“When was America all about everyone being equal?” she asks.
The power of pragmatism
Of course, there are all types, all beliefs, a Babel of tongues, and any political map is an oversimplification.
“The fact is, Florida is more like a concentrated, multipiece puzzle,” says Bob Graham, who successfully campaigned as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate and the governor’s mansion. “You may have exactly the same piece, which let’s say is retired military, which can show up in the Panhandle, it can show up in the suburbs of Jacksonville, the suburbs of Orlando, or in south Dade.”
Advice for a candidate: “What you want to try to do is understand the difference between the Cuban community in Miami and the Cuban community in Tampa. You need to understand the difference between a 70-year-old average-age community whose primary inhabitants are people who grew up as UAW members from Michigan, as opposed to a similar looking place of people who were former bank vice presidents from Indiana.”
Obama won the state in 2008, Bush won it in 2004, and people still argue about who won in 2000. Voter registration slightly favors Democrats, but some of them are Panhandle conservatives who in the general election reliably vote Republican. The GOP controls the governor’s mansion and most of the seats in the state legislature. One U.S. senator is a Republican, the other a Democrat.
The Miami Cubans skew Republican, the Tampa Cubans skew Democratic. But there are more layers of complexity. Miami is home to people from countries across Latin America. And in Tampa, the Cubans are also of Italian and Spanish stock — descendants of the cigar-factory workers. Like the group of guys who meet al least once a day on the patio outside the West Tampa Sandwich Shop, a regular stop for stumping politicians.
“We fix the world two or three times a week, but I don’t know what happens to it,” says Rex Rodriguez, 69, a retired utility company worker.
If there’s a common thread in Florida, the experts say, it’s pragmatism. The pundits say the Republican voters on Tuesday will likely go for whoever they think can beat Obama. And although the state is skewing Republican in recent years, Democrats can still win by taking a centrist stance. This is the message of Bill Nelson, the Democratic U.S. senator running for re-election:
“What you do is you talk common sense. You talk American values. You talk bipartisanship and consensus-building and nonideological-rigidity. That’s how somebody wins in the state of Florida,” he said. “People in Florida want their government officials to govern between the 40-yard lines, not outside the 20-yard lines on either side of the field.”
But maybe they want something else. Like salvation. Evangelicals are a force here. One afternoon last week Gingrich made a stump speech outside River Church, a Pentacostal megachurch next to I-75. The pastor, Rodney Howard-Browne, gave a fiery introduction:
“I pray that all the lukewarm people will get on fire!” the pastor said. “The Devil will not have America! Absolutely not!”
Howard-Browne said he came to Florida from South Africa 24 years ago as a missionary. His church now has 2,500 members. They speak in tongues and cast out demons.
He’s an American citizen, and he’ll vote Tuesday, he says. But, he added, “Right now I’m just looking.”
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