In Hollywood’s days of open sexism, male writers received script notes on women characters, such as “Can you chain her to a wall?” or “Can they go to a strip club here?” The most common advice from executives was, “Make the girl more likable.”
Today, Ron DeSantis’s campaign advisers may be receiving similar notes from donors that read “Make the guy more likable.”
DeSantis portrays himself as mean, attacking Mickey Mouse, immigrants, gays, and women. He advocates for a school ban on discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a severe abortion ban. During the pandemic, he even criticized high school kids for wearing masks. Recently, he signed a bill reducing the number of jurors from 12 to 8 for giving a defendant the death sentence.
According to David Axelrod, DeSantis reminds him of the high school quarterback who picks on the geek to impress the cheerleaders.
DeSantis appears fake with Tucker Carlson, weak against Robert Iger, robotic against Trump, and incompetent with potential donors and endorsers. Trump, who finds DeSantis boring, refers to him as “DeSanctimonious” and “DeSanctus” and even jumped into a fight defending woke Disney over DeSantis’s Florida.
During Hurricane Irma, DeSantis wore white boots on a tour, reminiscent of Nancy Sinatra, and allegedly ate chocolate pudding with his fingers (which DeSantis denies). These controversies, as well as his neglect of Fort Lauderdale’s flash floods, provide plenty of ammunition for Trump’s team.
Jerry Brown believes that the word likable is often used to judge politicians. Many of them deny this, but as Brown said, if you’re thrown out after a time, then you were most likely not liked enough.
Republican megadonors like Rich Langone and David Trott are concerned about DeSantis’s rigid manner and strict abortion ban, respectively. Even Florida Republicans, including Rep. Greg Steube, who fell 25 feet off a ladder, did not receive a reply from DeSantis while he was in hospital. Trump was the first to contact him. Trump has hosted Florida lawmakers at Mar-a-Lago and has far more political influence in Florida than DeSantis.
DeSantis is currently vulnerable and levels of interest in him appear low. People are wondering why he is still in the race and what his chances of winning are.
