A Florida beach vacation free of politics and red tide? Not in DeSantis World | Opinion

Ahhh, Florida summers, their innocence is gone.

Nibblin’ on a tuna melt after a daylong sun bake, as Jimmy Buffet would put it, I felt mellow and carefree, thanks to the 1970s throwback vibe of my hotel in St. Petersburg Beach, the thin post-Memorial Day crowds and this funky outdoor eatery.

Rick’s Reef, a shorts-and-T-shirts friendly restaurant and bar where a manatee statue flanked by areca palms greets you, had popped up within walking distance on a Google search of “best places to eat in St. Pete Beach.”

“Old world Florida meets new world taste!” its website promised along with history that dates to 1939 when this was the site of the drive-up hot dog stand Larry’s Luncheonette.

Maybe if I’d had my political-writer hat on, I might have not been surprised, but the minute we were seated and I started to soak in the details of walls covered in stickers, I spotted a major buzzkill.

A bumper sticker prominently displayed at the bar promoted the Florida governor’s possible run for the U.S. presidency.

“DeSantis 2024 Make America Florida,” it said.

Lord be merciful, I’m on vacation, I prayed, I need to decompress.

But that familiar angst of 2020 squeezed my chest.

All of a sudden, my smoked tuna melt tasted like sawdust and that 1939 reference wasn’t quaint history anymore but a reminder of segregation and Jim Crow laws. I wondered if Blacks were served at that “old world” hot dog stand. Most likely, not. All I wanted to do was leave as soon as possible.

This is the risk business owners take when they serve a side dish of partisan politics to tourists.

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Politics & vacations don’t mix

You’d think that after the grief and family separation this nation has endured with COVID-19 and the most divisive election in modern history, at least for the summer we’d get a break, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is on a two-tiered campaign trail, reelection in 2022 and the White House beyond.

Politics robs people of the fantasy of getting away from it all.

And more than ever before, I needed to play out my fantasy of giving my heirs the Florida summers my parents gave me.

After a year of pandemic hiatus — and now reveling in the freedom of being happily vaccinated — it was time to bring back my annual Florida summer vacation, a two-week trek through both coasts in search of the clearest waters and softest sands this side of Varadero.

This year, I wasn’t just hungry for uninterrupted family connection, morning walks on the beach and glorious sunsets.

I needed as much a break from DeSantis and his Trumpian quest for more power, which he paradoxically pursues ruling with an iron fist in the name of selective “personal freedom.”

With COVID cautions still in mind (especially in the company of unvaccinated children), I only wanted, expected — demanded! — two things out of Florida beach time: No politics and no stinky red tide.

But in this state, the main attraction is DeSantis World — aka Trump 2.0 — and I learned that you can’t avoid either.

The red tide of past years I was able to forgo by checking the Lee County beach conditions website. Sadly so, it again reported high concentrations at the time I was to spend a few days in Sanibel and Captiva.

I canceled my reservations — and, after a dolphin-watching tour out of Madeira Beach’s boardwalk, instead drove north and east to Amelia Island.

But there’s no canceling DeSantis, who enjoys favorable approval ratings despite the 37,265 COVID deaths on his watch, his repressive policies to stem Black Lives Matter protests and to make it harder for minorities to vote in Florida.

Bullying cruise industry

Then there’s his ridiculous overreach to rule over our vacations, too, prohibiting cruise ships in Florida from asking passengers for proof of vaccination — a ban he imposed with the complicity of the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature.

DeSantis’ refusal to budge on a feature that would make cruising, a pillar of Florida tourism, safer this still COVID-vulnerable summer makes no sense.

Throughout the places I visited in Florida, COVID mask rules and distancing reminders shared space with no-alcohol-on-the-beach warnings, riptide information and, in St. Pete, stingray warnings urging us to “shuffle feet when walking in the water” and to protect the peace of shorebirds nesting.

None of these rules and warnings are intrusive on anyone’s freedom.

They protect, which is something the governor and his cohorts aren’t any good at doing on behalf of all Floridians.

No, you can’t get away from Florida politics even on vacation.

Bringing back Jimmy to say, some people claim that there’s a party to blame, but I know it’s the voters’ damn fault.