Issues to Waste Your Vote for Rick Scott On

My list of reasons to dis-elect Rick Scott hasn’t grown much in the last week, mostly because he’s been lying low and saying as little as he can, which under the circumstances is probably the smartest thing Rick Scott can do if he wants to be re-elected. His approval rating seems to go up mostly when he does nothing at all. At least I can say SemDem’s post on Monday upped the number on my list to 158, which means I have two more to go before I officially revise it again. Might be a nice way to celebrate Groundhog Day.

Scratch that: A couple of hours after I first made this post, I checked the archive at Rick Scott Sucks, and dug out two more good ones. So it's now at 160, and newer ones start at 146.  Have a look.

 In the meantime, I want to discuss something about reasons that some people out there may vote for Rick Scott, in spite of his monstrous performance so far – and why they’d be wasting their time doing it.

If you have friends planning to vote for Rick Scott, there are two partisan issues that are likely to be at the center of their motivation: Same-sex marriage and abortion. The irony is that Rick Scott has 1) done little or nothing on either issue, and 2) really can’t do anything about either one, anyway.

On same-sex marriage, Scott has done nothing more than affirm his support for the 2008 amendment approved by Florida voters.  It’s just talk, of course, because right now, that amendment will stand or fall based on what is done by courts above Rick Scott’s jurisdiction. He can’t do anything about it.

Abortion, likewise, stands or falls based on Roe vs. Wade at this time. Scott can huff and puff all he wants, but ultimately, the decision is out of his hands. And, as I show in my list, he really doesn’t care about the issue; HCA hospital performed abortions under his watch, and he did nothing to stop them, and said nothing against them. So he’s only “pro-life” as far as it buys him votes. Pro-lifers in Florida are being taken for a ride by him.

So in the end, if your friends plan to vote for Scott based on either of these issues, they’re doing so based on reasons that are ultimately empty. They would be voting for a talking head, not someone who can actually do anything about the issue either way.  They might as well be voting for one of those old fashioned toys (like Woody from Toy Story) that you can make talk by pulling a string on their back. 

We tend to forget sometimes that the executive branch of government isn’t in charge of making law. When a candidate, or governor says, “I plan to outlaw ______,” what they mean is, “I plan to ask a buddy of mine in the Legislature to sponsor a law outlawing ______, which I hope the Legislature will pass. Then I’ll sign it.” Which means neither same-sex marriage nor abortion is a reason for anyone to ignore Scott’s innumerable other blunders and re-elect him.  He can’t do anything about them other than run his mouth.

Given the events of this week, I should also probably add medical marijuana to the list of social issues here which may be decisive for some voters. It’s going to be interesting, because as some commentators have observed, Rick Scott desperately wanted that one off the ballot, because he knew it would raise voter turnout – which is a likely sentence to the outhouse for him. Either way, it still won’t be anything he’ll be able to do anything about. Voting for him won’t budge what voters decide either way on medical marijuana.

There’s an added irony on that one. Doctors have come out with a pill that uses THC (the active ingredient in marijuana which aids the sick), and initial studies show it is more effective than smoking marijuana. The amendment may get on the ballot, only to become moot within a year. And wouldn’t that be such appropriate justice, if Rick Scott gets kicked out of office because of something that shortly thereafter becomes irrelevant?

It’s too bad we can’t take a pill to get rid of all the pain he’s caused people here in Florida.

The only good Rx for Rick Scott is a bootprint in the backside.