Ron DeSantis is what the post-Trump GOP should look like

The governor checks key Trumpian boxes. Trump’s supporters want someone who is a fighter, who gives as good as he gets with the media, and has the right enemies. DeSantis has had to punch through media hostility from the beginning and had notable throw-downs with antagonistic reporters prior to the “60 Minutes” episode taking it to another level. Since the onset of the pandemic, the media has been determined to paint DeSantis as a villain flouting science to the detriment of his constituents. Actually, he had a considered approach focused on protecting the most vulnerable in the nursing homes and taking a light touch on government restrictions to try to get through the pandemic with a minimum of economic damage. Any fair reading of the evidence—Florida has a death rate that’s about the national average, while its economy is in much better shape than New York's and California’s—has to concede that at the very least this was an entirely reasonable strategy. DeSantis has, rightly, been fierce in defending his record, but never gives the sense, as Trump often did, that fighting with the media is a good thing in its own right, over and above any substantive considerations.