As seasoned RedState readers are well aware, the media always tells you what candidates they want and don’t want on the Republican side by trashing the ones they’re scared of and either lavishing praise on the ones they do or simply leaving them alone to do their thing. It happened in 2016 when they trashed Donald Trump and rooted for an anyone-but-Trump nominee while at the same time trying to elevate Jeb Bush to that position.

It’s happening now as well, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis being their bad guy as the Usual Suspects in the mainstream press feverishly work overtime at declaring his anticipated 2024 presidential candidacy “over” before he even formally announces, all while portraying him as “worse than Trump,” a tactic they’ve been fine-tuning for roughly two years now.

The latest instance comes from an opinion writer at the Huffington Post, who literally proclaims in the headline that there is no one more dangerous for America right now than DeSantis, and that includes Trump:

“No One Is More Dangerous For The White House Than Ron DeSantis — Including Donald Trump”

Oddly enough, the “danger” DeSantis presents, according to the HuffPo’s promo tweets on the piece, is that he is “more informed, tactical, and calculated” than any declared or presumptive GOP presidential candidate:

The Florida governor is more informed, tactical and calculated, which makes him way more dangerous. https://t.co/Va82zWJfsM

— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) May 17, 2023

In it, guest writer Dustin Seibert argues that DeSantis has “become a beast of a governor,” comparing his supposed power over the Florida state legislature to “Darth Vader using the Force”:

I believe addiction to the power of the presidency is the only reason Trump is giving the presidency another go — he has no real interest in legislative movement that doesn’t line his pockets. DeSantis, however, is a different brand of threat.

He managed to become a beast of a governor, anchored by a Republican Florida Legislature that, as the recently closed legislative session has shown us, bends to his whims like some do to Darth Vader using the Force.

Maybe it’s just me but I think those descriptions make DeSantis sound pretty danged awesome, like an accidental endorsement. DeSantis’ rapid response team thinks so, too:

Left-wing media stop making @RonDeSantisFL sound awesome challenge…. pic.twitter.com/HoavEjSitc

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 17, 2023

Beyond that, hit pieces like this are really super obvious as to what the intent behind them are – to get the predictable drumbeat going that this time around, this Republican candidate or that Republican candidate actually will be the “most dangerous president evah!!” should they be elevated to that position, something we’ve heard every single freakin’ presidential election year since like forever:

“Most dangerous person to run for President (checks notes) is DeSantis..yup..we know we’ve been doing this forever but this time we really really mean it!”-Corrupt Regime Media

— Mike Kanin (@KaninMike) May 17, 2023

The good thing here is that at least our intellectual betters in the left-wing media have moved on from investigating how DeSantis was able to lose weight so quickly (“Is DeSantis taking Ozempic?” Puck News wondered back in March), nor or we hearing anything new on the shocking revelation that he eats pudding with his fingers.

The bad news is that they’re going to keep insulting our intelligence with these types of hit pieces no matter who the GOP nominee ends up being.

As I’ve said before, regardless of where one stands now on the Trump/DeSantis debate, my advice to Republican voters and independent voters who tend to vote for Republicans is to simply ignore the media and the talking heads and “analysts” to the extent they can and instead do their own homework on the candidates.

Let the process play out with the candidates presenting themselves for judging before the electorate directly, and then decide. Because it’s one thing for the media to argue about which burger joint is the best one at which to eat, but it’s another thing entirely for agenda-driven media figures to try and tell people how they should vote.

Flashback: ‘Reporter’ Says It’s Her Job to Make Ron DeSantis ‘Uncomfortable,’ Things Don’t Go as Planned