The Liberal media reporting on the Republican primary elections is akin to sports reporters focusing on Tim Tebow’s kneeling in prayer instead of his passing ability. However, the Tampa Bay Times, formerly the St Petersburg Times, the paper that humbly proclaims itself “Florida’s best newspaper,” stole the blog that was spinning around in my head by declaring that the primaries should start in Florida, the largest swing state in the nation. Caliifornia is reliably Democratic and Texas Republican. New York and Florida are now neck and neck with about 20 million people each but New York is Democratic, while Florida is not locked on either party. And given its size Florida should have the first and most important primary.
In fact we could probably save alot of money by just holding the election in Florida. The state has a population that reflects the total country with 80 % white, 16% black, and Hispanics crossing racial lines to account for 20% of the total population. And contrary to popular belief, Cubanos are not the largest Hispanic group, that would be Mexicans.
Unlike New York, California, and Texas Florida does not have large cities. New York has New York City, and California and Texas each has three of the ten largest cities in the USA. Florida’s largest city is Jacksonville and it is not in the top ten. Rather than being concentrated in large urban centers Florida’s population is more evenly spread across the state. Of course the majority are close to a beach but one is never more than 30 miles to the sea in any part of the state.
With its evenly distributed population representing most of the dominant demographic trends in the USA, e.g. the fastest growing Hispanic population, rapid growth in immgrants from Asia and the largest percentage of over 65 year olds, Florida could be an ideal surrogate for the entire country. Thus an election here would probably closely match an election held throughout the entire country. Sounds crazy, all one has to do is remember 2000 with hanging and pregnant “chads.”
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When would actual voters get to measure the hand-grip of all of the candidates or have them into their living rooms for a family chat? How would a lesser-known or lesser-financed candidate stand a chance to emerge? Your proposal would be a complete capitulation to all that’s wrong with campaigns today, media and money domination, with real people shoved aside, left only to the blurred images portrayed in attack ads and by the punditry.
I did not suggest an election by email. I simply said we could save money by letting Florida be the surrogate for the entire country. Local politics and elections are still a matter of shaking hands and coming into your living room. National politics tend to be media events. In any case, the presidenial contest will essentially be decided in Florida so why not just have the election here?