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Disclaimer, what I am about to say may offend many people, especially since I know there are many Florida democrats on this site, many of whom I have a LOT of respect for (Madfloridian for starters). Normally this would be a local gripe, but with Alan grayson being hung out to dry, Rubio about to be handed the Senate by Slick Charlie, the 2000 election, I figure I must, to quote O'Reilly, "opine" about why we seem to be an embarrassment. No, I am not a Florida native, but I have lived here for 20 years, and I can tell you what I have seen.
First off, Florida is, was and always will be a place where the fringes of various cultures clash and fight for dominance. Even in the oldest days of the state, back when Plymouth Rock was just another stone, French, British, Spanish, Seminole, and other native tribes fought to control this place. When the Americans took over, Florida again became a battleground between Confederates and Yankees. There has always been tension, and always a conscious thought that whoever got Florida would get that one extra inch needed for Victory. Even after the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe, she who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" tried to encourage Northerners to move there for the express purpose of removing the state from Southern influence. Of course, that did not thrill the natives, many who felt like they were invaded. I believe some of their complaints were legitimate, especially since northern money came in, but then again, a lot of the ones that were still Dixie sympathizers were, and very much ARE, the strongest. There is a reason we have a lot of militia down here, as well as the largest Confederate flag in the world, flying right over 1-4. Now, add the fact that Latin Americans are asserting their influence over the area, and you have a fire that will always be hot.
What this means is that the gloves come off in the culture war. We used terms like that long before they were hip. What that means is that, in order to get any votes, you have to ponder to many different types. You have the Dixie types, who will talk your head off about how much better it would be if the South won(and those are the liberals), on the other extreme, you have some New Yorkers who treat the places as if it were a suburb of New York. You have Jews and Latinos whose presence is always felt, simply because they bust their arse working, but both know that even the people that smile at you and want your vote and want your money will be the same people that would rather push you all into the sea.
Add to this our local democratic party. This is where it gets ugly, because we have a bunch of people who the bluest of Blue dogs. They are wanting to be liked soooo much, and realize that they have to do a lot of pandering just to do half as well as the GOP. If there is any true liberal, they want that person off, because even people like Kendrick Meek and Alex Sink will come off as scum. The local papers do not help, even the St Pete Times, one of the most liberal papers anywhere, fell in line. Add to this that our chairwoman, Karen Thurman, shoots our party in the foot. When she did her grandstand in 2008, she made the Florida vote a civil war that left both sides hating each other still, and made a joke of whatever influence we had. In 2010, the party underfunded Meek, because many had already been encouraging Crist to run. It did not help that many in the party wanted their pound of flesh for Obama, when Meek loses, the unwritten law will be (Florida won't elect no black man).
I write this to explain why this state is a mess. Like California used to be, we attract the best and worst, and sadly, the worst have the numbers. To quote Yeats "The best lack all conviction, but the worst are full of passionate intensity", yes, all of this stoked up by 500 years as being the damned final chess piece between competing Empires!
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