{"id":13273,"date":"2023-08-07T03:13:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T03:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13273"},"modified":"2023-08-10T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:43:40","slug":"california-vs-florida-a-tale-of-two-americas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13273","title":{"rendered":"California vs. Florida: A tale of two Americas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Noah Bierman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent the weeks since his reelection warring with \u201cwoke\u201d enemies: picking a $2-billion fight<\/a> with the world\u2019s largest money manager over its environmental policies and vowing to go to court to defend a new law<\/a> that blocks teaching about racial oppression and white privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent time since his reelection attacking DeSantis \u2014 on Twitter<\/a> and in an op-ed<\/a> and spoken comments<\/a> \u2014 while promising to make his own state a haven for many of the practices the Florida Republican opposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s cruel,\u201d the Democrat said of DeSantis in a recent interview. \u201cI have no respect for bullies and people who\u2019ve made their entire political careers on attacking vulnerable communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Gov. Newsom is looking for any pointers on successful governance, he can follow Florida\u2019s lead,\u201d DeSantis\u2019 spokeswoman Lindsey Curnutte said in response to Newsom\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The states are becoming two of the nation\u2019s biggest ideological rivals. Superman has Bizarro, a powerful antagonist who resembles him from afar but has the opposite instincts. Florida and California have each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advisors to Newsom and DeSantis, who are coming off landslide reelection victories, expect competition to escalate between the two governors, who could at some point run for president. But their differences are greater than one contest between two men. They also reflect widening national schisms over culture, lifestyle and the definition of freedom \u2014 between those who see institutions as forces to lift people up and those who see them bearing down on people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a distance, the two coastal states look similar: beaches and natural disasters; kitschy theme parks full of tourists; orange groves paved over by housing developments; and populations that swell with people from elsewhere seeking to remake themselves in places unburdened by their pasts. But their differences have often come to dominate the national conversation in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalifornia represents to the right: high taxes, Hollywood, strange parades in San Francisco where the drag queens not only read stories, they prance,\u201d said Diane Roberts, a Florida-based author and DeSantis critic who writes about her state\u2019s culture and history. \u201cWhereas in Florida, we\u2019re investigating a drag queen Christmas show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom sees demographic and cultural changes<\/a> as part of a progression toward a more equitable society, and views the biggest challenges as the systemic hurdles that have kept women, people of color and other marginalized groups from full participation in American society. He has promoted California as a refuge for people seeking abortion rights and gender-affirming care for children, while vowing to make the state a leader in reversing climate change and workplace inequities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sells California as a place that is valued for that openness as he works to attract tech companies and other innovators who want to make money on the shift toward green energy while tapping into a more educated workforce that leans progressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, Newsom released a plan to cap oil industry profits<\/a> and visited the U.S.-Mexico border to emphasize support for asylum seekers and push for changes to federal immigration law. And his second term, he has said, will be about implementing programs he started in his first term to reduce the drug addiction and homelessness that contribute to the Fox News caricature of his state as out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis sees the forces of change embraced by Newsom as their own form of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

oppression. He defined Florida in his recent inaugural speech as \u201ca refuge of sanity\u201d and \u201ca citadel of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He campaigned on his resistance to COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates;<\/a> championed laws that forbid discussing LGBTQ issues in public kindergarten through third grade; and restricted teaching about racial oppression throughout the public education system. All of those stances, he argues, empower parents and attract businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His allies say they see Florida, where the Republican edge has been modest for decades, as a fully red state since DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points. That included a victory in Miami-Dade, the most Latino county in the state, just weeks after he used taxpayer money to ship unsuspecting Central American migrants from Texas to Martha\u2019s Vineyard in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis has also been eager to fight what he calls \u201cwoke capitalism\u201d; he signed a bill in April to revoke Disney\u2019s special tax status after the company criticized Florida\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d law.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His advisors and allies predict this term will feature swipes at tech companies that have drawn complaints of censorship from the right. A former DeSantis advisor also expects the governor to delve deeper into gender issues, including potential legislation to restrict youth attendance at drag shows. Two medical boards appointed by DeSantis voted last year to ban gender-affirming treatment for minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state announced in December that it would pull $2 billion in investments from BlackRock,<\/a> the world\u2019s largest money manager, because the firm considers social and environmental impact in its investment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the rhetoric and their relative popularity, neither governor can claim unmitigated success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key part of DeSantis\u2019 law against public school discussions of white privilege and racial oppression was tossed in court; the Legislature may need to backtrack on stripping Disney of its special tax status to avoid saddling taxpayers with nearly $1billion in Disney debt; and homeowner insurance companies are imposing 30% rates hikes or leaving the market entirely, due in large part to hurricanes that have been made more ferocious by climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney, meanwhile, has delayed plans to move thousands of its theme park employees from California to Florida, hurting the latter\u2019s development goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom is battling a homelessness crisis that has crippled major cities, an energy crisis that threatens the state\u2019s prosperity and a water crisis that has failed to abate. After decades of population growth, the state is seeing more people leave <\/a>for other states than are coming in from elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida is attracting some of them. And many are still going to Texas, which for more than a decade has positioned itself as California\u2019s chief sparring partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas leaders have actively promoted their state\u2019s business-friendly climate, which includes no income tax, low regulations and cheap land. They sued to block Obamacare and pushed boundaries on abortion restrictions. The moves were all part of a conscious effort to make Texas a national leader in the development of conservative causes, said Kenneth P. Miller, a professor at Claremont McKenna College and the author of \u201cTexas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlorida wasn\u2019t really on the radar screen until Ron DeSantis single-handedly made Florida a rival to California,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous eras, governors with national ambitions generally presented themselves as moderates who could rise above the partisan fray. Texas Gov. George W. Bush marketed himself as a \u201ccompassionate conservative\u201d and touted the benefits of immigration in his presidential run. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton pushed for a \u201cthird way\u201d with a more business-friendly Democratic Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a closely divided and increasingly partisan country in which the number of states under single-party rule is at a 70-year high,<\/a> many governors have gambled on a different approach, selling their states as national models of left- or right-wing governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another potential candidate for national office, has defended her state\u2019s strict abortion ban, and signed a law that bars transgender kids from participating in sports according to their gender identity. Moderate Republican governors in Massachusetts and Maryland are being replaced by liberal Democrats who promise more aggressive policies on equity and civil rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that more Americans live in ideological fortresses \u2014 with millions feeling isolated as political minorities if they happen to live in a state run by an opposing party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In California, for example, 70% of Republicans are interested in moving out of the state, compared with just 27% of Democrats; and in Florida, 49% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they would ponder leaving, Miller found in an October poll<\/a> of voters from the two states as well as Texas and New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the minority parties in California and Florida cited politics ahead of the economy when asked for the top reason they would consider leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, few people move for political reasons, given the constraints of jobs, housing and family ties. But Americans increasingly see themselves as part of national red or blue teams \u2014 a change from the past, when politics and culture were based more on region than political party, said Jacob M. Grumbach, author of \u201cLaboratories Against Democracy,\u201d a book about the nationalization of state politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With fewer news outlets covering local and state issues, voters, donors and party activists are increasingly responding to politicians like DeSantis and Newsom, who focus on national issues that resonate with like-minded partisans on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis is all but certain to run for president<\/a> in 2024. Newsom has said he will not run in 2024, but he could change his mind if President Biden opts out, or may try his hand in 2028. An election featuring either man would probably offer a referendum on the culture and politics of his state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not just governors looking to move up. School boards and other local officials \u2014 especially on the right \u2014 are also weighing in on hot-button national issues like critical race theory, whether it\u2019s being taught in their districts or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grumbach said it\u2019s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future \u2014 with nearly every political contest providing a cultural referendum on issues that often have little specific policy content, like whether to wear a mask in public or how people should engage in a multicultural society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven running for local dogcatcher,\u201d Grumbach said, \u201cyou better have an opinion on the national tug-of-war issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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