Florida's Reopening Is Worth Rooting For
The notion that there is a blue-state and a red-state way of attacking the virus is absurd.
This could work.
Photographer: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
On May 1, the Friday before Florida began its phased reopening, Ron DeSantis, the state’s 41-year-old governor and a fierce ally of President Donald Trump, held a news conference in Jacksonville, where he was born.
Two aspects of his remarks stood out for me. The first was how aggrieved he sounded. Practically since the coronavirus hit Florida, DeSantis has been pilloried for the way he has handled the crisis. He was late in calling for a statewide lockdown. He barred a journalist from a news conference after she requested that he accommodate the need for social distancing. He refused to shut down churches and synagogues. Following Trump’s lead, he touted the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus. His harshest critic, the Miami Herald, began an editorial in mid-April this way: