by BJW Nashe
Florida – in its present incarnation — presents no recipe for multicultural harmony, stability, and sanity. Rather, it serves up a broiling witches’ brew of conflict and resentment. Right-wing talk radio is huge in Florida. Hate-speech passes for political discourse. It’s no coincidence that Rush Limbaugh broadcasts his vitriolic talk show from an anonymous building in Palm Beach, just a short distance from his sprawling multi-million dollar mansion — which is safely disconnected from the realities of daily life for most Floridians.
The mean-spirited, hate-mongering that has made Mr. Limbaugh a rich man was revealed to all of America in the recent George Zimmerman trial, with its seething racial overtones and its — at least to me — incomprehensible verdict. It makes perfect sense that this episode would go down in Florida, the birthplace of the “stand your ground” legislation that has now spread across the land. Where else but in Florida should we expect to hear about a deranged vigilante stalking an innocent, unarmed black teenager on a dark, rainy night, instigating a violent altercation, killing the teen with a gunshot to the chest, and then somehow managing to get acquitted of all criminal wrongdoing, based on a claim of “self-defense?” Welcome to Florida, the Gunshine State.
Far too large a percentage of the state’s population appears locked into a horrible mass psychosis. Don’t get me wrong. I realize that a great many Floridians of all races, creeds and religions are good, kind-hearted, caring people — the kind of people we would all be lucky to know. But these good folks appear to be in the minority. Too many people in Florida no longer appear capable of listening to reason. Paranoia and fear-mongering seem to be the only ways to motivate them, which in turn leads them to become increasingly unhinged. They have voted into office a 
governor, Rick Scott (the bald-headed Colonel Kurtz of the Gunshine State), and a Republican-dominated state legislature who don’t believe in government programs or services. These are not politicians so much as they are Tea Party agents of chaos. Education, healthcare, social services? Forget about it. Orderly elections? Not on my watch. Environmental regulations? Hell no. Collective bargaining? Dream on. Reproductive rights? Gimme a break. Gun control? Get lost, go fly a kite. The corruption of Florida’s leaders is so absolute that they care about nothing except the narrow interests of the wealthy corporate donor class — the kind of folks Romney was speaking to at the fundraiser where he made his infamous “47%” remark. Money is all that matters to them. Marco Rubio isn’t sure what to think about the theory of evolution. When it comes to the “free market,” he has no doubts whatsoever.
The “free market” means economic realities are harsh in Florida. Is there any place where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is more glaring? Florida is where the super-rich like to move to in order to avoid paying state income taxes. They barricade themselves inside gated communities and fortified compounds 
that resemble Sadaam Hussein’s palaces. Some have their own airstrips for their private jets. They probably sit on solid gold chamber pots in the morning, and bathe in champagne jacuzzis at night. Meanwhile, the rest of the population swelters in a hotbox of rampant exploitation, poverty, racism, harassment, and violence. The bottom line is that unless you’re a rich, and probably white, and probably male in Florida, you’re going to get screwed. You’re just a second-class citizen. The elites have rigged the game there from top to bottom. Florida belongs to them. The rest of the riff-raff can all go to hell. Or just suffer in poverty and hopelessness. Or sell drugs and get sent to prison. Or dance naked in strip clubs. Or flip burgers and clean bathrooms for the minimum wage. Florida’s “middle class” is a shrinking demographic, lost in the raw politics of untrammeled greed, and tricked into voting against their own interests in favor of conservative “social issues” such as gun rights and defense of marriage and border security. For several decades, the middle class has been bullied and beaten and wheedled and cajoled and simply lied to until they came to accept the deeply flawed “makers vs. takers” rhetoric. Then they wonder what happened to all the decent jobs.
The most notable literature about Florida these days inevitably dwells on issues pertaining to advanced social disintegration. Three books are worth mentioning in this regard. Russell Banks’s superb novel Lost Memory of Skin concerns a young man wrongfully convicted of a sex crime, who is living with his pet iguana in a homeless encampment on the fringe of Miami populated mainly by convicted sex offenders. Tom Wolfe’s bestselling Back to Blood gleefully satirizes Miami’s seething racial tensions amongst a backdrop of greed and decadence. Karen Russell’s highly praised Swamplandia attempts a quasi-magical realist portrayal of a family-owned reptile theme park featuring aquatic stunts with alligators. It’s a great book, even if the realities lurking behind the fiction are far from magical.
If you live in Florida, unless you like the idea of increasing danger and instability, you are in for a tough time. Of course, you could do the righteous thing and join the crusade for justice and sanity being waged by civil rights activists and labor leaders and environmentalists. The other choice is to re-read the Book of Revelations and start making final plans. Because unless major positive changes transpire, the end is surely near. The Beast has risen from the sea, poisoning everything with the toxic vapors of its terminal breath.
Which brings us to climate change — the true beast in this whole scenario, and one which has nothing to do with Biblical considerations. Make no mistake: sea levels are rising, and much of Florida, with its sprawling coastline, remains perilously close to sea level. Leading climatologists tell us that it’s only a matter of time now until Miami is submerged and transformed into a new underwater Atlantis. (See Jeff Goodell’s June 20 piece in Rolling Stone Magazine called ”Goodby Miami.”) Sometime in the near future, people won’t be partying in the streets and clubs of South Beach anymore. They will be snorkeling or scuba diving.
If the climatologists’ worst predictions come true, the resulting cataclysm will make the George Zimmerman trial seem like a quaint get-together for tea and cookies. But try telling that to the people running the show in Florida — and the majority of people who voted for them or let them seize power. They think climate change and global warming is a “hoax.” Just like they think George Zimmerman fired in “self-defense.” Just like they think Obamacare is a “job-killer.” Just like they think guns make people “safer.” Just like they think civil rights activists are “racists.” Just like they think President Obama is a “muslim socialist.”
Florida, in other words, is not all that different from the rest of America. It’s just America on powerfully toxic conservative steroids. It’s America heading for some kind of apocalypse. It’s Floridapocalypse Now. The rest of us need to focus on this powerful mantra: We can’t let this happen here.