Soon Gov. Ron DeSantis will decide when Florida gets back to the new and very different normal. He needs to balance his information from the vast and smart medical community along with his business advisors.
DeSantis is at a political crossroads, he needs to make the smart and educated choice when things will open again. He should not worry about what President Donald Trump thinks of his decision no matter what that date may be,
Case in point is the Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp who like DeSantis has been a Trump favorite, But just hours after stating he was ready to reopen Georgia today he was thrown under the bus by President Trump.
Trump on Wednesday said he “strongly disagrees” with Kemp’s decision to reopen some nonessential businesses on Friday, but added that it’s up to states to determine.
“I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities,” Trump said. “But at the same time, he must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right. But I disagree with him on what he’s doing.”
To be fair to Kemp, President Trump was on his side earlier in the day but reversed course and suddenly said he no longer suppered Gov. Kemp’s plans.
Georgia Public Broadcasting reported that Marshall Hughes, a barber shop owner in Macon, is one of them. He told the station he won’t be opening up his shop any time soon.
“I’m not gonna be used as a guinea pig,” Hughes said. “We already have to be hands-on with the customers. We’re in close proximity with the customers cutting their hair and talking with them. It’s just a setup for failure, from my point of view.”
There are a number of other business leaders both big and small in Georgia that will not be opening today. They all are concerned with the health of their customers and more importantly their workers.
My hope is that Gov. DeSantis will listen to both his all-star medical advisors as well as his blue-ribbon group business leaders. If he does that then he will offer a realistic, slow rollout that will begin our very, new, “Masked Normal.”
