Florida is and has been for the last half century or so an immensely diverse state with many different kinds of people.  That they would, taken as a aggregate, go in two very different directions as they have is only appropriate.  That they did so at a nearly 50/50 split is a difficult situation for everyone because the entire country did pretty much the same thing.  Thus Florida is a microcosm of the country at large; only the Electoral College has made it so singularly prominent.

South Florida has been predominantly Democratic for most of its century-long existence.  In the beginning it was Southern Democrats that made up most of its population.  Later on they handed over the region to Northern urban Democrats -- Jew and Gentile alike. Other groups, such as the African-Americans, Cubans, and the wealthy weighed in on one side or another, but only enough to dilute the predominant party, not to really change it.  In the meanwhile, however, Southern white people -- run out of power in Florida during the 1960's in the midst of reapportionment -- turned their collective back on the Democrat party, which made the Republican party viable in Florida for the first time since Reconstruction.

This election's results in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties only confirmed the nature of this part of the state, although in Dade County's case the results were weaker for the Democrats due to the undying hatred of the Clinton administration by the Cubans after the Elian Gonzalez fiasco.

But to focus on Palm Beach County -- the confusion over the ballot configuration is a good example of why some of us don't like liberalism.  Many conservatives have developed this distaste from a distance, but when it comes up close, it's entirely different and requires an explanation.

Now election day comes.  Suddenly people discover that the ballot is confusing.  Their response is of a piece with everything else they don't like -- they become belligerent and pushy, blaming everything on someone else and demanding that the world be turned upside down to suit them.  It never occurs to anyone that any country with as many elected officials as ours and as many candidates as are running for an office such as President will inevitably produce a ballot that is long, complicated, and requires study to properly complete.

Christians are reminded both by their own leadership and the world around them that the kinds of lives they lead influence the way people think of them, the way in which they represent Jesus Christ as his ambassadors, and of course how they might win others to the Gospel.  The truth is, however, that everyone is a representative of what they believe (or don't believe) and that, if they have any aspirations of winning others to their belief, or at least not to offend them, they'd best consider how they act.  In the case of liberals such as we have here -- and these are all too common, in South Florida and everywhere -- we now understand why they are so obsessed with having the power of the state behind them, because without it they so offend the rest of society they have very little influence otherwise.  For me, watching them in action drove the point home that there's a better way to live, and that way is Jesus Christ himself.

A note about the Electoral College

A lot of heat has been generated about the Electoral College, now that the possibility is real that the popular vote is going one way and the electoral vote the other.  As was the case with the ballots, everyone saw the system up front; it's only now, when it isn't going their way, that they whine about its unfairness.

People have talked about the Electoral College and its weaknesses all of my life.  An in truth it should be abolished.  However, if we do we should consider one important fact: it's been quite a while since anyone became President of the United States with an absolute majority of the popular vote.  The only fair way to fix this is to insist that, should no one get a majority in the first round of voting, there should be a runoff with the top two vote getters, just as is common in many places around the world.  In this (2000) election cycle this would doubtless mean victory for Mr. Gore, but had we had this in 1992 the man from Hot Springs would have never made it to the Oval Office.

Written 9 November 2000.