Our friends at the Heritage Foundation are celebrating their 50th anniversary in appropriately grand fashion here in D.C. Ron DeSantis spoke at the event this morning. He was warmly received and left a very good impression, even if he didn’t blow the doors off the place.
His overall theme — the need for courage and resolve in fighting the Left — is, of course, universally embraced, and his record of accomplishment in Florida is extremely impressive, with more to come in the weeks ahead.
What caught my attention were the veiled critiques of Trump. There were three main points here, all of which are unassailable and unmistakably relevant to the anti-Trump case:
(1) There’s no substitute for winning elections. If you win, you get to effect change; if you lose, you get to complain from the sidelines.
(2) Politics is serious business, and it’s not just about burnishing your brand and increasing your following on social media.
(3) If a leader in Washington isn’t determined and disciplined, he’ll be eaten alive by the bureaucracy.
Presumably, once DeSantis is in the race, and as the primaries develop, he’ll be more explicit about how Trump fails by all these metrics.
Interestingly, DeSantis quoted Reagan three times, showing his roots in the traditional conservative movement, while some of his tactics and priorities (particularly, his willingness to fight against a corporate America co-opted by the Left) reflect the changed times.
DeSantis is not a natural showman but, evidently just working off notes, his delivery was smooth and direct. As he goes from governor to presidential candidate, his speeches ideally will have some more biography, more humor, and a little more music. But his appearance here has to be counted a success.