The Federalist Society pushes their agenda and showed up in downtown Orlando Tuesday. (Citrus Club December 6) They are flush with their success rigging our country by messing with the US Supreme Court. They use a gang approach to the law and push their buddies who just happen to be white and radically activist wingers against the majority of us. I suppose some consider it just a dog whistle but their notice blatantly said, "Was the Constitution Pro-Slavery?"
My grandfather was an elected judge and a proud Democrat. He would have certainly bristled at the thought that he could be bought by thugs instead of continuing to do careful rulings. We are in a crisis in Florida as the few are taking over our system and destroying fairness for us. The ruling party is vile and hateful towards us. A saving grace would be the courts. Can we hope for that to counter the hate that pervades Tallahassee?
So many in Florida (with almost even voters who vote for Democrats to voters who vote for Republicans depending on their purging of Democrats from voter rolls) were rooting for the win of a statewide race in Georgia. As we see so much progress in a famous state of The South, will we face a universal decline even as northerners mistakenly think it's still a good idea to retire here?
We are very happy about Senator Warnock's win in Georgia. In a different southern state, North Carolina, they had Moral Mondays. Pastors and others would gather together at the state rotunda. In Florida it can be discouraging that it will take a lot of effort to just not get worse as if we're running hard to just stay in place.
George Washington warned against political parties. It sounded good to make the election of judges nonpartisan but clever lawyers decided to squeeze in and make a proxy political party. It's not defined as such as current law codifies Democrat and Republican. It does everything a political party does. It has people who run it. It cleverly vets lawyers/members and jettisons those who aren't in line with its right wing philosophy. It raises money- a ton of money from wealthy patrons. It runs people for these elected judges' offices.
Please explain to me how this is nonpartisan? It just avoids the oversight scrutiny a political party has. It kind of reminds one of the secrecy of Skull and Bones, the group on the campus of Yale. Indeed it got its start at Yale and other college campuses full of the well heeled.
The state of Florida tries to have the same balance of power that we have nationally with the three branches. It's a shock though to some old time Southern sensibilities that judges are often independent minded. Even if this Federalist Society wants to dictate day to day rulings, the judges know they are a separate branch of government and often listen to the law.
Maybe retirees in Trump country who are red but from a blue state will want to retire here thinking the South will rise again. But what will they have of any amenities? Already there is a huge crunch in a tourist area trying to grab a few individuals from today's smaller youth population to assist the elderly and maintain a service economy. Some young adults used to move here but why deal with hate? Robbing education budgets seems fine for oldsters but what does that mean that a nurse goes elsewhere to care for patients where her school aged children will then grow up to be successful? The huge poisonous distaste for us in the minds of the nation has to affect all of us even as the conservatives think it grabs some Republicans. Midterms always turn out older voters and we have a ton of them which distorts a view that suddenly that's the story of who we are. Presidential will have more busy people figuring out they need to vote. That helps, a little.
We've long embarked on a race to the bottom with Mississippi and Alabama by doing very poorly for our citizens. Georgia doesn't have a bad climate. At some point will we see them rising as we are falling?
Check this. Except for flashes of anger, is there ever any emotion in the Florida governor's eyes? Has Trump been vetting for those that are like him making sure they have no conscience?
Will there be any checks a court could provide on a grouchy governor? Common human decency is missing from a governor who not only deprives a state’s citizens of their rightful half of its representation in the United States Congress but he makes even worse decisions. We the people of Florida made this gerrymandering illegal in our constitution. Democrats or voters who voted Democrat should have 14 not 8 of 28 total house seats but DeSantis also made sure to gerrymander away an entire district along the Georgia border which rightfully represents black Americans.
I'm sorry if by virtue of all his ancestors being Italian, even those kicked out as Mussolini got powerful and went against organized crime, they were not fully welcomed here. Perhaps they used racism as a way to puff themselves up. The Florida governor has very few friends while he listens to a Koch operative who is his campaign manager and retains family racism (his father was very open about it) which is a very bad recipe for him if he wants to endear himself to the nation.
He could pivot. He could quit using our tax dollars against us and defying the Florida Constitution when lawsuits are brought over the gerrymandering that killed our chances of representation. It is now well known that Federalist Society judges easier lean to the winger right as shown by our current U.S. Supreme Court. The national effect of the midterm shows all winger politicians but especially him that he is in trouble. He could extend an olive branch to local governments when lobbyist developers pay the Florida legislator to continue to build next door and when the water needs to go somewhere it then floods our houses. He may not have a conscience but how can it make sense to work behind the scenes to destroy us? That can't help him.
The real economic drivers are tourism,trade and tech. I often think Orlando is the opposite of what is a criticism of so many in Washington DC. They say of D.C. that it has Northern Hospitality and Southern Efficiency. We have the opposite if we can let it permeate from Orlando to our whole state. Let's have Southern Hospitality and fairness like Georgia is working towards and Northern Efficiency throughout the state and not just Orlando. We can do this with or without a governor that has chosen to suffocate us. We have some little bit of hope. I need to get over my surprise that we can get close again today to the past when the Sheriff of Orange County was yes a member of a less sophisticated but rather similar group to the Federalist Society. I credit the opening of Disney with influencing changes but it also hid racism. It was almost exactly fifty years ago and we can still feel that sharp chill today as we recall Orange County Sheriff Starr was our last known sheriff that was a card carrying member of a predecessor to the Federalist Society, the Klu Klux Klan.