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The mercurial rise of Ron DeSantis is the Democrats fault.

I say this with gratitude, not regret. Absent some catastrophe, DeSantis is going to win a second term as governor of Florida this coming November and, after that, he has a fair shot of being president. This is partly because he has done an excellent job for his state. Its also because he was unusually lucky in his enemies.

Unable to help themselves, the Democrats have aided him at every stage. They still are.

2018 was a good year for the Democratic Party, but not so good a year that the quality of its candidates didnt matter. Had the party nominated a credible centrist in Floridas toss-up gubernatorial race Gwen Graham, for example that candidate would not only have won the governors mansion for the Democrats for the first time in two decades, shed have ended DeSantis career.

But the Democrats didnt choose a credible centrist. They hosted a messy and divisive primary, selected the radical Andrew Gillum as their nominee, lost by 0.4 points, and set DeSantis up for a bright future. Opportunity: missed.

The Dems still had a chance to turn it around, even after he won. Ron DeSantis is a good governor, but he is not perfect, he does not get every call right, and he is as susceptible to base political temptation as any other human being. Florida has undoubtedly grown more Republican of late, but it is not Mississippi, and the Democratic Party will eventually win a big election here simply by being a sober, credible alternative to the GOP.

If the Florida Democratic Party understands this, it has a peculiar way of showing it. Instead of calmly rebuilding, it has allowed itself to become so crazy in its opposition to DeSantis, it has elevated him to national status, provided him with all the incentives he needs to play Churchill at the gates, and, by confirming that any Republican (not just Trump) will be treated terribly in the press, turned him into a rock-ribbed conservative hero.

To DeSantis delight, his opponents have become addicted to stepping on rakes. In their desperation to take him down, the Florida Democratic Party has chased one absurd conspiracy theory after another. Its leading lights have sided with the disgraced fabulist Rebekah Jones, who falsely accused DeSantis of manipulating state COVID data; it has spread a debunked 60 Minutes claim that there was something untoward about Florida using the states largest supermarket chain to distribute vaccines; it has pretended that the plan to make Florida the 23rd state with a state guard augurs something sinister; and it has advertised a link that does not exist between contracts awarded to the drug company, Regneron, and donations to DeSantis campaign.

Worse still, the party has come to believe its own rhetoric. Nikki Fried, the states Democratic agriculture secretary (and a potential 2022 gubernatorial nominee), has taken to claiming that Florida isnt a free state; to comparing DeSantis to the leader of a communist country, to a dictator, and, in a lot of ways, to Hitler; and to charging that he represents a danger to the world. In the meantime, her colleagues in the legislature have gone all out to oppose a set of COVID policies that have made Florida a magnet for disgruntled Americans and to assail a K-3 education bill that, despite the dishonest way in which it has been characterized (Dont Say Gay), is popular among Democrats.

The results have been predictable. DeSantis now leads his likely opponents in every reputable statewide poll, has an approval rating of around 55%, and, when compared to the hysterical descriptions to whichvotersare treated, appears refreshingly normal to the average American.

Bang-up job, guys.

Charles C. W. Cooke is a senior writer at National Review.

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Democrats only have themselves to blame for the rise of Ron DeSantis - New York Post