Dem
51
GOP
49
It's been several weeks since an upwardly mobile Republican governor attempted an "own the libs" stunt. Nature hates a vacuum, it would seem, because two of them—Ron DeSantis and Doug Ducey (R-AZ)—are in the headlines right now due to some high-profile political theater.
Starting with DeSantis, he must be looking at the Trump vs. DeSantis polls and not liking what he's seeing. So, the Governor decided to return to an old favorite: the culture wars, as manifested in the battle over COVID-19. He actually did two things yesterday. The first was go to the Florida Supreme Court, and ask them to empanel a grand jury to investigate "any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID-19 vaccines." The second was to announce the creation of a "public health integrity committee." That committee's job is going to be to push back against anything and everything that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says and does.
We struggle to see any positive good that will come out of these actions. The grand jury, should it be empaneled, isn't going to come up with anything criminal. On the other hand, its existence will certainly encourage people in the health business to think twice about whether they want to make their careers in Florida. If you were, say, an OB/GYN, and you were weighing offers from Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami and Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, why on earth would you go to the state where people who administer vaccines and/or perform abortions are at risk of being prosecuted? As to the anti-CDC committee, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are about the least political element of the federal government. Muddying the waters, and casting doubt on the public health professionals' recommendations, is going to mean just one thing: more people will get sick (some of whom will die). We say again: Ron DeSantis is a very dangerous man.
Ducey, meanwhile, is about to leave office. However, he has future political aspirations; he may be eyeing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (I-AZ) seat, or he may try to reclaim his current job once he's sat one term out (as required by Arizona law). If Ducey is going to leave voters with a stunt for voters to remember him by, he's running short on time. And so, declaring a "border crisis," he's been spending Arizonans' tax money hand over fist to build a "border wall." And by "border wall" we mean a line of shipping containers, stacked two high, with razor wire running along the top.
This whole arrangement is, to use a technical term, stupid. Ducey's "wall," if it is completed, will cover a grand total of 10 miles. And it's 10 miles with large gaps therein, as it's only possible to stack the containers on relatively flat ground. Not all of the land along the border is flat enough. Oh, and the land Ducey is using does not belong to Arizona, it belongs to the federal government. The Biden administration has told the governor to knock it off, and at least one local sheriff has threatened to start arresting construction workers if they venture into his county. And the cost for all of this? Nearly $100 million.
One wonders if the Republican voters who cheer stunts like these will ever grow weary of "governance" that lacks substance and that is, quite often, actively harmful. If so, it apparently won't be anytime soon, as indicated by DeSantis' landslide reelection win last month. (Z)