A Florida columnist savaged his state’s Republican politicians Friday for sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring reality.
“Even wild-eyed zealots must reach a breakpoint where reality undercuts MAGA ideology,” wrote Fred Grimm for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“Apparently, in Florida, that juncture remains elusive.”
Grimm rattled off a long list of issues that were affecting his state, and bashed its leaders for ignoring them.
“Florida hasn’t reached that crucial breakpoint where truth matters more than ideology,” he said.
Top of his gripes was the inactivity on global warming, even as Florida burns under some of the highest temperatures it has ever experienced.
“Imagine the enormous self-deception required to ignore a life-threatening heat dome stalled over Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and a sizeable chunk of Arizona,” he wrote.
“Climate denial just doesn’t resonate after the hottest day in the hottest week in the hottest June in recorded history. Along with floods, wildfires, superstorms, droughts, mudslides, melting glaciers, dying coral reefs and other disasters ignited by global warming.”
Other things the MAGA politicians were in denial of included the fleeing of immigrant workers, the cancellation of conventions and the reasons why insurance companies were abandoning the state, he said.
“Imagine hewing to the official state pretense that Florida’s property insurance crisis isn’t a crisis in the same week that Farmers Insurance Group notified the state that it was skedaddling,” Grimm wrote.
“Imagine acting as if the spate of racist, homophobic, sexist laws spat out by the Florida Legislature embodies sound policy rather than the cynical contrivances of the governor’s presidential campaign. Never mind that Florida cities are losing convention business due to the state’s “unfriendly political environment.”
“Imagine trying to convince farmers and builders that Florida’s draconian anti-immigrant legislation hasn’t chased away much-needed workers, even as farmers and builders insist otherwise.”
He went on: “When it comes to firearm killings, escalating insurance costs, climate disasters, immigrant labor, polluted waterways, legislative bigotry, the solutions are obvious. Sadly, we’re just not there yet.”
