timschochet
Footballguy
I believe that Ron DeSantis is going to run for President in 2024, and I think he has a very good shot of being the Republican nominee. His campaign argument is going to be simple and straightforward:
I kept things open in Florida during Covid and it worked out pretty well.
Santis and his allies at Fox and right wing talk radio are already making this argument by drawing a comparison to California and Gavin Newsom. Its an effective, seemingly apples to apples comparison to make: both are heavily populated "sunshine states"; California shut down twice and continues to restrict capacity at restaurants, salons, gyms, etc; Florida has no such restrictions. California requires masks, Florida does not. In terms of symbolism (and symbolism, for political campaigns, is very important), California shut down Disneyland, Florida did NOT shut down Disneyworld. And the results are similar: Florida and California have suffered roughly the same percentage of Covid victims (around 10%).
Now, this is not the only way of looking at this, and the Los Angeles Times makes an argument that, if California had followed the Florida model, 6,000 more Californians would have died. Conversely, if Florida had taken the steps that California did, 3,000 more lives would have saved. Here is the Los Angeles Times article:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-09/florida-vs-california-who-had-better-covid-response%3f_amp=true
My question is, does DeSantis have a good case to make? And will he be successful in making it? (No I'm not asking at this point if he will be our next President, only if he will be successful in pursuing this argument.)
I kept things open in Florida during Covid and it worked out pretty well.
Santis and his allies at Fox and right wing talk radio are already making this argument by drawing a comparison to California and Gavin Newsom. Its an effective, seemingly apples to apples comparison to make: both are heavily populated "sunshine states"; California shut down twice and continues to restrict capacity at restaurants, salons, gyms, etc; Florida has no such restrictions. California requires masks, Florida does not. In terms of symbolism (and symbolism, for political campaigns, is very important), California shut down Disneyland, Florida did NOT shut down Disneyworld. And the results are similar: Florida and California have suffered roughly the same percentage of Covid victims (around 10%).
Now, this is not the only way of looking at this, and the Los Angeles Times makes an argument that, if California had followed the Florida model, 6,000 more Californians would have died. Conversely, if Florida had taken the steps that California did, 3,000 more lives would have saved. Here is the Los Angeles Times article:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-09/florida-vs-california-who-had-better-covid-response%3f_amp=true
My question is, does DeSantis have a good case to make? And will he be successful in making it? (No I'm not asking at this point if he will be our next President, only if he will be successful in pursuing this argument.)
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