To hear some political pundits tell it, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only Republican who can possibly challenge and beat failed one-term former president Donald Trump and win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
But if DeSantis wants to present himself as a rational and sane alterative to the often bizarre and downright unhinged ex-president who may well be under indictment in three jurisdictions by this time next year, comments he’s made recently about the Federal Reserve aren’t going to help calm those considering casting a ballot for the Sunshine State governor.
Back in March, Steve Benen, the producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, wrote this on MaddowBlog:
“I saw some weird guy on Twitter this week peddling an unhinged conspiracy theory about liberals secretly plotting to use the Federal Reserve and some unnamed digital currency to prevent Americans from buying firearms and gasoline. We’ve probably all seen assorted oddballs peddling strange ideas online, but this one was a doozy. Wait, did I say the idea came from some weird guy on Twitter? What I meant to say was that it came from the governor of Florida — who also happens to be a leading, albeit unannounced, candidate for Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.”
Yes, a digital currency that would prevent anyone from purchasing firearms or gas. See, it’s all part of that great liberal conspiracy to disarm Americans and make them buy electric cars.
More recently, Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post has noted that “seems pretty bonkers for a major, supposedly mainstream politician to attack the Federal Reserve for trying to steal your guns.”
And yet, DeSantis has indeed done just that, as if eager to prove that he too is just as crazy and intellectually-challenged as Dotard Donnie.
Visiting Pennsylvania recently, DeSantis told a group:
“They want the Fed to control a digital dollar,” he said. “Guess what’ll happen? They’re going to try to impose an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) agenda through that. You go and use too much gas, they’re going to stop it. They’re not going to honor the transaction because you’ve already bought more than what they think. You wanna go buy a rifle, they’re going to say no, you have too many, too many of those, you can’t do it. So it’s ceding the power of our financial freedom to a central bank which does not have our interest at heart.”
What’s next? Will Donald try to trump Ron by claiming that the Fed’s actual plan is to carve the number “666” on our palms in keeping with the Biblical admonitions warning of a coming Antichrist? If so, he might just be able to woo back the evangelical Christians who are starting to have second thoughts about him.
