America is in disastrous shape: Her debt is growing exponentially, her economy is shattered, her border is broken, her citizenry is dying from illegal drugs, and she is increasingly dependent economically, medically, and technologically on a rising communist country that despises her. Race hatred is rising, and the specter of World War III hangs over us. The White House incumbent is a corrupt man who sniffs and gropes children and has incipient senile dementia. So, what occupies our media? Ron DeSantis’s boots. And sadly, those who support Trump are piling on.

Politico, a Democrat political outlet with a large readership, took the boot story from Twitter and TikTok and shared it with a wider audience:

In the last few weeks, posts mocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strangely shaped cowboy boots have racked up millions of views on Twitter and TikTok, with online sleuths trying to determine whether he’s wearing height-boosting insoles to pump himself up against a 6’3” primary frontrunner with a penchant for nicknames who reportedly considered calling DeSantis “Tiny D.” (If the 2001 Yale baseball team roster is to be believed, DeSantis stands at 5’11”.) Posters have sketched over photos of the boots, showing where they think DeSantis’ feet sit inside. “Slay queen,” captioned one TikTok user. Hashtags like “parisfashionweek” and “mallgothfashion” abound.

And as noted, the Trumpistas think they have a winning issue with this story:

The super PAC supporting Donald Trump is putting the boot into Republican rival Ron DeSantis with an early Christmas gift.

It is sending him a $99 pair of handcrafted boots emblazoned with the red, white and blue of the Puerto Rican flag as part of its campaign accusing him of supporting statehood for the island — while reminding voters of his penchant for heeled boots.

The height of fashion, you might say.

‘America knows Ron DeSantis loves boots (with lifts inside of them) and Puerto Rican statehood, so we couldn’t think of a better early Christmas gift to the governor than a pair of Puerto Rican flag boots,’ said Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Make America Great Again Inc.

It’s nauseating that, when America is facing crisis after crisis, we’re arguing about whether Ron DeSantis likes wearing shoes that make him a bit taller. If this is what political debate in this country has boiled down to, we’re not even a second-rate country. We’re “dead country walking,” with or without cowboy boots.

I get that, in the noise of political debate, people try to break through with something that captures the public’s attention. But this? Really?

In the lead-up to the American Civil War, candidates would engage in a three-hour-long debate about substantive issues. In 2023, during “debates,” candidates have 60 seconds to spew out a pre-packaged banality about a substantive issue.

And now we have this: A ferocious debate sucking up airtime about whether DeSantis wears “lifts.”

I like Ron DeSantis. I think he’s a really smart guy who’s been a very competent governor and who has taken good stands on things that matter to me. I like Donald Trump. I think he’s a really smart guy who, given a two-term presidency, would have prevented every single thing that’s gone wrong during Biden’s administration. I don’t know who will ultimately be the Republican presidential candidate, but I could easily vote for either man without any qualms next November.

I really want to hear about the issues, not boots. And the American media and political class are doing their darndest to distract me and everyone else in America from these all-important matters.

Image: Ron DeSantis and some cowboy boots as imagined by AI.