One of the great frustrations I have with most of the Republican candidates for president, especially including Donald Trump, is that they are talking about Donald Trump all the time.

The 2020 election is in the rearview mirror, and the 2024 election should be–must be–about America’s future, not whether and how much Donald Trump is being persecuted by his enemies or betrayed by the people that he hired. Trump keeps talking about himself, and everybody else is either talking about Trump or knocking Ron DeSantis.

Politically speaking there is a reason why they are doing this–they need to stand out from the pack and to knock down the top two candidates more than a peg or two, but there are a lot of us out here who believe that the fate of our Republic is at stake and that the candidates should actually address, you know, how they intend to save America from a permanent and devastating decline.

You’d never know it from what we are hearing from the candidates. Sure, they take a swipe or two at Biden, but such swipes are pro-forma. What we need is a vision of what is going wrong and how to fix it. None of the problems are discrete–they are of a piece and somebody has to make the case.

Ron DeSantis has been doing both–attacking Biden for how awful a president he is, and making the case for a better path for America. On the latter, he has the perfect platform: Florida. If you want to know what DeSantis will do you can look at what he has done. If you want to know his principles, you can see how he has governed, and he is open about what matters to him.

As for critiquing Biden. Watch this:

Keep your hands off our kids. pic.twitter.com/X7WqniRLO4

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 15, 2023

This video isn’t just a person slam on Joe Biden, although to me it is a very effective reminder of just how sleazy Biden is. It is also a reminder of the agenda Biden is promoting to sexualize children and separate them from their parents as moral guides and guardians.

The DeSantis zoomer edits are getting better pic.twitter.com/4Mrg4dds9a

— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) June 14, 2023

One of DeSantis’ key selling points in the Republican primaries will be his unwavering determination to take on the cultural Marxists who are propagandizing kids with alphabet ideology and CRT. Most candidates will answer questions when asked about such issues but shy away from bringing them up and engaging in open warfare.

DeSantis has more room to fight these battles because he has been proven competent at governing, reassuring voters that he won’t sacrifice basic governance for what to many seem secondary if important issues. Few Republicans running for office have created much room to move in this space because they have chosen a lane–social conservatives or fiscal conservatives who focus on governance.

The I-95 in Philadelphia is set to take “some number of MONTHS” to repair.

In Florida, when the Pine Island bridge was destroyed by Hurricane Ian, it was rebuilt in three days. pic.twitter.com/GLBEkYyfni

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 12, 2023

Voters have made it clear that they demand competence first, and other battles second.

If you compare the communications strategy for each campaign, only one has been targeting its messaging at both Republican primary voters and the general public as well. Trump is whipping up his troops into a frenzy to defend Trump himself; others are taking potshots at either Trump or DeSantis. And DeSantis is directing his fire at the creepiness and incompetence of the Biden Administration and the Democrats.

🔥 MUST READ: The DeSantis Plan To Wage War on ‘Weaponized’ DOJ

"DeSantis has been working for months on plans to tear down and rebuild both the Department of Justice and the FBI…"https://t.co/xYVkEqkkoc

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 13, 2023

I am a DeSantis guy not because I have a special love for the man. I really don’t care much about what he is like as a person, although it would be nice to have somebody who doesn’t make you cringe all the time.

I like DeSantis because he knows how to govern, focuses on issues that matter, fights Democrats effectively, and fights battles that matter to me. With Trump, I am exhausted by the efforts to defend the man. With DeSantis, I am energized by the effort he makes to do the right thing.

DESANTIS: “We’re going to END the weaponization” of the federal government.

“I don’t buy this idea that the president cannot remove a ‘career person.’ When they’re abusing power…they absolutely should be terminated and terminated swiftly.” pic.twitter.com/VnMgMdcWxy

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 12, 2023

The biggest issue in this election should not be the fate of Donald Trump. Not that beating back the abuses of the Justice Department and FBI aren’t important issues–they are crucial–but they aren’t crucial just because Trump has gotten caught up in their snares. It’s just as important when such things happen to average Americans, and nobody seemed to care about the abuses until Trump was the victim.

We need new blood and a new direction. The challenges America faces are much larger than Donald Trump’s grievances.

I want somebody who is going to focus on things that matter to everybody in this country, not just what matters to the former president.