Not Trump, nor DeSantis, But A Secret Third Thing

Neither One Can Win. Whoever Does Might Be Worse

Because I never shut up about politics people sometimes ask me questions about what I think will happen next, possibly because they’re curious and possibly because they’d like to talk about literally anything but whatever socially-inappropriate stream-of-conscious contrarian inside-baseball rant I’ve screaming about in public.

One of the questions I get most often these days is the same question anyone even peripherally interested in right-wing politics gets: DeSantis or Trump?

The answer might surprise you: neither.

The follow-up question is obvious and the answer is that I have no idea and neither does anyone, because that’s usually how these things work. Remember when Hillary Clinton was for sure going to run in 2008? Remember when Jeb! was the Chosen One in 2016?

(BTW, if you’ve ever been curious what it feels like to cheer for Trump, check out this video of the big wet boy destroying Jeb and his entire family on the subject of Iraq in a live debate. It will simultaneously make and break your day)

Makes my heart skip a beat every time. These occasional moments of clarity are the kinds of things that gets me in trouble. Like last night, over drinks, shouting over the music that, as an anti-interventionist, I often align most closely with the American far right on non-immigration questions of foreign policy (Ukranian war excluded). This is not the stuff you should be screaming about during happy hour after half a Tecate or, you know, anywhere probably.

Sometimes coronations do happen. Hillary 2016 was a coronation, albeit one accomplished via usurpation (BERNIE 2016 #NEVERFORGET). For a long time, it looked to me like Trump 2024 was going to be a coronation as well. After a few terror-stricken weeks of doubt after January 6th the party doubled down on their fallen leader and Trump continued to rule with an iron fist. With a few notable exceptions (Brian Kemp in Georgia most of…