Lost in Florida

"The panhandle of the Sunshine State is supposed to be Bush country, so why are there so few signs of support for him?"

by Alan Bisbort

Source: Hartford Advocate, May 14, 2004.

"This is the most important election in my lifetime."

As I write this, a rain unlike any other I've ever seen is lashing the Panhandle of Florida with a fury that can safely be called biblical. The weather has been like this, off and on, for the past several days -- in fact, ever since I landed in Gainesville. Had the turbo-prop plane on which I arrived been five minutes behind schedule, we would not have been allowed to land. Before we'd even taxied to the gate, the stormclouds broke, and the wind and rain soaked passengers scurrying the few hundred feet from the plane to the tarmac. Seconds later, the storm knocked out electricity in the airport terminal. An electric door was caught in mid-closing and rain gushed into the terminal, as if someone were standing opposite the door with a fire hose.

Welcome to Florida, the deluge seemed to say, the state that will once again decide the presidential election in 2004. I've been down here for the past week, working on a travel assignment but also keeping my eyes, ears and nostrils open to the political currents that swirl over the Sunshine State in the tailwinds of Hurricane Charley

The Panhandle, where I headed in my rental car, is one of the most conservative areas in the country, an odd stew of fundamentalists, Rapture-believing zealots, sun-dazed seniors, gun-nuts, military retirees, dirt-poor Crackers and nouveau riche yuppies. For many decades, it has alternately been known as "L.A." (for "Lower Alabama"), or the "Redneck Riviera." Courting danger, I've been sporting a baseball cap with a "DUMP BUSH" button covering the team logo. I don't shrink from entering public spaces -- sports lounges, gritty titty bars, lean-to shrimp huts, biker haunts. And yet, I'm almost disappointed to report that I haven't heard a discouraging word from a soul. I have, instead, had some people give me thumbs-up signs and others (nicely) warn me, "You shouldn't oughta wear that 'round here." Most interestingly, the button provoked two separate conversations with military veterans, both of whom told me, with these exact same words, "This is the most important election in my lifetime."

One Vietnam vet said, "I'm as patriotic as they come. We're still the greatest country in the world, but four more years of Bush will surely end that." The other said, "I feel as if my life is on hold until Bush is defeated." He has, in fact, pooled all the money he has in the world to buy a plane ticket to protest this week in New York City.

Everywhere one looks in Florida political campaign signs sprout in comical profusion for local commissions, boards, sheriffs -- grown men named "Sonny" and "Jimmie" -- and for the Senate seat vacated by Bob Graham. What I have not seen is a single political sign, or bumper sticker, for Bush/Cheney 2004.

Granted, that election isn't until November; still, I've seen several Kerry signs and bumper stickers in this alleged Republican stronghold, but nada for Bush. This, of course, is no scientific way to measure support for any or either candidate. However, it does point out something I've sensed for months: Bush's support is as soft as the back of the soft-shell crabs I had for lunch today. This doesn't necessarily translate into immediate votes for Kerry, but it's curious that this is obvious even in Lower Alabama. Bush is living in a fool's paradise if he assumes that even his safe bases -- and they don't come any safer than the Florida Panhandle (they shoot abortion doctors down here!) -- are in the bag.

If it's true, as some pundits insist, that so goes Florida in 2004 so goes the country, then Bush-Cheney are in deep kimchee.

With a political convention that has devolved into a hate-inducing hornets' nest, the Republicans must be hoping for something dramatic indeed. Surely, beneath all their war whoops on the floor of Madison Square Garden, the GOP faithful must share some uncertain smiles out of range of the media. They can't hide from the truth that, for an incumbent "war president," Bush is in desperate shape. The swing voters are leaning to Kerry; even Cheney isn't buying the bullshit marriage amendment that Bush clings to like a security blanket.

After a week in the heart of Bush Country, I predict that the GOP is riding directly into a Florida deluge. Let's hope it's a perfect storm of defeat."

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reprinted from The Hartford Advocate