YouTube<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nLike any effective speaker, DeSantis picked his words carefully.\u00a0\u00a0How does a \u201cbig man\u201d (I\u2019m not calling him fat, but\u2026those oversized suits) belittle a smaller man?\u00a0\u00a0And how does he make Fauci a cartoon character rather than a formidable intellect from Holy Cross and Cornell that would take Yale and Harvard educated DeSantis apart in a debate?\u00a0\u00a0Make him an \u201celf\u201d,\u00a0\u00a0then throw-in the dreaded \u201cmidget tossing\u201d imagery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And DeSantis has to hurry.\u00a0\u00a0Fauci, at eighty-one, is retiring from his Directorship at the National Institute of Health.\u00a0\u00a0He won\u2019t be around for DeSantis to \u201cpick on\u201d anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leading <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis doesn\u2019t really have much of a choice.\u00a0\u00a0He has to attack Fauci.\u00a0\u00a0The Governor made his national political \u201cbones\u201d in standing up to Fauci and the national strategy for dealing with the Covid pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cFree State of Florida\u201d went its own way with Covid, and the over 79,000 Floridians dead from the disease have DeSantis\u2019s to thank.\u00a0\u00a0More importantly, DeSantis led the Republican \u201copposition\u201d to the national strategy, giving \u201ccover\u201d to other state governors to take the same stand.\u00a0\u00a0That leads to this statistic:\u00a0\u00a0of the top twenty-five states in per\/capita Covid deaths, nineteen had Republican governors and two more had Republican legislatures that hamstrung Democratic Governors.\u00a0\u00a0And DeSantis led the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Republican talking point is that masking, vaccination, distancing and shutdowns didn\u2019t do any good.\u00a0\u00a0 They argue that \u201c\u2026we wasted our time, ruined our economy and damaged our children\u2026\u201d by taking Covid precautions.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the reiteration of the \u201c\u2026let Covid burn through and kill who it kills, and the living will be fine\u2026\u201d statements that we heard just as Covid reached our shores.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis and his ilk are demanding apologies for mask mandates, city shutdowns, and school closings.\u00a0\u00a0And they are using school closings like a cudgel to elect anti-mask, Critical Race Theory haters to school boards.\u00a0It\u2019s hard to imagine putting anti-science, anti-intellectuals in charge of education, but that\u2019s today’s Republican Party.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Science<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Just as DeSantis and his imitators did their best to destroy America\u2019s attempts to control Covid, Tony Fauci and \u201cscience\u201d (yep \u2013 science) did their best to protect our Nation. Did they have all of the answers, from the beginning? Of course not. Covid was a new situation, and since the Trump Administration did everything it could to eviscerate the government\u2019s ability to recognize and respond to new viral threats, America was caught flat footed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did masks work? Sure they did, the same way the work every day in every hospital in the nation. Did they work around your neck, or under your nose, or as a fashion statement scarf device? Nope \u2013 just like the seatbelts don\u2019t work if people don\u2019t wear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did we discover new things about Covid?\u00a0\u00a0Sure \u2013 thanks to Black Lives Matter.\u00a0\u00a0They went out and protested George Floyd\u2019s death, knowing best science said that crowds spread Covid.\u00a0\u00a0For them, taking the risk of disease was less important than voicing their outrage.\u00a0\u00a0And what we discovered was that Covid transmission was very low outdoors.\u00a0\u00a0It took the Black Lives Matter \u201cexperiment\u201d to prove the point. And, by the way, if you need the counter \u201cexperiment\u201d, look at Donald Trump\u2019s 2020 Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.\u00a0\u00a0It started an outbreak of Covid in the state.\u00a0\u00a0If you\u2019re not sure about that, ask the Secret Service, or Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain.\u00a0\u00a0Oh snap, never mind:\u00a0\u00a0he died of the Covid he caught at the rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Should schools have been closed?\u00a0\u00a0Absolutely, if not for the kids, then for the teachers.\u00a0\u00a0And for those who claim that \u201cdedicated, loving\u201d teachers should take Covid risks; remember that even when schools reopened, there weren\u2019t enough substitutes to fill the vacant chairs.\u00a0\u00a0If we stayed in school those first months (I was Zooming from my home office as a substitute) we would have faced an even greater teacher shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being online and not in school, damaged kids\u2019 education. That\u2019s absolutely true, and thank goodness.\u00a0\u00a0Teachers really can\u2019t be replaced by a screen, can they.\u00a0\u00a0I always knew it, now the country does too.\u00a0\u00a0But there is no way to evaluate how many lives were saved by closing schools, especially in those first few months.\u00a0\u00a0Kids will get through this, just as kids all over the world get through natural and manmade calamities that interrupt their education.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what those living, breathing, capable teachers can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not apologizing for trying to do what was right \u2013 for me, for my family, for humanity.\u00a0\u00a0And just because others are willing to \u201cwrite-off\u201d the deaths of over a million Americans (so far), I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did Dr. Fauci do everything right?\u00a0\u00a0No he did not. But he did his best to follow the best science at the time.\u00a0\u00a0When that science changed, he was straight-forward in telling us so.\u00a0\u00a0And if a bully politician like DeSantis with Yale AND Harvard degrees doesn\u2019t understand that \u2013 maybe they should revoke his diplomas.\u00a0\u00a0He must have cheated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If DeSantis thinks he’s going to fulfill his childhood dream of being President, he’s still got some growing up to do. It’s time for “adulting”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Grow Up Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican who envisions himself in the White House come 2025, needs to grow up.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not \u201cPresidential\u201d to verbally abuse teenagers to score political points about masks; even though the Trump years tried to make that \u201cOK\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But that’s what he did, badgering them to remove masks in his presence. … Continue reading “Adulting”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAdulting : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Florida Governor DeSantis thinks he can stomp on Dr Fauci on his way to the Presidency. 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