In the wake of the firing of Fox News business host Trish Regan, who labeled the coronavirus an “impeachment scam,” it reminds me more every day of Republican hypocrisy. From Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, the finger-pointing and shouts of stop politicizing the COVID-19 virus have been their clarion call. In order to protect Donald Trump, the conservative media sent out the word to defend President Trump at all costs. It was not that long ago that Mr. Nunes wore a gas mask on the floor of the House of Representatives to ridicule anyone who sent out the alarm about the impending disaster. Governor DeSantis said he was following the CDC guidelines despite visual evidence of crowded beaches. The rise in Florida’s documented COVID-19 cases has gone from two, DeSantis reported thirty days ago, to the latest numbers of over six-thousand.
Monday President Trump told the nation, “There are some parts of the, of the country that are in far deeper trouble than other parts.” Reaffirming that statement while refusing to issue a stay-at-home order Governor DeSantis said, “If … they want to continue to [leave the beach open], we want them to have the freedom to do that, but we also want them to have the freedom to do more if they see fit.” he told reporters.If this sounds like an eerie retrofitting of Mr. Trump’s statement you are not imagining things. Mr. DeSantis is obviously echoing Mr. Trump as his political ally, not as the humanitarian governor of Florida.
We cannot continue to fight battles in this country with different rules. While the rest of the world was hunkering down and taking humanitarian steps to save the lives of their citizens the President of the United States was calling the novel coronavirus a “hoax” for political reasons. One would think that relying on a news organization for the truth is a place you could turn. In the case of Trump's followers, they consign themselves to the Trump version of 1985 Pravda, Fox News. With the likes of Sean Hannity crying ‘hoax’ and Laura Ingraham calling people who want stringent safeguards against the virus “panic pushers.” She also held court for a guest who characterized the CDC as not to be believed “because it's "a highly politicized organization.” The countless examples of how Republicans run to and from politics when it is convenient boggle the mind.
The deaths at Benghazi became a political football to paint Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as incompetent or worse, instead of a national tragedy. The deaths of nearly three-thousand in the Trade Center Towers [9/11] of New York were a political failure but suggesting that then or now, you are accused of heresy. Whether we like it or not all things in America are political because we have regular elections to have people solve, financial hardships, racial tension, terrorism, hunger, disease, crime, and homelessness. The world is a far more sophisticated place than in 1789 when George Washington was more concerned about finding a good dentist than stopping a pandemic.
Vote in 2020 for Change.
4/1/2020: 2:18 pm. Governor DeSantis announces stay at home order: