What’s the Deal With Florida?

At Liberty

News

4.8 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2018

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Florida seems perpetually to be at the center of the national conversation and news cycle. The current recount to determine the results of Florida's Senate and gubernatorial races is just the latest in a series of high-profile elections and attention-grabbing cases in the Sunshine State. This week’s guest, Howard Simon, has had a front row seat to it all as the executive director of the ACLU of Florida for over 20 years. We’re asking Howard for his insights into a state that reflects a lot of the divisions in this country.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Lee Rowland. Welcome to At Liberty, the podcast where we discuss today's most important civil rights and civil liberties topics. Today, what's the deal with Florida?
0:32.3	Ah, Florida. It's the third most populous state, the nation's fourth largest economy, and the earliest European settlement in the continental United States.
0:38.5	It also seems to perpetually exist at the epicenter of the national conversation and news cycle.
0:47.1	Our guest today, Howard Simon, has had a front row seat to the Florida show as the ACLU of Florida's longtime executive director.
0:56.7	After 21 years in the Sunshine State and another two plus decades at the ACLU of Michigan before that, Howard is the ACLU's longest serving state director. He's retiring this month on the heels of yet another eventful
1:02.7	election in the state of Florida. And despite having left damn near half a century ago, Howard
1:08.3	still proudly sports an unmistakable New York accent, which you are
1:12.6	about to hear. Howard, welcome to the show. We're delighted to have you here today to discuss what
1:18.1	makes Florida tick. Thank you, Lee. It's always a pleasure to speak with you. So I want to just ask you
1:24.1	first for your reaction to this recent election in Florida. What do you make of
1:29.2	what we saw in the midterms? Well, it was, this being Florida, of course, it's puzzling.
1:36.7	Very, very, very interesting. People have to understand Florida is several different states
1:42.9	squeezed together within one boundary lines. I mean,
1:46.6	we got the old South and the Midwestern retirees and the refugees from chaotic politics and economy
1:55.8	in Central and South America and Northeastern retirees.
2:05.8	So there's so many different states squeezed together, and it makes for a very,
2:07.3	very puzzling state.
2:13.9	One of the things that is so puzzling is that we may have had a Republican governor elected and a Republican senator elected. those votes were virtually 50-50.
2:21.3	At the same time, about 65% of the voters voted for a constitutional amendment that we have worked
2:30.8	on for years and years and years to end the system of lifetime felon
2:35.9	disfranchisement. So way more people voted for the constitutional amendment to restore the right
2:45.4	to vote than voted for the candidates who were the champions of the restriction on the right to vote.
	...

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