You missed the Covid lockdowns in most of the US. Desantis stopped the bull shit and allowed business to responsibly remain open. Florida had so many people moving here to avoid the extreme libbie policies of blue states. In this sense, Florida was a very free state.
Not to sidetrack this too much, but it's interesting to me that in a fairly individualistic society wherein many point out that modern Americans have no responsibility for the actions of our more recent ancestors and governments, it is nonetheless very widely accepted that we are, by default, stained and subject to punishment for the sins of the purported two earliest human beings.
It would hijack, so just throwing this out, not trying to change the discussion. But I like to think about the different "forks" in development of monotheism from the region we now call the Middle East, epitomized through individuals as described in Sacred Scripture. First Isaac and Ishmael (Anglicized spellings), then Peter and Paul (single feast day, but most relevant to this discussion, IMO), then Luther and Ignatius Loyola. Would throw in Calvin, but not sure there is counterpart that is neat