Media Cheering Against Florida

Over at The American Spectator is commentary on how Florida is doing relative to other states in the pandemic. As a Floridian, I would have to say that it is pretty accurate regarding things "on the ground" as they like to say:

Image by Denys Kostyuchenko, via Unsplash, license.

Recently I did something in a medium-sized Central Florida city that remains illegal in the cultural meccas of Los Angeles and New York City. I attended a concert by a Bee Gees tribute band, albeit with a somewhat masked-up audience and socially distanced seating. If it had been up to the "follow-the-science" types, there would still be zero concerts, no theme park visits, no sports on any level, and of course no Super Bowl -- no fun diversions from the sadness and fear of the past year.

Yet even though the dire predictions of death in Florida never came to pass, the ignorant shrieking of "DeathSantis!" continues unabated. Objective measurements of success won't assuage the Left's mask-based moral superiority. In any case, people in Florida, or at least the sliver I see every day, are quite mask-compliant, which makes it odd to read horrified accounts from people who don't live here that claim otherwise. [bold added]

Recall that Florida never imposed a statewide mask mandate.

Ron DeSantis has had a relatively sane response to the pandemic for an American governor, leaving precautions to individuals -- who seem oddly reluctant to catch the crud, and businesses, who apparently don't want the bad publicity that would come from spreading it.

On that last score, see Disney: I have, with my family, three times now. None of us has gotten sick. (I am hardly claiming DeSantis has been perfect: I strongly disagree with the Great Barrington Declaration to which he adheres, for starters.)

Aside from the fact that DeSantis is a left-wing target because he would be a viable Presidential contender, there is an element of ghoulishness about these incessant predictions of doom that we saw in Europe early on, and which the article cites:

Florida has avoided the dark imaginings of the Left, controlling the pandemic while not wrecking the lives of its citizens and allowing a semblance of normal life to continue. Even the DeSantis foes at the New York Times were forced to acknowledge on a recent Sunday front page, with a healthy dose of petulance, that in Florida "Much of life seems normal ... "

Perhaps worried it had been too fair, the Times followed up with this snark from reporter Apoorva Mandavilli: "Scientists view Florida -- the state furthest along in lifting restrictions, reopening society and welcoming tourists -- as a bellwether for the nation. If recent trends there are any indication, the rest of the country may be in trouble."

Yes, it's that gruesome wishful thinking of "wait two weeks" again -- predicting a rise in Florida's case and death rate that never actually arrives. Expect the Left, locked into defending their year-long lockdown policy, to never forgive Gov. DeSantis for being right.

Just as blue states have endured a year of "fifteen days to flatten the curve," so have Floridians heard, "see what happens in two weeks" for a year. The fact that our news media or the left (but I repeat myself) have a shred of credibility at this point is a mystery to me.

It is worth asking why so many in our cultural establishment have so much emotionally invested in seeing Florida fail, convincing everyone that individuals are incompetent to take care of themselves, or both.

-- CAV