If I were Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), I wouldn’t be betting on being reelected:
As Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed this summer for schools to reopen, state leaders told school boards they would need Health Department approval if they wanted to keep classrooms closed.
Then they instructed health directors not to give it.
Following a directive from DeSantis’ administration, county health directors across Florida refused to give school boards advice about one of the most wrenching public health decisions in modern history: whether to reopen schools in a worsening pandemic, a Gannett USA TODAY NETWORK review found.
In county after county the health directors’ refrain to school leaders was the same: Their role was to provide information, not recommendations. [Palm Beach Post]
Yeah, you think voters whose kids are being put at risk, along with those same voters when those kids bring the virus home with them, will vote for DeSantis?
Yeah, me neither.
Look: as I noted just a little while ago, Governor DeSantis won his position by basically sewing himself to President Trump. When he entered the race in 2018, no one gave him a chance, but he got himself on Fox News repeatedly, and thus in front of avid Fox News viewer President Trump, and made happy noises about the President, enough that he received the Presidential endorsement – and the Florida voters, by a bare .4% points, made him Governor.
Now, for a politician, disasters are a curse and an opportunity. Display wise leadership, pick the right people to solve the problem, and you’re golden. Suddenly, people talk about your national prospects.
Drop the ball, and your political career comes to an end.
DeSantis, in his frantic attempts to remain a Trump favorite, followed orders from the White House and tried to reopen early. There are rumors that numbers have been suppressed and manipulated even beforehand, and Rebekah Jones, GIS Analyst manager for the State of Florida, was fired – she claims for refusing to participate in the manipulations. She has since set up her own coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak. Lauded early on for numbers that looked far too good, Florida has since ascended to the top of the list of states for infection rates, a sad achievement. Currently, according to Global Epidemics, it sits in the fourth place. If you trust their numbers.
Interestingly enough, DeSantis’ behavior may not only end his own political career – sycophants rarely make good leaders – but he may be helping end the career of President Trump, who, after all, despite his attempts to disclaim responsibility, carries the ultimate responsibility for the response to Covid-19. The Biden Campaign will use the disaster in Florida, including DeSantis’ dishonest and dangerous attempt to manipulate the schools into looking normal, as another charge of incompetency and even dementia against Trump.
And It Should Stick. Because it’s true. DeSantis’ ties to Trump are not a secret.
Trump’s base won’t care, they’ve had their victimhood thoroughly instilled, and Trump keeps playing to it. But independents will care, especially those with kids.
Especially suburban moms who are seeing their kids being forced to go into danger, and then coming home and exposing mom and dad.
DeSantis’ next election is 2022. He may not even run, if he’s smart. But he doesn’t appear to be smart.
