CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2023, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“WHY
NEWSOM, DESANTIS REALLY NEED TO DEBATE”
Think
for a moment about a few political facts:
Here’s one: California Gov. Gavin Newsom
is among President Biden’s most vociferous backers and it may now be too late
for Biden to back out of next year’s campaign. Here’s another: Newsom’s second
and final term as governor ends almost two years before the next presidential
election.
So Newsom realized early on that if he
ever wants to be president, he must establish himself as a major national
Democratic figure independent of the office he now holds.
That’s the context of his putative
upcoming debate with Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who by now also
must be aware that he, too, will not be running for president at this time next
year and that if he’s ever to be president, he also might need to survive as a
major party figure independent of his current office.
That’s
the context of the Newsom-DeSantis debate conceived by the Californian and
agreed to by the Floridian, with only a few relatively minor details yet to be
worked out.
Newsom
wants the debate in a Fox TV studio with no audience. DeSantis wants a live
crowd at the debate, with cheering allowed, even encouraged. Maybe he figures
he might be more credible if his folks yell louder than Newsom’s. DeSantis
wants short videos at the debate’s start; Newsom wants four-minute opening
statements.
These
demands both might be mistakes by DeSantis, who has sometimes been prone to
error when under significant pressure.
But
the disputes are mere nitpicking – if DeSantis does not try to use them to
somehow back out of the debate he agreed to right after Newsom issued his
challenge on July 28.
Newsom,
of course, was glad to make DeSantis a prop in his effort to become a
Democratic symbol.
So
what might these men debate in their encounter, likely to occur in Georgia, the
lone state on both men’s lists of desired locations?
Likely
to be first is both governors’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which
Newsom faced by closing down most businesses across his state, while DeSantis
left almost everything in Florida open. Newsom required masking in most public
places, while DeSantis signed a bill that bans masking requirements.
DeSantis
will brag that Florida suffered few financial ill effects from the viral
invader, while Newsom will claim Florida saw about 40,000 more Covid deaths
than if it had followed his model. If those are their claims, both will be
correct. The question will be how many viewers believe the extra Florida deaths
were worth the money saved.
Then
there will be censorship. DeSantis moved strongly against the Walt Disney Co. –
his state’s largest employer through Orlando’s Disney World – when the company
vocally opposed Florida’s year-old law banning classroom discussion below the
fourth grade of gays or alternative lifestyles. There is no such ban in
California.
Florida
also bans some books from schools, while Newsom says he’ll crack down on a
Southern California school district that's attempting to follow a Florida-like
plan.
Republicans
like to say Democrats limit freedom of speech via the so-called “cancel
culture,” which they say deprives audiences of viewpoints unlike what is
considered politically correct. Democrats retort that Democratic states neither
impose bans on teaching certain topics in public schools nor ban books, while
Florida and some other Republican-led states are doing both.
So
this may devolve into a dispute along the lines of the culture wars that have
deepened what was already a major split among Americans.
If
it does, Newsom will be voicing views that polls show resonate with Democratic
voters nationally, while DeSantis will be doing the same for Republicans.
It all means this debate promises to outdo Newsom’s
repeated ad campaigns in Texas and Florida in raising his national party
profile. Chances are it might do the same for DeSantis, who has not articulated
his views ably in the early stages of this year’s presidential campaign.
In
short, this debate probably won't do much to shape next year’s election, but it
may draw some lines for a 2028 election if it makes either or both men symbols
of their partys’ futures.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough:
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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