OPINION:
America needs a political savior. Why? Because citizens of the United States rightly recognize that we are losing our country, and fast. Indeed, the trajectory and speed of the current decline intensify materially.
But perhaps not enough Americans have also come to terms with the true stakes of the current election cycle. A failure to reclaim the levers of power by November 2024 will imperil our republic in ways that are likely irreversible.
Just how depressed are Americans?
Well, consider that a staggering 78% of citizens do not believe that their children will have better lives in the future. That number marks the worst pessimism ever recorded in a Wall Street Journal/University of Chicago survey that goes back over three decades.
The same study found that only 17% of Americans describe their current financial condition as better than expected for this stage in their life.
Given this gloom, perhaps it is unsurprising that the percentage of Americans reporting that having children is “very important” declined from 60% in 1998 to just 30% in 2023.
Patriotic sentiment similarly collapsed over the last 25 years. In 1998, 70% of Americans regarded patriotism as “very important,” but now, only 38% do. Even the leftist Washington Post bemoaned this meltdown in patriotism as “jarring.”
This malaise over the land flows directly from the unholy alliance that increasingly plunges America into an oligarchic rule that abuses the rights and prerogatives of regular citizens.
Specifically, the fusion of the political left with ruling-class power brokers of big business, media and academia creates a country with a crumbling standard of living for ordinary workers concurrent with soaring benefits for the credentialed, entitled elitists.
To smash this corrupt system requires a political liberator of unparalleled character, rare intellect and steely discipline. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is that leader. How do we know? Because he has already taken on the most powerful interests in America … and won.
As a former military officer, the only one in the presidential field, he brings the determination and doggedness of a true warrior to the political and cultural battlefields. Mr. DeSantis, unlike blustering, loud-talking politicians who merely entertain right-wing voters, delivers real policy wins over the pernicious forces of political repression and cultural Marxism.
For example, he took on Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Washington public health bureaucracy in 2020 when they exploited the virus as a pretext to inflict tyranny on Americans, especially children. Not only did Mr. DeSantis tell Washington to pound sand, but he also stood strongly against the corrupt media, which howled in protest that he dared to stop unscientific and illegal lockdowns and mandates.
More recently, Mr. DeSantis has punched back at abusive corporate conglomerates, from Bud Light to BlackRock. He pledges to bring that approach to the national stage, where large companies, especially Big Tech companies, use inordinate market share and political power to preclude real competition and infect America with toxic cultural pollution.
Mr. DeSantis will protect employees from the indignities of bigoted diversity, equity and inclusion programs. He will also repel corporate attempts to invade parental rights, especially regarding radical education indoctrination and the sexualization of children.
In all these instances, it becomes increasingly evident that our leftist political opponents today represent a true threat to the American way of life. These 2020s radicals are not your parents’ and grandparents’ Democrats.
Instead, these nihilists reject the inherent goodness of our country, vaporize the sovereignty of our nation-state’s border, disrespect God-given inherent rights, and even deny the existence of the two sexes.
As such, knowing what time it is in America, in this cycle voters can show no patience for mere political posturing or media bloviating. Nor should GOP voters countenance the antics of fake conservatives like Vivek Ramaswamy, who has never been a Republican, defended COVID-19 lockdown abuses like masks and wants to substantially increase immigration into America.
Likewise, voters should reject slick entreaties of Sen. Tim Scott, the establishment toady who played footsie with “defund the police” madness following the Black Lives Matter riots of summer 2020 across the country.
Instead, Republican voters must identify and elevate an intrepid political liberator — a leader who understands the gravity of the moment, embraces the full scope of the battle, and demonstrates the character traits necessary to deliver restoration.
Only such a leader can save America from this present peril. As I believe he will demonstrate at the Milwaukee debate, only Ron DeSantis deserves the full faith of voters — because he can both win and then implement the patriotic populist agenda to save our republic.
• Steve Cortes is national spokesman for Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis PAC.
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