Sunburn — The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics — 11.16.21

By Peter Schorsch

Good Tuesday morning.

When Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a Special Session on vaccination and mask mandates, lawmakers were just as surprised as the public.

There’s usually a lot of choreography involved in a Special Session, especially one aimed at an issue as fractious as regulating what businesses can and can’t require of their employees.

At the very least, Governors want to know that their priorities will pass. In the first days after DeSantis’ proclamation, it wasn’t a certainty.

Media has focused on the cult of personality surrounding DeSantis, perceived GOP infighting and even a “Republicans are crazy” narrative.

Yet, none of them panned out. In short order the Legislature has come together for what looks to be a smooth, quick victory for the Governor — one could even call it routine.

Members aren’t anxious. Both sides have mostly hammered out the final product and it’s expected to pass with both chambers with support. And, more importantly for the Governor, the legislation achieves the goals he laid out but in a more sophisticated way than he asked.

For all the talk of dysfunction, the Special Session proves the opposite: Florida has a highly functioning, competent House and Senate with even-handed leaders who know how to cooperate with each other —  and do it well.

Here are a few other items that caught my attention:

 — Are the bad guys winning?: Anne Applebaum, a writer for the Atlantic, suggests they are in a detailed analysis centering on a stolen election in Belarus. The theme: if the 20th Century marked progress toward democracy over other ideologies, such as communism and fascism, the 21st Century is the opposite. The piece highlights Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s plight in Belarus, where she won the 2020 presidential election with more than 80% of the vote, but the nation’s dictator who she defeated, Alexander Lukashenko, refused to concede and forced her from the country. The situation that unfolded highlighted “the dictator’s learning curve” — a tactic used in the past to repress crowds. Read more here.

 — When, and how, does COVID end?: The virus, COVID-19 expert Dr. Robert Wachter posits, is unlikely to go away — ever. So the time is now to get back to some sense of normalcy. And that, according to the New York Times, comes from an expert who airs on the side of caution, who believes in the threat of long COVID, thinks people should get booster shots and wears masks regularly (and probably always will). He hopes that while COVID-19 might be here to stay, it will become a manageable virus, like the seasonal flu. And it’s possible even for the weariest of virus worriers — Wachter himself has resumed many normal activities, like dining indoors and playing poker with friends. The trick is to “be thoughtful and careful,” including by continuing to wear masks in high-risk areas, such as on planes, and limiting indoor activities to those who are vaccinated.

 — Not everyone wants to brag about their jab: About one in six vaccinated Americans aren’t telling certain people they got the poke, according to a Harris Poll survey conducted for USA TODAY. Further, one in 17 isn’t telling anyone. For many of these secret vaxxers, they’re staying quiet because they know people around them won’t approve. USA TODAY notes the story of one man, who offered only his first name — William — who isn’t telling coworkers he got vaccinated. There, his boss has made false arguments claiming the COVID-19 vaccines were “experimental” and “rushed” and promulgated various conspiracy theories, including that the shots were being used to install tracking chips into recipients. As a result, William scheduled his vaccination off-hours to avoid suspicion from his boss.

 — Information Disorder is a thing: Described as a “crisis that exacerbates all other crises,” the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder describes in its newly released report that the problem occurs when “bad information becomes as prevalent, persuasive, and persistent as good information, it creates a chain reaction of harm.” Report co-chairs continued, “Information disorder is a problem that cannot be completely solved. Its eradication is not the end goal. Instead, the Commission’s goal is to mitigate misinformation’s worst harms with prioritization for the most vulnerable segments of our society.” Read more about the issue here.

 — Andrew Sullivan gets the Scott Pelley profile treatment on 60 Minutes: Sullivan, an often controversial conservative blogger (who is also one of my intellectual heroes), weighed in on 60 Minutes with his thoughts, and fears, about American politics, arguing early in the interview that Americans have become too tribalistic. “This country came to the point where we had violence in the usual peaceful transfer of power. That is a huge warning to how unstable our system can be if we remain tribalists in a system that’s supposed to be designed for reasonable citizens.” Sullivan, who is a married gay man, also weighed in on coming to terms with his sexuality and his controversial decision in 1994 to post an excerpt from the book “The Bell Curve,” implying Black Americans have lower IQs than their White counterparts. But in the end, Sullivan expresses hope for the future. “Maybe there’ll be something in the future, a leader, a figure — or there must be a sort of groundswell of people saying, ‘enough of this.’” See the entire interview here.

 — SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

—@POTUS: It’s official, folks: I’ve signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal into law.

—@EliseSteganik: For years, Democrats baselessly accused President Trump of “weaponizing” the DOJ. In reality, it is the Left that has been weaponizing the DOJ the ENTIRE TIME – from the false Russia Hoax to the Soviet-style prosecution of political opponents.

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—@RepGregSteube: -Turkey is up 27%. -Potatoes are up 13%. -Carrots are up 47%. -Cranberries are up 5.2%. You can thank Joe Biden for the most expensive Thanksgiving meal in history!

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—@AnaCeballos: Rep. Thad Altman, an Indialantic Republican, with a different angle to the debate. He says Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push for the bill means he is “willing to relinquish this responsibility and put it in our hands” and that it is a “real compliment” to the Legislature.

—@RepCBenjamin: Florida’s direction can only be to meet or exceed OSHA’s standards; and ETS or not – OSHA can require strict COVID protocols that don’t rise to the level of a direct mandate. So a State OSHA plan doesn’t necessarily mean no vaccine protocols. This action jumps the gun.

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