DeSantis vs. Newsom is the debate we need, even if we don’t deserve it
Tiana Lowe Doescher
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When Vice President Kamala Harris rejected Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) offer to sit down and hash out their debate over Florida curriculum standards pertaining to the teaching of slavery, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) saw an opportunity. The governors of Florida and California have now tentatively agreed to debate on prime time, with Fox News’s Sean Hannity moderating.
Newsom is the wannabee backup to President Joe Biden who insists he isn’t hoping to unseat the 80-year-old president for the Democratic nomination (or the first female and first black and Asian American vice president whom he considers a friend, for that matter). DeSantis is the Republican whose 20-point transformation of a former purple state was supposed to portend the future of the party. And yet, both have remained solidly B-list, waiting in the wings for two senior citizens older than the average American male life expectancy to bow out from politics or, more realistically, perish.
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Born in 1967 and 1978, respectively, Newsom and DeSantis span the bounds of Gen Z, perhaps the least-represented generation alive thanks to the financial, cultural, and political dominance of the baby boomers, which Biden is technically too old even to be a part of. On a political level, Newsom has been underwhelming, as evidenced by the exodus of Californians fleeing the state under his tenure. On a personal level, his life is a disaster for Democrats wishing to depart from the messy womanizing of the Clintons. But in rare moments, such as Newsom’s willingness to make nice with Trump in exchange for COVID assistance at the start of the pandemic, and as evidenced in his willingness to capitalize on Kamala’s recalcitrance, Newsom does have his moments of ingenuity.
DeSantis, who excelled as governor, has disappointed conservatives as a presidential candidate. While he became a national icon fighting back against an adversarial press covering him in Tallahassee, DeSantis has inexplicably cocooned himself in the most sycophantic of right-wing media since launching his campaign with two billionaires on Twitter, depriving himself of the viral sparring moments that catapulted him to fame.
And yet, next to the mounting legal disasters hounding both Trump and Biden, DeSantis and Newsom seem positively pure. We do not need to worry that DeSantis’s children, the oldest of whom is just ready for kindergarten, will pull a Hunter Biden, and for all his risky romantic pursuits, Newsom has never been found responsible by a civil court of sexual battery.
For both political persuasions, a departure from their respective echo chambers is a welcome development. Beyond petty partisanship, a display of two politicians both in their physical and intellectual prime will come as a respite from our appalling gerontocracy. It is indeed a shameless shadow debate of two understudies, but perhaps it will force us to reflect on what kind of principle players — and what level of baseline virility — we deserve.