Sorry, Donald Trump – Ron DeSantis Is Surging in Iowa – In a post-apocalyptic world, where civilization had been destroyed, resources were scarce, and might made right, who would win in a battle between escaped death row inmates and office clerks?
In such a scenario, you would assume that the brutal death row inmates would best the scrawny, bean-counting office clerks.
You would, sadly, be incorrect.
The office clerks would best the raging prison inmates not because they could match the death row inmates in a contest with brute strength. On the contrary, the office clerks would understand that they could never match such brutality on their own.
Because of that realization, they’d be required to formulate a strategy for survival—and dominance—that used their greatest assets to their advantage.
Office clerks are fantastic organizers. Used to reviewing an entire, massive organization’s resources and personnel, they understand how to marshal and deploy those resources for maximum gain. Thus, their capacity to organize a proper defense of themselves as well as to eventually dominate the environment would be unmatched by whatever viciousness the prison inmates could muster.
This was the scenario that Walter Mathau’s character in the 1962 film, Fail Safe, posited to an audience listening to him in that film. Organization has always been the key to survival. And organization married to strong, decisive leadership is essential for victory—no matter what endeavor your group is undertaking.
Trump’s Popularity is Waning
In this case, the growing rivalry between former President Donald J. Trump and his one-time MAGA protégé, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as they vie for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
At first glance, Trump, the former president who enjoys a form of incumbent advantage over his primary rivals and has a deeply committed following, should be wiping the floor with his rivals—including DeSantis.
Indeed, Trump is leading national polls in matchups against DeSantis.
This, even as Trump has been indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for purported hush money payments to the pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, in 2016 (for a total of 34 counts) and in the wake of Trump’s indictment by federal investigators over his alleged mishandling of classified documents (for a whopping 37 counts).
Any other politician with even half of these scandals occurring just a couple of months apart from each other—with still more legal woes on the way in the coming months—would never be able to run again.
Trump, thus far, has seen his popularity improve among likely Republican primary voters since the indictments. Or, at least, that was the trend. In the days after Trump’s recent indictment over the classified documents, however, Trump has encountered some headwinds in terms of support.
First, it’s important to note that the DeSantis campaign for president is only just getting started.
Second, DeSantis has a massive war chest that is only growing that he is starting to deploy to great strategic effect.
Third, there is a ceiling to Trump’s level of support, and it might be that he is already hitting that ceiling—especially as voters tire of the endless cavalcade of scandal and controversy that Trump himself appears to court.
Fourth, while Trump has raged in public over the various “total witch hunts” he’s being subjected to; as the former president has slandered DeSantis, the Florida governor has steadily built a growing national organization designed to sweep the GOP nomination out from under Trump’s feet.
DeSantis’ War Chest
With over $100 million at his disposal—and much, much more donor cash flowing into his campaign coffers every fundraising cycle—DeSantis is a force to be reckoned with.
The governor has used this money, along with the “Never Back Down” PAC, as led by former Trump Administration Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, to build a well-oiled grassroots campaign organization in each of the critical battleground states, beginning with Iowa.
And it is in Iowa where DeSantis’ polling numbers have bounced and risen to truly challenge Trump’s numbers.
All this occurred in the aftermath of the second Trump indictment this last week. Trump is akin to the inmates who utilize brute force and bullying tactics to survive in the post-apocalyptic scenario that Walter Mathau’s character in Fail Safe crafted.
But these elements will lose to the better led and organized, though physically weaker, office clerks.
Ron DeSantis is leading the better organization. We have seen it with his fundraising. We are witnessing it with his excellent ground game in Iowa. We will, I believe, experience it—at greater levels of efficiency—at the primary rolls on whereas Trump’s campaign will falter and lose focus.
Ron DeSantis is the Organizer-in-Chief
Persistence pays in politics. DeSantis isn’t the best public speaker nor is he the most dynamic debater. But the man is a former military officer and current governor of the fourth-largest state in the Union—one of the most effective and popular governors in America today (maybe of all time).
He’s proven that he can lead. DeSantis can build one hell of an organization that can catapult his otherwise static presentation into something truly dynamic and useful.
Ron DeSantis is going to win this thing. Just watch. Organization is what counts. And DeSantis is the organizer-in-chief whereas Trump continues being the chaos candidate.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
From 19FortyFive
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