If anyone is still wondering why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is becoming so highly respected among the Republican base, this is the reason why.

DeSantis signed an executive order today essentially ending all draconian COVID regulations done via “emergency orders” at the local level. That includes some of the more liberal hold-outs within the state.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed an executive order to end all local emergency orders relating to COVID-19, effectively halting enforcement of restrictions across Florida. https://t.co/vM0ETWjEbU

— Axios (@axios) May 3, 2021

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday signed an executive order to end all local emergency orders relating to COVID-19, effectively halting enforcement of restrictions across the state, the Miami Herald reports.

Why it matters: DeSantis argued that continuing to mandate restrictions would undermine confidence in the vaccines, which he stressed are effective and have been administered to much of the state’s elderly population.

The big picture: New coronavirus infections are falling across most of the country and 38% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated, though health experts caution that variants could still threaten to reverse the country’s progress.

Notice the “but muh variants” mention at the end of that blurb by Axios. That’s essentially a mindless threat whereby one is making an argument to never relax restrictions because, you know, variants and stuff. Besides, who exactly are these “health experts” being cited by the author? Even RedState, a clearly right-leaning site, would be required to provide a source link for such a claim. I suppose us having higher standards than the mainstream media makes sense, though.

DeSantis sees right through this nonsense. Yes, there is a chance some new, mutated variant could cause another pandemic down the road, but that has absolutely nothing to do with how we handle the current one. That remote possibility will always exist in some capacity. Yet, at some point, people have to live their lives. You can not eliminate all risk in life, and in the grand scheme of things, COVID simply doesn’t measure up to many other risks we face every single day. Yes, it’s a dangerous virus, specifically for those that are older and/or are obese. But with the vaccine in heavy distribution and tens of millions of other people having immunity from prior infection, life must go on.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Mayor of St. Peterburg, Florida is taking credit for the state’s success throughout COVID while claiming DeSantis would have otherwise failed.

The other side: Rick Kriseman, the mayor of St. Petersburg, tweeted, “To be clear, cities like St. Pete, Tampa, Orlando, Miami and Miami Beach, saved Florida and the governor’s behind throughout this pandemic. Can you imagine if each city had been led by Ron DeSantis? How many lives would have been lost? What would our economy look like today?”

There’s just no evidence of that, and if Kriseman wants to make that claim, he should provide some. DeSantis led with courage, not putting in place state mandates that would have strangled the state’s economy. He’s been proven right as blue state after blue state did far worse with far stricter guidelines. The lack of correlation between mandated mitigation measures and infections and deaths is just too stark to ignore.

Regardless, the arbitrary use of “emergency orders” to violate the rights of American citizens has to stop. Whether there was justification for it in the beginning or not, allowing any locality to continue that way into perpetuity is dangerous. This is still a free country, or at least that’s what I’m told.