An avid but non-partisan peruser of social media could be forgiven for believing that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is responsible for more deaths than Republican tax cuts, the rollback of net neutrality, and Pol Pot combined. Whenever DeSantis opts for freedom over the shrieking jackboot preference of the COVID panic porn crowd, Facebook and Twitter light up with dire predictions of no one making it out of Florida alive.
I would like to count how many different ways they’ve been wrong but I don’t have access to computers at NASA or Caltech.
This dance has been going on since last summer, and DeSantis keeps gliding effortlessly across the floor while his detractors repeatedly trip over their own feet and fall on their faces. Full disclosure: I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
While the unhinged left has convinced themselves that this virus can be magically shut down by obedience to Draconian restrictions, DeSantis and other Republican governors understand that the surges are going to happen whether they attempt to play God or not. Rather than just flail about and follow every whim of Anthony Fauci’s, DeSantis has been — as Stacey wrote in August — leading the fight against COVID. He’s had to deviate from leftist orthodoxy to do so, however, which means they are obligated to savage him.
None of it is sticking.
The number of COVID cases in Florida has been plummeting lately, which has sent the caterwauling progressive horde into hiding for a bit.
Florida’s COVID-19 response has been described as reckless, dangerous, and anti-science.
Its Republican governor weathered months of scorn for loosening pandemic restrictions ahead of other state leaders. Its case counts, when on the rise, are often cited by critics as evidence that the entire Republican approach to managing the virus has failed.
But drops in Florida’s case counts invite a fraction of the attention.
New infections per 100,000 residents dropped to 12 over the past week, according to the New York Times coronavirus tracker. Over the past 14 days, cases dropped by 48%.
Other states with far more expansive pandemic restrictions are seeing COVID-19 continue to spread at faster rates than Florida.
In New York, for example, the rate of new cases is more than double that of Florida’s at 25 per 100,000 residents over the past week.
In Washington state, the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents was at 31 during the past week.
Meanwhile, New York is failing at following the science by suspending teachers and Washington by firing college football coaches.
Anyone with a modicum of self-respect or self-awareness would probably stop going after DeSantis. Fortunately for our entertainment purposes, neither is found very often among our leftist counterparts. The next time DeSantis does what’s best for the citizens of Florida when it comes to COVID, rest assured that the panic porn pimps will be marching down the Boulevard of Tired Rhetoric chanting, “Bring out your dead!”
I am really looking forward to the millionth or so round of “DeSantis Gleefully Proves Them Wrong.” I wish they’d turn it into a video game.
Or a presidency.
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