Despite that DeSantis supporters are indeed smarter than Trump supporters, they are still morons who are pushing their prejudices over the principles of democratic representation, equal rights, and the separation of church and state. DeSantis creates conflicts for himself with the masses of people as he preaches like he is high and mighty, while drawing cheers from people he allows to express their prejudices without the whole "you might go to jail" thing that Trump supporters bravely support until their sentencing hearings.
Smart people don't support discrimination against gay people. Prejudiced people do. Smart people don't support banning books. Prejudiced people do. Smart people don't try to write syllabi for advanced placement courses that they are not eligible to take. Prejudiced people do.
Similarly, patriots do not try to overturn elections. Domestic enemies do. Patriots do not claim a proven lie as the catalyst for revolution. Domestic enemies do. Patriots do not propose killing elected officials, judges, police officers, and other government agents, nor do patriots think they can succeed with something so blatantly seditious against the military. Domestic enemies do.
The problem for me, personally, is that some of my friends who support DeSantis and Trump cannot back their reasons up with logical arguments. The only advantage DeSantis offers for those who have jumped off of the Trump yacht is the ability to say that he did get elected. They still want the ability to have gerrymandered legislative bodies overturn elections, but they concede that Trump lost the election whether it was by their own intellectual evaluation of facts or as part of their plea bargains to avoid trials.
When I talk to friends who still support Trump, they offer bumper sticker logic despite that their logic cannot be supported by facts. It is as if they are emulating Giuliani's claim that they have plenty of theories but no evidence to support them without realizing how stupid Giuliani's statement was. However, that is one of the consequences of politics becoming so polarized. I know people who are thoughtful and generous, but who also still support Trump, and cannot reconcile the two opposing forces within themselves. They have identified as Republicans for so long that they cannot envision themselves being either independent, or even support "liberal concepts" like gay people are people, children should not get shot in schools, or we should leave resources for our grandchildren rather than to destroy the planet on our way out.
Rather than supporting their positions with a series of arguments that will logically lead to their conclusions, most of them begin with the ad hominem fallacy that I am just a "liberal who supports the Biden crime family." The problem with that argument is that I can produce article after article in which I criticize the Democrats as a party, and Biden as one of its establishment members. Instead of trying to prove their inaccurate claims, they rely upon their bumper sticker logic as their minds short-circuit back to their prejudices because they identify as Trump-supporting Republicans.
They must resort to subjective arguments that they personally were better off when Trump was president because, aside from the anecdotal myths that mask the philosophy of selfishness, there is no logical way to support a domestic enemy. I am particularly saddened when the person supporting Trump is a veteran because that means that the veterans did not take their oaths seriously and who propose to ultimately fight the troops who today serve under that oath. They are not defending the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. They are defending a domestic enemy against the Constitution. That makes them domestic enemies, too.
Ron DeSantis offers a nice alternative for those who know that Trump lost the election in 2020, and for those who want to take their plea deals seriously without changing their prejudicial stands against democracy and equality. Most of the supporters of DeSantis are intellectually capable of seeing the big lie that Trump and his revolting throng of deplorables spewed, while some of them know that Trump is a liar because they expected him to defend them as if he thinks of his supporters as anything other than his sacrificial lambs. They didn't want to be in a flock of sheep. They all thought of themselves as leaders who were just trying to be like those other rebellious nonconformists.
DeSantis likes to think of himself as the beacon of morality as he gives stupid and prejudiced people a person to look up to who actually has been elected to a few offices. They can forgive him for behaving as a hypocrite every time there is personal benefit because they, too, believe in Trump's policies. Knowing that Trump lost and not wanting to give up their prejudices are two different things. DeSantis offers that level of unearned self-righteousness for the poor conservative folks who spout off comments that demonstrate their lack of understanding about virtually everything.
Despite that I love all of my friends as people, I do not respect some of the attitudes displayed by people who support DeSantis. To so many of them, ends justify means, and the ends they seek are self-destructive displays of prejudice.
One example was when it came to him welcoming President Biden who was assessing damage from Hurricane Ian. Some of my friends criticized Biden for the show. I contended that the show was put on by DeSantis who never before had a kind word to say about Joe until there was money on the line. I had to prove it to one friend that DeSantis had been a congressman who voted against FEMA funding after Hurricane Sandy devastated the east coast.
Another example was his banning of advanced placement African American studies in Florida. A friend surprised me by saying he supported the ban because, according to a podcast he was listening to, they were promoting the gay lifestyle and agenda in the classes. He couldn't explain further, so I did some researching of my own. It turns out that part of the history taught in the class is about the Harlem renaissance. My friend was unaware of what happened there, and he also could not tell me whether Marsha P. Johnson falls under African American history, LGBTQ history, or both. In fact, he had never heard of Marsha P. Johnson or the Harlem renaissance. It's my suggestion to him that he take the classes he would need to meet the prerequisites to take the course rather than to think he is able to write the syllabus for the advanced history class.
Whether it is my friend who says that the Constitution gives us the right to overthrow the government so the military will help them, or my friend who can't tell if Marsha P. Johnson is Black or gay because they didn't tell him what they think on the podcast that he took to heart, they need to realize that "Trump-supporting patriot" and "smart DeSantis supporter" are oxymorons. Anybody who believes that they can be one or the other sounds like a moron when they try to support the positions they must take.
The Constitution does not give pissed off people the right to overthrow the government, and the military will be on the side of the government if ever a group tries to do that. Neither hypocrisy nor prejudice are indicators of intelligence but are, in fact, better indicators of the lack of intelligence. It takes a figurative moron to argue either of those literal oxymorons.
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