I currently split my time between my off-grid life in the Appalachians that we're working on making a real full time homestead and suburban Florida. Every time we take a little time up north and then come back south I swear it's noticeably further to the political right. I'm going to preface this with the fact that I am vehemently anti-DeSantis, so don't come at me with any "DeSantis apologist" crap.
This is going to be unpopular amongst most of the people that I follow on here, but, I think it needs to be said, so I'm going to say it.
I see a lot of posts about Florida teachers here, and understandably so, there’s a lot of wild stuff coming from the Governor’s office. Unfortunately probably 99% of those posts come from outside of the state and I’m here to tell you something.
I don't know exactly how to say this, so I usually stay outside of political conversations here, but, calls for a teacher strike or all of the "I'm outraged at Florida" posts really reek of outsider echo chamber. I don't want to be the "Sure that sounds great, but" guy all the time, so I just don't get into it. They just aren’t representative of the people in Florida, though.
Know what DeSantis does? He comes through with a pay raise for teachers every single year. Know how many of those there were before him? Off the top of my head:
One for $2500 by Rick Scott over his 8 years. Charlie Crist vetoed one that passed the state legislature. Jeb Bush talked about it? Maybe went through with one? I’m honestly not sure on that one, but that gets you back to the 90's.
Are those 30% of teachers who identify as liberals mad? I’m sure they are. I’m sure you can even get quotes from a lot of them. I have this general discussion with friends who live on the west coast and other liberal areas all the time. It’s like a different world down here. It *feels* like there should be outrage. I get it. However, teachers down here aren’t largely ideologically against DeSantis and they’ve seen more raises the last four years than they’ve ever seen before. The population at large is even less liberal than the teachers and they think DeSantis is the greatest thing ever.
I guess my point is this. If you think there’s about to be an uprising against DeSantis in Florida it’s not going to come from some silent majority. They don’t exist. Point to Florida from wherever you are and say “Let’s not end up like that here” but, honestly, stop acting like the people here don’t have the government that the majority want. Florida has moved from a swing state to a solidly republican majority.
Totally understand where you're coming from! I don't see it changing and hopefully we'll be full time out of Florida in the coming months.
I think a lot of people also don't understand that it's unlikely to change because there's practically no Democratic Party establishment here, so Republicans will only continue to gain until there's a counter-point in the politics.
@sherrig312 @BE I feel for you, so do I.
@BE but even the highest paid teachers don't make anything like teachers in NYC and that isn't enough either.
Absolutely correct. Now, in our county the teacher's pay has gone from ~$40,000 to over $50,000 in the last 4 years. When the majority of teachers were already self-identifying as not-liberals and then you add in a 25% pay raise you get a lot of "Eh, whatever he wants to do is fine with me."
@BE He is buying the votes and setting the stage for a national presidential run. It does not change the fact that he is censoring what is taught in schools.He is manipulating the media.Just be careful. He is Dangerous, Trump on steroids!
Yes, he is dangerous, although if we're being honest I'd argue that his wife is the brains of the operation.
He's not so much Trump on steroids as someone smarter than Trump, less narcissistic than Trump who won't make the same mistakes of making *everything* about him, but still willing to burn it all down.
None of that makes anything I said untrue. The people of Florida love him and what he stands for and want that to be the entirety of the US. He's not some unpopular despot who overthrew the local government, as people outside of Florida often mistake him for.
@BE But he is stacking the local school boards with his followers as well as those who question his authority .Case in point, the DA in Hillsborough County.
I'd argue a slight change to that statement, but it's essentially correct. MAGA and Roger Stone are putting up QAnoners to run for school boards. DeSantis is just going beyond what any FL Governor has done before(to the best of my knowledge) and endorsing them with his massively popular platform.
But, again, I'm going to explicitly state my unpopular point again:
He's not holding a gun to anyone's head. He didn't overthrow the government. He's popular and he's winning elections through the democratic process, right?
What's going on in Florida today isn't a coup.
People across the entire state turned out to vote for him. In 2022 15% *more* than in 2018. Even if Crist had gotten as many votes as Gillum did in 2018 he'd have still lost by over 600,000 votes. It's a *growing* movement that's flexing its muscles.
It's a representative government because the people of Florida *like it* and there's no popular movement to undo any of that here.
I'm in the very small minority of people in Florida who don't like him and I can look around and accept that. People outside of Florida seem unable to do so.
@BE
Florida definitely is a Republican state..I live in Miami Beach, Florida..I’m very unhappy with the way things are going 🤫