Ron DeSantis is even more of a monster than you think
In a world of monsters it’s easy to miss, but Ron DeSantis is a bigger than average monster. In order to appreciate just how big a monster he is, you have to remember what he became famous for. As you may recall, in December of 2020 DeSantis tweeted a photo of himself and his family maskless and “enjoying a meal out” in the middle of what proved to be the deadliest pandemic in American history. In short, Ron DeSantis became famous for “being brave” by encouraging other people to die.
The result has been death by political party in Florida. Statistics have shown that in the state of Florida the Covid death rate has proved to be substantially higher among Republicans than among Democrats. Prior to the introduction of the Covid vaccines, the excess death rate in Florida was 76% higher for Republicans than Democrats. Since the introduction of vaccines that gap has actually widened! Statistics indicate that only in the states of Ohio and Florida did the pandemic actually become worse after the introduction of the vaccines. For Florida the fault could be down to two men who live there, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.
Fully seventeen percent of Covid deaths in the United States happened in Florida, yet Florida has only 6.5 percent of the country’s population. That disparity is the fault of DeSantis and Trump, and both men have, bizarrely, made substantial political capital out of the deaths they have caused. Though DeSantis has fared better than Trump.
It’s a paradox for which it is hard to find an equal. Both men made it a point to display public contempt for wearing a mask. Both men pitted Republicans against Democrats over taking simple precautions against the pandemic. Both helped promote the idea that mask-wearing was somehow “unmanly” and an inconvenience that they often and bizarrely equated with America’s founding fathers’ struggle against tyranny. And because so many people were influenced by them, many of those people died.
Politically, not only has DeSantis gotten away with it, he has apparently prospered because of it. His was the election exception that proved the rule in 2022. Just about everywhere else the much-vaunted Republican “red wave” turned out to be a pink puddle. But it was a triumph deluxe for DeSantis, who was reelected with a whopping 59% of the vote.
That vote came on the heels of his most cruel and probably illegal stunt. In October DeSantis tricked dozens of Central American asylum seekers into boarding a plane to Martha’s Vineyard, cruelly lying to them that they were headed for a “better life” and then dumping them there without any provisions for their care or comfort. Apparently enough Floridians liked that exercise in human despicableness to reelect him for it.
It is now clearer than ever that DeSantis intends running for president. On Wednesday DeSantis announced the publication of his new campaign-style book called “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Renewal.” The book is to be published by Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins, on 28 February 2023.
No doubt “The Courage to Be Free” is intended to be a political testament for Ron DeSantis, full of sanctimonious chest-beating about his re-election victory, and intended to show just what a “brave” man he is for letting people die, for cruelly deceiving harmless and decent asylum-seekers with vicious and evil lies. We are not fooled. Ron DeSantis is just another Republican monster, a monster slouching towards Washington. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.