Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
People familiar with the thought tend to remember that as the actual quote, but of course it isn’t. What Ralph Waldo Emerson actually said two centuries ago is more complex.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
There is definitely a difference between consistency and foolish consistency, although I’m not sure Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis understands that.
“Waldo? Who’s this Waldo guy? The one in the stocking cap who’s always hiding?”
Maybe I’m being too tough on DeSantis. After all, he did go to Yale and Harvard, even though as a Republican he doesn’t make a big deal out of that.
Still, when he was in Congress in 2013, he opposed federal disaster aid to New York City to help with the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, while nine years later demanding aid for his state after Hurricane Ian.
I’m not sure Florida has more of a right to disaster aid than NYC. In fact, I’m not even sure it has as much of a right. If you think about it, Florida being hit by a hurricane is very much dog bites man, to use the old journalism cliche. People who live in Florida shouldn’t be at all surprised by a hurricane.
In fact, if they were to learn there’s a hurricane Jacko due in another two weeks — there’s not, as far as I know — they ought to just shrug and head out to buy more toilet paper and bottled water.
In fact, hurricanes are about as rare in Florida as demented guys with squeegies are on the streets of New York.
Hurricanes in New York, on the other hand …
If someone is considering moving to New York, people warning them about the perils of NYC living probably don’t tell them to watch out for all those hurricanes.
So if we wanted to carry that to an extreme, we could say that if you choose to live in Florida, you shouldn’t expect help from the government when the winds blow and the rains fall.
That would be cruel, especially since most of the people who live in Florida are about 97 years old and can’t move fast enough to get out of the way of the storm.
The fact is, DeSantis is perfectly consistent in the only way that really matters to a modern Republican politician.
Whatever he says, whatever he does, whether it’s attacking Walt Disney World or picking on gay or transgender kids, the only purpose is to advance his own political ambitions. DeSantis is selling himself as the competent version of Donald Trump. He knows that whether it’s legal problems, health problems or any other sort of problems, Trump is not going to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
DeSantis is actually much scarier than Trump, mostly because he isn’t a moron.
If he becomes president, he wont be watching TV all the same … or tweeting in the middle of the night … or losing his temper and throwing his lunch against the wall.
You’ll never hear him say he’s the greatest president except for maybe Lincoln.
In other words, Trump without any of the comic relief.
If there’s one way in which he might be a real improvement on Trump, at least he probably isn’t owned by Vladimir Putin.
Of course, that might make him even scarier.