Some conversations are more memorable than others.
I periodically reflect back on one I had with former Mayor Dick Greco last October. The newly-minted octogenarian was as feisty and animated as ever in surveying the political scene. Two topics were dominant: the 2014 gubernatorial race and voter apathy.
A year later, they resonate even more. No, make that haunt.
“I’m only making one prediction,” said Greco. “It will be the nastiest campaign you’ve ever seen. It will be ugly.”
I wish he hadn’t been so prescient. In fact, I’d settle for ugly right now.
If obscene amounts of money, ever-ratcheting polarization and visceral candidate dislikes for each other are any indication, the gubernatorial slog between now and Nov. 4 will get ever nastier. The character-assassinating commercials will make us nostalgic for the days when pols were mainly glib and self-serving.
Jeb Bush vs. Buddy MacKay. Jeb Bush vs. Bill McBride. Charlie Crist vs. Jim Davis. Those were the days, my friend. The gloves came off, to be sure, but brass knuckles weren’t underneath. It was pre-Citizens United, pre-Tea Party and pre-Obama Administration, the political cocktail from hell that now defines and polarizes us.
But there was a constant, besides Republican gubernatorial winners. Less than half of Florida’s Democratic and Republican voters turned out, many only after considerable coaxing.
“People are not as involved,” lamented Greco. “And they use every excuse in the book. I can still remember my 97-year-old mom filling out her absentee ballot because she had never missed an election.”
What a quaint concept: voting as a right and a responsibility. And a given.
But this is not Evelyn Greco’s electorate. Hasn’t been for a while.
In 2002 and 2006, for example, 40 percent of Dems turned out to vote for McBride and Davis, respectively. The Republicans, behind Bush and Crist, turned out 46 and 45 percent, respectively. In 2010, 38 percent were turned on enough to turn out for Alex Sink, while 46 percent of Republicans showed up for Rick Scott.
Deplorable numbers for both sides, but advantage enough to matter for Republicans. And if that pattern repeats, especially in the Democratic counties of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, Scott wins. And keep in mind that the recent primaries drew a statewide turnout of 17.57 percent.
We hear the arguments that negative campaigning continues to turn off voters. Plus, there’s the rationale that numbers are just never impressive in non-presidential years. Moreover, neither Crist nor Scott are considered public service avatars. And, who knows, maybe Jennifer Carroll’s (“I was treated like an unwanted stepchild”) book will tamp down interest even further.
Excuses, we have plenty. Informed, participant voters, who don’t just cherry-pick partisan sources and can see through blatant distortions and misrepresentations, not so much.
Democracy, arguably, cannot be a non-participatory system. Or one confined to activists and zealots. Ultimately, a price is paid. Arguably, we’re seeing manifest signs of that right now in the oft-putting mano a mano between Crist, an ideological chameleon, and Scott, an ideologue in election-year makeover mode.
For some reason, a quote of Congressman John Anderson, the 1980 independent presidential candidate, comes to mind. During a debate with President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan, he referred to himself as the alternative to the establishment candidates, whom he characterized as the “evil of two lessers.”
It was a blindsiding zinger said for effect, and the media, of course, had fun with it.
Now it wouldn’t be funny. It would be true.