Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly signed legislation Thursday that would ban most abortions after six weeks in Florida, a move that will weigh on his likely 2024 presidential bid....This framing reinforces the narrative that DeSantis isn't really an abortion hard-liner acting out of genuine extremist principles -- he's just a guy trying to win primaries. The Daily Beast's Eleanor Clift writes:
DeSantis signed the measure just hours after the Legislature passed it Thursday afternoon. But he didn’t announce publicly that he did so until after 11 p.m....
The lack of fanfare around the legislation underscores how tricky abortion politics are for Republicans after the 2022 midterm elections — when Democrats hammered the GOP on the issue nationally — and specifically for DeSantis as he weighs seeking the GOP nomination for president.
One year ago, DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban, “which is close to the sweet spot nationally,” says Republican pollster Whit Ayres, “but it may not be for (GOP) primary voters.” He can’t take on the Democrats and run for president without first getting through a primary electorate that is super charged on anti-abortion ideology.He signed the 6-week bill, but he doesn't really mean it, and he might be less of a hard-liner as president. Can you see how this narrative makes it easier for moderates to consider voting for DeSantis in a general election, even though he signed the damn bill?
... In a post-Roe world, isn’t a Republican asking for trouble when they seek the presidency with such a radical position on abortion?
“Asking for trouble with whom?” Ayres replied with the tone of explaining something that should be obvious. “He is running to the right of Trump on abortion.”
... As for the abortion issue, Ayres doesn’t see it as an insurmountable problem. “He can always say, I did what my legislature wanted me to do, and if the nation wants something different, I will consider it.”
There's a similar narrative around Republicans and Trump: They know he's unqualified and dangerous, but they're afraid of alienating his voters. They know Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, but they fear the consequences if they acknowledge that. And so swing voters who loathe Trump vote for Republicans who defend Trump, because, hey, they don't really mean it, do they? It doesn't seem to occur to them that Republicans who defend Trump either genuinely support him or would be just fine with him back in the White House.
We also see this on guns. The narrative is: Republicans could do something about gun violence, but they're cowards. They're afraid of the NRA. The reality is that they don't want to do anything on guns. Either they reject restrictions on the availability of firearms out of a genuine gun absolutism or they have doubts about GOP policies on guns but sleep peacefully at night knowing the consequences of nearly unrestricted access.
Calling Republicans cowards is meant as a criticism, but it gets them off the hook. Too many voters conclude that they're no different from the rest of us deep down, and sooner or later they'll do the right thing.
They aren't and they won't.
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