There really are two different Americas.
You can see them in this ad, paid for by folks who want to remove Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It’s actually pretty hilarious that they spent money on this, but have no idea how it plays for people.
There are the folks behind this ad, who pitch fear for power, who would watch and feel threatened beyond all reason by DeSantis saying that “We trust people to make their own decisions in this state, we’re not going to be bludgeoning people” and fearful that people aren’t having more “rules” imposed upon them. Oh, no! Only the government can save you; you’re not capable of making your own decisions. Just listen to the scary music.
Then there are the folks who would find the ad funny and think that it really seems like an ad for DeSantis, because the dark dystopian visuals don’t seem to be with him but with the people against him. “If you’re trying to lock people down,” DeSantis says, “I’m going to stand in your way.” If I lived in Florida, this ad would make me want to vote for DeSantis more.
Ultimately, the funniest part is that if Florida were such a dystopian mess, then why are all those people on the plane flying to Florida? Indeed, it seems more like they’re flying out of other areas to freedom in Florida. As National Review writer Charles Cooke observes, you know that they’re all going to jump off the plane and run over to Universal.
The ad even appears to mock the press who are usually their buddies, calling them things like “The Miami End Times Tribune” and “The Pensacola Pandemic Press.”
Now, the bottom line here is DeSantis has issues with the government ordering mandates. Because — shocker — he believes whether you get the jab is between you and your doctor. But when the Biden administration cut the supply on the monoclonal antibody treatment to Florida (because they care so much, and it wasn’t at all political), it was DeSantis who came through for his state, getting additional supply to help the people in his state. Who was standing for Florida? Hint: not Joe Biden.
Moreover, Florida is hardly the dystopian vision that the ad would like to present, in any sense of the word, including from a vaccine point of view.
As of couple of days ago, Florida was second in number of doses given and fourth in number of people who were fully vaccinated, with 12.3 million.
So, despite not believing in forcing things down people’s throats, they have a lot of folks vaccinated. Funny how giving people a choice works.
Maybe DeSantis should engage these ad folks for his campaign — because they surely are doing a good job pointing out a variety of reasons why people should vote for him.