Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has an impressive resume, great accomplishments as a reelected governor, a beautiful wife, three cute kids, plus he's a veteran, an Ivy grad, and bright as hell. Oh, yeah, and he is 30 years younger than Trump.
Trump meanwhile has lost a lawsuit to someone claiming sexual assault, is under indictment in two places and being considered for indictment in two more. Plus he lost the last presidential election, at least in part because he failed to understand ahead of time that the Dems had rigged it. And those he'd endorsed have mostly lost their election bids.
In spite of which Trump's approval ratings hover around 45-50% while those of DeSantis seem stuck around 20%. Whatever DeSantis is doing, it isn't working. There is no spinning or disguising the fact that his campaign is going nowhere.
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Much of the reason is that DeSantis has a class profile which could appeal to suburban college grads. Except they've mostly become Democrats who don't buy into his Neo-Trump ideology.
The Republican Party has become a working class party whose voters are largely not college grads. DeSantis is too slick, too clean and smart to appeal to Joe and Jill Sixpack. They can sense intuitively that Ron isn't one of them. It isn't a matter of ideology or program, it is a matter of social class.
For all his money and glitz, Trump's values and feelings are much more in tune with working class Americans. They'd marry a series of super models, bed Playmates, and own a jet too, if they could afford it. They'd say the over-the-top stuff Trump writes and says, if in his shoes. They don't find his involvement with pro wrestling or a gold-plated elevator tacky. And they like his swagger, his braggadocio.
I'll admit blue collar folk mostly don't share his love of golf. Notice Trump does not weave golf into his political persona, unlike newscaster Bret Baier who can't stop boring us with it.
Here's a wild guess. The twenty or so percent DeSantis is polling is the percentage of college grads in today's GOP, plus or minus say 5%.
