Ron DeSantis' Other Mistake
Can't Buy Me Love, No!
Besides Twitter, Gov. DeSantis, how’s the campaign going?
As the New York Times said of what was “supposed to be a triumphant moment,”
Instead, the event began with more than 20 minutes of technical glitches, hot mic moments and drowned-out and half-said conversations before the livestream abruptly cut out. Minutes later, the livestream restarted as hundreds of thousands of listeners tried to tune in. Mr. DeSantis had not said a word at that point.
“That was insane, sorry,” Mr. Musk said.
But that’s not all the crazy coming from the DeSantis campaign.
An earlier story in the Times reported that DeSantis’ allies have a $200 million plan to beat Trump. They’re banking on the mother of all super PAC spending to steamroll over glitchy campaign announcements, a wooden, insecure and thoroughly unappealing candidate with low, low poll numbers to, as chief guru and, apparently, zen master Jeff Roe says, “beat Trump by beating Trump.”
Sure. And as Mort Sahl used to say, “The Future Lies Ahead.” Let’s get beyond the platitudes and spin doctoring and face the truth.
Gov. DeSantis was hoping that his campaign announcement would strike a blow for his and Elon Musk’s version of “free speech,” which means they get to decide who’s free to speak, and who has to shut up.
To them, speech is just another commodity that can be bought, influenced or manipulated—something I spoke about at length during the campaign I ran for Murray Hill Inc., the first corporation to run for Congress.
Today, Ron DeSantis, Jeff Roe and their billionaire buddies are once again banking on unlimited wealth, greed and relentless drive for power to win elections they could never contest fairly. Jeff Roe told the Times he plans on hiring 2,600 “field organizers” to run an effort:
so big it plans to knock on the door of every possible DeSantis voter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — and five times in the kickoff Iowa caucuses.
Jeff Roe likes to brag that 2,600 staffers is double what Bernie Sanders had during the height of the 2020 primaries. But people actually like Bernie Sanders. They didn’t have to be paid to talk him up to voters.
Unlike Ron DeSantis.
I’ve worked as a consultant on Democratic campaigns for President (well, one), House, Senate, state and local office. I know that no TV ad, campaign flyer, direct mail or social media post can beat the persuasive power of door-to-door campaigning—when it’s authentic, honest and real.
Neighbors talking to neighbors, friends to friends, are the foundation of political conversation—and conversion. When you find the common ground and responsive chord in the person you’re talking to, possibilities—and minds—open up.
When I first met Jamie Raskin in 2006, he was running for state Senate in Maryland. He had the idea to build a school within the campaign to teach high school and colleges students political organizing and called it Democracy Summer. He expanded the program when he got to Congress, and now it’s a national partnership with the DCCC and campaigns of other Members of Congress, with more than 1,000 Democracy Summer Fellows participating across 65 campaigns during the 2022 election cycle.
I have a lot more confidence in students fighting for democracy than the DeSantis mercenaries who are putting in hours for a paycheck. Ron DeSantis gets everything wrong—how to launch a campaign, how to treat human beings, how to eat pudding.
And he and his super PAC are wrong about how to elect a President. Money can’t buy the Beatles love, or Ron DeSantis the White House.