COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) isn’t the only Gen X candidate running for president, but he’s probably the most Gen X candidate running for president.
Before and after DeSantis speaks at his Iowa rallies, the music blaring over the loudspeakers is as Gen X as it gets. There’s no Taylor Swift, and there’s no Rolling Stones. It’s Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, with Neil Young being the most Boomer tunes you’ll hear. “We Built This City” blared over the loudspeakers in Council Bluffs shortly before Casey DeSantis took the stage Saturday morning.
Generation X, being smaller than the baby boomers and the millennials and having fewer psychological problems, often gets ignored. Five straight boomers have been president, and the millennials are starting to run. It’s entirely possible we will never have a Gen X president.
DeSantis isn’t merely a presidential candidate from Generation X. He’s running as a Gen X candidate. Donald Trump was yesterday. Nikki Haley is beholden to her donors. DeSantis focuses on parents of school-age kids — that is, on Generation X.
Beyond the music and the parenting-teens talk, there’s the Ronald Reagan strain in his campaign. DeSantis never voted for Reagan — like me, he was 6 years old during the 1984 election. But many young men in the 1980s learned to revere Reagan. We saw the experts in the major media and many of our school teachers dismiss the idea that the U.S. could win the Cold War. America would have to come to terms with communism and a bipolar world.
Reagan rejected that. “We win. They lose.” That was Reagan’s Cold War strategy. It was gutsy, and he pulled it off. Red-blooded American boys loved that, and it inspired us.
DeSantis constantly invokes Reagan. Thrice in his Saturday morning event in Council Bluffs, DeSantis said the phrase “a time for choosing,” invoking Reagan’s legendary 1964 speech. In the latest debate, DeSantis repeatedly invoked Reagan’s declaration that the Republican Party must project “bold colors” rather than “pale pastels.”
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DeSantis’s proxy, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), is very Gen X. Sources tell me that that the 2004 movie Miracle, about the U.S. Olympic hockey team beating the Soviet Union, is one of Roy’s favorite movies.
And as if he needed any more Gen X branding, he’s even named Ron.