We know Ron DeSantis is good at winning elections. In Florida, anyway. But his track record will be on the line come November when a pair of proposed constitutional amendments he opposes — “radical,” he calls them, “very, very extreme” — are on the ballot.
Both, it bears noting, are written — and will certainly be sold by their backers — to appeal to the restive voting bloc comprised of Florida Man™ and his better half.
That is, Sunshine State voters resolutely predisposed to being left well enough alone to pursue the carefree and responsibility-limited tropical existence celebrated in the rum-soaked beach ballads of Jimmy Buffet, Florida Man’s patron saint. (Machetes, as always, optional.)
In truth, there’s at least some Florida Man/Florida Woman in everyone who lives here, a libertine-wrapped-in-libertarian longing for Margaritaville 24/7 where I’m OK and you probably are, too, so long as you mind my space.
Small wonder we vote overwhelmingly for conservatives who promise to let us keep more of our stuff (money, property) and make choices despite pressure from Washington. Remember when Florida’s pacesetting, economy-preserving, kid-saving reemergence from pandemic lockdowns was, once, the envy of the nation? That was DeSantis as Chief of the Florida Man tribe.
And, when progressive hand-wringers would have us retreat from the shores to huddle along the Lake Wales Ridge, conservative lawmakers support working out how to live near our beloved beaches despite a history hurricane-wrought devastation. We don’t endure Florida’s hellfire summers to be unable to hear the surf.
Nonetheless, members of the Florida Man tribe also can compartmentalize, which allows for adding feel-good amendments to the state constitution that make honest conservatives swoon.
Just four years ago, and over DeSantis’ vigorous objection, voters approved a gradual boosting of the minimum wage to $15. (Supporters of the current initiatives note 61% of Florida voters approved the minimum wage hike even as they voted overwhelmingly to reelect Donald Trump, as if this presented some sort of dichotomy. Nonsense. Both were populist plays through and through.)
Anyway, that’s the awkward stage DeSantis stands astride as he attempts to throttle enthusiasm for recreational marijuana and pre-Dobbs abortion access.
DeSantis’ salvos, fired Thursday, were his first since the state Supreme Court, having declared the language of the initiatives clear, approved both for the ballot Monday.
“Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they are going to fail,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Davie. “They are very, very extreme.” …
“Look at the weed one,” DeSantis added. “It does not just decriminalize marijuana. It’s a license to have it wherever you want.”
DeSantis said he’s noticed marijuana stores everywhere he travels around the state. “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns. … It will reduce the quality of life. Do we want to have more marijuana in our communities?” he asked. “I don’t think it will work out.”
Regarding the abortion referendum, DeSantis painted a bleak picture of creating California-like access and overriding parental consent. The pragmatic Florida Man tribe may not think that’s such a bad thing, especially given how supporters of the amendment — Floridians Protecting Freedom (but not for the pre-born) — are making their case.
This is all about “Floridians’ access to reproductive health care and defend the right to bodily autonomy. FPF recognizes that all Floridians deserve the freedom to make personal medical decisions, free of government intrusion.”
Sounds about right, if what a patient wants is fighting cancer or repairing a hernia or having stents introduced to clogged arterial arteries. But FPF ignores the other human in the room (as SCOTUS, in an impossible legal bind resolved only by the Civil War, ignored escaped slave Dred Scott in 1857.
Opponents to these intensely progressive/populist initiatives will have to perform miracles of persuasive education. Especially when promoters have Florida’s impending six-week abortion deadline to vilify, and its media stenographers publish their claims — bans after six weeks are a ban in fact, they say — without inspection or an opportunity for counterargument. Here’s this from Tuesday's Orlando Sentinel.
Six weeks of gestation is just two weeks after a pregnant woman misses her first period. It’s before most women know they are pregnant. Florida also still requires two in-person visits at least 24 hours apart before someone can get an abortion.
“It will make it virtually impossible” to get an abortion, said Kara Gross, Legislative Director and Senior Policy Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
Here’s a fact those mounting opposition to the abortion amendment must hammer, the estimable Kara Gross notwithstanding: According to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, in 2022, 56% of 82,600 abortions in Florida were performed within six weeks of the woman’s last menstrual cycle. And that’s before there was a state-mandated deadline.
That’s a whole lot of “virtually impossible” going on, an easily discoverable morsel the Sentinel apparently failed to pursue.
The good news is proposed amendments require 60% approval by voters. That means opponents need to muster only 40% plus one to beat them back.
Here’s hoping proper fact reporting is lavished upon Florida Man and Florida Woman, and also that they are persuadable.
