Just one week ago I suggested that there were two things Gov. Ron DeSantis could do that would keep him going down as one of the worst elected leaders in Florida history. So far he has not stepped up and mandated a statewide mask mandate nor has he called up the Florida National Guard to help with their pop-up ICU’s.
I am not sure if he is as stupid as the small amount of Floridians who continue to resist wearing masks or that it might be something worse. Is he is so afraid of making President Trump angry that he is putting his loyalty to the White House ahead of protecting the people he was elected to serve?
Either way, his chances of being seen as a leader are rapidly slipping away.
Let’s start with item one – Gov. DeSantis could mandate a statewide wearing of face-covering via masks or some other type of cloth that would cover the nose and mouth so as not to spread COVID 19. Since that time Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Louisiana. Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Saturday he will issue a statewide public mask mandate, close bars and reduce the limit on crowd sizes as he tries to reverse a summer surge of COVID-19 in the state.
Gov. Abbott like Gov. DeSantis is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump but he put the people of his state first, as Texans simply would not listen to pleas to use face coverings.
Sound familiar Floridians?
Abbott issued a mandate on July 2 requiring all Texans wear face coverings over the nose and mouth in public spaces. People who refuse to comply could be fined and thus far people have been forced to pay fines.
He said imposing the order was a tough decision to make and acknowledged that wearing a face-covering is inconvenient it remains the best and easiest way to prevent the spread of COVID 19.
Gov. Abbott went as far as to threaten another shutdown of the state of Texas if people continued to disobey his mask order. That is bold leadership for someone just weeks ago was not on the wear a mask bandwagon.
But again Gov. DeSantis fails to do something that is both easy for him to do and would go a long way to cutting back on the spread of the virus. Texans are just as bull-headed as some Floridians and Gov. Abbott knew by issuing a mask mandate he would be making enemies but he stepped up and protected the citizens of his state in spite of themselves.
I also suggested that Gov. DeSantis could activate the Florida National Guard and they could help hospitals around the state with their pop-up ICU’s. They have done it in the past during hurricanes and other natural disasters.
He could also pick up the phone to the White House and ask for the same hospital ship that was sent to New York City when they were the epicenter of this pandemic. It could dock in Miami where I am sure that it would be put to good use.
Throughout this pandemic I have refused to rate how one state has done vs. another because each state has its own way of doing things. My use of Gov. Abbott and his actions vs. what Gov. DeSantis resists doing was simply to illustrate that a Trump-friendly governor did what was best for his state.
But DeSantis committed the cardinal sin of politics and that was to declare victory in the second inning of a nine-inning game. His bragging that he was doing a better job than New York and his taunting Gov. Cuomo of New York has put a national spotlight on the first-term governor.
DeSantis is not a fool and as a graduate of Yale he is smarter than he has been acting but he needs to take the next step and that is to lead by doing the easy stuff. If he wants the schools open in the fall then he better get his act together soon.