November 28, 2024 - 5:15pm
Donald Trump is bringing a Florida crew back to Washington with him. Arguably the two most important jobs in his administration will be held by women with strong links to the Sunshine State. Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, his nominee for attorney general, both lobbied extensively at the same Florida firm in recent years.
Trump’s likely-to-be-confirmed secretary of state is Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida since 2011. Michael Waltz, a Congressman from the state’s eastern coast, will serve as national security advisor. That’s already four key positions occupied by people with deep ties to Florida, before you add lower-profile nominees such as John Phelan for secretary of the Navy and Dave Weldon for the Centers for Disease Control (technically based in Atlanta).
Wiles and Bondi both worked at Ballard Partners, the lobbying shop of “prominent Florida Republican fund-raiser Brian Ballard”, as the New York Times put it. “Susie brings with her a Florida approach, without question,” Ballard told NBC News. “She is a national player, but clearly has major Florida roots and connections. The many people from Florida you see going to the administration are in no small part because of her.” Wiles helped Ballard open a DC office and establish a lobbying presence in the Beltway. Mercury, a lobbying giant, later named Wiles the co-chair of offices in DC and Tallahassee.
If all of this sounds a little swampy, it’s because Florida’s political ecosystem is as swampy as its literal one. Trump, having transformed the state from purple to red, now spends most of his time at Mar-a-Lago. During the pandemic, as MAGA-inclined people moved to Florida for conservative politics, the state became a refuge for the likeminded.
This may, to some extent, force people around Trump to confront a tough choice: is it worth leaving Florida for Washington to get in on the presidential action? This is an easier decision for the high-profile jobs, but for mid-level staffers it may be more difficult. The state is also home to a robust group of MAGA influencers and podcasters, some of whom are itching to actually get seats in the White House briefing room. If you already have access to Trump, why relocate to a stuffy company town and rub elbows with ink-stained wretches?
Whether they actually move, Trump’s well-connected Florida friends are sure to be spending more time in the capital. This is hardly without precedent: George W. Bush brought Texas to DC, while Barack Obama brought Chicago. The very recent history of Florida, though, incubated a particular vibe. The state became a high-energy safe space for MAGA Republicans in and outside politics to fraternise and enjoy the company of others without fear of social cancellation or Covid mask mandates. That means operatives and influencers will come to Washington fresh off several years of plotting and scheming and partying in the same circles.
Florida is the state with the third-largest Latino population in the country, comprising 27% of inhabitants. Of all Cubans who live in the US, 64% live in the Sunshine State, inflecting GOP politics in Florida with a strong and uncompromising anti-communist streak. Florida Republicans, for example, won’t waver an inch on Cuba or Venezuela sanctions, even as the Right starts to rethink neoconservatism writ large (see: Marco Rubio).
On social issues, consider that on election day 57% of Florida voters cast their ballots to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and 56% cast ballots to legalise recreational marijuana. In all, 56% cast ballots for Donald Trump. Even so, after signing a six-week abortion ban, Governor Ron DeSantis remains popular with over half of the state.
What does all of it mean? Trump’s last administration suffered from constant leaking and rampant distrust. This time around, he’ll at least have the forged-in-fire loyalty of Florida faithfuls.
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SubscribeGosh, isn’t this the same group that other studies have discovered to be far more left wing or radical left-wing than the other sex/gender? Could there possibly be a connection between left wing ideology and mental health? I thought this connection was well known by now! Search for dark triad character traits and left-wing activism/authoritarianism in Google Scholar!
Just another front in the Left’s war on western culture: “Of course you’re miserable, girls, (gays, transexuals, poor, African Americans, Indigenous people, etc.) you’re being victimized by (basically adult white males) and despairing alienation SHOULD by your mindset.
“Adolescent conditions—depression and anxiety, psychological distress, and suicidal behaviors—are increasing in many countries worldwide, and that growth is occurring most markedly among girls, according to a new survey of research published by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Iowa.
“The research review article, published August 8, 2023, co-authored by Katherine Keyes, PhD, professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School and Jonathan Platt, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at UI, summarizes studies published since 2010 from around the world. The paper is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.”
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/new-evidence-rising-youth-mental-health-concerns#:~:text=Adolescent%20mental%20health%20conditions%E2%80%94depression,University%20Mailman%20School%20of%20Public
Right on cue, several district school boards in Ontario are suing social media companies for damaging the minds of the young, particularly young girls, and impeding their education. Columnist Jamie Sarkonek in the National Post this day takes the teachers and their boards to task for their failed experimental methods in pedagogy, the elimination of merit streaming and performance standards, and for turning the schools into venues to propagandize the young with their anti-traditional ideology and radical views on sex and race – amongst other professional failings, like neglecting to discipline bad behaviour.
Those are my words on Sarkonek column but I believe with him that these practices have done more to harm young people than smartphone usage. Not that those devices haven’t done their part. I have a high regard for Jonathan Haidt, and those devices are certainly bad habit forming, but how can young people not be confused by the norm-busting going on all around them?
Social media should be sued out of existence. If Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and ever site like them disappeared tomorrow and weren’t replaced the world would be massively better off.
Inept article. Jonathan Haidt has just produced The.Anxious Mind with a 4 step plan clearly outlining what we need to do about it. Any major podcaster in the past 14 days has carried an interview with Prof Haidt. It’s not difficult, but it does require collective action given the social pressures to engage with SM.
I do sense that society is getting ready to take action on this topic. At last…. the evidence has been clear as a lightbulb since 2016 and Twenge’s work.
Nobody’s going to do anything meaningful because to make a difference you have to destroy several of the largest corporations in the world.
A great start would be to permanently shut down Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and anyone who tries to mimic them. They are clearly a huge net negative for our society.
What’s the point of being a woman now? The goals that young women are told to aspire to are just worn out male pattern defaults for work and play.
Put them in full Islamic dress an keep them indoors and out of public discourse. They are not, and never will be competent in this world.
An arresting idea, but not one that chimes with my hopes for the future.
Somebody put some posters around a town saying “islam was right about women” (think in the US).
None of the women interviewed had the guts to disagree. But of course they would happily denounce western society and white men.
Which ironically does prove that those posters were right. Islam was right. Western women are proving that in front of our eyes.
“worn out male pattern defaults for work and play.”
Worse.
Men worked for the satisfaction of building a home and family, played because they enjoyed sports, gaming, etc.
Women today do the career but without the responsibility of being the breadwinner, which is am empty hollow shell of a life, just trudging to office
They also refuse things like having children or taking care of their homes, because it’s “unpaid labour’ and “slavery”, and wallow in resentment that the “patriarchy ” stops them from entering spaces such as sports that they don’t even care about.
You could start by correctly labeling incessant ‘judgment and comparison’ as sexual harassment and psychological abuse, which it is. Then stop allowing it.
Easier said than done to “stop allowing it”, as though it can be waived away with a magic wand. Moreover, in my experience, girls and young women are their own worst enemies when it comes to incessant judgement and comparison, mainly amongst themselves.
Spot on. Social media just seems to have sent it into overdrive. It was bad enough in those awful women’s magazines which focussed on things like celebrity cellulite. Now it’s out of control and women are paying the price.
Yes, you have a good point there. We women are frequently our own worst enemies. This phenomenon predates social media, but has been exacerbated by being online and exposed to so much toxicity. Some of it comes from males, but a significant portion is driven by other females.
Is it “sexual harassment” if it is carried out by other women, and without any sexual intent? And much of the problem seems to be women projecting overly positive self images (“living my best life”) while simultaneously making negative comparisons between their own real life and the fake projections of other women.
I agree it’s destructive, but to try and stop it, as you say, would be like launching a war against modern female culture. You might as well try to outlaw Botox, cosmetic surgery and the rest.
You might as well try to outlaw Botox, cosmetic surgery and the rest.
.
It would be great not to see those monstrously huge shapeless lips
If you compare you are either better or worse. Both miss the point that you have to find value in yourself. The one who has to stop allowing it is yourself. And responsible adults – parents – should show that by example. Basically young females need to be contained. Father’s work. But many fathers are weak nowadays.
Or absent.
Boundaries and limits are important for boys and girls when growing up! As is taking responsibility for your actions and behaviour. Unfortunately, many parents just want to be their children’s friends, and fear that setting limits will make them unpopular. Parenting is work, and having children isn’t a walk in the park.
When young men are expected to initiate contact with women and face the risk of rejection, humiliation, judgement and being insulted, does that also count as “sexual harassment and psychological abus’