Florida's Ungeschehenmachen

--Florida's gubernatorial contenders: 
Charlie Crist and incumbent Rick Scott 

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of 
--What the World Needs Now is Love, 
Jackie DeShannon

 Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around 
--Money (Cabaret)

 Dumb all over,
Black 'n white
People, we is not wrapped tight 
--Dumb All Over, Frank Zappa
____________________

Subtitle: Two peas in a pod.

Sunday's New York Times magazine ran an in-depth feature on Florida's current gubernatorial race (How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties.)

The lede graphic depicts the contenders as disembodied puppet heads on a stick, lacking the flesh-and-blood of an impassioned real candidate. In reality, they are marionettes whose strings are pulled by a netherworld of monied political interests which inhabit a universe unto themselves.

The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling gutted the McCain-Feingold limits which had been imposed upon political campaign spending. So The People are now exposed to incessant 30-second sound-byte media lies, often created by a PAC with a benign-sounding name, a name often totally contradicting its actual agenda. This is how elections are determined by today's continually-wired electorate.


Read it for a sad insight into the election process, 2014-style.

(An excerpt):

At the cramped conference table, Baldick rattled off more news, both good and bad. A series of recent polls found that both candidates were extremely unlikable. (“Crist and Scott Could Make History by Being So Unpopular in Florida” was the headline of one recent report at FiveThirtyEight.com.) Baldick said this could actually be a positive development. “Both of them are not liked,” he explained, but “if you think people are going to show up because they hate, not love — I do — there’s more people who hate Scott.”

Steyer leaned back in contemplation.

“You think that’s what gets people to vote?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, hate, fear —”

Why Can't We be Sensible?

 

I'm a little bit country

And I'm a little bit rock 'n roll

I'm a little bit of Memphis and Nashville

With a Little bit of Motown in my soul 

--Little Bit Country, Little Bit Rock and Roll, 

Marie Osmond 

I am large,

I contain multitides 

--Song of Myself, Walt Whitman 

 _______________________

We don't usually support I'm-not-gay Charlie Crist, so when we saw this cartoon, we wondered, why? I mean, it is being just as mean and petty as the Republicans to poke fun of his sexual orientation. Thinking back, it was probably his hypocrisy on the matter that galled, but that is a requisite for office (politician, thy name is "hypocrite".)

Crist was a moderate Republican Florida governor who was on the short list for Vice President in 2008, and rushed to marry before possibly being disqualified for his sexual orientation; his gambit failed anyway. He was an adequate governor for Florida. But the cartoon sparked a thought:

Why can't a candidate/person be both "moderate Left" AND "Moderate Right"? Sometimes conservative and sometimes liberal? How can one claim to be completely one way or the other? Is the problem that we cannot find a good fit because there is no one good fit?

Our fairy tales suggest there is a shoe that fits (Cinderella), or a bed the right size (Goldilocks). Perhaps we have already addressed the "Big Issues" which leant themselves to clear bifurcation: Sweatshop exploitation of women and children; meat and food standards, animal rights, minority rights, social security. Not to be naive -- of course exploitation continues on all fronts, and we will never legislate morality or bigotry. But the Big issues -- those which cleave people together -- are gone.

Some matters demand liberality, while others do not. At least, ISTM. Where can a thinking person go, politically, and is this why the enervation of the Democratic party?

Days of Wine and Roses

See the people walking down the street
Fall in line just watching all their feet
They don't know where they wanna go
But they're walking in time
--We Got the Beat, The Go-Go's

A different fragrance that makes your way
and they call it, Charlie
Kind of free, kind of "wow", Charlie
--Charlie jingle, Bobby Short

So vote once, vote tuh-wice, for Bill McKay
... you middle-class honkies
--The Candidate (1972)

vanity of vanities; all is vanity
--Ecclesiastes 1:2
_________________

It was with heavy heart we went to the polls today -- hopefully your elections proved more motivational. There was nothing less exciting than the prospects which awaited: Alex Sink for Governor and Kendrick Meek, Senator -- how could my party do this to me?

Fully three auto calls from Alex today: "Ah, need YEW . . ." . Sorry Alex, I can do nothing for you. You are sunk, in my opinion. Rick Scott shall beat you, and the inadequate Kendrick will suck votes from Charlie Crist, to the benefit of the inadequate Republican, Mark Rubio. Ex-Prez Clinton asked you to drop out, but ego wouldn't allow it.

Maybe the Democratic Party wouldn't allow it. It was your stock Democratic ticket: You got your woman, and your black person. Except neither was a winner. As our own Pushing Rope said, "Meek's hysterical moderate progressive" stance was ridiculous, as there ain't no such animal. One does not attenuate progressivism, Kendrick, one goes whole hog. India Arie sang it nicely: Either it is or isn't.

The Democrats seemed to be betting on your average voter, who checks what's on his voter's registration card or, if he's really bold, defects for the better-looking candidate.

"I think it would be great to have a woman governor," said Kathleen Sabol, a 24-year-old artist from Orlando. "And I don't trust what's-his-name [Scott]" (Bill Clinton Appears with Meek). Yup, that's about the size of it for most folks. Me, I'd rather have the best qualified candidate regardless of demographic, but that is kind of old-fashioned think, I 'spose.

Ms. Sink was a perfect visual replicant of popular former Governor Bob Graham. You would have to live in the South for a while to understand what is meant by, she had The Look. Trust me, she did. Still, it's not enough, and even the party faithful knew it would be an uphill battle.

To continue with Mr. Clinton's recent thinking, where is a cohesive platform for the Democrats? It has gone missing, like a good State secret. Passing a local elementary school yesterday cars were assaulted by the meaningless shrieking of schoolchildren waving placards in what their teacher must have thought was a great way to get them inducted into the world of voting. The placards had hoo-ah messages about their school, a perfect mirroring of what they shall do some 15 years hence. Sound and Fury, signifying nothing.

Since there is nothing good to share with you from today's election, I will instead catch you up on what happened in RangerAgainstWar's little dust up in our recent Netroots election -- the news, while not good, is elucidating:


Ranger's Campaign:

First, we've been very remiss in not thanking each and every one of you who kindly took the time to vote for RAW in the last Netroots election. We did not place last, but we did not win. We also learned a thing or two about the politics of political blogging (such as it is) in Florida.

We learned that there is no bona fide Florida Netroots Community, but there is a group called the Florida Progressive Coalition (FPC) which administers the awards under the rubric of the Democrat Party. This group consisted of 67 members headed by Mr. Kenneth Quinnell who oversaw the FPC blog and made occasional entries of local interest. (Mr. Quinnell was also the erstwhile new media director of the now-failed run of Kendrick Meek.)

When we won their Best National Blog award in 2008, it was with evident displeasure that Mr. Quinnell conceded the award, and not before requisitioning a re-balloting of which we were not informed (but happened to stumble upon, so that we were able to solicit re-votes.) Why a second ballot was called for our category we do not know.

It is evident, however, that most of the politically-oriented Democratic blogs in Florida emanate from various vested interests, and are professional, funded and/or group efforts. The exceptions we know of are RAW, LitBrit and Mustang Bobby -- that's about it.

What has happened since '08 is that the special interests now stuff the ballot box for their groups. So it is that someone like Florida State Senator Al Lawson won in five categories. His blog is not that good, but he does have that many contacts and campaign workers. You may check out this year's winners for yourself and decide if you think they offer better value.

We feel like we imagine Al Gore did, except there are no hanging chads . . . only the purported results of an e-pro survey released by Mr. Quinnell to us after several spurned requests (results were never announced on-site.) Ranger suspects that our critical take on now-President Obama was not received well by the lockstep party members. It actually went over like a lead balloon. C'est la vie.

So now, friends, you know the rest of the story. Politics is a nasty business.

We'll keep on giving 'em hell, though, even if we don't get any more shiny dog tags.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Saw your picture on a poster, in a cafe out in Phoenix
Guess you're still the sweetheart of the rodeo
--Everything That Glitters, Dan Seals

You're a liar and you're a cheat
And I don't know why
I let you do these things to me
--I Never Loved a Man, Aretha Franklin

The love that dare not speak its name
--Two Loves, Lord Alfred Douglas
_______________

We elect politicians to be leaders, but politics has corrupted even that concept.

Take two Governors who have shared the spotlight recently -- Sarah Palin and Charlie Crist.

Florida's Governor Crist is an actively serving governor doing what the people elected him to do, for better or worse. However, due to extreme partisanship, the Republican party has emasculated him and thrown him under the bus just prior to party nominations. All because he hugged a man belonging to the wrong party.

Contrast this to the adulation heaped upon the exceedingly mediocre former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, by elements within the Republican party. She abandoned her elected office and became the sweetheart of the Teabagger Movement, which fancies itself a reformation movement. However, to choose as their figurehead a disloyal betrayer hardly bodes well for their pretensions to integrity and will only serve to further fragment the Republican party.

So one is adored for her lack of leadership, while the other is scorned while doing his duty and not pandering to the vocal reactionaries. When did forsaking one's duties become a family value? Moreover, when did reaching across the divide to one's (ideologically separate) brothers become not a Christian value?

America chooses its leaders by mistaking demagoguery for greatness, when it is really a sign of mental midgetry. Where lies integrity when shirking one's responsibilities is transvalued into a New Age positive: "Going Rogue"?