Yellow Dog Democrats are alive and voting in the razor’s edge State of Florida. The term first appeared in the late 1800’s and spoke to the reality that Southern Democrats would vote for a yellow dog over any Republican. More than a century later, little has changed. Don’t believe it? Let’s look at the recent 2018 Florida Gubernatorial contest between R-Ron DeSantis and D-Andrew Gillum.
DeSantis defeated Gillum 4.076M to 4.044M. That difference was only about 30K votes, or 0.4%. The Republicans held the line but barely. That a Republican can win at all is surprising given that Florida was a solidly Democrat state until very recently and registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans by about 5%. R-Bob Martinez, a former Democrat, was only the second Republican Governor since the Civil War. Since Martinez took office in 1987, the Republicans have lost the Governorship only once, in a 1994 dirty-trick election to D-Lawton Chiles.
Some may look back fondly to the days when Democrats ran the Jim Crow states and organized crime ran Miami and Tampa. But under recent Republican leadership Florida has enjoyed unprecedented stability and growth. Florida is fiscally prudent, surprisingly free of scandal, and well managed by any measure. Florida balances its budget every year and has a healthy rainy-day reserve. Florida has a AAA rating from Fitch and a Aaa rating from Moody’s, placing it at the top. Contrast that with states like CA, IL (last place, one notch from junk), NY, NJ, RI, …, all heavily indebted states run into the ground by one-party Democrat kleptocracies. People are moving to Florida and fleeing the crime, corruption, riots, high taxes, and general dysfunction of the Democrat People’s Republics.
But Democrats say that they are so awesome on education, and it would be soooooo much better if they ran Florida schools because they’d “fully fund” education – whatever that means. Really? Florida was ranked #3 in overall education rankings, behind only MA and NJ. And Florida did that while ranking #44 in per student spending at $9K. NY spends $23K per student, ranking #1 in spending and #22 in results. The Golden State of California spends $12K per student, while ranking only one notch better at #21. Two of the most liberal one-party states in the Union spend way more money than Florida for only middling results. No doubt, Florida Democrats would spend more given the opportunity, but their inevitable mismanagement, social justice transpolyqueerpedononcisbinary gender pronoun obsessions, and union giveaways would lower, not enhance, student performance. Summarizing: Florida schools under State Republicans have performed very well and done so with amazingly efficient use of taxpayer monies.
Having just destroyed Florida Democrat’s primary claim for more power, The Railer turns the Eye of Sauron to former Mayor Gillum. Looking for the Florida’s crime capital? That’s Leon County, home to the state capital Tallahassee, formerly led by Mayor-for-Sale, D-Andrew Gillum.
The FBI began an undercover corruption investigation of Mayor Gillum in 2015 based on rumors of widespread influence peddling and developer kickbacks. The details dripped out over the course of the 2018 campaign and by election day it was clear that Mayor Gillum and his posse showed serious ethical if not criminal lapses.
4M Florida Democrats voted for the crooked yellow dog anyway.
Let’s look back now at their judgment. The State Ethics Commission subsequently fined Andrew Gillum $5,ooo, one of the highest fines ever issued and agreed to drop most of the charges. If Gillum weren’t a Black Democrat it probably would have been worse, but state officials are afraid of prosecuting black politicians given the knee-jerk screams of racism. Sadly, we hold black politicians to lower ethical and criminal standards which most hurts communities of color. Gillum got off light.
But it gets better:
Police photos released last week of Room 1107 at the Mondrian South Beach Hotel did nothing to lessen the ignominy of a tainted star.
Miami Beach Police answering a 911 drug-overdose call in the final hour of March 12th found a room in considerable disarray: baggies of “suspected crystal meth,” prescription pills strewn across the carpet, vomit-stained bedclothes. A 30-year-old bodybuilder, whose profile was found by Miami’s WPLG Local Channel 10 on a website for male escorts (Rentmen.com), was passed out on the floor suffering breathing difficulties. They also encountered the political leader in whom Florida Democrats had invested so much hope. Andrew Gillum, according to the police report, “was unable to communicate with officers due to his inebriated state.”
Andrew Gillum was a crooked mayor running a crooked city and everyone knew it. Both sides knew it when they cast their votes in November of 2018. Yet Democrats still voted for the father of 3, drug user, alcoholic, with a down-low taste for gay porn escorts. They could have voted for Ron DeSantis, a humble family man with a solid history and high character, a man who has thus far been an exemplary governor? Nahhhhh… why do that?
Florida faces a choice this year for President. Trump is who he is. Remember that the 2016 ballot wasn’t Trump vs. Mother Theresa. It was a choice between a bombastic NY developer and a self-serving, shady, rapist loving, power hungry sociopath. Outsized personality aside, Trump has made historic progress fulfilling his campaign promises. He lowered taxes, built the best economy in our lifetimes, crushed ISIS, cowed Iran, rebuilt the military, ripped up bad trade agreements, brought industry after industry back to life, and is on the verge of the impossible – Middle East Peace.
Will Florida Democrats vote reflexively for Biden, the shifty, confused, self-dealing political puppet, the one who loves China, the one with the global money vacuuming coke snorting son with the stripper grandchild and fading mind? Robert Gates, Obama’s Defense Secretary, said in his book that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Gates, no friend of the right, refuses to retract that statement.
If history repeats itself, expect 4M Florida Democrats to again show their great wisdom and vote for the dim and fading yellow dog.