Ronald Reagan’s “First Commandment” was “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan, and he’s only a Republican of convenience; nevertheless, his strategy of using negative campaigning to kneecap his presumed competition for the Republican Presidential nomination before Florida’s Governor Ron DiSantis has even announced his candidacy is particularly odious. Launching these attacks would be revolting if they were fair and accurate, but they are not.
That is who and what Donald Trump is, however. He’s not going to broaden his base this way, or make it more likely that the GOP can defeat the Democrats in 2024. Right now, he doesn’t care about that: all that matters is winning the nomination, and, like Scarlett O’Hara, he’ll think about the consequences tomorrow after playing as dirty as he has to.
I know I’m repeating myself, but what an asshole this guy is. It is a searing testament to just how unfit to govern the Democrats and Joe Biden are that I had to vote for him in 2020, and it really wasn’t that difficult a decision.
This week Trump and his campaign vomitted up a document claiming that “the real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair,” and arguing that Florida was a terrible place to live. This assertion has an immediate ring of hypocrisy surrounding it, since Donald Trump chooses to live there.
The Wall Street Journal was moved to fact-check Trump’s ruthless indictment, and it’s a legitimate fact-check, not the kind one gets from, say, the Washington Post. WSJ points out…
1. The Trump release relies on links to progressive-biased studies and anti-DiSantis news reports claiming that Florida is unaffordable and unsafe, and includes, “ESPN wrote that Florida is the Worst State in The Nation To Die.”
ESPN?
2. Many of the statistics cited in the Trump hit piece come from groups with progressive agendas, those that Trump would typically dismiss as “fake.” It cites a 2022 Oxfam report that says Florida is the 29th best state for workers, but down-rates states that have “so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws” and those that, like Florida, don’t allow “localities to implement their own minimum wage laws.” Trump has never been a fan of unions or the minimum wage. It also cites the Florida Policy Institute, which wants illegal immigrants to be able to obtain obtain driver’s licenses. “Wasn’t immigration Mr. Trump’s signature issue in 2016?” asks WSJ. “They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but Mr. Trump’s one-night stand with this outfit is bizarre.”
Indeed.
3. Trump’s vicious hit job relies heavily on the website WalletHub, which ranks Florida 26th on its “best states for working moms” ranking using a witches brew of “17 relevant metrics” that were given different weights, a classic device in pseudo-science. Many WalletHub rankings not mentioned by Trump’s campaign rank Florida highly: the site says Florida is the second best state in which to retire, second best for starting a business, second best for for fewest Wuhan virus restrictions, the second “most fun” state, fourth best for teachers, sixth for low taxes, and the seventh best state to live in. This is the epitome of cherry-picking, a dishonest and unethical advocacy trick.
4. WSJ also points out that hundreds of thousands of Americans are moving to Florida, which strongly suggests that the public doesn’t agree that the state teems with “misery and despair.” The Census Bureau says Florida gained a net 318,855 under DiSantis from July 2021 to July 2022, and leads all states, by far, in attracting new residents.
One conservative blogger writes in reaction to the attack,
[W]hat makes Trump any different than Biden, who constantly lies about the GOP with absurd claims such as the ones being made by Trump? What makes Trump any different than those Democrats and media outfits who smeared him for years during his presidency? What makes him any different than those trying to smear him now?
Are there really still people who expect consistency, integrity, fairness or The Golden Rule from Donald Trump? He believes that the ends justify the means. He fights to win. Collateral damage doesn’t trouble him one bit, and ethics are for suckers. By attacking DiSantis and in his manner of doing so, he is showing once again that whatever his faults, pretending to be someone he’s not isn’t among them.
Ethics Alarms 
Most Americans equally dislike Trump AND Biden. For many years, pollsters and political consultants have pointed out that likability is one of the most important attributes for presidents to have in order to succeed as effective leaders and to be elected.
But Trump and Biden have developed severe likability gaps, and it’s one of their biggest liabilities as they begin their campaigning for their second chance at being President.
What if the electorate doesn’t show up to vote for either unlikeable and disrespected candidate?
Don’t worry, turn out, shmurn out. All the ballots voting for Joe will show up. Right on time, sometime after everyone’s gone to bed.
Yep. I have box in my garage with preprinted and pre-voted ballots. I wonder if they will count ballots for McGovern for Biden. Let’s see.
jvb
Trump is an existential threat. Because he’s going to give Joe Biden another four years. Sigh.
Unfortunately, I have to agree.
My wife and I both commented that Trump’s anti-Desantis ads look and sound EXACTY like a Democrat attack ad.
Between this and Trump’s desire to get flying cars in the air, it’s clear this election is going to be another total shit show.
At LEAST.
It’s clear that there’s a symbiotic relationship between the Democrats and Trump: Dems launch over-the-top attacks on Trump (raids/indictments) raising his status as the only one who can push back against the insanity and Trump attacks the (I assume soon to be) candidate who Dems most certainly do not want to face.
In this case, the enemy of our enemy is not our friend
It looks like Haley has fire another shot across the DiSantis Bow:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/nikki-haley-disney-invitation-lambasted-conservatives-2024-hopeful-takes-shot-desantis
jvb
Jack, thought you would like to know that I received a message that I’m blocked from Ethics Alarms. I was unable to read this post further until I went back a few posts and read them and then progressed forward. Perhaps you want to block all San Franciscans and I can’t say I disagree with you but I do so enjoy your blog and try to educate the libs I know with your ethics analyses.
I have no idea what that’s all about. What do you want me to do?
Nothing. The message made it sound like you personally were blocking me. If that’s not the case then it’s just another annoying tech mystery.
It’s certainly not the case! I’m so sorry.
JG wrote, “Jack, thought you would like to know that I received a message that I’m blocked from Ethics Alarms.”
Here is some information:
There is absolutely nothing that Jack can do, including banning individuals, to prevent anyone on the internet from reading the blog posts or the posted comments on Ethics Alarms. Banning only prevents individuals from posting comments not from reading. Whatever was preventing you from reading Ethics Alarms has absolutely nothing to do with anything on the Ethics Alarms side of the equation. Jack as zero control of who can read Ethics Alarms. Ethics Alarms is not like a social media site that gives individuals control to actually block people from seeing their profiles. Any accusations or implications of any kind that Jack can/could prevent anyone in the world from reading Ethics Alarms are false, false absolutely.
If possible; please produce a screen shot of the message you mentioned when you visited Ethics Alarms and send it to Jack via email or if you have a place to save a screen shot photo online online post it here so we all can see what you saw. You can get a scree shot easily using the Windows Snipping Tool to capture the shot then copy the screen shot and paste it in an email to Jack or save it to your computer so you can upload it for others to view. Without screen shot evidence such as this, it is impossible for Jack or anyone else to discern what may have happened.
Here what a blocked website screen shot message looks like from my malicious website software:
A wild guess is that your own malicious website software thought the site was blocked on a blocked list of some sort, it’s also possible that you access a false Ethics Alarms link via a search engine that took you somewhere that wasn’t actually Ethics Alarms that had some phishing popups to try to get you to click on something malicious.
Again, it’s impossible for anyone to help you with this without more evidence of what actually happened.
Steve
The mystery is solved! I caused the confusion with the screen shot I used for this post yesterday:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/04/26/comment-of-the-day-i-thought-this-issue-would-eventually-end-up-at-the-supreme-court-and-here-it-is/
It never occurred to me that someone who saw the graphic would think they were blocked, but I understand how it could happen.
Jack wrote, “The mystery is solved! I caused the confusion with the screen shot I used for this post yesterday:”
I guess this would be something a reader would notice”
https://ethicsalarms.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/you-have-been-blocked.webp
Well that was an easy one to figure out!
David Frum wrote an article in the Atlantic that there is going to be a huge Biden blowout. I got about one paragraph in and I stopped reading when I realized that this guy is an over the top Never Trumper who would sooner see this nation destroyed than led by that man again.
That’s Frum, all right.
Someone needs to ask Trump if is it he who he wants to win, or does he really want to make America great again. I learned a long time ago never knock your competition because it means you have nothing better to offer. Trump needs to be reminded of that.
Among other things.
When are the Republican In Trump Only (RITO) people going to move on from the loose cannon mouthed narcissist Trump. Now is the time to step forward and not backwards. You cannot return to your perceived glory hole of Trump 2016 because everything HAS changed and your Trump 2016 solution will not solve the problems anymore.
MOVE ON PEOPLE!
RITO’s need to remember that Trump was really good at trolling the political left and exposing the true nature of their ideological leanings, but Trump didn’t do a damn thing to actually solve those kinds of problems, instead he intentionally exacerbated the problems with more of his standard go to trolling inspiring partisan hate and setting the country up for more of the left’s ideological shifting. Trump gave the left the “evil” foundation for them to build their totalitarianism hate upon and that foundation is opposition to Trump; if you can’t see this I suggest you pay closer attention. Biden is using all things Trump to shift the country further towards the abyss of totalitarianism and I believe it is very intentional, the tentacles are everywhere. Reversing the ongoing ideological shift is where the Republicans need to focus. We don’t need a President that can only continue to expose that which we already know exists, we need a President that will do things to reverse the totalitarian shift. Trump is not that person, Trump is not the political solution for 2024.