Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp are the two Republican governors that liberals love to hate. They are openly rooting for an increase in the coronavirus death toll in those two states because DeSantis and Kemp are reopening their states for business while blue-state governors are blaming Trump for all their problems.
But DeSantis is pushing back and giving as good as he’s getting.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a message on Thursday for other governors who have implemented “really draconian, arbitrary restrictions” during the coronavirus outbreak, saying, “You don’t have unlimited authority and people do have rights.”
DeSantis made the comments on “Fox & Friends” in response to a question from host Ainsley Earhardt, who asked if he thinks that “some of these governors that are just doing a one-size-fits-all for the entire state” are “being too strict and going too far.”
Exhibit A: Democratic New Jersey Governor Phill Murphy has banned swimming but will allow surfing on New Jersey beaches. What kind of a mind would concoct an idiotic order like that?
“I don’t think any governor has the authority to restrict anyone unless there’s a direct relationship to combating this virus,” DeSantis said in response, cautioning governors against acting like a “dictator.”
“If you look around the country, clearly there have been examples of really draconian, arbitrary restrictions that have nothing to do with public health, like you can’t plant a seed in your front yard in your garden, you can’t walk around the neighborhood with your daughter or something like that.”
DeSantis added, “Some of this stuff I think has devolved into social control.” That nails the primary issue right there.
From petty tyrant small-town mayors to Democratic presidential candidates, the issue is one of controlling the people — treating them like sheep, leading them around by the nose like small children. They believe that just by saying “science is on our side” they can frighten and coerce their citizens into changing behavior.
And, if not done voluntarily, well, there are always drones, snitches, and the police who will force you to comply.
This is one crisis that liberals should let go to waste.
DeSantis followed a reasonable, logical program of containment and is now reopening Florida. Liberals won’t admit it, but it worked.
He went on to say that “there just aren’t massive outbreaks that have been linked to a lot of outdoor activity and so that’s why I got a lot of flack from the Acela media because I didn’t want to close every beach in Florida.”
DeSantis noted, “We kept golf courses open, we had fishing going on the whole time, people could boat.”
He pointed out that the Florida communities that kept beaches open and followed social distancing guidelines “have some of the lowest rates, places like Brevard County, very low death rate, and so I believe outdoor activity is low risk.”
Florida’s population density isn’t as high as some eastern states like New York or New Jersey, but they have far more senior citizens than most states. Yet they’ve only had 42,000 positive tests for the coronavirus and 1,800 deaths. That’s just a fraction of the deaths in New York state and New Jersey.
But even if the death toll in Florida matched that of New York, DeSantis had the right attitude going into the crisis and was philosophically correct in his approach. Whether he’s proven to be right in getting the coronavirus under control remains to be seen.
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