“I refused to blindly follow Dr. Fauci ... and allow him to strip Floridians of their God-given freedoms… I chose to lift Florida up, not follow the lead of Dr. Fauci and lock Florida down… Corporate media are attacking me for having the backbone to call Fauci out for the damage he has caused.”
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis
Step a few years beyond the end mark on the chart on the left (from Wikipedia), and the Lumina Foundation tells us that today 40% of our younger generations are achieving a college degree, a process that may have been slowed by the pandemic but heading for a likely marker of 60% by 2025. This despite the rising cost of tuition (which has been more than double the rise in the overall cost of living for decades) and the staggering cost of student loans. Among millennials, for example, about 60% have had at least some college education, and the Z generation is doing better.
The above map, also from Wikipedia, is very telling. The reddest of the red states, marked by the lightest yellow, are the areas in the United States with the lowest levels of college education. Arkansas, one of those states, is also currently one of the least vaccinated states that currently hold the dubious record of having the greatest current per capita COVID infection rate, mostly with the new Delta strain. The average age of those requiring hospitalization for COVID in Arkansas is 40; a year ago that age was 60. For those hospitalized, almost all require being put on ventilators, and all of them are unvaccinated.
The story parallels in the other light-yellow states, but even a moderately-educated red state, Florida with about 6% of the US population, it alone accounts for 20% of the latest COVID infections. Both Florida and Arkansas are fully committed to banning any mask mandate of any kind, come hell or high water… pretty much the legal practice in almost every red state. Northern, more conservative and less-college-educated Florida counties, where vaccination rates are low, are experiencing the worst outbreaks in the state. COVID is anything but contained as there is an a serious uptick in infections now in all 50 states.
One of the hallmarks of Trump populism, which is now the mantra of virtually the entire GOP congressional contingent, is a rejection of “educated elites,” a belief that if you repeat an untruth enough, it becomes an immutable axiom. There is a belief that a political movement has the power to change the laws of physics and the dictates of nature. A president, who apparently did not fare well in college, prescribes medications – hydroxychloroquine for example – which are not remotely effective, and his flock runs to the pharmacy to buy the drug… but will not accept a highly effective vaccine, because to use is both politically disloyal and evidence that the man in the bully pulpit was wrong all along. Despite the unanimity of qualified doctors echoing vaccine safety and effectiveness, decrying the medical prescriptions from politicians to the contrary, yet a large part of that loyal flock succumbs to the virus.
Strange that this rejection of the credibility and power of that appropriately educated and rapidly growing cadre of educated Americans is occurring as parents – so many of whom embrace the anti-scientific bent of Trumpism – fight so hard to insure that their children get a college education. Are they aware that college education is a leading indicator of a rejection of Trump populism? That two-thirds of rising, first-time voters, supported the Biden candidacy?
Nothing evidences that inane rejection of science like the accelerating red state attack on a highly credible doctor, just doing his job. Dr. Anthony Fauci has become the pin-receptible voodoo doll of the GOP rejection of science… because truth is not politically popular among its constituents. A belief in science and medicine has become the hallmark of the hated “radical, liberal left.” And the Florida governor, seemingly vying for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is joyfully leading the attach on educated elites and science itself. That DeSantis could not be more of a member of that elite (Yale, BA magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, JD cum laude) underscores the hypocrisy of the entire populist movement.
Michael Hiltzik, writing an OpEd for the July 20th Los Angeles Times, expounds: “DeSantis has targeted Fauci because the latter became the face of the anti-pandemic battle; by attacking Fauci’s reputation, DeSantis is undermining the bedrock science at the heart of the battle.
“That includes vaccinations, which are indispensable and in which Florida’s record is nothing to brag about. The state currently ranks 23rd in both total doses administered per capita and total doses administered to residents over 18 per capita. (California, by comparison, ranks 13th in the first metric and 12th in the second.)
“The real threat to the country’s ability to fight the virus is no longer a lack of resources — it’s the partisan politicization of masks and vaccines to the extent that the most reliable indicator of a locality’s vaccination rate is the percentage of votes that went for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
“It’s proper to ask whether DeSantis recognizes the consequences of his campaign rhetoric or even cares. The points he makes aren’t really designed to communicate policy positions. Rather, they’re shibboleths — code words, phrases and images aimed at touching a specific community — in this case, the GOP’s Trumpian right wing. For them, Fauci has become merely a symbol of liberal overreach.” China, which is amping up their emphasis on college STEM education, is laughing all the way to the global competition bank. And if viruses could celebrate and honor their champions, Ron DeSantis would win COVID’s No Bell Piece Prize.
I’m Peter Dekom, and until the vast majority of Americans accepts facts as facts, we are in a hopeless downward spiral that continues to give unwarranted comfort to our enemies.
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