Kendrick Meek Lost Rural Florida, Thanks to Racist Dixiecrats (UPDATED)

• I'm so sick of blacks playing the race card every time things dont go their way. What about all the black racists who voted for Meek, you know, in urban areas where blacks are in the majority and voted overwhelmingly for Meek. I guess they're racists too. I'm waiting for that article to come out.

• Not one politician gives a crap about any one of us. We live in South Florida, did you forget the past down here? All you assholes in the media do is contribute to the illusion. If someone speaks agianst Obama then they're racist. Well F*** Obama, Bush, Clinton, Meek, Christ, Jenne and the rest of them. It's all a show to make us think we have a choice. Ask yourselves a question, In the past did kings and queens give a crap about commonfolk and peasants? Hell no. Now instead of kings and queens, its politicians, bankers, oil companies, etc, etc who run the show. And unless you are in complete denial or are just a retard then you can honestly see that we don't matter to them. We're just an ATM machine to fund their lifestyle and bulls***. Wake up people. We need to change the system not the assholes in office. Because no matter who gets elected, everyone has a price. Whether it's money, future political power, or blackmail they will be bought off. Look what Scott Rothstein did. He greased all their pockets Dem. and Rep. because he knew how to play the game. If he was smarter he would still be running his scheme, Charlie would be a shoe in and Scott might be Attorney General. Wow. SMFH!!!!!!!

• There are some very reasoned arguments here for some other conclusion besides racism. For instance, could it be that Greene's name came first on the ballot and therefore rural voters picked him instead? It's possible. But it's a stretch. What's not a stretch is that studies have shown that some white voters won't vote for a black candidate, no matter if they identify themselves as a racist or not. Conservative dixiecrats are also far less likely to vote for a black candidate. And white rural voters in Florida don't often vote for black candidates. Add up those facts and it's difficult to come to any other conclusion but racism for why Meek did so poorly in rural Florida.

• I would guess that Panhandle and other rural Florida voters will look at the race and see one Miami Cuban, one African American and one plain ol' American. Assuming Rubio and Meek split the vote in South and Central Florida, I'd say Charlie runs away with it. I say we do all we can to get him to caucus with the Democrats.

• Don't even go to Dixie. In liberal Broward County an estimated 72% of White voters voted for Hillary and 78% of Black voters voted for Barack in the 1/29/2008 presidential preference primary. This was measured by grouping precincts in 5% intervals based on the race of Democratic voters who voted. Of the variation among precinct sets, 98% of how precincts voted was based on the race of the voters. Picture a straight-line relationship, race of candidate vs. race of voter. (Other factors exist such as region of origin e.g., there are a lot more New Yorkers than Illinoians in White precincts.) The little bit of good news here is that in an election with two strong candidates about half the White voters and half the Black voters could have essentially flipped a coin to decide on a candidate, but for the other half of voters the race of the candidate was the one determining factor in how they voted. In some other elections in Broward the patterns of ethnic voting are even stronger. This does not necessarily prove racism. For example, some Black voters may not have voted for Barack because they didn't see how a Black man could win the general election. (Or is discrimination against one's own race a form of racism?) Even Greene vs. Meek does not prove racism because heavily Jewish Broward voted strongly against the Jewish candidate. So again, there are often other factors. We have come a long way, baby, but not far enough. In 1960 many Protestant Americans worried a President Kennedy would be under the spell of the Pope. Hopefully the growing generation will elect a President because of her character and not anything else.

• Mr Concerned wasn�t saying racism doesn�t exist. He was saying it is wrong for a journalist to jump to that conclusion without at least some evidence. Mr. Concerned About the Status Quo is surely right, but he at least has evidence to base it on. He actually lived in rural Florida, or at least claimed to. The author of this blog post didn�t. Or at least, if he did he didn�t mention it or use his own experience to strengthen his case. I think racism, although very real, is an accusation that should only be thrown around when there�s real proof.

• As a former resident of Wewahitchka and a graduate of Port St Joe High School (2002) in neighboring Gulf County I can attest that racism had everything to do with it. Obviously Concerned has never been to the region nor spent any time in any of the wonderful examples of diversity that are the towns of North Florida, or even more progressive places like central Florida's Bushnell, FL, which doesn't take offense to nooses hanging around town. Because, as Concerned concludes, since overwhelming amounts of definitive proof aren't listed in a blog post then obviously the nooses are an example of poor writing and not racism. It's probably much more innocent, like the boy scouts putting in some late night practice or maybe...

• To Concerned: Please stop. Don't you know that once someone throws out the "r" word, the dialogue is over? At that point, no amount of reasoning or inquiry helps. Following the author's logic, I'm just glad to see that those redneck hillbillies in North Florida are no longer anti-semetic. Also, since the U.S. as a whole voted for a black president, does that mean there's no longer racism in the country. Or, do we require 100% vote for a black candidate before we can say racism doesn't exist any longer? Sadly, the "r" word reminds me of the story of the boy who cried wolf. The saddest part is that when racism does rear its ugly head, people discount it since the word is losing it's meaning through overuse and misuse.

• Concerned says: "The issue here is a journalistic one. You may very well be right that racism was a major factor in Meek�s poor showing. In fact, I�m even inclined to agree with you." ___________________________________________ An aweful lot of objecting for someone who at the end of a 100+ word diatribe, ends up agreeing with the conclusions of the author. Oh that's right You just want the journalist to provide more convincing evidence, like when the O.J. jury required something more than the defendant's blood being splattered all over town; in his car, in her car, in her home, in his home, etc: Here is my empirical evidence to support the conclusions of Mr. Barton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gLN3QoN-q8

• Dear Mr. Barton, I appreciate your response but I�m afraid it is unpersuasive. While you�re clearly correct that Democrats in rural areas were far less likely to vote for Meek, you failed to link this convincingly to racism. While a culture of prejudice against African Americans may very well be a factor in Meek�s poor showing, it�s only one of several possible factors � and the most difficult to establish. It�s just as likely that Meek made a calculated effort not to campaign in rural Panhandle counties, focusing instead on urban areas. This, in turn, may have led local unions (which drive a great deal of Democratic voter turnout in state and local races) to endorse his rivals. Or it may simply be that rural Democrats (which by the way don�t necessarily have to be all white; black people can and do live in small rural towns too) were less familiar with the South Florida candidates and voted for the first one or two on the ballot. (Meek�s name would have been the last one). This, you may have heard, is a leading theory for why Alvin Greene won the Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina. Now if you had traveled to, say, Holmes County, interviewed voters, politicians, unions leaders, and compared the campaign efforts of the various candidates in the general area, then, maybe, MAYBE, you MIGHT have been able to make an informed case that racism could have been a factor in the election results. But of course you didn�t do any of those things. It was much easier to throw out a few numbers, get a quick quote on the phone from a local official (which, by the way, does not support your case) and then write a few hundred words making vast, slanderous, unsubstantiated claims with no evidence to guide you except your own woefully uninformed worldview that any white person from a rural area is ipso facto racist. The issue here is a journalistic one. You may very well be right that racism was a major factor in Meek�s poor showing. In fact, I�m even inclined to agree with you. But as a journalist, you don�t get to just say that. You don�t get to label a whole culture or region as �racist� if you don�t know it�s true, if you don�t even have a vague sense that it may be true. Slanderous, mindless accusations like that are fine for your Facebook page, but not for a media outlet that purports to be legitimate. Maybe you feel that because you work for a small weekly that isn�t widely read that you can write things you wouldn�t be able to get away with in other places, but if you consider yourself a journalist at all, you owe it to your readers to hold yourself to a higher standard.

• This cuts both ways. You don't have to look any further than the local Democratic primary in Broward county for House district 92. Gwyn Clarke Reed, the black candidate, took 95% of the vote in the primarily black areas of Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach. Justin Flippen, the white candidate, took over 70% of the vote in white sections in the south. Whites won't vote for blacks? Seems like the opposite is even more true.

• The statistics speak for themselves, Concerned. Meek carried racially diverse and urban areas and lost in predominantly white rural areas. The statistics point to only one conclusion: racism. But you're right that I had a typo in the quote. It has been updated. Thanks for the heads up.

• This blog is frighteningly misinformed and logically flawed. To think that the editor of a news organization penned it is doubly disturbing. How can a journalist indiscriminately dub half of the state racist without a shred of evidence? Nothing in this posting supports the claim that �racist Dixiecrats� supported Greene for racist reasons. And if you do concede the bizarre, unsubstantiated premise that white people who vote for white candidates are therefore racist, then blacks who vote for a black candidate by extension must also be racist. I don�t think Mr. Barton intended to call all of Congressman Meek�s black supporters racist, but that�s what he�s essentially doing. Also, Mr. Barton either misquoted or misunderstood the only person he quoted in this post. When Mr. Smith referred to �Dixiecrats who won�t join the Democrats because of Abraham Lincoln� he surely meant �Dixiecrats who won�t join the REPUBLICANS because of Abraham Lincoln.� Otherwise, the quote makes no sense. Evidently, Mr. Barton didn�t realize Lincoln was a Republican, so he either changed Mr. Smith�s quote to reflect his own incorrect understanding of basic American history or assumed Mr. Smith � who he no doubt considers a racist redneck -- misspoke. The takeaway lesson here: Our nation�s racial history is deceivingly complex and morally treacherous. Before wandering into these thickets, I�d suggest for Mr. Barton a little more study American history, a touch of humility and a little more critical thinking .

• In more urban and ethnically diverse areas, Greene did poorly. He managed just 22 percent of the vote in Broward, 12 percent in Miami-Dade, and even his home county of Palm Beach he pulled in just 28 percent. So I guess the opposite is true, we just don't call blacks "racists?" So I guess it don't exists,right? seriousness aside, I think it is fair to assume that Charlie Crist had already calculated this phenemenon prior to abandoning the GOP primary. He is one of the sharpest politicians I have ever met and will likely be our next Governor. DUH???

• I heard that Tony Little came in fourth, just behind Meek. These rascists have become very fitness conscious. The new Klan robes are being manufactured in a sleeveless "dry fit" material. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otfVIDhz0u0 All seriousness aside, I think it is fair to assume that Charlie Crist had already calculated this phenemenon prior to abandoning the GOP primary. He is one of the sharpest politicians I have ever met and will likely be our next Governor.

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