Category Florida History
Flashback Friday: 50 Years of Medicare …Florida’s delegation vote
This week the nation celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Medicare. Florida has benefited in particular from the program through the years but not everyone in our Congressional delegation embraced the program in 1965. That was even though we had only two Republicans elected from Florida at the time (and both representing large senior populations voted […]
Thursday Bookshelf : 1775 and why Florida didn’t join the American Revolution
Kevin Phillips 1775: A Good Year for Revolution is a definitive and intellectual look at the causes of the American Revolution. Like Phillips other woks we’ve reviewed here on the “Bush Dynasty” and the politics of the American wealthy and the developing theocracy that appeared during the 2000’s , Phillips makes any subject interesting. The former Republican political consultant […]
Flashback Friday: Ivy League elite theories lead to Florida lynchings.
The Ivy League which is today diverse, multicultural experience was once upon a time the bastion of white, protestant elite and racist thought. The so-called Dunning School of history which grew out of Colombia University in the early 1900’s. Quoting Wikipedia: The Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical school of […]
Flashback Friday: Flying the Sunshine to Florida
1970’s were a glory era in Florida politically and economically. Tourism and job growth exploded while the economy diversified. With visionary leaders like Governor Reubin Askew, the state projected an image of efficiency, smart growth, environmental consciousness and most of all paradise to the rest of the country.One company that benefited from Florida’s robust growth […]
Flashback Friday: Jimmy Carter vs Ronald Reagan in Florida
We’ve spent a lot of time on TFS through the years talking about the “Dixiecrat” vote in north Florida as well as the interior of the state. These voters overwhelmingly supported George Wallace in 1968, running as an Independent, stuck with Wallace in the 1972 Democratic Primary leading him to an overwhelming statewide victory and […]
Flashback Friday: Civil Rights, Southern Manifesto and Voting Rights in Florida
In light of recent Civil Rights related controversies a look back at some of the sorry history of Florida members of Congress during the Civil Rights era. The Southern Manifesto (1956) from Florida. According to the official US House of Representatives site: ” Howard Smith of Virginia, chairman of the House Rules Committee, introduced theSouthern Manifesto in a […]
The Confederate Flag and Florida – My internal conflict
I must admit the recent controversy about the Confederate “battle” flag caught me slightly off-guard. As someone who has lived in Florida since 1979, and have been active in Democratic politics since the mid 1990’s, I simply accepted the flag as a symbol of southern regional pride and expression. Did the flag make me uncomfortable […]
Flashback Friday: Jeb Bush and the Confederate Flag
In 2001 Governor Jeb Bush very quietly removed a version of the Confederate Battle Flag from the row of flags outside the Florida Capitol. While in hindsight this might seem like an act of political courage, it is worth remembering Jeb Bush comes from a Connecticut Yankee family and into the mid 2000’s the majority […]
Flashback Friday: Florida’s first female member of Congress
Many political nuts do not know that William Jennings Bryan, one of the most significant politicians of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s relocated to the Miami area in the later part of his life. The three-time Democratic nominee moved the party towards economic populism and social conservatism. Bryan was the most feared man in […]
Flashback Friday: Florida’s first African-American member of Congress
Republican Josiah T. Walls was Florida’s first African-American Congressman, and a powerful symbol of the Reconstruction era in the state. Walls was born into slavery in Virginia and captured by the Union Army during the Peninsula Campaign. Eventually he was discharged in Florida after the Battle of Olustee and settled in the Gainesville area. Following […]
The Florida Squeeze 