Liberal newspapers throughout Florida are berating Gov. Ron DeSantis for the way he is handling the pandemic in the same way they are besmirching the president, who belongs to the same political party.
But the measured response of Florida’s governor is perhaps best gauged by comparing to the knee-jerk response of Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan.
Whitmer is a far-left, first-term governor, Democrat of course, pronounced The Worst Governor in America by the American Spectator.
She immediately launched some of the most stringent restrictions of any state, save California.
For example, just as spring plant time arrives and people are turning to home gardens, Whitmer banned the sale of seeds and garden supplies.
Her travel ban means Michigan residents cannot even visit their own vacation cabins in the Upper Peninsula. (However, if you live in Chicago you can visit your summer home in the U.P.)
Like other liberals she is in a dither over the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine – because it was mentioned favorably by Donald Trump. She threatened the licenses of doctors who prescribed it – and a week later was trying to stockpile it, according to the Spectator.
Whitmer, who was chosen by the Democrat Party to give a muddled, tax-and-spend response to President Trump’s State of the Union address, has wreaked economic destruction on the entire state even though nearly all the cases to date have been in Detroit.
Detroit’s lifeblood is making and selling cars. Making them does little good if you can’t sell them. Whitmer closed down both factories and dealerships.
One dealer in Sandusky wrote the governor saying, “Of my 64 employees, all but 17 are now laid off due to the shutdown. I am watching my life’s work slowly dying by government order.”
Factories got back to work making equipment for hospitals. Shortly after her draconian order and the large outcry that followed, Whitmer backed off slightly on the car sales restrictions.
Besides Michigan, 23 other states are restricting car dealerships from operating.
Florida is not one of them.
Car dealers here are open, but are affected by stay-at-home orders. “We’ve had to lay people off,” said Rick Doran, manager of Arlington Toyota. “People aren’t coming in. They are told to stay home.”
“We’re playing the hand we are dealt.”
DeSantis has kept Florida’s economy and workers in mind as he has imposed restrictions, as a good leader should.
Nonetheless, he has been battered by editorial writers throughout Florida, all echoing the Democrat party line and demanding the same kind of tactics as those used by Whitmer.
Somehow, the default strategy for liberals always is more government, less individual liberty.
With 60 percent of the cases being recorded in just three counties in South Florida, the rationale for throwing people out of work and shutting down small businesses in North Florida is hard to grasp.
Because DeSantis is taking a careful approach, measuring costs and benefits, he is hammered by the media, which doesn’t care about workers and only seeks to turn a public health problem into a political opportunity.
