The right is awful at optics. Optics unfortunately do matter when the fucking left has a stranglehold over every major institution.

The right is always going to have an optics problem, simply because the left uses its control of the media and all of our other cultural institutions to defame the right regardless of who they run, who they associate with, what they say, or what they do. The right could get better at not making the problem worse, but I'm not convinced the problem could be mitigated enough to improve our electoral outcomes (to the extent those matter anymore with the fraud problem being what it is). One reason I like DeSantis is because he's capable of fighting the media and our woke institutions without falling into every obvious trap they set for him. But now that all the bad actors are backing him to try to get rid of Trump and I feel dirty advocating for him despite my positive opinion of him.