I know it's probably a losing proposition to take political advice from a candidate who couldn't even clear her party primary. But sometimes the wisdom (or lack thereof) is too much to simply walk past. Sometimes you do have to point out the farcical theory being offered.
Pam Keith is a Democratic candidate who has struggled to gain any traction within her own party. In 2016 she made a failed bid for the U.S. Senate. This year she shifted gears and attempted to earn a slot in the U.S. House of Representatives, wishing to represent Florida’s 18th District. In both instances, she failed to make it out of the primary.
In a case of maybe displaying some of the thinking that has prevented her from being taken seriously by her own potential constituents, Keith recently theorized on how to make Florida ... well, not a better place, but one at least more to her personal liking. In a tweet reaching a remarkable level of unawareness, the former candidate had an idea on how Florida can be changed.
“Hey, Blue State Dems: Have you considered moving to a red state?” she begins. This is a woman who lives in and has run in the Sunshine State, essentially identified by its perpetually growing level of transplants. That Pam Keith thinks she is offering an original idea here is totally odd. What will be her next idea ... that we start planting oranges as a cash crop?
She continued with her theory: “A migration of only 50k people would turn some red states blue for the Senate & electoral college.” Understand, for this to happen ALL 50K need be from only one party, for this to work. “Think about it. Wide open spaces, low cost of living & an outsized say in our politics. Indeed, 75k would flip FL.”
Good idea, Pam; let’s think about this. For one, those wide open spaces are liable to shrink considerably as a result of your proposed influx, but that’s just me quibbling. How about the application of political reasoning here? Note that Keith desires a Blue State environment, but she is unwilling to relocate to one of her Blue utopias. Instead, she wishes to compel tens of thousands to uproot and arrive here to convert things to her approved standards.
But laughable is her enticement. That low cost of living she mentions, in addition to Florida's booming economy, homestead exemptions, and no state sales tax are decidedly conservative economic principles. Recently, we just got the jobs report for our state and saw that unemployment dropped yet again in October, and that was in the wake of a destructive hurricane.
So, Keith’s idea is to lure a caravan of Democratic voters to the state, luring them with all of the economic benefits we enjoy -- and then proceed to unravel all of those reasons for arriving by installing Democratic policies. This is not even close to hysterical prognosticating.
Andrew Gillum's agenda, had he won and put it into effect, would have been a hearty tug on the brake of the economic locomotive we're on. Hiking the corporate tax rates drastically, installing the jobs-killing $15-an-hour minimum wage, and raising overall taxes to fund his Medicare-for-all proposal were just the boldest of his proposals. Following those, there would have been little remaining to lure more Democrats down here.
Pam Keith displayed all the reasoning behind her own party choosing to go in another direction with other candidates. The only reason to highlght her deeply flawed rationale here is that she is essentially touting our GOP economy.
"Look how great things are running down here, c'mon down!" is a great campaign slogan for the Republicans. Thank you, Pam, for pointing those details out for the rest.
Brad Slager, a Fort Lauderdale freelance writer, wrote this story exclusively for Sunshine State News. He writes on politics and the entertainment industry and his stories appear in such publications as RedState and The Federalist.
