Down in the sunshine state, ominous clouds gathering over the Democratic Party have apparently drenched party leadership before the political storm of 2018 even arrives. It appears Florida voters may give the badly splintered party an extra helping of doom and gloom in 2018, if a tampa bay times “The Buzz” editorial is any indication. In it, Rep. Kionne Mcghee, D-Miami, incoming House minority leader, sounds more like he’s rearranging lounge chairs on the Titanic than breathing inspiration into politically cataleptic Democratic state House candidates.
“My goal is to maintain in the off-season our pickups from the presidential year, which is something Democrats have never done before,” McGhee is quoted in the Times piece.
Fla. Democrats treading water
Really? Unless McGhee is suffering from clinical depression, his goal of maintaining the status-quo in the 2018 election cycle is insanely inexplicable, seeing that Republicans currently dominate the House 78-41.
“We’re not going to play in a district just because we can...we’re going to go after those races that we believe we can win,” touted McGhee in the virtual Democratic obituary column. Florida’s top House Democrat publicly admitting that his party should not even consider a net pick-up against Republicans with the election more than 18 months away is a bit like being run over by a train because it was too much trouble to slide off the tracks.
Liberal newspaper down with Democrats' struggle
Times staff, obviously down with McGhee’s struggle, mentioned how Democrats typically fare better in presidential election years because blacks, Hispanics and young voters turn out in greater numbers. That Times' analysis, besides being nauseatingly placating from a political standpoint, lacks any attachment to the aspirations of rank-and-file Democratic voters.
To its credit, the Times' political puffer mentioned that the Democrats picked up a couple of seats in 2016, but that they generally lose that and more in “off year” elections. The enormous, stomping, salivating Tyrannosaurus Rex chomping on the red meat of the tone-deaf Democratic forfeiture is the notion that there is an “off year” for a political party that hasn’t had an on-year in several voting cycles.
Status-quo hardly inspirational
In the Times' article, staff writers' listing of a group of districts in which Democrats have offered unknown and untried candidates for 2018 contests is akin to excusing General Custer's last stand as a failure of his soldiers to fight.
On second thought, the minority speaker’s suggestion that Democrats need to focus on maintaining the status-quo in 2018 may work better in Florida than Georgia Democrats' doomed Sixth District strategy of blowing $25 million-plus on Jon Ossoff, a guy voters never heard of who lives five miles outside of the district with his girlfriend.
