From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics since 1940

305 Pages·2013·1.228 MB·English

by  David R. Colburn

From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola
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From Yellow Dog Democrats
to Red State Republicans
Florida and Its Politics since 1940
second edition
David R. Colburn
University Press of Florida
Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton
Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Copyright 2007 by David R. Colburn
New material copyright 2013 by David R. Colburn
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America. This book is printed on recycled,
acid-free paper.
This book may be available in an electronic edition.
18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
A record of cataloging-in-publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-8130-4485-9
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
To Claire, Caroline, James, Alison, Benjamin, Kate, and MacLean
for their faith in us. May we measure up to it.
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Contents
Introduction / 1
1. From Darkness to Sunshine: World War II, Race,
and the Emergence of Modern Florida / 13
2. Moral, Simple Justice and the Emergence of Fault Lines
in the Democratic Hegemony / 43
3. Reubin Askew, Lawton Chiles, and the Reinvention
of the Democratic Party / 77
4. An Era of Political Transition / 107
5. Migration of the Middle Class, the Search for Community,
and the Emerging Hispanic Presence / 125
6. Holding Back the Republican Tide, but for How Long? / 147
7. From Blue to Red: The Era of Jeb Bush
and Republican Hegemony / 170
8. The Presidential Election of 2000:
What Happened in Florida? / 190
9. The Politics of the Twenty-First Century / 214
Acknowledgments / 247
Notes / 251
Bibliography / 267
Index / 279
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Introduction
On election night in 2000, CBS television news anchor Dan Rather
sounded lyrical as he announced, “Florida is the whole deal, the real
deal, a big deal.”1 In this remarkably close presidential election, Florida
stood at its epicenter; only hours earlier, the state’s diverse population
of seniors, immigrants, and migrants had dutifully gone to the polls
and cast ballots that would determine the next president of the United
States. Almost lost in the gnashing of teeth about the election outcome
was Florida’s new national prominence, which had resulted from its
stunning population growth and diversity in the previous thirty years.
Floridians may have made the presidential election of 2000 more un-
usual than it needed to be, but no one could dismiss the state’s remark-
able ascendancy to a position of leadership among the states and to its
place as a microcosm of the nation in the twenty-first century.
1