(Preston Parra, Headline USA) Amid widespread speculation that Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is considering a 2024 presidential bid, Democrats are ratcheting up their attacks using one of their go-to rhetorical tactics: dramatically fabricated and slanderous name-calling.
In an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said DeSantis should be considered a “fascist,” a “lunatic,” and that the governor was “much scarier than Trump.”
Dean is no stranger to ad-hominem attacks. He derailed his 2004 primary presidential campaign after being widely ridiculed in the media for a high-pitched shriek that helped feed the narrative from then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and other rivals that he was eccentric and out-of-touch.
It’s also evident that Dean isn’t alone in his fears of a DeSantis run. An attempted jab by California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new campaign ad slamming the Florida governor for lack of “freedom” in his state serves as example.
The ad, first released to CNN, invited, “all of you living in Florida to join the fight — or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love.”
The rhetoric was roundly mocked, coming from a lockdown governor who tyrannically abused mandates and emergency orders during the pandemic, and has watched as California is besieged by crime waves and homelessness.
However, this wasn’t the first time Democrats have resorted to slander when they fear losing to a GOP candidate.
For years they have referred to another potential 2024 candidate—former President Donald Trump—as a “fascist,” “dictator,” and “monster.”
The all-consuming rage that lights the way for Democrats seems to be the inability to produce policy that creates prosperity for day-to-day Americans. The Biden administration’s self-inflicted inflation, gas crisis and ongoing supply-chain shortages are all prime examples of policy decisions that largely and negatively impact middle- and lower-income Americans daily.
But rather than realizing their failures, Democrats aim to deflect them by unleashing verbal barrages against their Republican counterparts, calling them “racist” and whatever other baseless slander they can concoct.
