The Florida Problem

Democrats have a Florida problem.

It’s not what you think.

We all know how Florida Republicans manipulated the system in order to select George W. Bush in 2000. But we expect that. Republicans are going to fight hard. They’re going to use every trick in the book, and make up some new ones, to gain and retain power.

It’s an essential element in the Nixon Thesis that Democrats are illegitimate, un-American, just waiting to give the country away to its enemies — Communists, Islamicists. The argument among Republicans is whether this is because Democrats are truly evil or just naive.

No, the problem with Florida is the Florida Democrats.  Its latest manifestation is the announcement by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (above), the head of the DCCC’s "Red to Blue" campaign, which aims to turn Republican seats to the Democratic column, that she won’t endorse three Democratic challengers in her own state.

Liberals are aghast. They want her fired. They have a petition up.

But here’s what they don’t know. This is not about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

This is endemic to Florida Democrats.

I know something of this from my work at voic.us, where I have been following politics in 10 southern states for over two years now.

I had mentally divided the beat into two groups of states. There’s a Deep South group where the presence of large numbers of African-Americans makes the white knees jerk and creates a sort of balance. Where blacks are the majority you have a one-party Democratic state and corruption reigns. Where whites rule, including in the state capitols, you have a one-party Republican state. 

In the Outer South, things are different. There are fewer blacks, and if they want any power they must compete. What’s true for blacks is true for whites. The parties are competitive and no one can get too cozy.

I originally put Florida into the Outer South category, but I now realize this is not the case. It’s not a black-white thing, though. It’s something more akin to the relationship between the parties before Howard Dean took over the DNC in 2004.

Florida Democrats are like whipped dogs. They have their kennel, the
seats they are allowed to own, but they had best not get uppity,
because their constituents can be hurt — and will be hurt — if they
do. It’s a completely dysfunctional situation, like a marriage with an
abusive spouse and a submissive one.

Florida Republicans were able to stem any tide toward the other side in 2006 by nominating Charlie Crist, who governed as a sort of moderate. He bent on the environment, annoyed his own base, but he is, in the end, a party loyalist. (It’s sort of the way Theodore Roosevelt screwed Democratic hopes in the early 20th century, turning Populist rage into the milder, Republican Progressive movement, which ruled the country for a generation.)

Crist proved his Republican bonafides last year, by screwing Democrats royally. He used his majorities in both Houses of the legislature to push through an early primary he knew the Democratic National Committee would reject.

He counted on it.

Because Florida Democrats have been ghettoized by Republicans for so long, they did just what Crist expected. Instead of complaining about how the rules of the Democratic Presidential primary process were being written entirely by Republicans, they complained about the unfairness of the DNC, even threatening to vote GOP in November.

Wasserman-Schultz’ action is in keeping with this. She has been politically abused her entire political life, and she’s behaving based on that. She needs, and her party needs, an intervention. Badly.

Howard Dean’s 50-state campaign has had great success in the West, where party infrastructure frankly didn’t exist and where his troops were able to rebuild from the ground up. It’s different in the South, especially the Deep South, where the Democratic parties have been corrupted by their  gruel bowl of power, and are fearful of standing up for themselves, because they know in their hearts they don’t stand a chance.

Not to  put too fine a point on it, but Florida Democrats are what Malcolm X used to call  "house niggers."  I don’t know how they, nor any other Deep South Democrats, will ever get out of their political ghetto.

I hope Barack Obama can find a way.