Joe Henderson: That CPAC straw poll actually had good news for Ron DeSantis

The Trump/DeSantis feud continues.

Shocking news!

Attendees at the weekend Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump as their preferred nominee for President in 2024.

That was a straw vote, which is poll-speak for “this isn’t exactly scientific research.”

Reporters dutifully told the story to their various news outlets. They noted that Gov. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second to the Mar-a-Lago Menace. Actually, they didn’t refer to the former President that way because that one was on me.

Trump received 59% to DeSantis’ 28%. A whole bunch of Republican wannabes got a vote or two from their cousins or aunts, and they all went home.

Many took this development as evidence of Trump’s vise-like grip on the Republican Party, but there’s another way to look at the vote.

The reported 2,574 people who attended this CPAC fuss-fest are the reddest red meat MAGA Republicans. They are the true believers in building a wall. They want to arrest Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden. Most of all, they believe evil “antifiacrats” rigged voting machines and stole the 2020 election from Dear Leader.

And still, more than one-fifth of them believe DeSantis would be a stronger nominee in 2024, and I suspect that number is much higher among moderate Republicans. If DeSantis’ research says the same thing, why wouldn’t he get into the race?

Wouldn’t you pay good money to see Trump and DeSantis on the debate stage? I know I would. DeSantis is smarter and younger than Trump, and I imagine more than a few GOP kingmakers are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the contrast between DeSantis and Joe Biden.

Actually, they’re about to get that because DeSantis first needs to win re-election. While Democrats make the gubernatorial race about draconian culture war laws, DeSantis will shout, “FREEDOM BABY!”

And then he’ll flash a scary image of Biden and ask voters, “Do you want me, or the masked man?”

What does Trump give Republicans besides the certainty of four more years of chaos, incompetence and division? DeSantis, at least, wouldn’t provide the chaos or incompetence, because he knows what he is doing. However, he is proving adept at creating division.

That seems to be what Republicans want, though. The party of FREEDOM BABY exists these days to tell the other side what to do.

The Florida Legislature, at DeSantis’ direction, declared war on public school teachers and unions. They turned a handful of trans athletes into a full-blown assault on girls’ high school sports. They’re chipping away at abortion rights without regard to rape or incest.

Republicans passed a possibly illegal anti-riot bill, fraught with racial overtones. A voting restriction law — oops, I mean security law — will make it harder for minorities to vote.

You can hear the red meat sizzle on the grill.

DeSantis’ fingerprints are all over these things. Given that, does anyone believe a straw poll that wasn’t as bad as it looked will deter him if he wants to run?

I don’t.