If you don’t like history, rewrite it. That seems to be the mantra of Progressives. They didn’t like the history of the founding of our country, so they rewrote it in The 1619 Project, an attempt to claim our country was founded by slave traders rather than those seeking religious freedom. The New York Times colluded with Progressives in that rewriting of history.
Recently I wrote two blogs about other attempts to rewrite history. Weingarten Rewriting History was about AFT teachers union president Randi Weingarten trying to rewrite the history of her collusion with the Biden Administration to control the re-opening of public schools to suit her political agenda. Fauci Rewriting History was about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s attempts to escape responsibility for his inaccurate and self-serving advice about Covid while serving as the country’s primary advisor for Covid policy.
Now, Progressives are attempting to rewrite the history of Florida’s response to the Covid pandemic in an attempt to discredit Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is campaigning for the presidency. They see him as a threat to the re-election of President Joe Biden, their progressive puppet in the White House. Since the strength of DeSantis is his record as governor, they want to rewrite the history of that record. Sadly, former President Trump is joining their efforts because he recognizes DeSantis is the only true threat to his winning the GOP primary.
This is not my opinion alone; it is the opinion of The Wall Street Journal editorial board. They say, “Progressives want Donald Trump to win the GOP nomination, which explains why they’re distorting Ron DeSantis’s Covid record. The press knows the Florida Governor’s opposition to lockdowns is a political selling point, so in Trumpian fashion they are rewriting history.”
They say Democrats have never forgiven Mr. DeSantis for defying the lockdown consensus and reopening his state in spring 2020. DeSantis and some other GOP Governors, notably Brian Kemp in Georgia and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, broke ranks in early May by easing virus restrictions. Democrats denounced DeSantis for “letting it rip,” but he reopened the state in phases and took into account the healthcare system’s capacity to treat sick patients.
On May 4, restaurants and retail stores were allowed to open at 25% of capacity. Two weeks later Mr. DeSantis announced that theme parks, including Disney World, could submit plans to reopen as early as June if they could keep patrons safe. In June Mr. DeSantis gradually eased other restrictions. That summer Covid swept Florida and southern states that had largely dodged a first wave in the spring. But Mr. DeSantis, having examined the data and consulted scientists such as Stanford University’s Jay Bhattacharya, refused to shut down businesses. Instead, he focused on protecting the elderly who faced immensely higher risk.
Seniors over the age of 75 years were hundreds of times more likely to die of Covid than young adults. And lockdowns disproportionately harmed young people who were more likely to die of drug overdoses than Covid. The public-health clerisy focused narrowly on virus risks, ignoring the social, economic and psychological damage from lockdowns.
Not least of these was learning loss from school closures, which may never be made up. Mr. DeSantis was among the few Governors to reopen schools for in-person learning in autumn 2020 despite opposition from the teachers’ unions. His reopening mitigated learning loss and helped parents return to work.
Mr. DeSantis’s strategy of focused protection was articulated in the Great Barrington Declaration, which progressives still revile despite its vindication. To date, over 937,000 healthcare providers and scientists have signed the declaration in support of its conclusions. In 2020 Florida had the tenth lowest age-adjusted Covid death rate in the country, which was nearly 20% lower than California’s despite the Golden State’s prolonged lockdown.
Florida experienced a lower Covid death rate than most states in late 2021 and early 2022. The press likes to cherry-pick data and focus on discrete periods to present Mr. DeSantis as a grim-reaper. But Florida’s overall age-adjusted Covid death rate during the pandemic is 13% lower than the U.S. average and about the same as California’s. Progressives and Mr. Trump also won’t concede that Mr. DeSantis’s Covid strategy proved to be an economic boon. Between April 2020 and July 2022, 622,476 people moved to Florida from other states, including families who wanted children in school. Employment in Florida has grown by 7.4% since January 2020 versus 2.5% in California and a 1.2% decline in New York.
More people are moving to Florida than any other state. More people are moving out of California than any other state.These facts alone should make people question anything progressives say since California is run by the very progressive Governor Gavin Newsom.
The WSJ editors summarize this history rewriting well: “The lockdown damage continues, but progressives can’t admit they were wrong. Nor can Mr. Trump. So they are trying to take down Mr. DeSantis for being right.”
