I like Ron DeSantis, just as I like Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy. I try to write positively about all three because I think they’re talented men who add important things to add to our political discourse. (I worry about each, too, but I think their deficits are less important than their abilities and values.) In that spirit, let me tell you about the good interview Ron DeSantis did—and no, he didn’t launch a nuclear attack against everyone who supports Trump.

The interview began with DeSantis ably defending against charges that he’s just another establishment Republican or, as I call them, Vichy Republicans. These are the people who mouth conservative platitudes but whose allegiance is to the government, not to the American people. They are the ones who worked with the Democrats to destroy Trump’s conservative presidency.

DeSantis noted that, unlike the Vichys, he’s sent troops to his state’s border, banned so-called transgender surgeries for minors, killed critical race theory in K through 12 schools, sent illegal aliens to sanctuary cities, legalized constitutional carry, and signed the heartbeat bill. Each of these initiatives is antithetical to establishment Republicans. DeSantis also reminded Witt that, when he was in Congress, he was one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus.

Witt then asked a reasonable question: Given your record, why are you still being attacked as an establishment puppet (my words, not Witt’s)? DeSantis’s response attacked a very specific type of person: One so blindly loyal to a single candidate that he (or she) accepts everything from that candidate and his team at face value:

I think that we have a strand in our party that views supporting Trump as [determinative of] whether you are a RINO or not. So, you could be the most conservative person since sliced bread.  

Unless you’re kissing his rear end.

They will somehow call you a RINO, so it’s been totally detached from principle and what you actually believe in results, and it’s more about, you know, just what faction you happen to do. So there’ll be people who are huge Trump supporters, like in Congress, who have incredibly liberal left-wing records that are really just atrocious. And yet they’re viewed by some of these folks as like, really, really good.

[snip]

So it’s just been totally detached from any type of substance and, ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people, and that’s got to be based in principle, because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.

In other words, you’re not engaging in politics as a citizen should if you simply repeat what you’re told because you are invested in one person. DeSantis is saying it’s fine to support your candidate, but you must be active in informing yourself, including checking what your preferred candidate has to say. Considering how all the campaigns (DeSantis’s included) are misrepresenting the other candidates, anyone who doesn’t investigate the facts is failing in his (or her) due diligence.

Moving on to substantive issues, DeSantis explained that the Deep State is worse than ever. He expects to come into office as president with a Republican majority that is ready to move immediately in the first 150 days to attack systemic problems. The starting point is to have good personnel. (DeSantis took a swipe at Trump, reminding listeners that Trump never fired Christopher Wray.)

DeSantis promised that, when he’s in office, “you’re gonna see major changes” at the DOJ and FBI, and to the federal medical institutions (FDA, CDC, NIH etc.). He plans to “bring a reckoning” to D.C. over the COVID lies and failures. DeSantis believes that Trump’s response to COVID was his biggest failure. He reminded listeners that, in Florida, he very quickly opted for a different approach—and he ridiculed the pro-vaccine fanatics, especially given what we now know about the risks of the vaccine.

One of the important things DeSantis said is that he’s going to bring the bureaucracy to heel. It answers to the president, not vice versa. Hear! Hear! The Founders understood that it’s human nature to abuse power, and DeSantis plans to stop that. DeSantis repeatedly focused on how the federal bureaucracy is damaging every aspect of America.

It was a good interview, and the media and social media are dishonest when they describe DeSantis as aggressively attacking Trump voters. Now is the time for us to listen to what the candidates have to say and think about who they are and where they come from. If we’re mindlessly repeating someone else’s mantra, we’re failing in our duty to be an informed citizenry.

Image: Ron DeSantis. YouTube screen grab.