The Performative Sadism of Ron DeSantis

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-performative-sadism-of-ron-desantis?ref=home

The Performative Sadism of Ron DeSantis
SWEET CRUELTY
The Florida governor and MAGA heir is betting his political future on hurting vulnerable people to own the libs.
David R. Lurie
Published Sep. 21, 2022 4:45AM ET

snip//

Ron’s Way

DeSantis has shown himself to be a supremely non-creative politician. He has systematically copied whatever happens to be the extreme right-wing trolling strategy of the moment, and then amped it up. And at every point during his tenure, the governor has anxiously looked backwards to see if any rival (including Trump) had out-extremed him.

What has differentiated DeSantis from others in the GOP has not been so much his policy positions, but, rather, the extent to which cruelty and humiliation have been central to his governance and political activities.

snip//

Indeed, the one lesson GOP leaders seem to have drawn from the last several years appears to have been a profoundly incorrect one: that most voters are like participants in Trump rallies, and take the same unalloyed pleasure from harming others as Trump and DeSantis do.

Now, many in the GOP seek to “move beyond Trump” by replacing him with a supremely non-charismatic and thoroughly disagreeable figure, who seems only to come alive while coming up with new ways to performatively humiliate and harm the vulnerable. The GOP, therefore, appears to be on the verge of a political science experiment with very high stakes: Testing whether sadism can become the foundation for political success.

If they are wrong, the Republican Party may be heading into a political abyss. If they are right, the country is going there.

[yankee87]

1. Sadism

The GQP was always about hurting and sadism but they couched it in flowery terms. Now they openly show their sadistic and cruelty.
I guess we’ll see if it works.

[spanone]

2. K&R

[CincyDem]

3. Yes, and...

…the reality is that the victims of his lunacy will likely (certainly???) be treated better that the thousands left behind in Texas and Florida. Not because of who they are but because of who the people of Massachusetts are (and the systems/governments they have long supported).

[FM123]

4. DeSatan has never had an original thought, he just copies and pastes with capital letters.

He is dangerous though, no doubt, and capable of cruelty like no other.