Note: The Sunday podcast is back as a morning performance this week, but could shift back to evenings as needed until I get settled in the new place. There is a post about the classic film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and a post about time. Subscribe here or here.

The weekend brought news that the employment level in the imperial capital took a hit when Ron DeSantis ended his campaign for the Republican nomination. The army of Washington insiders DeSantis hired to run his campaign will now have to get working on the next bit of shenanigans to thwart Donald Trump. Similarly, his online surrogates will have to find a new way to pretend they are important influencers, but without the large financial cushion of the Republican donor class.

DeSantis suffered the same problem as Scott Walker in 2016 in that he is a competent administrator with a solid record as a governor, who could be relied upon as president to not go into the street and scare the horses. By objective measures, he ticks all the boxes you want for the job, regardless of his party. Like Walker, he is a man perfectly suited for the Cold War consensus. The trouble is the Cold War consensus is long gone, so men like this are an anachronism.

DeSantis also suffered from the fact that we live in a whirlwind of media bombardment with an increasingly stupid voting base. Part of the latter problem is demographics, but a big part is the internet. People lack the ability to pay attention for more than a few minutes so they make judgements on memes and hot takes. A boring guy who looks like he is passing a stone when tries to tell a joke is never going to go over well with a voting base that thinks Sean Hannity is brilliant.

There is an interesting contrast here between DeSantis and Ramaswamy, who also dropped out of the race. The former tried hard to be a pebble in Trump’s shoe, while the latter carefully avoided upsetting the guy who he clearly admired. Given his resources and experience, one has to wonder if DeSantis would not have been wise to follow the Ramaswamy plan, instead of the Bill Kristol plan. It suggests something about DeSantis that this was not obvious to him.

Putting that aside, the important bit in all this is that DeSantis immediately endorsed Trump, which is a bit of surprise. He also bashed Haley a bit, which is probably a bigger surprise, given their backers. If you listen to his speech, it is clear he is more cross with her than with Trump, who spent the last year mocking him. The reason is that Haley hoovered up his donors in the last few months of 2023, which meant she got the media attention and that sucked all the air out of his campaign.

That brings us to his endorsement of Trump. Clearly DeSantis knows the regime hates Trump and will not stop until he is dead or in prison. After all, the reason DeSantis decided to run was that he was told by regime members that Trump would be forced out of the race, so the field was open. Several of the other candidates blurted this out at various times and DeSantis people hinted at it as well. It seems odd that DeSantis would then endorse Trump on the way out of the race.

One way to read this is that the plan to remove Trump is still active, but that DeSantis will not be the guy they pick as a replacement. Like a ball coach who removes his name from consideration, when it becomes clear he is not going to get the job, DeSantis is salvaging what he can from the situation by endorsing Trump. In a few years maybe he can use this to tap into an even angrier voting bloc. If by some miracle Trump wins, then he can get a job in the administration.

Another way of reading this is that this is just one more bit of evidence that behind the scenes the regime is about to abandon their plan to remove Trump. The narrative said that by now a viable alternative would have risen up in the primary as Trump’s support fell after all of the indictments. Jack Smith planned to be preparing for a March trial at this point, so that would be the news. Instead, Trump is rolling through the early primaries and the only opponent is Haley.

There are other signs that the regime is losing faith in their narrative, so on the surface the DeSantis endorsement fits in here. The trouble is the court cases are still active and there is no clear way to pull the plug on them. The thing about this regime is they never give up on their narratives once they adopt them. Bill Kristol thinks we should still be occupying Iraq preparing for an invasion of Iran. It is unlikely that the regime will reverse course on the lawfare against Trump.

All of this seems to be pointing to a clash of visions in the summer. On the one hand Trump is rolling through the primaries on the assumption he will be the nominee, while on the other hand the narrative still says he will be removed. Imagine a scenario in which Trump is convicted in the summer, after he locked up the nomination, but before the convention makes it official. Imagine if it happens after the convention. Will the party be forced to remove him at that late date?

Back when Trump came down the escalator, brilliant observers noted that he was like the Mule from the Asimov novels. The logic of managerialism says that political forces like that which Trump represents are impossible. The days of the populist hero are gone, replaced with the expertise of the managerial class. Trump’s existence causes chaos because it contradicts the fundamental logic of the system. It is not what Trump says but that he exists is the issue for the regime.

This conflict ends one or both sides are destroyed in the conflict. The regime can never accommodate itself to Trump and what he represents. What he represents is the result of a system that is at war with the people over whom it rules. It is an irreconcilable difference in design and purpose. It is why old fashion politicians like DeSantis have no place in this age. In a time when compromise is impossible, there can be no room for those who seek compromise. This is the age of conflict.

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