RON DeSantis, the Republican Governor of Florida, has finally launched his 2024 bid for the White House, joining an expanding field of GOP candidates.
‘I’m Ron DeSantis. And I’m running for president to lead our great American comeback,’ said DeSantis, 44, in a short video on Twitter. ‘Our border is a disaster, crime infests our cities, federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet, and the president flounders. But decline is a choice. Success is attainable, and freedom is worth fighting for. We need the courage to lead and the strength to win.’
You can read the full Epoch Times report here.
So the battle is on with Trump for the Republican nomination, and the former President won’t be pulling his punches. This is the start of the big debate as to which of them has the will and the wherewithal to take on the Washington political and media establishment, the supranational corporate organisations and billionaire elites who’ve superseded US democracy over the last years and weaponised Covid to entrench their power and influence.
Though DeSantis’s independent record in response to lockdown and vaccination policies makes him theoretically an ‘ideal’ candidate and choice, does he have what it takes? As Daniel Miller observed in these pages last year, the case for Trump rests on the fact that he was feared by the establishment that stole the last election from him: ‘Because he won in 2020 Trump must be the candidate again in 2024, and in fact the candidate in perpetuity until the normal democratic system is restored.’
Though Trump has undeniable flaws, and made huge mistakes when he was in office, Miller argues that what is needed now above all is defiance, and ‘Trump remains the figure best placed to embody it’.
Which of them, US Republican voters will be asking themselves, is most likely to return the US to a functioning liberal democracy in the near to medium future?
The prospect must be recognised as slim with either. Together, the odds could shorten. But could anyone work with Trump?
