Good evening, this is The Smoke Eater for election day, Tuesday, November 8th, 2022, and all I want to say is...
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ABOVE THE FOLD
Robin Lockett, 58, had been standing on the side of W. Waters Ave. and N. Florida Ave. in Tampa, Florida for a little over an hour at 8am this morning. She and three of her colleagues were waving at commuters as they passed by.
"Go vote," Lockett was shouting as she clutched a large cut out of the face of Rep. Val Demings, the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
"Don't forget to vote," she kept waving.
Lockett said she wasn't discouraged by the occasional thumbs down (and other gestures). According to her, with every light cycle someone will honk and wave as they pass. And that, Lockett says, makes others feel like honking and waving.
Lockett serves as the Tampa Bay regional director of Florida Rising, a grass roots organization that hopes to advance economic and racial justice across Florida. She says she's been active in politics for over 25 years, working with local chapters of the NAACP and Florida's black caucus.
"For the first time I'm anxious and nervous," Robin said of the election. "There's so much hatred and greed now, and you can't fight hate without protection, and you can't fight greed without regulations."
Lockett's fear and anxiety can felt be all over Florida. From the pan handle of the predominately low-income Havana in the panhandle, to the very weird and wealthy suburbs full of retirees, like The Villages or Boca Raton, and down into the never ending expressways of Miami.
It was in Boca Raton that a man drove through a polling station and called me, “a goddamn socialist,” despite my being a freelance journalist (which, by definition, makes me a small business owner and a capitalist) with a grandfather who crawled out from a mass grave in the former Soviet Union with a bullet in his chest and fled to the United States chasing the American Dream.
It was in Orlando during the annual gay pride parade where a young mother draped in rainbows offered me a banana and water after I almost passed out. In Sarasota a cafe manager gave me a coffee simply for, “not being an asshole.”
They all spoke to me about their fear of the self-proclaimed divine “protector” and leader of “the free state of Florida,” Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis and his supporters would say that he’s restored freedom and liberty to Florida, rooted out corruption, restored law and order by giving local sheriffs and police more control and resources, cleaned up the environment by working with utility companies, and personally rescued hurricane victims.
I've also heard DeSantis and supporters say gay and trans people shouldn't have the freedom to be out and proud; that librarians should be arrested by local sheriffs; teachers shouldn't talk about America's history of human slavery; white nationalists and bigoted religious fundamentalism should be embraced; that the free press is the enemy of the people and basic democratic principles should be abolished.
My colleagues have taken to calling this fascism as it meets the core definition of fascism that was established over the last century.
Personally, I've taken to just calling them "Americultists." They wrap themselves in a arbitrary symbols (in this case the American flag) and give blind devotion to political idols.
Robin Taub Williams, 70, taught biology for 35 years in middle schools, high schools, and community colleges. She loved being a teacher, and wouldn't change a thing. But on Halloween, she wasn’t gripping my arm in the sweltering Sarasota sun in fear of ghost and ghouls. She was afraid of Americultists.
"They say these things -- about coming after people," Taub Williams said of the increasing threats and attacks on Democratic elected officials. "I'm Jewish, and I didn't live through Nazi Germany, but I'm honestly afraid."
ONE MORE THING...
I’m writing this from the ballroom of the St. Petersburg Hilton where the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist is throwing an election night party. The polls close in about thirty minutes.
I’ve scrapped this damn story half a dozen times since noon. For over a month I’ve been following the Crist campaign all over Florida shooting photos for the ZUMA photo newswire. Nobody seems to be interested, and I haven’t made a dime.
Well, I did find a dollar in the bathroom of a Waffle House just west of Tallahassee. Their gas delivery was MIA for 36 hours, and the only thing they could serve were waffles, coffee, and toast.
In true bootstrap fashion, most of these photos have been edited and captioned in coffee shops, and in the back of my truck which I converted into a stealth camper. There’s a lot that could be written about driving around and finding parking lots to sleep in, my never ending battle with mosquitos, wasting two months trying to get photos of a DeSantis rally, and the stark contrast between how the DeSantis and Crist campaigns treat what’s left of the working press in Florida.
As an independent freelance journalist, I can safely say that I’ve been the only person covering the Crist campaign up until a week ago. I’m glad my colleagues decided to join me — and I don’t mean that to come across as smug, or condescending.
My Patreon has over 70 photos, and a long winded rant of pure, over-caffeinated gonzo journalism for $1 if you’d like to see more photos.
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