What the Florida Democrats are doing wrong.
Reposted from the Florida group.
I know there are progressives in Florida who are as frustrated as I am. Because we can't find new blood that can bridge all the differences in Florida, we keep defaulting to the past. Well, I can't address how to capture all the different kind of voters, but I do have this to add, regarding the loss of the South Florida vote:
I once took a class titled, People of the Carribean and latin American culture. (Or something along those lines.) What the Anglo-oriented, old boy Florida Dems needed to do, and failed to do, was to reach out to academics like the teacher who taught that class, and ask them a simple question: Do you believe that the socialism that occurred in Latin America, can happen here? They will tell you no because the socio-political factors are different. And they will tell you no because the main reason that socialism got out of hand in Latin America was because there was a 10-90 split in resources. Ten percent of the people (Really, more like 1%) had all the wealth and resources, and everyone else was dirt poor. No middle class, like we have here. Just dirt poor.
So, when a military-minded socialist would show up it was easy to capture the support of the people because they were destitute and desperate. I mean, third world desperate. Not what we have in America. Toppling over the wealthy families, who were in the minority, was not difficult. It didn't take much. And, yes, the countries were disrupted quickly; and yes, those that made it through have a nasty story to tell.
That is not likely to happen here in America. We have a middle class. Though I don't know for how long because Republican policies are taking us closer to a 1% - 99% split. And because we have first world views on what constitutes poverty. Because of that, we might get toppled over in a similar, but not the same manner. And De Santis is representing that take over.
The old guard Florida Dems need help and as a voter, I am giving permission to anyone outside this State with ideas to come in and tell them that their time is over and they need to start listening. They can start by getting more latino and latina representation in their party.
There are still pitfalls to worry about, even with their help. Latin Americans who enjoyed that top 10% wealth in their countries know the benefit of living in a country where everyone is hungry and poor. They get cheap labor, which allows them to hold onto more of their money and status. THOSE people will tend to be Republicans.
I always find it galling that Anglo, conservative Americans don't fully understand the world they're pushing us towards. By interfering with education and creating financial hardship on people, they are driving us closer to the very situation that everyone wants to avoid. They really don't see the world they're creating by keeping the hourly wage low, for example. They see themselves always in that top 10%, and if they find themselves struggling, it is always someone else's fault. Never do they look inward to see how they're adding to the equation.
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