A reluctant New Year’s review
New Years’ columns are the worst. As are many articles, broadcasts, Insta posts, and Tik-Toks, too, I imagine.
Christmas Holiday articles are fun – they’re happy things; celebratory. New Years’ pieces are the attempt of folks to forecast the future, prognosticate or look backward to create lists of all sorts. But in the end, there’s no avoiding the things – editors from Hammurabi forward have expected if not required them.
So, here it is. No forecasting, no crystal ball - just a look back at the good stuff and the bad, in the form of a general student evaluation of the Florida political parties:
Needs work:
The Republican party of Florida: The Grand Old Party had supermajorities in both chambers, and the governorship, and yet registered major fails in insurance, grabbing local control, and massive grifting payouts to all sorts of questionable types by giving jobs to worthless fools. They also tried on a political move to “consolidate” judicial districts, hated by almost everyone in the legal community, including the Supreme Court of Florida. Overreach and making a fast buck were the order of the day and grounding down in a culture war generated to distract from real issues - never a good look. The GOP also had a major scandal at the top of the organization, involving a “power couple” jammed up with serious charges of criminality as well as the deepest hypocrisy in decades, which made the culture war business even sillier and more damaging.
Good news:
They still have a massive majority, which can now be turned to good things, if they can stop stumbling long enough to actually get to work. There are clearer minds present: people like Jennifer Canady (House district 40; now slated to be speaker soon). She managed to ignore most of the bad stuff and dropped a nice little bill aiding state parks. There’s hope. The cooler heads in the party dealt – or are dealing – with the scandal in the best possible way, given the circumstances. The Governor weighed in right away, the party execs moved quickly to try to oust the offenders, and even Matt Gaetz chimed in. Smart, but it's damage control. Don’t let this happen again.
Needs work:
Florida Democrats: I dealt first with red zone folks because the Democrats are currently irrelevant. Democrats say many of the right and important things but have no power except to snipe. Pointing out the irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing is useful, but without solid alternatives, also inapt. Putting an election loser at the top of the party was maybe unavoidable, but unwise - recycling will likely yield the same results.
Good news:
Things can’t get much worse. There are a few brighter lights over here, as well: Anna Eskamani (House District 42) sometimes seems to be the only one who knows what she’s doing. Eskamani is one of the only Democrats who can blend saying the right things with doing the right things. She continues to drop complex, smart bills and amendments, though they have no more chance of making it out of committee than a snowball surviving in a cyclotron.
Are there any over-arching “lessons” to all this? Probably but I’ll pass except for the most general notions: the folks who stand out as massive failures in Florida politics over the past year are “veterans.” Despite term limits and other measures, they – and their bad karma - have been with us forever. The two I marked above as possible winners are not. They are both relative newcomers, and though they agree on practically nothing, I’d still rather hear them debate substantive policy than endure another second of the self-righteous moralizing, greedy cash grabbing, and sad, platitudinous posturing of all the rest.
Can we (mostly) clean the slate and start over?
R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. endowed chair in American history, government and civics and Miller distinguished professor of political science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger and political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: A reluctant New Year’s review
