Byron York’s Daily Memo: In DC and Tallahassee, a split-screen moment for the Republican Party

Finally, DeSantis surveyed the national political scene. The political establishment in Washington is “floundering,” he said, which could be read as a general commentary on politics or a specific observation about the Republican mess in the House. Here is DeSantis’s bill of particulars:

The federal government has gone on an inflationary spending binge that has left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer, it has enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates based more on ideology and politics than on sound science and this has eroded freedom and stunted commerce. It has recklessly facilitated open borders, making a mockery of the rule of law, allowing massive amounts of narcotics to infest our states, importing criminal aliens, and greenlighting the flow of millions of illegal aliens into our country, burdening communities and taxpayers throughout the land. It has imposed an energy policy that has crippled our nation’s domestic production, causing energy to cost more for our citizens and eroding our nation’s energy security and, in the process, our national security. It wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable and out-of-touch bureaucracy that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will upon us.

It would be hard to find Republicans in the United States who have substantial disagreements with any of that. Yes, many other GOP officials and candidates say the same thing, mostly because it is true. But DeSantis has something most of them don’t: momentum and a record of success. Florida, he argues, is proof that the U.S. government does not have to continue on its current path, the path followed by President Joe Biden and a Democratic Party that has moved far to the left in recent years. DeSantis’s achievements in Florida, he argues, show that the path can be changed.

DeSantis finished his speech with a statement of core beliefs “We embrace our founding creed that our rights are not granted by the courtesy of the state, but are endowed by the hand of the Almighty.” He went down a list of American greatness from the founding generation to victory in the Cold War. “It is our responsibility here in Florida to carry this torch,” he vowed.

via click1.trk-washingtonexaminer.com

DeSantis really does appear to be the man. I hate when I look up to a politician like him — they so frequently disappoint. But what the heck. He looks like just the man we need. If he were from a mountain state, he would be near perfect. But swampy Florida will have to do. I wish I were younger so I could do more than squeak my support.