No author could write a science fiction thriller as frightening as Florida’s current reality. In most plague novels, earnest government officials lead a war against the deadly pathogens, fighting with every ounce of strength to save their constituents from the ravages of a pandemic. Not in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis – known not-so-affectionately as “Trump’s Mini-Me” – governs with a pro-COVID ideology.

Florida leads the nation in COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, mostly the new Delta variant, and almost exclusively among the unvaccinated. We are about seven percent of the U.S. population, yet we have twenty percent of all the new cases. This seems to be just what our governor wants.

     DeSantis’s policies are causing the deadly Delta variant to spread. This is crazy but intentional.         

If you doubt me, take a look at his most recent actions: suing cruise lines to prevent them from requiring vaccination for all crew and passengers; suing to prevent any Florida business from imposing a vaccination requirement; fighting to prevent school districts from mandating masks. Sounds like Big Government and Socialism to me! Not to mention dangerous and unscientific.

Did I mention that on his website and in personal appearances, he touts Republican Party t-shirts denouncing Dr. Fauci, as he urges Floridians to ignore what the world’s greatest expert tells us we need to do to be safe? Instead, he argues, we should listen to crackpots like he and Tucker Carlson. This morning, DeSantis took to the air to push a totally unproven “cure” for COVID, which even its strongest backers claim is at best a treatment that may increase survival odds, and nothing ,more. Why not tell people to get vaccinated and wear masks and socially distance when appropriate? Why deny the severity of the pandemic, why push fake “cures” when near-total immunity is readily available? This is Trump with his hydroxychloroquine and bleach all over again!

Those are the actions of one who denies all science and is waging a war on the medical experts instead of on the virus! These are the policies of a pro-COVID Republican governor. Money comes above all, even human life. The problem is that their crackpot idea kills both people and economies.

   When did Florida Republicans stop believing in “limited government” and “local control”?

What happened to the old Republican mantras of “local control”, “less government regulation” “freedom of choice” (unless you are a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy, or a member of the LBGTQ community seeking any equal right), and “get Big Government off our backs”?

Like Trump, DeSantis is an authoritarian. He  orders businesses to operate according to his dictates, and steals local control from elected school boards; he also got his lap-dog Republican legislature to pass laws requiring the collection of students’ political views, restrict the right to protest, and fight hard to keep African-Americans from voting in the Sunshine State.

Many out-of-state businesses moved to Florida because of its reputation as a business-friendly state, where owners could operate with minimal government interference. I bet they never counted on Big Brother DeSantis poking his nose into their every decision, dictating to the most minute detail how they must deal with their customers and employees. He is also attempting to render local governments powerless, by devolving all decision-making to the state government in Tallahassee. Cities and counties cannot make their own decisions about public health in their locales, and must take orders from big Brother in Tallahassee. We see how that worked out.

    DeSantis never accepts personal responsibility; he’s Trump’s Mini-Me” in every way.

There’s one other way in which DeSantis mirrors his mentor, disgraced ex-President Trump: neither will ever accept personal responsibility. The out-of-control pandemic in Florida is not because of his failed policies, DeSantis bellows; it’s the fault of the weather, Joe Biden, the media, the liberals, China, even other Republicans who criticize him, like the Republican Mayor of Miami and the Governor of Arkansas. None of it is his fault, none at all. Just what we’d expect to hear from Trump. No surprise. He is “Trump’s Mini-Me” after all.

The good news is there is an election in November of 2022, about fourteen months away. Floridians have the opportunity to oust DeSantis and cut down the huge Republican majority in the two state legislative houses. Democrats have two fine candidates for the office: Congressman and former governor Charlie Crist, and current Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who in 2018 became the first Democrat to win a statewide office in twenty years. Charlie Crist was a Republican governor, then briefly an independent, and has been a strong leader of Florida Democrats since elected to Congress in 2016. Either would be a huge improvement over Trump’s Mini-Me.[Disclosure: I am a supporter, contributor, and volunteer for Charlie Crist.] 

There are numerous other reasons to replace DeSantis next year: his refusal to declare a state of emergency or take any serious action against the Red Tide that threatens our coastal waters and the nearby residences and businesses; the broken unemployment claims system which has still not resolved issues going as far back as April, 2020; rising sea levels and other consequences of global warming, which DeSantis will not directly address; acknowledging the obvious and admitting that Joe Biden won a fair election. None are as pressing as ending DeSantis’ pro-COVID policies as soon as we can.

We can try to pressure the lap-dog Republicans in Florida into forcing some policy changes, but that’s highly unlikely in a state where Republican means being a Trumpie, and drinking a few gallons of his deadly Kool-Aid. In Florida, we’re happy when we can say is a Florida Republican is not an insurrectionist and pervert like Donald Trump or Matt Gaetz! Not much chance the Trumpies who run the state GOP will do anything to stop DeSantis’ pro-COVID polices. They like them, even though it kills them at much higher rates than it kills sensible, vaccinated Democrats. We don’t like these crazy policies, and we have to vote out DeSantis and the Republicans next year. 

#DumpDeSantis2022 #VoteBlue4Ever