In Defense of Florida
America’s Southernmost “Toilet Seat” State is Putting the Blue Establishment to Shame
Since the start of COVID, the media has devoted a lot of effort to beating up on Florida.
The late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel is a prominent example. On his eponymous show, the comedian has called Florida a “toilet seat” state with a “swastika carved on it” as well as “America’s North Korea”.
More seriously, the CBS newsmagazine 60 minutes broadcast a fabricated hit piece about Florida’s Governor and alleged corruption surrounding the COVID vaccine rollout.
All institutions are fallible, but the mainstream media’s silence surrounding these and other attacks on Florida has been deafening. They have already made up their mind on the dominant narrative with little room for deviation.
Ron DeSantis, the supposedly heartless Republican Governor of Florida, is flouting Fauci’s COVID scripture while challenging the progressive movement's beloved pride month. He is using his power to limit the rights of poor victimized social media companies by fining them for deplatforming political candidates.
If you listened to the media, DeSantis is a comic book villain, rubbing his hands together maniacally as he plots ways to harm poor people and minorities.
All of this comes with a healthy dose of class based condescension. Florida man is clearly too uneducated, drug addicted and volatile to know what’s best for him.
There is also a hint of racism, that Florida is some sort of latin banana republic lacking sufficient white Protestant self discipline to do the right thing.
FLOUTING COVID RULES
When the media talks about Florida’s COVID response, they alway put it in terms of morality where the Governor’s anti lockdown policies are unethical.
The Governor is not unethical, but he is indeed skeptical. Looking past the left's accepted wisdom, he studied the issue deeply and created a strategy that prioritized the economy as well as public health. DeSantis, an Ivy League educated Iraq vet, is hardly the ignorant and opportunistic country rube he is portrayed as.
Last September DeSantis issued an executive order preventing local authorities from prosecuting or fining people who violated COVID-19 rules. This was a big risk for the Governor and the media predicted a disaster, but what happened?
Florida is in the middle of the pack in terms of overall COVID infections per capita, about the same as large lockdown states New York and California. While these states are struggling, Florida is having an economic renaissance.
Chic restaurants are packed and reservations are difficult to come by. Buyers are scrambling to purchase homes while new arrivals meet for cocktails to commiserate on the lockdown hell they escaped. In December California’s unemployment rate was 9.3% compared to Florida’s was 5.1%. That’s a big difference.
Everywhere you go people are ready for the future, looking for new ways to prosper. The political and tax climate are attracting big companies and plucky entrepreneurs alike.
QUESTIONING LIBERAL ORTHODOXY ON TRANS RIGHTS
On June 1st, the first day of Pride month, DeSantis signed a bill barring trans women from playing on public school sports teams intended for students born as girls.
The liberal media predictably became hysterical. NPR Online, reporting on the bill, wrote “The new law, sure to be challenged as unconstitutional, inflames an already contentious discussion unfolding nationally as Republican-controlled states move to limit the rights of LGBTQ people”. The bias is hard to miss.
What, in fact, is the problem with this bill? Second wave feminists fought hard to promote women’s sports through Title Nine, giving girls a safe space to achieve athletically. It's comically unfair to force biological females to compete directly against physically stronger biological males. Believing in the scientific truth of gender is not an act of bigotry.
No one can question the LGBTQ friendliness of Florida as a state either. Miami Beach and St. Petersburg have thriving and famous LGBTQ communities. People in the state are generally open minded, this is an accepting place.
I spoke with one gay couple who recently moved from New York City to Florida. Living in Hell’s Kitchen they were forced to endure heroin addicted homeless on their front steps yelling homophobic slurs. Happy in Florida, they have no desire to go back to NYC.
THE INEQUALITY BOOGIE MAN
When the liberal media is not calling Florida out for its “regressive” COVID and social policies, they are focused on its income inequality. On the surface the left has a point, Florida has the second highest income inequality in the U.S. and the middle class is shrinking.
But that is not the entire picture.
As of 2019, Florida had a 12.7% poverty rate compared to New York’s 13% poverty rate and an 11.8% poverty rate in California. These are not big differences for states with radically different policies towards social welfare. The poverty rate in Florida, under Republican leadership, has declined from 14% in 2017 and all future indications look positive.
Inequality exists in Florida not because the poor are getting poorer but because the rich are getting richer. The average member of Florida’s one percent earns $2,347,180 a year, the 4th highest in the country. It’s hard to see why rich people doing well is a bad thing.
Florida politicians are actively courting the elite because they know a rising tide lifts all boats. The zeitgeist was captured by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez when he put up a billboard in San Francisco asking tech workers “thinking about moving to Miami? DM ME”
Florida is also marking efforts to help it’s younger residents succeed. The state ranks 3rd in the nation for K-12 achievement according to a 2020 Quality Counts report by Education Week. This is a move up from 4th in 2019 and the highest ranking ever in K-12 Achievement for the state. It’s hard to make predictions for 2021, but the decision to ban critical race theory and focus on academics is sure to help the upward trajectory continue.
FOMO AND THE FLORIDA OF THE FUTURE.
Over the last year, bitter liberals have stewed inside as Floridians romped on the beach and imbibed in lively cafes. These liberals turned to the media for solace, and got reassurance that they are both smarter and more responsible for locking down.
It turns out, though, they were lied to. According to the Fauci emails and real world results, masks and lockdowns were of questionable value. Floridian’s were right and the liberal elite were wrong.
The liberal media elite is also misreading the national pulse on trans women in sports. According to a recent Gallup poll, when asked do you think transgender athletes -- should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender 62% of U.S. Adults responded Play on teams that match birth gender.
The tectonic plates of American culture are shifting and Florida is arriving at a new place of national prominence. It’s an alternative universe of urban sophisticated conservatism.
Florida is already the home of modern Republicanism, with strong roots from Cuban barrios in Miami, to the gates of Mar A Lago, to the state house in Tallahassee.
Around 20,000 Manhattanites made the move to Florida over the pandemic. Some will return, but others will not want to give up sunshine, economic growth, and tax savings.
It’s hard to put your finger on it, but something special is happening in Florida. People are optimistic about the future in a way that statistics cannot capture. According to the Florida Division of Corporations during 2020, the height of the pandemic, 98,816 new for profit businesses were started.
The mainstream media owes it to their public to report on these trends accurately and without bias. Even moderates are waking up to the reality that legacy publications have editorial opinions as outdated as their business models.
It’s time for Floridians to fight back against the unfair narrative because the world needs to know the success story in America’s southernmost state. What the liberal media fears most is that other places will follow Florida’s example and shrug off an outdated progressive agenda. This agenda, like many creaky legacy media outlets, belongs in the dustbin of history.