\n<\/p>\n

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland \u2014 <\/b>In his keynote address at the Heritage Foundation<\/a>\u2019s 50th anniversary gala, Tucker Carlson<\/a> made an observation that might be discomfiting to a think tank and its supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be time to reassess the terms we use to describe what we\u2019re watching,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cWhen I started at Heritage, the presumption was, and this is a very Anglo-American assumption, that the debates we\u2019re having are kind of rational debates about the way to get to mutually agreed upon outcomes. … So we write our papers, and they write their papers and may the best papers win.\u201d<\/p>\n

SUNSET IN AMERICA: AS HERITAGE TURNS 50, ITS PRESIDENT KEEPS HIS EYES ON THE TIME<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s what we\u2019re watching now at all,\u201d he continued. \u201cI [don\u2019t] think we\u2019re watching a debate over how to get to the best outcome. I think that\u2019s completely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

While conservatives spent decades following the Cold War crowing about winning the war of ideas, it\u2019s possible the Left was winning the war of feelings.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not just going on between the Left and the Right. It may also be a good way to understand the looming battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination between former President Donald Trump<\/a> and Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> (R-FL).<\/p>\n

DeSantis is trying to take what was, to a large degree, a visceral and emotional phenomenon \u2014 Trump and Trumpism<\/a> \u2014 and make it into an intellectual one, a specific and more or less coherent political program.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say there wasn\u2019t an ideas component to Trump, such as the belief that political elites were not serving the economic needs of working-class Americans and were outright hostile to their cultural values; that China<\/a> was a bigger national security priority than decadeslong wars in the Middle East; that borders and sovereignty still matter, perhaps especially, in a global economy.<\/p>\n

Nor is that to deny that DeSantis has had some success in connecting emotionally with the Republican base in his own right, especially in Florida, where his margin of victory more closely resembled the 1984 Ronald Reagan<\/a> landslide than Trump\u2019s 2016 razor-thin wins in a handful of battleground states.<\/p>\n

But Trump is making an argument based on loyalty, authenticity, grievance, identity, and, when not totally consumed by ego, being part of a larger movement friends and foes alike call \u201c MAGA<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis is making an argument based on policies and results, a MAGA platform that he has been able to implement in Florida and hopes to be able to replicate in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida is the state where our shared values \u2026 actually become reality,\u201d DeSantis told<\/a> the Heritage Leadership Summit hours before Carlson spoke. He also said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to operate an administration that does not get consumed in petty conflict or drama or palace intrigue.\u201d That doesn\u2019t sound like the Trump White House.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a powerful argument, and it could be a winning one. Yet the night before, Trump, not DeSantis, posed for a picture at Mar-a-Lago with nearly a dozen Republicans in Florida\u2019s congressional delegation. Every single one of them has endorsed Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign<\/a> despite seeing firsthand the results in DeSantis\u2019s Florida, where Trump himself mostly lives.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Personal connections powered Trump\u2019s endorsement edge<\/a>. And it appears to be playing a role in his commanding poll lead<\/a> since his indictment in New York. Republicans are rallying to the defense of their former president against what they see as the Left\u2019s weaponization of government.<\/p>\n
The downside is that Trump\u2019s campaign seems actively hostile to the ideas. He is trashing DeSantis\u2019s record in Florida, undercutting what any future Republican administration \u2014 even a second Trump term \u2014 would actually want to do in office. And while his positioning on Social Security and Medicare is not new, borrowing the Democratic playbook against former House Speaker Paul Ryan<\/a>, to beat up DeSantis undermines what a future Republican administration may have to do to keep the major entitlement programs viable and the federal tax burden sustainable in the future.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, there is a risk that the competence over personality argument won\u2019t work better for DeSantis than competence over ideology did for Michael Dukakis in 1988.<\/p>\n
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER\u00a0<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
It is, of course, far too early to say what will happen in the Republican primaries. DeSantis isn\u2019t even a declared candidate yet. It is entirely possible that his railing against the GOP\u2019s \u201cculture of losing\u201d after setbacks in 2018, 2020, and 2022 will resonate both emotionally and intellectually with Republicans who want to win in 2024.<\/p>\n
But Trump understands that the Republican nomination fight and the subsequent general election will not be a contest of white papers. Anyone who hopes to beat him will need to realize the same.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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