Like it or not, here comes the new, emerging GOP

[Valin]

Jewish World Review

Rich Lowry

March 18, 2022

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had another moment that lit up the right, this time pushing back against Disney's critique of the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.

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This is the voice of the new Republican Party.

Which is not to say that the party wasn't socially conservative before (George W. Bush ran against gay marriage in 2004), or that it didn't criticize the media (one of George H.W. Bush's best moments in 1988 was slamming Dan Rather during a live interview). But there's a new combativeness that is clearly a reflection of how Trump underlined the power of cultural issues and changed the rules around how you deal with controversy -- by doubling down and hitting back harder.

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If this new approach draws on Trump, it should vitiate one of the arguments long made for Trump: "At least he fights." Now, the party is full of people who want to fight in a broadly similar fashion -- however, with important differences from Trump.

In the "Don't Say Gay" controversy, DeSantis isn't relitigating what happened in the last election; he is freshly litigating a defense against a cutting-edge progressive cause.

He isn't defending the indefensible; he's defending the eminently defensible, in fact the unfairly maligned.

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Here is another vista, of a policy vision with a strong element of Trumpism that might have broad appeal to GOP voters of all stripes without the distracting obsessions of the former president.

This gets at what could be one of the most persuasive arguments to Republican voters for Trump not running again -- not that he needs to go away so the old party can be restored, but that he's unnecessary because a new party has emerged.

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Assuming Donald Trump is Running (ad I would not bet more than a penny he is Not), When does Gov. Ron DeSantis become a RINO for the Ever Trump people?