Back in March of this year, the DC Punditry had anointed Trump Lite Governor Ron DeSantis as The King of the Pandemic. Politico, being Politico and by that I mean terrible, went all-in on the King Ron love.

Things, as you know, did not go well for Florida soon afterward. In fact, they are going terribly for Good King Ron at the moment, along with his fellow Floridians.

Florida is breaking COVID daily case records and King Ron has been nowhere to be found over the last two weeks, although his office claims he is accompanying his wife to cancer treatments. Which, if true is understandable, but you still at least need to be present occasionally during such a crisis. Even Overly Celebrated Media Outlet Axios has turned a little anti-King Ron.

Then on May 4, Emma Green got the “lol at those libs and their caring about the so-over-it pandemic” ball rolling and dropped into The Atlantic her screed, “The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown.”

Since the day of that piece, as per Johns Hopkins University numbers this morning, 247,857 Americans have lost their life to COVID.

More recently, Conservative Country Fella Matthew Walther wrote a dispatch on Dec. 13 for The Atlantic from his home in rural southwest Michigan, “Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID.” A curious piece, Walther basically said that the down-home, folksy thing to do is not give a shit about people dying from a disease with preventable outcomes, and the only people who do are them big-city folks. I say it’s a curious piece because I live in rural Pennsylvania, and a common theme in marketing aimed at rural people is “around here we look out for each other.” I guess not during a pandemic?

Since the day of that piece, as per Johns Hopkins University numbers this morning, 28,149 Americans have lost their life to COVID.

Then on Dec. 20, Shadi Hamid posted “Omicron Panic and Liberal Hysteria” on the blog “Wisdom of Crowds.” This blog is one of those “we are bridging the divide and want to end polarization” type of projects, which as usual means giving conservatives the benefit of the doubt no matter what and lecturing liberals about how awful they are. Someone forgot to tell the omicron variant that the reasoned, uniting idea is to just let us get a minor cold and not overrun hospitals.

Since that the day of that piece, as per Johns Hopkins University numbers this morning, 19,042 Americans have lost their life to COVID.

It’s almost as if the virus hears these people and then makes it so they look absolutely awful, and in turn, makes everything awful for us. I know there’s an almost primal urge among some in media to both-sides everything, but one would think that these folks would learn that every time someone has decided to lecture the libs for their silly caution during his pandemic, things have gone terribly.

Does this mean that I, a progressive myself, am curled up on the couch in fear? No, not really. But I do take precautions, I am boosted and I am not succumbing to magical thinking that I can ignore a virus and make it go away.

At the same time, I also believe will eventually get out of this mess. I have plans for a music festival in the summer, one that I haven’t been to in two years. That means I have at least some concept of a decent future, right? But we’re just not there yet. And it’s not liberals who are the reason for this.

The last word goes to The Boss, singing what I hope will be a theme for Summer 2022, for real.