The Cost of Caring
I like to think that I am a reasonable person. Of course, my enthusiasm sparks up at times and I can be a snapping turtle in an argument, but I’ll admit something to you. I have lived in five different states, but since moving to Florida I have a profound problem — everything Governor Ron DeSantis says makes me angry. When I lived in New York, George E. Pataki was the governor for a time, and I found him to be a sensible person. Both George and Ron went to Yale, but they are totally different people.
The only time DeSantis seemed to be evenhanded, and non-partisan happened when he dealt with the condo collapse in Dade County. As soon as that tragedy left the front page, however, Ronnie got back to his unreasonably vindictive and harshly negative approach to governing.
As I see it, the man killed people with his dishonesty about the pandemic and his virus directives to communities across the state. DeSantis was against masks, vaccination requirements at businesses and resorts, pushing his head in the sand regarding medical and scientific realities.
I was flabbergasted when I saw this front-page headline, “Fla surgeon general backs DeSantis with megaphone.” In a state where almost 60,000 people have died from Covid-19, and even given our affection for all the Disney characters, should we be turning to Goofy for medical advice? DeSantis brought Dr. Joseph Ladapo onboard to bash mask mandates, throw doubt on the vaccines and construct an uncaring health policy for the state. If you want to see how this was rolled out, here’s the video.
I’m sure that Ladapo has a paper diploma, so why does he spread more “scientific dishonesty” than truth? Here are the facts. Ladapo is against masks, he doubts the efficacy of the virus vaccines and he pushed hydroxychloroquine as a remedy. If that “miracle cure” was so good, why did so many people die? Dr. Ladapo signed the Great Barrington Declaration that said “herd immunity” was the only way to cure the global pandemic, while most experts say that would entail unnecessary deaths. Now, Ladapo and DeSantis are promoting a Covid-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars. Why? We already have vaccines. Dr. Ladapo insists the rights of parents are more important than the health of their children. Well, that’s a deal breaker for this parent. With all the challenges we face in America, why would Ladapo be attacking the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture? Florida’s Surgeon General should not be involved in politics.
When Dr. Ladapo went to visit a Democratic lawmaker, he refused to wear a mask saying it hinders his ability to communicate. I would hate to encounter a doctor in the emergency room about to operate on me when he’s not wearing a mask. Ladapo claims he didn’t know the lawmaker was suffering from breast cancer at the time of their meeting, but I can’t help wondering if he was mask-less just because he doesn’t like the look.
It could be his stance is based on the knowledge that a person doesn’t get hired or stay long on the job when they publicly disagree with their boss. It’s laughable when a doctor says he’s not anti-vaccine, but then blurts out that vaccines just aren’t that good and anyone who disagrees with him is not qualified. All of this leads me to question whether Dr. Joseph Ladapo has gotten a Covid-19 vaccine and, if he did, which one? Full disclosure, Doc.
When people talk about the great divide that exists in America, here’s my reaction, “If you keep repeating it we will never be able to cure it.” I wonder if we truly do have an unchangeable divide. Why would the governor of a major state not implement simple plans to help defeat Covid? Why does he take such an anti-science position when that’s not what he actually believes? He sends his kids to a private school believing that will keep them safer, but safer from what?
I was saddened by the news that Casey DeSantis, Ron’s wife, has breast cancer. Would Ron feel comfortable if his wife was seeing a doctor who hasn’t been vaccinated and who refused to wear a mask in the exam room? When it gets personal, you see, all the narrow-minded rhetoric goes out the window. Could it be that everything DeSantis says or does is guided by his desire to never piss off Donald Trump? You might ask why DeSantis would care. Well, he wants to be President of the USA, not some whiny governor in the Sunshine State. The character he plays is a shrill, far-right lunatic and his totally outward ambition repulses Democrats. He cares only about the Trump base of the Republican party and that’s fine for Florida, but beyond the sugarcane farmers and thin-blue-line cop coalition he’s just another grifter politician.
DeSantis isn’t at all sophisticated and fighting the federal government’s Covid-19 policies and regulations cannot make 60,000 deaths go away. If Ronnie was smarter, he would realize that his copycat Covid routine is what led to Trump losing the 2020 election. There are good people running against DeSantis in the upcoming midterm governor election, and should he lose he will probably start right in on a 2024 presidential campaign, if Donald Trump lets him. This brings me to the greatest reason why I dislike the guy. He’s not working for all Floridians because his focus is on just one part-time state resident, Donald Trump.
When Ron DeSantis goes on TV to brag about the magnificent way he managed the global pandemic, he’s just a fool trying to suck his constituents into his historical rewrite. He’s just another large blotch of mold, an unsightly stain of mildew on the good ship USS Face Makeup. The worst part of this story is that it’s not even original. DeSantis is merely a small version of the hideous orange algae we exterminated last year and hopefully will never see again.
It’s not me, it’s him. Ron DeSantis has become my most unliked governor of all time. Instead of putting up with him I could move, but many of the Republican governors in the country are idiots. I would not recommend Ron DeSantis for higher office, ever. Perhaps he’ll sue me for telling the truth. Napoleon syndrome.