He that deceives me once, it’s his fault; but if twice, it’s my fault.

~Italian Proverb

Isn’t having one U.S. president per millennium who thinks he is the smartest guy in the room enough?  Especially now that we know the consequences.  Such a level of arrogance and narcissism leads to a lot a bad ideas.  For example:

• Thinking a 2,000 mile penetrable barrier will stop illegal immigration.
• Separating babies and young children from their parents and putting them in cages is good national policy.
• Offering the president of Ukraine a quid pro quo to smear a political opponent the day after the attorney general falsely exonerates you of obstructing justice in the Mueller investigation.
• Lying about an imminent health crisis which has led to the death of over 600,000 U.S. citizens.
• Recommending quack remedies to fight a deadly virus.
• Inciting an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election.
• Hiring Rudy Giuliani, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell to be your legal advisors.

Oddly, none of the these individual actions should concern voters as much as the thought process that leads to them.  On any given day, no U.S. president can predict, much less anticipate, what new situation or circumstance he or she might have to address from the Oval Office.  Therefore, when selecting the nation’s commander-in-chief, voters should pay less attention to individual decisions and more to how a candidate makes them.

Which brings me to the latest mini-me being touted as the heir apparent to the Trump political empire, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and the principles and logic he has employed during the latest surge in COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

• During an interview with Politico.COM, DeSantis described his approach to the pandemic as “data driven.”  That worked when he claimed “mission accomplished” last spring and fully re-opened the state.  But now the data say otherwise.  On August 6, Florida accounted for 46,686 (27.7 percent) of the 168,343 new cases in the U.S. The daily average of 19,250 new cases over the past week is an 84 percent rise over the last 14 days.  And the daily average of 88 deaths for the same time period is a 118 percent increase from two weeks earlier.
• As the data showed a surge in COVID-related impacts, DeSantis traveled to the Texas border for a photo op with Governor Greg Abbott and to Salt Lake City where he addressed a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.  One could describe DeSantis’ leaving Florida in the middle of a health crisis as just one more example of the GOP on “Cruz control.”
• During the July 29 Utah speech, he mocked CDC guidance, calling it “hysteria” and “fear-mongering.”  Would he give the same speech to the 16,038 Florida residents who tested positive for the coronavirus that same day?  And, he had no response to the COVID-related death on Thursday of a healthy 16 year-old at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville.
• The governor’s policy response?  Withhold state funding from school districts that impose mask mandates for students as recommended by the CDC.

On his “Nothing’s Sacred” album (2005), comedian Lewis Black described the two major political parties as follows.

You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this. A Republican will stand up in Congress and say, “I’ve got a really bad idea.” And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, “And I can make it shittier.”

In Florida, both roles are now played by Republicans who dominate most statewide elected positions, the state legislature and the state courts.  How did the Florida Board of Education respond to DeSantis’ bad idea?  Make it “shittier!”  According to the Associated Press:

Florida’s Board of Education decided Friday to provide private school vouchers to parents who say a public school district’s mask-wearing requirements amount to harassment of their children.

Just to be clear, instead of incenting parents to take actions which prevent spread of the virus, Sunshine state taxpayers are being asked to subsidize parents to the tune of $3,279/student (the approximate value of a voucher based on the 2020 legislation) to circumvent CDC guidelines.  The expansion of the Hope Scholarship program will likely be challenged in court since it only applies to students who request paid transfers to schools that do not require masks.  According to the Washington Post:

The Florida state school board did not respond to a woman who spoke in the public comments section of the meeting to ask whether the vouchers would be available for students who want mask mandates and attend districts that do not require them.

Does Florida, much less the country, really need a return to this style of leadership or an administration laden with ostriches with their heads buried deep in DeSantis?

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP