The MAGAmerican Dream lives in Sarasota. This is scary.

[Ocelot II]

...Besides the Hollow, Mellor has built a health-care facility called We the People Health & Wellness Center, to serve people who, like Mellor, distrust the medical establishment. It employs a small team of medical professionals who offer pretty much the same services as any other primary-care facility, with one key distinction: “We’re not gonna push the vaccine — ain’t gonna happen,” Mellor says. In lieu of accepting insurance, the clinic operates on a membership model that “allows people the dignity of freely making their own health care decisions without 3rd party interference,” according to the clinic’s brochure. Clients can receive “nutraceuticals,” intravenous concoctions like the “Immunity Blend” (zinc chloride, vitamin C, and a B-complex blend). They can also get ivermectin, the anti-parasite medication that some vaccine skeptics embraced as a treatment for covid-19. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved it for that use.)

Distrust breeds demand for alternatives. And Sarasota County, a strip of neon sunsets and white sand beaches along the Gulf Coast of Florida, has become a mini-hub for entrepreneurs who are in the business of meeting that demand. Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social (an alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter) is based in the city of Sarasota. Rumble (an alternative to YouTube) has its U.S. headquarters on the other side of Sarasota Bay, in Longboat Key — a barrier island where Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA (an alternative to the College Republicans) has a condo. Michael Flynn, Trump’s short-lived National Security adviser, has a home in southern Sarasota County — and, working with Mellor, has been getting involved in local politics.

The MAGA synergy in Sarasota County is not just about building alternative institutions that empower the faithful to live their truth, self-segregated from the mainstream, but to bring existing institutions more in line with the convictions and anxieties of the modern right.

Welcome to Sarasota County, a cradle — and a proving ground — for the MAGAmerican dream.

https://wapo.st/3LIP4nY

[dalton99a]

1. A must read.

[grumpyduck]

2. A company in Sarasota was recruiting me

a few years ago. I'm so glad it didn't pan out.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Was it Ringling Brothers?

Sorry

Couldn’t resist!

[ismnotwasm]

3. That's a fucking cult

Gross

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. Blue Hairs and Q-Tips

That’s the target demographic, and Sarasota County…hell, just about all of that section of the gulf coast all the way to Marco Island, is absolutely infested with Blue Hairs and Q-Tips

Q-Tips are little old folks that are short and drive Caddy’s and Crown Vics and the only part of them you can see when looking at the drivers position is a little, round white head that looks like the tip of a cotton swab.

[BunnyMcGee]

20. Good description

[erronis]

22. If I'm right, they're all hunched forward against the steering wheel - to make things closer.

I hate driving/walking in those neighborhoods. But I'm also approaching 80 and thinking about cutting back on my driving (Meals-On-Wheels). Reflexes and all that.

[carpetbagger]

27. My grandparents all retired there.

In all fairness, the scariest adventure was actually when my grandfather visited us in Miami and made a wrong turn onto a one way section of US1.

That was back when Fruitville Road was a 2-lane road and the town went out to about McIntosh.

Good luck. My plan is to retire to a city big enough to survive sans auto.

[Aristus]

5. They're probably all going to end up dead from quack medical practices.

I don't see the down-side here.

[liberalla]

7. That's just like you! Always looking on the bright side!

[Aristus]

8. I've already proposed that we compare Joe Biden's Electoral College margin of victory

in the toss-up states to the number of right-wing anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers in those states who had died from COVID. I suspect the Venn Diagram would pretty much be a single circle.

Their bull-headed stupidity and stubbornness is working in our favor. That's a lot to be optimistic about.

[Scrivener7]

12. That was my first thought too.

You sick thing, you.

[Ocelot II]

19. Except that it's taking too long.

[Deep State Witch]

9. My MIL is in Venice

Where Flynn lives. Fortunately, her third husband, the MAGAt, died in 2019, prior to COVID. He had Fox Noise and horse racing on all of the time.

Now that she's had a stroke, she's thinking about moving back north to be near her other two sons and grandkids. Unfortunately, that would be to Indianapolis, so not much improvement.

[aggiesal]

28. Growing up in Indiana, the populated areas of Indiana have always voted (D) ...

It was the rural area that voted (R), and there is a lot of rural in Indiana.

Why would Indianapolis be "... not much improvement"?
Am I missing something?

[Think. Again.]

10. As long as the patients...

...are there consensually, I got no problem with this.

In fact, I might look into opening a funeral parlor next door to that place.

[Scrivener7]

14. A great business model!

[struggle4progress]

11. And memberships are available, if you want discounts on

their IV Therapy (including mineral infusions), Vitamin Shots, or Red Light Therapy

With another service, Adverse Reaction Therapy, you actually "work with our skilled physician"

They're even endorsed by Pierre Kory from the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance. And here's what FLCCC Alliance says about ivermectin:

"Few, if any, other drugs can rival ivermectin for its beneficial impact on human health and welfare,” wrote (somebody) ... worked with ... the ... microbiologist responsible for discovering ivermectin ...

Here's what the FDA says about ivermectin

Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. In addition, some topical forms of ivermectin are approved to treat external parasites like head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea

So if you're worried about catching COVID from your head lice, maybe you can go to this place in Sarasota county

[sinkingfeeling]

13. But do they tan testicles?

[Scrivener7]

15. And what about that "shining the light up your butt" therapy? What kind of a clinic

is it if it doesn't have the "shining the light up your butt" therapy?

[Aristus]

16. Or coffee enemas.

Another wacky-quacky cure-all in the below-average parts of the country.

[homegirl]

25. What's the schedule

on CLOROX enemas?

[moondust]

17. New Jonestown

Get to work, Bugs!

[progressoid]

18. And they all line up for Federal $$$ when the hurricanes hit

[relayerbob]

21. They misspelled "unprofessionals"

[ancianita]

23. Thank you. I live just north, in Bradenton, Manatee Cty, where sanity still exists alongside maga.

That all things MAGA are self-segregating here is how alt-reality moves to the edges of the nation when the progressive mainstream -- our politics -- are winning.

Over the coming year, staying accurate with the Florida political map will be a full time job, so thank you for the WaPo article.

[kimbutgar]

24. This will just speed up the deaths of those people who support that kind of healthcare.

Personally, I have no problem nor sympathy for those who suffer the consequences of having a Q type of healthcare.

[Mblaze]

26. A self-culling herd