Election 2018: Game On

After numerous setbacks involving his cronies and John McCain's beautifully orchestrated funeral - orchestrated by McCain himself - Donald Trump finds himself staring at his worst poll numbers in over a year - a Washington Post/ABC News poll gives him a 60 percent presidential disapproval rating and a mere 36 percent approval rating.

I'm curious about the 4 percent of poll respondents who have no opinion!

Right now, All signs point to a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in November, though it's not certain how big the Democratic House majority in the next Congress will be.  The real action will be in state legislative elections and gubernatorial elections, and the biggest governor's race is shaping up in Florida, where progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum, who is black, is going against Trump Republican Ron DeSantis.             

DeSantis has wasted no time in portraying Gillum's liberal agenda as dangerous for the state, but he's also wasted no time in fighting dirty.  He warned Floridians that Gillum sounds articulate while advocating for his policies, which most blacks hear as a backhanded remark from racist whites who find it astonishing that black people are able to speak the king's English and have a high intelligence.

Of course, it's easy to interpret DeSantis's remark as a warning to centrist and conservative Florida voters not to be taken in by Gillum's rhetorical ability to present a liberal governing policy as if it were mainstream (actually, it is; more about that in a moment) - that is, one could assume that he's less concerned with Gillum's dark brown skin than he is with his silver tongue.  But no one could possibly misinterpret What DeSantis said next - that a Gillum governorship could "monkey up" Florida.

This was clearly a racist comment.  DeSantis aides quickly came out and said that "monkey it up" is an expression DeSantis came up with himself that isn't meant to have racial connotations, but no one is buying it.  I've invented my own expressions, like the wholesome "No kidding, Kojak!" to use instead of the more vulgar "No sh--, Sherlock!"  But when I describe someone causing something to go wrong, I usually say that someone "screwed it up," fouled it up," or whatever.  "But "monkey it up"?  Uh, no.

The monkey here is the one on DeSantis's back - that of bigotry.

As for Gillum's policies . . . look, he's talking about expanding health insurance to everyone, improving education, making the wealthy pay for it . . . all actually quite mainstream positions.  Not that establishment Democrats have ever cared to notice; they've been too busy trying to move to the center for the past quarter century and getting their rear ends handed to them at the ballot box, both in Florida and elsewhere.  This makes it all the more crucial that Gillum wins in November.  Phil Murphy's 2017 gubernatorial victory in New Jersey attracted zero interest outside the state because New Jersey is so heavily Democratic it would have elected a ficus plant to succeed Chris Christie so long as it was a Democrat.  Florida is a swing state - a state that can go either way not just in presidential elections but in any statewide election - where a Democratic victory would mean something. Not that that there have been that many Democratic victories in Florida; as I noted last week, the state's Democratic Party is on death's door, holding neither house of the state legislature and possibly losing a U.S. Senate seat this fall.    Also, Florida Democrats have lost all of the five most recent gubernatorial elections there, manly by nominating squishy centrists (including, ironically, former Republican governor - and now Democratic congressman - Charlie Crist).  Gillum is running for governor as something different, and I'm not talking about his race.  He's offering a bold, progressive, social democratic agenda that could re-invigorate the party, get the masses to finally vote for their own interests, and also carry Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson to victory on Gillum's coattails.  But if he loses, Democrats will likely learn the wrong lesson and try to keep the party in the center - a center defined by the Republican right.

Andrew Gillum not only can win the governorship of Florida. He must win the governorship of Florida.