to the Florida Democratic party

[DonCoquixote]

I understand the DU rule about critiquing Democrats.
I understand that was put to prevent real ratfucking hijinks from both the GOP, and the jill Stein/Jackpine Radicals that were using DU to stab at us.


THAT BEING SAID, there is a serious problem with the Florida Democratic party. It is one thing for them to be Centre left, it is another to be so scared of appearing left that you shot yourself in the foot.

Are you honestly going to tell me that the best we could get was Charlie Crist? What sort of Stockholm syndrome do we have where the only person we fell comfortable running is someone whose main job was to destroy us?

I heard people blame our mess on the fact we did not run Gwen Graham instead of Andrew Gillum. Well my friends, for all of Gillum's flaws, he almost won the last race, and put up a lot stronger showing than Crist ever did as a democrat. We went from a race that could have been won, to a race that was blasted.

I am happy we ran Demmings, even though she also did some leftie punching too, but of course, already people are saying we should have run someone more like the Florida Voters, and we all know what that is code for.

As far as Rubio, as a Latinx, let em say this, all my fellow Hispanics who voted because you gate gays, hate blacks, or because you got lucky enough in business' to not have your money stolen (yet) you will reap the whirlwind. I admit the Democrats need to make better outreach, instead of whining about why the Latino vote is nto just a natural given the fact they know the good old boys hate them (and they do hate you mi amigos, and you know it, y tu sabe.) But that does nto mean that Latinos who voted for Rubio are voting for him to kiss Trump's ass, and for high prescription drugs all because he says it will slow down cancer research. Well well Marco, maybe the problem is despite grants, despite charities, drug companies are not interested din anything that doe snto make obscene profits, especially since you made sure they got no competition from Canada.

But let me nto digress. The Florida Democratic party needs to stop acting like Jobbers. The term comes from Pro Wrestling, where the jobber is the person paid to LOSE to the main event. The idea is to look just good enough to LOOK like a sincere opponent, but lose. A lot of Florida Democrats are well paid jobbers. Yes Charlie, I am talking to YOU.

Charlie, you did a bad enough job as a republican governor, stop helping Republicans to get elected governor. And all you cenrtists trying to drga the party to the right, asll you will do is weaken us, because you will allow the GOP to set the agenda.

and that is why I am hoping to get out of this state.

[Stargleamer]

1. Val Demings seemed like a good choice

but I live thousands of miles away, and have no idea what kind of campaign she ran

[303squadron]

2. A different perspective!

Florida can no longer be considered a purple potential state. I've lived here most of my life and grew up with all the red necked baby boomers who backed George Wallace and whose children are now the evangelical core. Add to them the Latinos in Miami that gravitate towards a macho style leader and you have a recipe for Democrat disaster. Add more than a pinch of redistricting and.....

It no longer matters who the Democrats run in Florida!

[DonCoquixote]

3. maybe so, but

at the very least, we can demand the the JOBBERS lose their Cushy Jobs. If they cannot lead, and they cannot follow, than they can be made to get the hell out of the way!

[W_HAMILTON]

4. I actually think running Gillum was the beginning of our downfall in that state.

[In It to Win It]

5. Yet, Gillum came closest to winning. He got more votes than Demings and Crist.

It was all the scandals after his elections.

[W_HAMILTON]

6. But I think Graham would have won the state for Democrats.

And that would have prevented this quick and sudden downslide that we have seen there ever since (keep in mind that FL's extreme gerrymandering may end up costing us control of the House).

You can't let these extremist Republicans gain even a small foothold in your state, because once you do, all they will do is spend their time ensuring they maintain power.

[DonCoquixote]

9. and you cannot let them determine YOUR moves

Because if you just let them make it where "thou shalt not run anyone who is a but a millimeter from the centre right, they will control things, period.

If there was one sayign that should always be remebered, it is from Harry S Truman

The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat...

[W_HAMILTON]

15. Except the "them" in this case are the voters.

And, yes, you absolutely do let the voters determine what sorts of candidates you should run.

And I agree about Democrats should be unabashedly proud of being a Democrat -- and Crist was just that. He was not running as a Republican-lite. He left the party and had since disavowed it. He was gladly defending Biden and saying he would love for him to campaign in FL for him.

Elizabeth Warren was once a Republican and now she is one of our strongest Democrats. Crist was not just playing a Democrat -- he was a fierce advocate for us and our party and I wish some Democrats (*cough cough* Tim Ryan) could have been the same.

[StevieM]

16. It seems likely that the gerrymandering Florida engaged in will indeed cost us the House.

Of course, we would also have won the House had it not been for the earlier gerrymandering in other states.

[DonCoquixote]

8. why

he did a lot better in the vote than Crist did!

And the GOP was dominating ever since Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, who were well before Gillum.

[W_HAMILTON]

14. The state is too far gone at this point.

And part of the reason it is too far gone is because of Gillum losing to DeSantis to begin with.

I think Graham would have been able to pull it out. It was a squeaker as is, and there's been absolutely nothing that has happened in FL then or since that shows Florida voters want an ultra-progressive candidate; in fact, our candidates there getting labeled with the """socialist""" and """communist""" insults are partly why we have been doing so poorly there.

[In It to Win It]

7. I have no many thoughts about Florida

The only question I have about Florida is WHERE DID ALL THE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS GO?

Why did Crist and Demings only get 3 million votes? Why did they get less votes than any Democrat in the last 3 election cycles? Where were all the voters in the Dem strongholds? Why did they not turn out?

Hillary got 4.5 million votes in 2016
Democratic senate candidate Patrick Murphy got 4.1 million votes in 2016
Democratic senator Bill Nelson got 4 million votes in 2018
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum got 4 million votes in 2018
Joe Biden got 5.2 million votes in 2020

The floor should be about 4 million votes for Democrats.

Charlie Crist and Val Demings just barely scraped past 3 million votes.

WHY DID THOSE PEOPLE NOT SHOW UP?

[DonCoquixote]

10. because

Desantos was allowed to have goons threaten to beat people up, and everyone from the cops on down knew they couyld.

BUT, also...there is such an air of defeatism that even the firebrands are cold. Enough where we have to stick with a former GOP governor who is anything but a firebrand.

[AntivaxHunters]

11. I don't understand that rule

How are we able to have a genuine discussion about things if we aren't even able to talk things to begin with?
How do you fix things when you're forbidden from talking about such things?
Someone help me out here please because I don't understand.

[DonCoquixote]

13. because

DU has been plagued with fake bots who go onto Freeperville and Jackpine and brag about how they fooled people. Also, there is a "genuine discussion" and the outright name calling and lies that is pollical discourse, on all sides. If people can keep things to a boxing match level agression, fine, but both the right wing and the jill stein left love to bring razor blades

[mcar]

12. Nope, nu uh, no

Not the semi-annual "Democratic candidates suck" OP, not this time.

Here's a little fact:

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=ps0qj3_M5N920nm7CCvqBA

This is very rough, and doesn't include spending in Florida's U.S. Senate race (which would favor Dems) or by individual campaigns (which would favor GOP).

But a quarter of a billion dollars buys a pretty good wave-making machine:


DeathSantis had a quarter billion $ advantage over Crist. A quarter billion.

Crist was a good candidate and ran a good campaign (he was also a good, moderate governor). Demings was a great candidate and Rubio did basically nothing but collect lots of money from Duke Energy and others.

Florida Democrats - despite Dobbs and the horrors of the FL government - did not come out to vote. We had a voter problem, not a candidate problem. Any woman who decided to stay home because gas prices or whatever is letting us know that she is OK with being a second class citizen. Any Democrat in Florida who didn't vote because they weren't in love with the candidates is selfish and extremely short-sighted.

And here we are. Florida is, and has been for a while, a Red state. The media needs to ignore it like they ignore Idaho.

IMHO, the FL Democratic party needs to start at the bottom, election wise and work to get school board members, city & county council, etc elected (if we even have elections after this). We are not going to win the top spots for a long time.

But I'm not going to put this on the candidates.