label Bush, McCain and Romney as Hitleresque fascists–but only because he needed to because, in fact, Trump was the real “fascist.”
DeSantis has already been attacked by Biden and other Democrats, so it was inevitable that he’d be labeled as “worse than Trump” by someone. Polls show his strong standing for the Republican nomination, and due to this and his exemplary leadership as governor of Florida, he’s seen as the next threat to Democrat power. But make no mistake about it, everyone in the 2024 Republican presidential field will be called “worse than Trump” eventually.
