Florida, Everything that is Wrong with Politics

On August 14, the state of Florida will select the nominees for each party in the House and Senate races. However, that election is nothing more than a check in the box as members of the inner party have already selected their chosen candidates and bought off or intimidated all the other candidates.

At the height of the election, there were eight legitimate candidates in the Senate race - that is candidates that put forth at least some effort to win the nomination. Not long ago, the Republican establishment decided that current Congressman Connie Mack was to be the nominee and all other candidates must resign from the race. Five of those candidates have either gone to other races or resigned.

First, there was former Senator George LeMieux. His campaign website now flatly states that the Republican establishment is supporting Connie Mack and the reality of the situation is that no one can compete against someone protected by the machine.

Then there was State Senator Mike Haridopolos who has stated that he is not only no longer seeking the Senate Seat, but that he is not seeking any seat next year. He states that he was told that it would be too hard to run for office and do his job at the same time and that he should have realized this earlier. He apologizes for letting his constituents down and pledges to do better in the future. Throughout the video, it seems like there are three Republican thugs waiting just off screen to tear up his membership card if he doesn't go through with it. The Brooks Brothers Mafia still reigns.

Finally, there was William Fisher, who ended his campaign some time ago and merely asked more people to make efforts to run in the future.

Two other senate candidates moved their candidacies to seek House districts. State Representative Adam Hasner is running for Congress in the 22nd district, and Craig Miller is now seeking the House seat for the 6th district. Both of these men have apparently gotten the blessing of the party in these districts and will be the nominees.

This leaves only former Congressman Dave Weldon as the remaining candidate that has put forth at least some effort to campaign and remains in the race against Congressman Mack. Nothing against Congressman Weldon, but that is sad.

Nothing is more counter to the ideas of this nation than the fact that Americans are only being given the choice of which partisan hack they like the best. Yet more and more, that is exactly what is happening. The parties don't allow opposition to their incumbents and party leaders don't allow challengers to their chosen candidates. This leads to a scenario where every member of Congress is completely beholden to party leadership to be re-elected and therefore the party line is towed on almost every vote.

Florida is still listed as a toss up ... the Democrat or the Republican may win in November. However, no matter which candidate wins the race, he is not really the one selected by the people but rather the one selected from the approved list of candidates.