Florida is down so bad | Florida's Troubles Continue to Mount
Florida is down so bad | Florida's Troubles Continue to Mount
open.substack.com
Florida is down so bad
The author argues that Florida is struggling in many ways recently. Ron DeSantis' handling of the COVID pandemic led to many preventable deaths in Florida, contradicting early articles praising his response. Now DeSantis is known more for his anti-gay and anti-science stances rather than effective governance. His campaign for president seems doomed to fail due to his lack of charisma and poor performance as governor. The author expresses sympathy for Florida residents dealing with the fallout of climate change, disasters, and poor leadership.
Sympathy? They voted for this, twice.
35% of the population turned out to vote. Of that 35, 59% voted for desantis, or 21% of the total population. A minority of people decided for the rest of us. I voted, and got out to encourage others to vote. Attended protests, events and generally tried to be active. Florida is a big state and most of us, despite the low turnout, didn't and don't want this man running our government. I hate what he's doing to the state I was born and raised in, I'm being forced out of my home by inflation and growing hostility to my values. Say what you want about our government, but there are a lot of us who didn't ask for this and tried out hardest to avoid it.
So
65%60.35% [edited to account for the provided evidence of voter suppression] of Floridians weren't sufficiently motivated to try to change the government after living through a first DeSantis term.Yes, yes, I know, "voter suppression", "disenfranchised", etc. I'm sorry if I have a hard time believing that 65% of FL really super-duper wanted to vote but were prevented from doing so by systemic corruption; that would put Florida in the same ballpark as Somalia in terms of governmental autocracy.
At some point, we just have to cut our losses and scram. That's why I left Arkansas, and am now squished into a tiny, overpriced, neglected little apartment with a roommate in a blue state, slowly working on replacing all my stuff.
How Florida dems got their teeth kicked in when this is their competition is simply astounding
This needs to be the loudest point made as part of any of it. Anyone in that state who is unhappy with how it's going should probably vote. It's so bizarre to me that people are watching this happen in their jurisdiction and still won't get out there and do the bare minimum to change it. It's beyond wild that DeSantis is being allowed to continue his destructive dealings with no notable resistance.
I remember a time when if an elected politician did something that enough of the population disagreed with, they were removed from office. I'll have to go find the article.
I could not find the specific example I was thinking of, but the wiki on recalled politicians was good enough. It happens a fair amount. Since 2011, Florida has had 3 recalled politicians.
The problem is that a vocal minority (edit: majority, these days) of GOP voters care deeply about culture war FUD and reliably show up at the ballot box. In the meantime, large swathes of the Democratic base are just not seeing anything in the candidates who claim to speak on their behalf that inspires them to get out and vote.
Add a demographic tilt toward older voters who are easy to scare and have time on their hands to turn out and run the gauntlet of election day inconvenience, and this is what you get.
Not to mention the voter suppression.
42.2%, or 3 million people, didn't. You always have to remember that there are literally millions of people who desperately didn't want this.
6 million registered voters didn't even bother. One could argue that they're just fine with, if not enthusiastic about, the current state of affairs. 4 million votes for, 3 million against, 6 million "Meh."
Every group their administration is oppressing lives in the state as well, as well as plenty of innocent people who don't belong to those groups. They're all actual human beings living their lives and suffering under a government that actively targets them.
I'm sick of people damning those of us who live places with shitty governments for what they do. So many are assholes to people from the south or the midwest, when we're the ones who suffer the most from their bullshit. Everywhere you look there's some smug liberal talk show host or internet commenter cracking jokes about the stupidity of the people they claim to care about and how we're all cousin-fuckers who deserve no sympathy. Instead of trying to feel superior over us because you know our states suck, have a damn heart.