Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Southernmost Schisms
The beginning of this century was a politically polarizing time across much of the United
States, and Florida, being in many ways a microcosm of the nation as a whole, was not im-
mune to the trend. If anything, Florida's ideological divisions were exacerbated by deep
boundaries that run along its geographic and ethnic lines.
While the governorship has remained securely in Republican hands since 1999, the state
itself is a toss-up in every presidential election (it narrowly broke for George W Bush
twice and Barack Obama twice). This is largely due to redistricting practices, widely seen
as gerrymandering (ie drawing voting districts to bolster a political party's performance),
which have driven a deep rift between the state's political camps. With that said, past gov-
ernors such as Jeb Bush (George W Bush's younger brother; 1999-2007) and Charlie Crist
(2007-2011) toed the centrist line within the Republican policy universe, generally skew-
ing towards conservative economics and lenient policies regarding immigration.
Indeed, Crist, who supports same sex marriage but is also pro-gun ownership, made the
relatively rare American political move of defection, joining the Democratic Party in 2012.
That he did so a month after Barack Obama's re-election did not help his reputation as a
political opportunist, although defenders say he is merely flexible and open to changing
his position on past issues. His ouster and political conversion came amid the 2008 finan-
cial crisis, which particularly devastated the Florida housing market.
Rick Scott settled into the gubernatorial office in Tallahassee in 2011 and has been in-
strumental in setting the state's political compass since. An unabashedly anti-regulation
businessman (prior to election, Scott had been a CEO and venture capitalist with a net
worth of $218 million), he has also been sympathetic to Everglades protection policies,
which speaks to the very delicate balancing act Scott maintains on a daily basis. He must
constantly both diffuse and harness the tension between the white, conservative northern
end of the state, the more liberal and Latin American south, and the mishmash of identities
and interests that lays in between. A Florida of Stand Your Ground, Everglades restoration,
climate-change denial and climate-change preparation policy is today's Florida in all its
glorious contradictions.
