As we continue to lament the loss of Jimmy Buffett and the Florida we once knew disappearing in the DeSantis years, it occurs to me Florida’s Democrats once focused on local Florida issues and immersed in Florida culture have become just like national democrats – a toxic brand in Florida- had Florida Democrats of the Askew/Graham/Chiles vintage been “national democrats,” the GOP would have started sweeping this state in the 1970’s after they finished the 1960’s in Florida very strongly, electing Claude Kirk Governor and Ed Gurney to the US Senate while picking up dozens of seats in the legislature in the 1966 and 1968 elections.

Instead, Florida Democrats won 22 of 23 statewide elections in the 1970’s, flipping the script by focusing on Florida’s unique culture, while emphasizing economic growth, and innovation State government became a partner in developing businesses, elevating the space program, stimulating the film and music industries and protecting our fragile environment, which is what helped make Florida so unique and special.

Our Florida identity and the Democratic Party itself were wrapped around Jimmy Buffett’s Florida. Beautiful beaches.Protecting our coastline. Empowering our beach culture and “parrot heads” that emanated from Buffett’s music was part of coalition building for Democrats. Today’s Florida Democrats emphasis on national issues while not emphasizing the climate crisis and other environmental issues enough (maybe due to donors?) isn’t working. And it will never work in this state. Those that don’t want to hear about the climate or environment or our coastline or out wetlands, they all vote GOP anyway and always will.

In Jimmy Buffett’s Florida things were different…

A unique, different culture that wasn’t the caricature of 2020’s “Florida Man” but an enviable aura that others around the nation sought to emulate or latch on to. Buffett himself was an activist that did so much for this state. I was lucky on multiple occasions when I worked on political campaigns to be up close with him whether at an airport hanger or a small campaign rally, where he wowed us.

The Democrats governing Florida in the 1970’s were unlike anything the state had experienced before and I’d argue unlike Democrats or GOPers in the rest of the US at the time. The redistricting of 1968 had brought into the legislature more urbane representatives – part-time legislators who were accessible and approachable.

It was a sunny, optimistic political culture, one that spread to Florida society. Forward looking, innovative and different. Typified by the space program, Disney, and our beautiful wetlands and beaches, Florida was the envy of the nation.

The 1980’s were a special time – an enlightened time in Florida. EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and it was a statewide celebration.  The IBM PC the previous year had been created by a team led by a native Floridian, Don Estridge at IBM’s Boca Raton campus.

A sound developed in the 1970’s that was somewhat adjacent to Buffett’s music – The Falsetto sound of the Bee Gees that changed popular music was developed in Miami and had obvious local influences. The Florida of that era was a melting pot that molded beach, Caribbean, Latin and southern cultures together to create something unlike we had anywhere else in the US.

That emphasis on environmental issues here is key. Jimmy Buffett was a leader on that. His involvement with Florida’s political leadership particularly Governor Bob Graham helped net some incredible results. Save the Manatee was formed as a result as were the nation’s most aggressive state-driven growth management and wetlands protections programs. Coastal areas were treated as god’s gift, and a key driver of Florida’s economy. Florida’s Democrats basked in this culture, collecting votes of working class types that loved Buffett’s music and the independent culture of Florida’s beaches, reducing the GOP to the votes of economic elites and country club goers.

Buffett’s passing emphasizes to me we need a Florida Democratic Party that rediscovers itself as a FLORIDA party, not a division of a national one. National Democrats quite frankly haven’t been successful in Florida, well ever, with the exception of Claude Pepper (whose last statewide win was in 1944). When Democrats dominated this state, our Democrats were different. And this isn’t per se an ideological thing, it’s a tonal thing- emphasize the environment and economic growth instead of the divisive social issues or things with little local relevance that national democrats embrace.

Florida’s elections have become nationalized, pushing previous Democratic voters at the state level toward the GOP because Florida Democrats have allowed this to happen. This has allowed Governor DeSantis to continue with his efforts to “Make Florida, America” as Peter Schorsch termed it. DeSantis condescending view of our state, our culture and our history has been enabled by Florida Democrats unwillingness to stand up and fight for the Florida we grew up in and the Florida that was the envy of the nation, not the butt of jokes as it is today.

Looking at the Buffett legacy and where Florida Democrats need to go to recapture the state, I see few elected officials today that can fill the bill. But I do see two former officeholders with deep Florida ties that could be the salvation for the party in trying to recapture this middle ground while understanding the Florida we once knew.

David Jolly, a former GOP Congressman who has left that party and become a vocal critic of Ron DeSantis. Jolly a seventh generation Floridian from St Petersburg, the most traditionally Florida big city left in the state doesn’t necessarily fit my ideological preferences, but we’re at a point where that really shouldn’t matter. We need someone who understands the state, our culture, and will fight to protect it against a backward-thinking legislature and pay-to-play GOP.

Gwen Graham, who ran for Governor in 2018 is another that fills this bill. Again, maybe not along my lines ideologically, but someone who has embraced the Buffett tradition much like father and would understand the Florida we’ve left behind for this god-forsaken place of 2023.

For me the absolute key are environmental issues and growth management. Everything else can flow from there.

I am sure other names can be entered into the mix as well. With Jimmy Buffett’s passing we need to use this as an opportunity to recapture the Florida we lost and revitalize the Democratic Party in the state.