Name: DeSantis goes full fringe, fighting his own health experts and American democracy | Commentary
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DeSantis goes full fringe, fighting his own health experts and American democracy | Commentary

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AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelNov 10, 2020 at 10:22 amLate last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went on Fox News and suggested that GOP legislators in states where Joe Biden won should maybe their citizens' votes and just declare Donald Trump the winner anyway.It was like listening to a third-world dictator … if the dictator fawned over Laura Ingraham and the third world was Tallahassee.AdvertisementThe next day, the revealed that DeSantis’ office had enlisted a conservative blogger to try to downplay the Florida’s COVID-19 death count — and discredit the state’s own data.Because why listen to health experts during a health crisis when you can get a blogger with 12,000 Twitter followers to say something else?AdvertisementPut these things together, and it has become clear: Florida’s governor has gone full fringe.No more Mr. Sane Guy. No more acting like facts and democracy matter.DeSantis has gone all-in on extremism.If those examples weren’t enough, the also revealed Wednesday that DeSantis' approach to dealing with COVID-19 basically mirrors another fringe idea — “herd immunity,” which basically accepts the risk of a large portion of otherwise-healthy population getting infected as long as you try to protect the vulnerable.Experts say the idea is dangerously errant.“We have to look that square in the eye and say it’s nonsense,” Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told . “This idea that we have the power to protect the vulnerable is total nonsense because history has shown that’s not the case.”The head of the Johns Hopkins' health security division went even further, saying that, if Florida goes full-bore on the herd-immunity theory, “extraordinary numbers of people are going to die from this illness before immunity is achieved in the population.”As someone who writes a lot about politics, it’s tempting to dismiss some of DeSantis’ latest acts as just more basic partisanship — a Republican governor taking shots at Democrats and Democratic ideas.AdvertisementBut there is nothing basic about a governor suggesting that legislators override American voters. That’s not a conservative value. It’s not even an American one.Florida’s most popular former Republican governor, Jeb Bush, has responded to this election the way respected politicians have through the history of time.“Congratulations to President-elect Biden,” Bush tweeted over the weekend. “I have prayed for our President most of my adult life. I will be praying for you and your success. Now is the time to heal deep wounds.”Congratulations to President-elect Biden. I have prayed for our President most of my adult life. I will be praying for you and your success. Now is the time to heal deep wounds. Many are counting on you to lead the way.— Jeb Bush (@JebBush)Current Republican governors in other states have done the same.“Congratulations to President-elect Biden,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. "Everyone should want our president to succeed because we need our country to succeed.Yet DeSantis was suggesting legislators in Michigan .Advertisement“Under article two of the constitution, presidential electors are done by legislatures and the schemes they create and the framework,” DeSantis told Fox’s Ingraham. “And if there is departure from that, if they’re not following the law, if they are ignoring the law, then they can provide remedies as well.”Remedies … as if the governor was offering a cure to something. Except that something is democracy.This is not normal behavior or run-of-the-mill partisanship. This is all-in fringe behavior from the leader of America’s third-largest state.And it marks a disturbing departure from the early tenure of DeSantis' administration when he promised to be guided by facts and science; a governor for all.DeSantis isn’t even consistent in his own fuming.He has said Biden and others have no right to declare a victory days after the election. Yet do you know when DeSantis declared victory for himself in his own 2018 race?AdvertisementFour hours after the polls closed.So when DeSantis ekes out a victory by 0.4% it’s OK to claim victory at 11 p.m. on Election Day.But when Biden beats Trump by nearly 3% in Michigan, DeSantis is still throwing tantrums about those votes days later.And don’t go thinking these two situations are much different from each other. There were gobs of accusations of voting improprieties in DeSantis' race as well here in Florida — so many lodged by then-Gov. Rick Scott, a fellow Republican, that Scott ultimately a South Florida elections supervisor from office.Remember the ? “Rick Scott Claims Rampant Fraud in Florida, as Senate and Governor Races Tighten”But none of that stopped DeSantis from claiming victory — or his opponent from conceding.AdvertisementYou’d get whiplash trying to follow DeSantis' conflicting stances and logic.One of the weirdest parts about unvarnished, Full-Fringe Ron is that he doesn’t need to do any of this. He and his party kicked Democratic tail here in Florida last week.While Trump lost nationwide, Florida Republicans ran circles around Florida Democrats, who seem to be both hapless and delusional (which will be the subject of tomorrow’s column).WeeklyGet latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. &gt; DeSantis could be celebrating red victories. Instead he’s peddling conspiracy theories and trying to undermine the state’s own health experts.It’s like he views the national defeat of Donald Trump not as a repudiation of Trump’s divisive approach to governing, but rather as an opportunity for DeSantis to maybe fill that void.One notable exception seems to be Ron DeSantis right now. He has been active and vocal. — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr)The Trump family has noticed. On the same day DeSantis suggested Michigan legislators ignore their citizens' votes, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that DeSantis was the only “2024 hopeful” that Trump followers should praise.AdvertisementA reward for ambition, even if the price was trying to undermine democracy.This isn’t the man we saw during his first few months of office when most Floridians, including me, gave him strong reviews.This is a full-fledged embrace of extremism and a repudiation of both science and established democratic traditions. It’s something much different and much more disturbing. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelNov 10, 2020 at 10:22 amLate last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went on Fox News and suggested that GOP legislators in states where Joe Biden won should maybe their citizens' votes and just declare Donald Trump the winner anyway.It was like listening to a third-world dictator … if the dictator fawned over Laura Ingraham and the third world was Tallahassee.AdvertisementThe next day, the revealed that DeSantis’ office had enlisted a conservative blogger to try to downplay the Florida’s COVID-19 death count — and discredit the state’s own data.Because why...

DeSantis goes full fringe, fighting his own health experts and American democracy | Commentary

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