It was one of my better Op-eds, “Freedom” for the Few at the Expense of All (August, 2021)
The impetus for writing it almost exactly two years ago was DeSantis’ response to Covid at the time. It was when he retreated from his original response (which was tempered by some sobering data), and he went rogue for political reasons turning Dr. Fauci into the enemy of the “freedom loving” people of Florida.
I walk into restaurants, theaters, or just down the street now and wonder, was it all just a bad dream? Not really, the dream has morphed into yet another bad dream. Maybe a worse one?
We now have more reliable data, but with the engine of conspiracy theories, abetted by social networking, it filters into the self-serving grab for political power, and we fail to learn from experience. The anti-intellectual vein of the American psyche goes deep, and populists very effectively tap into that.
One only has to read the July 22 New York Times article The Steep Cost of Ron DeSantis's Vaccine Turnabout, and then the lead editorial in the July 26 Wall Street Journal, The Real DeSantis COVIDRecord
Nowadays, an alternative reality is easy to “prove” and the WSJ does a pretty good job at that. I’m not going to dissect the two, but my article from two years ago makes some of the same points as the NYT.
I will however quote the concluding paragraph of the WSJ article as it is so emblematic of how we can choose to look at this horrible episode in American history: “The lockdown damage continues, but progressives can’t admit they were wrong. Nor can Mr. Trump. So they are trying to take down Mr. DeSantis for being right.”
There was no “right” or “wrong” when we went through the dark Covid tunnel. There was scientific advice about responding to the rapidly moving target of the pandemic, and that advice was based on informed experience. However, I don’t recall anyone claiming that it was a hard and fast “truth.” It was thought to be the best advice at the time. Who was closer to the “truth”, Dr. Fauci or Dr. MyPillowGuy?
Trump’s “Evita moment,” ripping off his mask, after climbing the steps to the White House balcony (gasping for air), following his Covid treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, was clearly a high point of his political narcissism. Look at me! Look at me! Mr. Tough Guy! But he received the experimental monoclonal antibody treatment not available to most of his fellow Americans who were dying from Covid. He did not opt for the "miracle cures" he advocated (and probably killed some of his cult supplicants) such as hydroxychloroquine or injecting disinfectants. No, he listened to health experts.
So would have DeSantis with his own life on the line. Instead, he surrounded himself with hand-picked health advisors who supported his views, all calculated to put him in the White House in 2024. Lots of luck with that Governor; you didn’t count on the increasing popularity of your indicted adversary. Trump or DeSantis: demagoguery is their commonality.
