Geechie
Geechie's JournalDisenfranchised voters
About 3.5 million Floridians were disenfranchised this past election – and we’re not talking about convicted felons.
They are “No Party Affiliation” voters – people who don’t want to register as Democrat or Republican. They are Florida’s fastest growing political group – more than a quarter of the state’s registered voters.
Florida law locks them out of primary elections, including the races for key leadership roles (governor, U.S. Senate) this past August.
Because the state employs a “closed primary” system, independent and No Party Affiliation (NPA) voters are banned from participating.
more at [link:https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/11/21/more-than-a-quarter-of-florida-voters-are-disenfranchised-and-its-not-who-you-might-think/|
In Florida's Republican-majority Legislature
A Progressive Speaks
[link:https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/11/20/in-floridas-republican-majority-legislature-a-progressive-speaks/?fbclid=IwAR3byJl0aXHffkhJyjh25s_bv5X4vgbavaWjBhS2oGfmmIl02qMmLIC6LoY|
With a solid majority of Republicans gathered together Tuesday for an organizational session of the new, post-election Florida Legislature, a progressive grabbed a rare opportunity to take the floor.
He was state Rep. Kionne McGhee, a 40-year-old Miami-Dade County attorney and college adjunct professor who has served in the Legislature since 2012. On Tuesday, he officially took his position as Minority Leader for the House Democrats, and he used his platform on the House floor to talk about some of the issues that Democrats fought for in 2018, though none of them will likely come to fruition in 2019: tighter gun control, better teacher pay, fighting discrimination and providing health insurance for more of the state’s needy families.
McGhee told the 120 assembled lawmakers in the Florida House of Representatives how he grew up the hard way, that he was labeled as mentally retarded and dyslexic as a child, how he lost a brother and father to gun violence, and lived in the dark at times in a housing project because his family couldn’t afford the electricity bill.
Florida Phoenix
Here's the best thing to come down the pike since the St. Pete Times:
[link:https://www.floridaphoenix.com/|
"The Phoenix is a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers. We cover state government and politics with a staff of four journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee. We have a mix of in-depth stories, blog posts and social media updates on the latest events, editorial cartoons, and progressive commentary. Reporters in many now-shrunken capital bureaus have to spend most of their time these days chasing around after more and more outrageous political behavior, and too many don’t have time to lift up emerging innovative ideas or report on the people who are trying to help solve problems and shift policy for a more compassionate world. The Florida Phoenix does those stories."
We need this kind of REAL journalism now, more than ever!
Want to understand
a big part of the reason Florida is as fucked up as it is?
Highly recommended reading: FINDING FLORIDA / The True Story of the Sunshine State
by T. D. Allman
Over the centuries, Florida has been many things: an unconquered realm protected by geography, a wilderness that ruined Spanish conquistadors, “god’s waiting room,” and a place to start over. Depopulated after the extermination of its original native population, today it’s home to nineteen million. The site of vicious racial violence, including massacres, slavery, and the roll-back of Reconstruction, Florida is now one of our most diverse states, a dynamic multicultural place with an essential role in 21st-century America.
[link:https://g.co/kgs/vMWxnt|
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