U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) got a jump start on a New Year’s weekend, appearing Thursday in Florida, with a martini.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis welcomed AOC to the “Free State of Florida” in a tweet, which has gone viral.
“Welcome to Florida, AOC!” the tweet said. “We hope you’re enjoying a taste of freedom here in the Sunshine State thanks to @RonDeSantisFL’s leadership.”
US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted, “Aww @AOC this is so cute. Did your martini taste a bit hypocritical? Don’t you just love the freedom Republicans give you in Florida? No masks or vaccine mandates. No stifling communist policies you constantly legislate & vote for. Cheers to freedom!”
Team DeSantis followed up by tweeting, “Welcome to Florida, AOC! We hope you’re enjoying a taste of freedom here in the Sunshine State thanks to @RonDeSantisFL’s leadership.”
In 2019, in an interview, AOC’s mother told the Daily Mail she had to flee New York and make a home in Florida due to the high taxes.
“I was paying $10,000 a year in real estate taxes up north. I’m paying $600 a year in Florida. It’s stress-free down here,” Blanca Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Mail from her home in Eustis, a town of less than 20,000 in central Florida north of Orlando.
Meanwhile, COVID “cases” are surging in Florida, as they are across the country.
But the reported mildness of the omicron variant has some, even on the left, suggesting that infections are not the metric to be analyzed for success in fighting the virus. Instead, hospitalizations and death seem more relevant, such analysts say.
On Thursday, Becker’s Hospital Review published the death rate per state and per 100,000 residents for the past week.
Florida, which has the oldest population in America, and thus the biggest share of people most vulnerable to COVID, had the fourth-lowest death rate over the past seven days.
Compared to Florida, the death rate in California was twice as high; New Jersey was four times higher; both Connecticut and New York were about five times as great; Illinois’ rate was sevenfold, Minnesota, eight times as high; and Michigan, a whopping 14 times as much.
Viewed differently, according to U.S. News & World Report, Florida’s overall death rate since the beginning of the pandemic was 290 per 100,000. Comparatively, New Jersey’s was 325; New York, 308; Massachusetts (a blue state with a Republican governor), 292; Rhode Island, 288; and Michigan, 287.
Again, Florida has a significantly older population than those states, but also maintained its economy and lifestyle without the same lockdown and masking policies.
Welcome to Florida, AOC.
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