The Shocking, Daunting Math for DeSantis

Trump's 4-year turnaround in voter turnout was nearly unmatched.

In the ongoing debate about how Governor Ron DeSantis could somehow win an election Trump couldn’t win in 2020, we are repeatedly told he would attract back the “suburban” voters, the never-Trumpers, who abandoned Trump in 2020.

Right off the bat, I will repeat what I’ve said for two years: none of the data from the 2020 election can be trusted because of the massive fraud at nearly every level.

But I’m going to use “their” numbers cuz that’s what “they” are going with.

In 1928, Herbert Hoover won by 6 million votes (21%) over Al Smith. After the onset of the Great Depression, in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt won by 22% and 7 million votes. Let me repeat: this was after the onset of the GREAT DEPRESSION. Hoover wasn’t a bad man, just a wrong man.

So in 2012, Mitt (“Minion”) Romney won just under 61 million votes and lost. The incumbent Barack Obama (“Zero”) won by 5 million votes and 14%. Donald Trump won just under 63 million votes and won a sizeable Electoral College victory. But here’s where the numbers really get staggering.

In 2016, Donald Trump in 2016 won 3 million more votes than did Minion—-but many of those were in key industrial states where he had tounted his “America First” prescriptions. In other words, while Trump “only” won 3 million more voters, they were disproportionately located in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina. Hillary Clinton (“Cankles”) won the popular vote by about 3 million (2%).

Minion lost Ohio by 2; Trump won it by over 8 (a 10 point swing). Minion lost Wisconsin by 6.7, Trump won it by 1 (a 7 point swing); Zero beat Minion in Pennsylvania by 3.2, Trump carried it by just under 1 (a swing of 4.2); and Zero took Iowa by 5.6, while Trump won it by 3.4 (a 9-point swing).

Now jump to 2020, where Trump got 74 million votes (and supposedly lost to a basement-dwelling Rutabaga). That is a staggering increase of 14 million votes over Minion (the candidate more like Ron DeSantis than Trump is) in 2012.

14 million.

Trump increased his vote total by 11 million since 2016. In 1984, in a landslide, the great Ronald Reagan only increased his vote over 1980 by 4 million. To show you how utterly astounding Trump’s vote increase was, at the peak of his popularity (1936/ 1940) Franklin Roosevelt only increased his vote total by 5 million. Yes, the nation was smaller, but still he only gained 3% from 1932-36. Trump gained 17%.

”But he lost.” Well, so the “official” records say. Trump gained a larger increase in votes than any incumbent not named Reagan (25% increase).

Let’s leave aside how much fraud was involved in the 2020 Great Steal and get back to the original point at issue: Does anyone seriously think Ron DeSantis can get 74 million voters . . . let alone the (presumably) 82 million he would “need” to beat Rutabaga?

And why not? Easy. For the umpteenth time I will explain to you who a very, very large percentage of the Trump voters are. This is laid out in two great books, The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd and Bellwether Blues by Jon Jacubowski.

The upshot of these two books, which use not only statistics but numerous personal interviews after a large survey, is that the Trump voters are not independents in the traditional sense. They don’t flit from R to D. They were mostly, almost universally, dropouts who either hadn’t voted in years or had never voted at all. Zito was one of the few reporters in Pennsylvania who caught the Trump phenomenon early in 2016 and no one believed her reporting. She found large numbers of people who not only did not “trust the system,” but detested both the Rs and the Ds. These weren’t people who could be bought off by tax cuts. They opposed foreign wars, wanted to seal the border, wanted to get out of ridiculous treaties like the Paris Accord or TPP, were tired of sending money to Iran and other foreign countries.

Jacubowski, a student of Ohio politics, found exactly the same thing in Ohio. Many were formerly Obama voters in 2008 who didn’t vote for him in 2012 because he turned out to be the same old thing.

So ask yourself what positions does Ron DeSantis have on Ukraine that would satisfy these voters? What are his positions on “climate change” (Paris), trade (TPP), or foreign aid? Given his donors, and previous statements on Ukraine aid, they would be the same as those of Minion.

74 million. A 17% increase over Minion. Ask yourself this: how could a candidate who is closer to Minion than to Trump reach 74 million, let alone exceed that number?

Larry Schweikart

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NYTimes #1 bestselling author

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