Florida voters: Brain dead?
By Gimleteye
From the Eye on Miami blog
No one is surprised that the [Florida] Marlins, a professional sports team, conned public officials into standing behind a $700 million stadium, lying about the team’s finances. If you are a paid consultant to the Marlins and read this blog and are surprised, raise your hand. The voters of Miami Dade are that stupid.
Do voters care that Pepe Diaz or Dorrin Rolle allowed rock mining in West Dade to threaten public health and drinking water? Of course not. Worried about cancer rates or cancer clusters? Hell no: that’s someone else’s problem. Care that the police department looted the environmental fund, which collects millions in fines from polluters and law-breakers? No one cares about the environment. Mayor Alvarez won’t even answer press questions on police looting the environmental fund.
Care to understand the difference between state senator Julio Robaina [who lost last week’s primary battle to] Miguel Diaz de la Portilla? No. Care that Jeffrey Loria, the Marlin’s owner, [pocketed] $49 million the year he and his staff were crying poverty and couldn’t afford to keep professional baseball in Miami unless taxpayers stood behind their deal? Nope.
Miami Dade voters are brain dead. In the District 8 runoff for county commission, voters could choose a former mayor of the city that is the blighted, blasted capital of Florida’s fraud and mortgage scams and bankers gone wild: Homestead. Do voters even know what that is? Nope. The worst housing market bubble and crash since the Great Depression has had no impact whatsoever on Florida’s brain dead voters. Reward ignorance. Condemn honesty. Bury facts. Celebrate buildings. Play ball!
Gimleteye is the name used by Alan Farago in his Eye on Miami blog. For the past 20 years Farago has written, worked and volunteered to advance civic engagement and issues related to the environment and politics.
