A little schadenfreude and Gov. DeSantis' COVID incompetence
Throughout the COVID pandemic Gov. Ron DeSantis has attempted with some success to portray inertia as virtue. His nonfeasance in refusing to do what he should have been done in terms of mitigating the spread of the virus coupled with his malfeasance in preventing local governments and private businesses from doing what they would have done has served him reasonably well politically. Until now.
Now Florida is ground zero in a COVID explosion that is setting records for cases and hospitalizations, if not yet deaths. And as those doleful numbers have climbed, DeSantis’ poll numbers have fallen, to the point that St. Pete Polls, a well regarded polling operation in Florida that showed DeSantis with a positive 15 percentage point net approval rating in May (55% to 40%), now shows him with a negative 5 percentage point net approval rating (44% to 49%).
Moreover, his double digit leads in May over his potential Democratic opponents in the 2022 gubernatorial race, U.S. Rep. and former Gov. Charlie Crist and Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Nikki Fried, have evaporated, proving once again that it ain’t over until it’s over, particularly in politics.
Not surprisingly, DeSantis and his apologists have been stung into feverish action. What is surprising is how inconsistent and irrational their efforts to deny reality and deflect blame have been.
In fact, they have been conducting a clinic in informal logical fallacies. DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw, to cite just one example, tweeted that Florida is not going to take the path of California’s mask mandates, because “... lockdowns have destroyed small businesses, decimated the middle class & kept kids out of school for going on 2 years.” This not very subtle sleight of hand, which is an impermissible dialectical shift, equates masking with lockdowns, and then attacks lockdowns, which, even if her premises are true, produces a false conclusion, as no one is proposing lockdowns in Florida. Or in California, for that matter.
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/08/07/a-little-schadenfreude-and-gov-desantis-covid-incompetence-column/
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