DeSantis Derangement Syndrome Is Getting Stronger by the Day

R on DeSantis is gaining ground, not just in the polls and among Republican donors, but by another key measure — the derangement primary.

An important and unmistakable sign of the potency of a Republican presidential candidate is the kind of treatment that he or she gets in the press and among antagonistic commentators.

If it is muted or even respectful, it’s a sign of weakness; if it is feverish and absurd, it’s a sign of strength.

By this metric, the Florida governor is getting bigger practically by the day — DeSantis Derangement Syndrome, which began to take hold at the outset of the pandemic, is real and growing apace.

You’d think that it wouldn’t be possible for DeSantis to hold a candle to a Donald Trump who is having dinner with antisemites and openly musing about suspending the Constitution, but somehow the governor’s critics still find ways to deem him worse and more dangerous.

The coverage is part of a familiar pattern going back decades. Reporters dig back into the teenage or college years of Republican presidents or plausible GOP presidential candidates and, inevitably, find them wanting. These Republicans are also made out to be budding authoritarians.

Looked back on fondly today as a class act from a bygone era, George W. Bush got this treatment and — perversely — was considered a semi-fascist throughout his presidency despite being an advocate of democracy, literally to a fault.

The hostile focus on DeSantis is now reaching back into teens and ’20s. The New Yorker found someone from his Yale baseball team who said, “He has always loved embarrassing and humiliating people. I’m speaking for others — he was the biggest d*** we knew.”

The New York Times did a report on his time briefly working as an instructor after college at a prep school. One African-American former student related that he was, as she put it, “mean to me and hostile toward me. Not aggressively, but passively, because I was Black.” (He also attended “at least two parties where alcohol was served.”)

This is not to deny that Bush and DeSantis had their failings as young men — who didn’t? — but these kinds of stories are so predictable that they almost write themselves.

Then, there are the outlandish attacks on DeSantis as a heartless would-be dictator who, as president, would make Trump look like Dwight Eisenhower.

By not talking about Trump’s antisemitic dinner controversy, DeSantis is supposedly pandering to white nationalists. (Never mind that it’s obviously been the governor’s approach, for entirely understandable political reasons, not to say anything whatsoever about Trump for a long time now.)

He’s “as much a threat to America as Trump.” His Stop WOKE Act is “the essence of authoritarianism,” and he has “the profile of a constitutional ignoramus, a bully and a strongman.”

Or maybe he’s “more dangerous than Trump” (emphasis added) because back in 2021 he issued an executive order letting parents decide whether or not their children should wear masks at schools. (“There should be a special place in hell — or potentially in prison — for politicians who put their political goals ahead of the health and safety of our children.”)

Or, alternatively, he is (emphasis added) “a far more dangerous politician than Donald Trump.” (“Ron DeSantis is the governor of Florida, a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and quite possibly the most dangerous figure in American politics.”)

Then, there’s the matter that DeSantis is a bright guy, which, of course, makes him even more terrible — of course, if DeSantis were stupid, that would also somehow make him more of a threat than Trump.

It’s perfectly fine to criticize how DeSantis is handling Trump and believe he should be more outspoken; it’s fine to oppose his anti-woke moves, or to question his handling of the pandemic. Many of his critics can’t leave it at that, though, and feel compelled to raise the ante with irrational and completely unsupportable allegations.

“Ron DeSantis Would Kill Democracy Slowly and Methodically,” read the headline in New York Magazine several months ago.

Note the wording. It’s not that he “could,” or “might,” kill (!) democracy, which would represent a large enough claim; it’s that he definitely would.

Yes, the derangement is running strong, and clearly, the fear is that Ron DeSantis would as well.