Florida Republicans Literally DO NOT CARE What the Voters Said

As Big Business and authoritarian government began melding in the early 1930s in Germany (as it had in Italy), it wasn't always smooth but both sides saw eye to eye on one factor-- without the destruction of first unions and second democracy their enterprise could never succeed. Hitler was delighted to go to town on both-- and Big Business financed him to the hilt. Is Florida the same as Germany? Well, Rick Scott and his pet legislature don't want to invade the Sudetenland and Poland and conquer Europe but short of that... YES. As we saw yesterday, "Breaking unions contracts, subsides for wealthy businesses, privatization, tax rebates for corporations... these were what fledgling fascist governments achieved in the 1930s-- and what the new class of fascist-oriented Republican governors are attempting to achieve today... here in America. And Hitler was quick off the mark to replace elected officials with his own appointees (as Rick Snyder is doing in Michigan) and to make a mockery of Justice and disable any semblance of legal opposition by tampering with the judiciary (the way Rick Scott is doing in Florida).

And then there's the electoral system itself. As we've seen before, Scott's self-financed, freak victory last November saw him squeak by with 49% of the vote (2,619,335 votes). At the same time, voters sent a far more definitive message in the form of two ballot measures-- the Fair District Amendments. Amendment 5 (for state districts) had 3,155,149 votes (62.59%) and Amendment 6 (for congressional districts) had 3,153,199 votes (62.93%). In other words, voters were far more enthusiastic about these electoral reforms than they were about Rick Scott. But he and other Tallahassee Republicans are determined to bury these two amendments-- or at least put them into the deep freeze for as long as they can get away with it. Yesterday's Sun Sentinel ran an alarming editorial about Scott's war against democracy:

Will state Republicans ever give up their fight against Fair Districts, the constitutional amendments voters overwhelmingly passed in November that could end the incumbent protection program known as gerrymandering?

We wish we could say yes. A few legislators like Will Weatherford, the House's next speaker after Dean Cannon, make us want to imagine that lawmakers could, actually, make peace and honor Amendments 5 and 6. Weatherford, tapped to head the House's redistricting efforts, said this month that he planned to follow the amendments' guidance regardless of whether his party considers them a good idea.

"They're very clear. They're in the constitution," Weatherford said.

They are clear. They require lawmakers to draw up legislative and congressional districts that are contiguous, compact, respect city and county boundaries and don't favor an incumbent or political party.

Lawmakers also can't compromise minority representation. The amendments say no districts "shall be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice."

Before the amendments passed, ruling majorities could draw the districts about any way they wished. They did so with abandon, and with predictable results. In 2004, for example, not a single legislative or congressional incumbent lost a bid for re-election.

But now, because they're the ruling majority, Republicans get to pack committees that for the next year will be working on the redistricting process.

...BOTTOM LINE: Drop the games, and the resistance, to Fair Districts.

Of course, all the fascist-oriented new Republican governors have their own anti-Democracy strategies in play. Just yesterday Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate warned about Walker's initiatives in their state: "In their march toward voter suppression, Republicans have become blinded even by valid concerns that their latter-day poll tax legislation would infringe on the ability of service members, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, to cast votes in Wisconsin elections. It wasn't enough that their morally repugnant law to limit rights would target seniors, students and African-Americans. No concern, however valid, will get in the way of Scott Walker and the GOP thirst for power at the expense of the people-even those heroes wearing the uniform of their country."  This is what the party of Lincoln has come down to-- trying out last European tactics from the fascist dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini!

Nick Ruiz is the Blue America-endorsed candidate running for the House-- in God knows what kind of a gerrymandered district. He's following Scott's shenanigans closely. "It's the cheating culture that swindles our political process that has to be circumvented. Republicans did it in Gore v. Bush in 2000. Democratic operatives did it across the country trying to keep Nader off the presidential ballot in state after state, repeatedly in 2004. In another example, both parties engage in democratic debauchery, when it suits their interests-– like Kucinich being blocked from the Iowa presidential debate in 2007, and then Florida governor Charlie Crist’s ‘defection’ from the Republican party to run as an Independent, siphoning votes from Meek, and effectively giving a Senate seat to Rubio in 2010. And here we are again with another example of political sabotage where in 2012 (which may well be a historic election, for better or worse) Florida’s electoral process is facing a severe challenge to its democratic credibility, in a state where it already costs over $10,000 for a congressional candidate to be placed on the ballot, thus blocking most ordinary people from ever launching a campaign, to neatly pre-packaged districts that favor those in power. Florida voters must demand that these fair district amendments are upheld, and that the electoral process is not made simply a ruse and a swindle."

Let me give the last word on this to Alan Grayson who told us that "The corrupt Republican Party of Florida has reduced elections to an opportunity to shake down corporate interests. But if the Republicans in Tallahassee could dispense with elections entirely, they would like that even more."