Florida Republicans have managed to kill just about everything Miami-Dade County has stood for during the past five decades.
Tuesday’s midterm election results seal what has been in the making over recent election cycles — a concerted effort by Tallahassee to erode our multicultural identity and our bipartisan political landscape.
What will life be like in redder than ever Miami-Dade County?
Not as dandy as MAGA Republicans, who once more successfully demonized Democrats for a resounding win, think.
Miamians who value what we leave our children — as Cuban independence hero José Martí described it, “roots and wings” — are losing more than an election. For instance, the distinctive titles City of Refuge and Gateway to the Americas.
This was the place where heritage was exuberantly and freely celebrated, not discarded, as the Miami-Dade School Board is prepped to do this month to appease the Miami chapter of misnamed Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents rights group tied to reelected Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Only the American flag and the official motto of the state of Florida — “In God We Trust” — will be allowed in classrooms and on school district grounds. Say goodbye to the proudly fluttering flags of the Americas during Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.
No black, yellow and blue Bahamian flags to mark Black South Florida’s historic roots, either.
No need to say that the LGBTQ Pride flag won’t be anywhere in sight in a state school system run by homophobic politicians.
In Miami, showcase of all-American immigrant power, now the only acceptable way to demonstrate patriotism is with a Trump Nation flag displayed year-round, while a Joe Biden flag on a jet ski gets you shot at.
The bigots of the 1980s would be so pleased with your handiwork, Cuban American and Latino voters, in helping those who fought bilingualism — and our very presence here — achieve the goal of burying our native lands’ flags.
It’s adiós to being a conglomeration of cities run by bipartisan minority-majority political power. This made us unique, something other minorities around the country envied. Now, our new rap is one hue, one-party ruled — inexplicably, as are the places we fled from.
Congratulations, Republicans.
Competent Democratic leaders like Daniella Levine Cava are — and will be until the Trump cult evaporates — the exception to GOP dominance. The new ruling class won’t remember that in Miami’s most prosperous years, the best and most consequential mayors were Democrats named Manny Díaz, a Cuban American, and Maurice Ferré, a Puerto Rican.
What a red Florida means
Perhaps worse than what’s happening to my Miami, where the street and intellectual culture hopefully will go on being multihued and eclectic, is Florida’s evolution from a politically powerful battleground purple state to being just another red state.
Consider this: There’s no incentive for Democratic presidential candidates to consider us, to court us, to make promises we’ll hold them to — and to compensate us with federal dollars for needed things like expensive infrastructure for our willingness to listen to candidates from another party.
Issues like Cuba’s freedom and Haiti’s restoration to political civility may no longer be a priority for politicians running for office. This has implications, too, for Latin America’s fragile democracies.
“For the first time, Republicans will have a sense of political impunity,” Miami pollster Fernand Amandi tells me. “They will likely act as if they are able to do whatever they want without fear that the Democratic Party will present any kind of challenge to stop them.”
No checks and balances.
How frightening, especially considering DeSantis and the GOP’s recent legislative history and excesses.
The blatant unconstitutional gerrymandering at all levels to favor Republicans. The arrests of Black voters given ID cards for voting. The flourishing of hate groups like the Proud Boys as legitimate participants in Republican politics. Flags bearing swastikas waved from Florida highways without consequence.
In 2018, DeSantis won the gubernatorial race by the barest of margins — and he turned the state upside down, ramming through unpopular anti-gay, anti-Black, anti-women legislation, without a mandate.
Yet he has suffered no consequences at the ballot box.
Imagine what the autocrat with fascist tendencies and presidential 2024 ambitions will do after his double-digit defeat over Charlie Crist.
The people who don’t agree with DeSantis and the Florida GOP are in for rough times — but eventually, the erosion of free thought and independence will catch up to everyone.
Democracy cannot survive in an environment where we no longer agree on what facts constitute truth — and where only lies win elections.
