The phrase “states’ rights” used to refer to southern-Democrat segregation policies. Now it refers to Republicans-everywhere fecklessness.
Conceptually, states’ rights is a subset of federalism, which has to do with the allocation of power between federal and state governments. (A familiar example is that presidents can’t pardon for state crimes.) But nobody except scholars uses the term that way. In popular lexicon, it relates to what asserting state autonomy is being used for.
And these days, in red states, that means challenging, defying, dodging, and ignoring federally-imposed Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines intended to save lives and keep us safe.
From the get-go, Republicans have wanted no Covid-19 measures in place. Initially, they called the deadly pandemic a “hoax.” When the bodies piled up and they couldn’t do that anymore, they prioritized the economy over saving lives, and demanded to “Reopen!” no matter how inadvisable that was. (The Democrats prioritized saving the economy, too, but with government relief funds — which Republicans opposed — instead of keeping businesses running and forcing workers back into Covid-unsafe workplaces).
Among Republican governors, Maine’s Paul LePage used to be the most execrable; Wisconsin’s Scott Walker wasn’t far behind. With both those guys gone now, that title belongs to Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who among other things has been a Covid-denier all along. Here’s what he’s up to now:
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Monday that immediately suspends all outstanding local Covid-19 emergency orders and related public health restrictions.” So reports CNBC on Monday, May 3, 2021. Read story here.
“The fact is, we are no longer in a state of emergency,” DeSantis told a news conference. Like hell we aren’t, and not least because his tribe is refusing to get vaccinated, which means the U.S. “may never reach herd immunity,” which means we may get hit with endlessly-recurring new waves of Covid-19 (read stories here and here).
Political leaders can, of course, pursue policies they know will kill our own citizens. That’s what the government does when it sends young Americans to war. And it’s what virtually all Republican politicians chose to do when Covid-19 struck our nation, apparently because they value their donors’ business profits more than your life. (For the record, in case you didn’t guess, I didn’t vote for that, or for them.)
It’s not like Florida is an island of immunity in a sea of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. “Florida has reported the third-most Covid-19 cases in the U.S. at more than 2.2 million since the beginning of the pandemic and the fourth-highest death toll at more than 35,000 fatalities, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University,” according to CNBC. But Gov. DeSantis doesn’t care, any more than Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Republican, did when he suggested that seniors should be willing to sacrifice their lives (and many of them did in that state) to keep the economy open.
Look, let’s be clear, all these people care about is rich people’s money. Nothing else. Not you. Certainly not whether you live or die. But this is a free country, and if you want to vote for them, that’s your business (although don’t go around saying the election was stolen when it wasn’t; you lost because there’s more of us than you).
Florida businesses can still require customers to wear masks and maintain social distancing, although the governor’s posture likely will cause some confusion among anti-maskers who think his executive order means all previous bets are off and they can now do as they please on other people’s private property.
But at least DeSantis isn’t arresting store managers for keeping private mask mandates in place, as he is whistleblowers who go to the press with evidence that his administration has been falsifying Covid-19 case data.
Photos: Above right, anti-maskers burning masks; below left, Gov. DeSantis proclaims, “take this mask and shove it!”