Friday, July 23, 2010

Dumb and Dumber

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to vote for Rick Scott or Bill McCollum for Governor of Florida in the November election but there'a an obvious winner if I look at the contest as a test of who can put the biggest DUH in Flori-DUH.

In the last few gubernatorial elections, the very dominant theme here has been taxation. Florida has been known for low taxes yet there have been ads featuring a full minute of a voice chanting taxtaxtaxtax while showing the tap dancing feet of the opponent. If zip codes had their own flags, mine, which is always in the top three in wealth in the country, would have a banner showing a chisel and a pinched penny, but this year the carrot dangling from the GOP stick has been the Mexican Menace.

Scott has been spending large sums of money on a media blitz based on his support of Arizona's "show me your papers" law and features raw mockery of McCollum's attempt to cozy up to Miami Cubans with his speeches on the benefits of immigration. "We don't need it here" has been a McCollum theme. It's common sense to let police check for immigration status, says Greene. I could write a lengthy treatise on the use of common sense as a basis for argument, but I'll spare you.

I'm afraid the majority of hysterical, racist wankers here agree that no method is too dangerous in protecting us from illegal busboys and dishwashers, but on either side, there's little conversation about the license it gives to law enforcement to find some reason to stop anyone who looks Central American or Haitian and force them to prove citizenship or be arrested. There's no discussion touching in any way on the idea that a real problem does not justify a bad solution and of course there are no end of Republican scholars willing to twist the constitution into a mockery of itself in support of anything that will elect Republicans.

I'm not saying that more than a small minority of cops would misuse this travesty of Probable Cause, but enough will to be able to drive any minority they like out of their towns. Florida has an unbroken history of using the police for this purpose already. There's no discussion in Republican circles about instituting a government of men along with their intuitions, hunches and prejudices instead of a government of laws. There's no discussion of the constitution unless it's about our rights to bring guns to presidential speeches or our 'right' to tell lies that harm other people.

The most egregious ad yet, which ran last night, ended with " Bill McCollum: too liberal for Florida!" Face it - the Constitution is too liberal for Florida and it always has been.

6 comments:

  1. "the Constitution is too liberal for Florida"

    A great line

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know to much about Florida.
    Also I might be wrong in assuming this but I always thought because it's the retirement place to go, you have the over 65 there. A rather large percentage I think. It's been my experience the older folks are rather conservative. Also their scared of well, everything..
    The perfect breading ground for lies and rumors from the GOP. If I'm wrong let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Suggested reading:

    Big Sugar: Seasons in the Canefields of Florida by Alec Wilkinson.

    Harrowing. Perhaps a little dated but good background for the mindset the Captain is describing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, you do have a higher percentage of retirees, but that's in certain counties, like Palm Beach, but PB county votes Democratic fairly often. You also have crackers and rednecks, for whom Hitler was a lefty. I think it's hard to pin it all one one factor -- and after all, stupidity is everywhere.

    Yes, Big Sugar rules the roost here, also cattle farming, as fewer people know.

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  5. As one who is well over 65 I did not become conservative in my senior years. In fact I became more liberal.

    Hardly anyone has read the US Constitution. It's a long, hard read. But a lot of people are fond of referring to it, to suit themselves. And it is much too liberal for the stone headed.

    DB

    ReplyDelete
  6. I echo DB's observation, most of the people who are quick to cite the Constitution and warn of its destruction by that socialist, Islamic, terrorist Barack Hussein Obama have never read the document as evidenced by their tendency to speak of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as if they are totally disconnected documents.

    ReplyDelete

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