What’s an antonym for Occam’s Razor? I’d like to use one to describe a piece from Alex Shephard over at The New Republic. Its title is “Andrew Cuomo Wishes He Were Ron DeSantis.” That’s probably an apt assessment, but things go haywire in the subtitle:
The two governors both botched their states’ responses to Covid-19. The Democrat is paying a political price. The Republican is being touted as a 2024 presidential contender.
Hmmm. Cuomo’s state is nearly pacing the nation in COVID deaths per capita. DeSantis’s comes in at 28th if you count the District of Columbia — and that’s with a larger, older population than New York. Shephard says that DeSantis responded to the crisis by making “a show out of doing nothing.” This is demonstrably untrue. Florida has had a comprehensive, well thought out pandemic plan, if a less hysterical and fawned over one than Cuomo’s.
Nevertheless, Shephard speculates that it must be “the warm weather” that explains the disparity, since DeSantis had refused “to back the science” and insisted on “scrapping with the media.” It’s an odd supposition since cases spiked in the Sunshine State during the summer.
As for his quarreling with the media, I can’t imagine why DeSantis would be inclined to do something like that!