Is It Fair To Claim That All America’s Problems Flow Through Florida? Sure... Why Not?

Florida Republican David Jolly: pragmatic enough to run as a "Democrat"

If you don’t live in in the Sunshine State, did yesterday’s Hope Florida post seem at all familiar to you? The Ron and Casey DeSantis criminal enterprise may seem on the extreme side, but it’s probably not that far removed from what’s going on in your own state. In recent years, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, California, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania (to same a few that come immediately to mind)— half the population of the country— have experienced political scandals on a par with Hope Florida.

Yesterday, Andrew Egger noted that “The hottest new trend in GOP political messaging is parroting the literal regime propaganda of central American tinpot authoritarians.” Far right Republicans like Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and James Comer (R-KY)— not to mention MAGA Democrat Eric Adams (NY)— are as good as coordinating with El Salvador’s fascist dictator Nayib Bukele. “I’m not naïve here: U.S. politicians have never been above lying when they think it suits their interests and when they can get away with it. But, I’m sorry: I thought this was America. Don’t our politicians feel like our voting public has a gag reflex against parroting foreign despots? Isn’t there still a sense that indulging open, Orwellian lies hurts the case they’re trying to make? Is there truly more advantage to be gained from insisting on the “margaritas” line than there is to be lost by people reasonably wondering, If they’ll go along with this, what else are they lying about?”

It’s bad enough that the White House and the Republican base have been willing to let the U.S. government deputize El Salvador and its horrifying prison system as part of its One Weird Trick to Short-Circuit Legal Due Process for Deportees. But phenomena like this show that the rot goes deeper than that. Many Republicans are simply El Salvador-aspirational: They’d rather live in a system where their strongman decrees not only what the law is, but what the truth itself is.

A free people with a healthy skepticism of what any government has to say— let alone the government of El Salvador— shouldn’t let them get away with it.

But Republicans turning into Bukele-like fascists is bad enough. Florida has shown us what happens when the Democratic Party withers away to such an extent that it becomes a platform for Republican politicians! You remember sad-sack closet case Charlie Crist, right? He was a right-wing GOP state Senator in 1992 and ten years later was elected Attorney General where he served as a partisan bum until being elected governor in 2006. Then he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010— as a conservative independent— and, after losing to former protege Marco Rubio, switched to the Democratic Party, albeit as a conservative Democrat. He ran for governor as a “Democrat” in 2012, lost to Rick Scott and was then elected to Congress in 2016 where he defeated another conservative, Republican David Jolly, and then served as a Blue Dog, often voting with the GOP. In 2022 he ran— as a “Democrat”— for governor again… and was defeated, this time by Ron DeSantis.

Anyway… remember that David Jolly guy we just mentioned? Currently, he’s one of the many MSNBC Republicans— or he was until Wednesday. Now he’s a newly-minted Florida “Democrat” running for governor... and the Florida Democratic Party is so basically non-existent that he’ll probably be their nominee. He’s calling himself “pragmatic,” which I guess means he’ll say or do anything it takes to advance his career.

[Worthless pile of dogshit] Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party who mounted her own run for governor in 2022, welcomed Jolly’s decision to join the party.

“We want people who want to fight and want to stand up for this moment,” said Fried, who added she would remain “impartial” in a potential Democratic primary for governor.

If Jolly follows through with a run for governor, he could potentially tap into a national network of donors and support given his ubiquitous appearances on cable television the last several years.

But the Democrats sizable voter registration gap in the state means a competitive campaign would need to garner support from their own party, nonaffiliated voters and disaffected Republicans.

…Jolly left the GOP in 2018 because he disagreed with the direction of the party under Trump. Running on an aggressively anti-Trump platform is risky in Florida, a state the president won three times and one he calls home. Even after being elected, Trump spends many weekends at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and could decide to get actively involved in the governor’s race and hold rallies here, just as he did for Ron DeSantis in 2018.

Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Byron Donalds for governor, though Florida first lady Casey DeSantis is also considering a run. The governor and first lady recently traveled to the White House to ask for Trump’s endorsement and blessing— but were denied— in a sign of the president’s influence in the contest.

A blue wave would have to be a blue tsunami for a Democrat to win a statewide race in Florida. Thanks to Trump, it could happen… but if it turns out to be Jolly— well, then the “Democrat” would just be a pragmatic Republican. A fighter for the working class? Um… I wouldn’t count on that. Anti-Trump? Sure. Pro-working class? Ha! The other whiny doofus, state Senate minority leader Jason Pizzo, who had been considered a likely Democratic gubernatorial contender/sacrificial lamb, announced yesterday that instead he’s quitting the party. He said the Florida Democratic Party is “dead,” basically because he sensed the powers-that-be prefer Jolly to him. And he doesn't have what it takes to stand and fight.

By the way, yesterday, the DNC announced it “is pledging to give tens of thousands of dollars monthly to every state party across the country, emphasizing red states over blue ones, in an expansive— and expensive— push to make Democrats competitive from Alaska to Florida. The D.N.C. will spend more than $1 million a month on the 50-state program, which is increasing the organization’s monthly cash donations to state parties in red states by 50 percent and in blue states by 30 percent. The extra money to red states, the D.N.C. argues, is to build long-term infrastructure in places where it is currently lacking to create possibilities in elections beyond just the upcoming midterms. The monthly price tag: $17,500 to each state party in a blue state, and $22,500 in a red state. (The party has a formula that looks at governor, Senate, House and state legislative seats to determine whether a state is red or blue.) While the cash infusion will not pay for expensive television ad campaigns or create robust Democratic successes in red states overnight, it will help state parties hire more staff members, open new field offices and invest in data and tech operations, according to the D.N.C.” 

In Florida, you can count on every last dime going into the state party’s notorious South Florida grift machine... and doing no good whatsoever.