Incredibly, DeSantis blames Florida COVID surge on Biden, immigrants. Scapegoat much? | Opinion
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has failed to protect Floridians from COVID-19.
That fact alone is grounds for condemnation, but this week he’s throwing into the mix a little xenophobia for political effect.
Instead of supporting common-sense, expert-guided public health measures to deal with highly transmissible variants in Florida, the governor bet on GOP-branded rhetorical rubbish about “freedom of choice” on life-saving masks and vaccines.
And we lost.
Florida continues to lead the nation in COVID cases and hospitalizations, breaking most of the coronavirus statistical records that chronicle the sickness and suffering residents were, and still are, enduring. It doesn’t get any more gut-wrenching and infuriating than to see cases of children infected with the deadly delta variant soaring in Florida hospitals, more so than in any other state.
Once more, Florida is the poster child for the incompetent handling of the pandemic — and the governor offers nothing but excuses and absurd political talking points to deflect from his dereliction of duty.
DESANTIS POINTS FINGERS
Struggling for credibility as COVID ravages the state, DeSantis — who faces reelection next year and also has his eye on the presidency — has come up with a new round of scapegoats for his failures: President Biden, immigrants at the border and media “hysteria.”
Speaking Wednesday from Panama City, a red city with plenty of voters swayed by his brand of lies, DeSantis accused Biden of being the facilitator of the pandemic by keeping what DeSantis claims is an unsecured border with Mexico.
The governor says it’s immigrants crossing the border — and not the Floridians he has encouraged to behave irresponsibly, the unvaccinated or the unmasked — who are spreading variants.
“He’s not shutting down the virus,” DeSantis said of Biden. “He’s helping facilitate it.”
Let’s see DeSantis prove it.
Where’s the contact tracing of cases back to newly arrived immigrants in Florida?
It doesn’t exist, does it?
Here’s what’s real: DeSantis still doesn’t care one iota about all Floridians; he only cares about stoking his base to distract from his failure.
“Hyping the dangerous nativist trope of immigrants as public health threats,” America’s Voice, a pro-immigration reform group, called DeSantis’ scapegoating rhetoric.
Instead of governing to stem infection by allowing local officials to issue mask and vaccine mandates when appropriate, the ambitious Trump clone is more interested in playing party politics with the president.
“Why don’t you get this border secure?” DeSantis lashed out at Biden. “Until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you.”
Disrespectful. Disingenuous. Deceitful.
It must be rough to go up against a competent, decent president who doesn’t put on a reality show to divide the nation every day and, as I’ve said before, gives a damn about Floridians’ health and wants them vaccinated and, when needed, masked, too.
As for Biden, asked Thursday at an open-press event on the South Lawn to respond to DeSantis’ attack, the president said: “Governor who?”
Then, he smiled and moved on.
It’s not the first time DeSantis has played the ethnic card to distract us from his mishandling of the virus.
In June 2020, after he reopened the state too hastily, he blamed the predictable and alarming daily spike in infections on “overwhelmingly Hispanic” agriculture and day laborers.
Again, DeSantis had no evidence or any contact-tracing data to support his xenophobic claim, but singling out from his powerful seat in Tallahassee one of Florida’s most humble and vulnerable populations did the job of confusing people.
PROTECT FLORIDIANS
There was so much the governor could’ve done to protect Floridians. There is much he still can do, starting with ending his obnoxious politicizing of the virus.
But he doesn’t lead with wisdom, heart and conscience.
He didn’t, and still doesn’t, use his office to persuade people to mask and vaccinate, discounting the basic fact that the pandemic, a worldwide public-health emergency, merits safety measures.
He has strong-armed, handcuffed and muzzled local governments. He has threatened public officials with withholding funds if they institute mask mandates, the latest victim of this bullying behavior being the Broward County School Board.
He also has hamstrung business owners with an executive order prohibiting them from requiring customers show proof that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dubbed on social media #DeathSantis for the growing body count, DeSantis is reaping the rotten fruit his bad policies sowed — a resurgence of record COVID cases, 20,133 Thursday, the second-highest single-day case count since the pandemic began last year — and tumbling approval ratings for himself.
Blaming immigrants instead of owning his mistakes is inherited political theater.
But it’s par for the course for a dog-whistling governor whose top priority isn’t COVID, but scoring points on the campaign trail with fellow xenophobes.
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