Daniel TilsonGiven the tragicomedy characterizing Florida political theater in recent years, it feels right reaching for a Shakespeare quote when looking back at 2013 and ahead to 2014:
“What’s past is prologue.”
The state’s prevailing powers-that-be (richest individual and corporate residents acting through “supportive” elected officials) continued widening the income and economic opportunity gap between them and, well…the rest of us.
They did it by using well researched and tested words and phrases to misinform and mislead millions of working poor, middle class and retired Floridians into letting them get away with it.
And you can bet they have plenty more of the same mind games in store for 2014.
By way of a belated Christmas present to all, here are some tips on how to recognize and translate what I’ll call Scottspeak. I’d call it Scottish, but…well, you know.
Something else to know is that almost every Republican representative and senator in the state Legislature has been speaking it for a while now, joining Gov. Scott and the Florida Chamber of Commerce in successfully selling and enacting a slew of anti-populist public policies.
If only there was a handy (and decorative!) decoder ring we could all wear that glowed red and translated Scottspeak whenever exposed to it in the upcoming midterm election campaigns.
But alas, these helpful reminders will have to do. If you could share a few with as many other Floridians as possible, it would be a public service.
Getting back to that Shakespeare quotation, perhaps the best way to inoculate us against the virus of duplicitous disinformation to come in 2014 is to look back at the 2013 outbreak.
Under the Republican Party of Florida leadership of Scott, Senate President Don Gaetz, and House Speaker Will Weatherford — in direct coordination with Chamber of Commerce — here are some choice examples of Scottspeak at work in 2013:
- Phrases like “helps ensure fairness” and “streamlines the environmental regulatory process” were used to describe two new laws making it harder for local governments to gather information about and effectively regulate commercial land use, growth and development in our communities.
- Phrases like “job creation” and “business friendly” were used to justify millions in increased funding for Enterprise Florida, a program revealed as wasting taxpayer dollars on corporate welfare in a scathing report issued late this year.
- While U.S. News & World Report rightfully reported “Florida’s ‘Fair Foreclosure Act’ is Anything But Fair”, Scottspeak instead said the law that pushed Florida into first place nationally in pushing people out of their homes “expedites the foreclosure process while also providing safeguards for consumers…”
- When the cap on tax breaks given each year to companies in defense, aerospace, space and related industries was thrown out entirely, it was sold as “reducing constraints and encouraging investments.”
- When the Florida Chamber got a law passed imposing a statewide prohibition on local governments seeking to improve public health and local economies by requiring employers to offer a minimum number of paid sick days, it just lied, claiming the law “protects small businesses and jobs from union mandated leave...” while “further helping job creation.”
You get the idea.
When you hear Scott and his Republican allies running for office in 2014 using words like “streamline” and “expedite”, it means trouble.
When they utter phrases like “encouraging investment and job creation”, “protecting small business” and “getting taxpayers off the hook”, all you need do is go back, look at their record, and remind yourself that they are in fact doing exactly the opposite.
What’s past is prologue. And forewarned is forearmed.
