DeSantis, on the other hand, has a fully developed political and governing philosophy and it's something that is similarly unfolding all over the world. The rest is all about attitude, image and personality. That element of populism is really all there is to an ideology like Trumpism. It wasn't a coherent philosophy but he understood that this agenda had great appeal to the GOP base and anyway, the Sun King of Mar-a-Lago can do what he wants. For whatever reason, these happen to be issues in which he formed a shallow interest years ago or instinctively understood would set him apart from the normal Republican, so he did manage to shift the GOP away from policies that had been fundamental to the party's identity for decades. His focus on trade wars and immigration and the promises to preserve the government safety net programs are classic populist policies. That is not to say that Trump doesn't have his hobby horses, and they signal a populist turn on the right. It's not the conservatism that dominated the GOP since the 1950s but neither is it Trumpism, to the extent that such a thing even exists without Trump. Of all the candidates, he best represents the next generation of GOP leaders and his political philosophy is something quite new for the Republican Party. Still, it's probably a good idea to continue to keep an eye on DeSantis regardless of his presidential ambitions. But there's no need to dwell on his candidacy quite as much now that he's lost his luster. It's still quite early in the process, DeSantis has a lot of money and is, by all accounts, putting together a serious campaign so it's too early to write him off. They all now think they could be in second place in case Trump trips on the golf course and breaks a hip. He's an unpleasant person and it's vaguely uncomfortable to even read about him which is no doubt why his slide has invited what seems like dozens of new entrants into the race. Ron DeSantis now that he's fallen in the polls and looks less like a real threat to win the GOP presidential nomination. I realize that many people are probably sick of hearing about Florida Gov.
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