The Right Move for DeSantis Is To Make His Move Sooner Rather Than Later

Republicans are getting excited by the vision Governor DeSantis of Florida is laying out for his second term, and imagining that as president, he would break two decades of narrow majorities in Washington, turning the GOP into the dominant party nationwide as he is doing in the Sunshine State.“In captaining the ship of state,” Mr. DeSantis said in his second inaugural address on Tuesday, “we choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism. We face attacks, we take hits, but we weather the storms. We stand our ground, and we do what’s right.”He stressed that Republicans had delivered for everyone. “As so many states in our country grinded their citizens down,” he said, “we in Florida lifted our people up. When other states consigned their people’s freedom to the dustbin, Florida stood strongly as freedom’s linchpin. When the world lost its mind — when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue — Florida was a refuge for sanity, a refuge for freedom.”Few would have predicted such a triumph after Mr. DeSantis eked his way into office by 34,000 votes in 2018, or that he’d increase his margin to 1.5 million in 2022, turning Florida into a solid red state from a purple toss-up and sweeping Democrats from statewide office for the first time since the Civil War.In the course of 22 years, two Republican presidents won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. The House of Representatives changed hands several times, the Senate was sometimes tied, and one of those losing presidents decided to try his luck at a second, non-consecutive term.That period was 1874 to 1896, similar to the era between 2000 and today. Although we’d just emerged from the Civil War — and Democrats bore the stigma of slavery and secession — economic troubles and uninspiring personalities left both parties unable to build long-term governing majorities.Into this stalemate stepped President McKinley. He was a Republican who focused on hearing the voice of the people, who according to Representative Joseph Cannon “kept his ears so close to the ground, they became filled with grasshoppers.” After his 1896 landslide — in which he earned the support of his Democratic predecessor, President Cleveland — Republicans won the next three presidential elections by big marginsPresident Wilson, thanks to the rift within the GOP in 1912 between Presidents Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, broke the streak, but after he earned a narrow re-election, Republicans won the next three contests, and for 32 of 38 years — between McKinley’s first victory through Hoover’s defeat in 1932 in the teeth of the Great Depression — Republicans held the House and Senate.Mr. DeSantis shares several other traits that served McKinley. Both were veterans who deployed to war zones and governors who represented states — Ohio and Florida — far from the nation’s capital but knew how Washington worked after serving in the House.The two men focused on results, refusing to be distracted by negative press or to get drawn into feuds. “I am a poor hater,” McKinley said, which seems to describe the Floridian and which presents a stark contrast to the only announced candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, President Trump.McKinley also had a sense of timing, which Mr. DeSantis needs to demonstrate if he’s to follow him into the White House. Although at 44 Mr. DeSantis may think he has time, history is littered with Hamlet candidates who waited too long and found their moments had passed.Because Mr. DeSantis is term-limited, he’ll lose the power of an incumbent to set policy, command press attention, and raise money after 2026. He may not have the luxury of McKinley, who passed on an 1892 run and waited for the next time around.“Florida was a refuge of sanity,” Mr. DeSantis said on Tuesday, “a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans and even for people around the world.” There’s a growing demand for him to transform the nation in his state’s image and break the stalemate in Washington. It’s a call he’ll find too loud to ignore — if he’s unafraid of grasshoppers and keeps his ear close to the ground.

The Right Move for DeSantis Is To Make His Move Sooner Rather Than Later

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