Florida and Southern Political Life

V.O. Keys, writing in Southern Politics in State and Nation, a 1949 classic that examined the political structure of every Southern state, referred to Florida's politics as "an incredibly complex mFlange of amorphous factions:"

In its politics it is almost literally every candidate for himself. Ordinarily, each candidate for county office runs without collaboration from other candidates. Each candidate for the half dozen or so minor elective state offices tends to his own knitting and recruits his own following. Senators and Representatives hoe their own rows and each of the numerous candidates for governor does likewise. With each successive campaign different divisions within the electorate develop.

Key went on to say that, although the state at the time adhered to the South's prevailing one-party Democratic standard, it handled its political relationships in a completely different way than a state with a typically stable political hierar

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ew Yorker article, the first wave was made up of political refugees who came to Miami in the early 1960s, shortly after Cuban revolution. As he noted, the first wave founded the businesses that employ the second wave, consisting of those who arrived during the middle 1960s and 1970s, and today both groups employ people from the third wave, consisting of those who came in the Mariel boat lift of 1980: However, since many of the marielitos are black, the last step in this process has been working less smoothly. (Race is a loaded question within the Cuban community. A Cuban friend of mine once remarked,"We had invented a Cuba in which everyone was white. When the marielitos came, we were forcibly reminded that Cuba is not a white island but largely a black one"). Effects of the later, more economically disadvantaged refugee groups on Miami's crime rate have been much debated. In his comments on the effects of the Mariel boatlift, political scientist Christopher L. Warren believes they have been exaggerated. Largely ignored, he believes, is "the fact that many of the Mariel refugees demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to their new environment." The influx soon burst the bounds of Miami's Little Havana. As Rieff d
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Immigration Act, Dade County, David Rieff, Mechanization Southern, Miami Cubans, Senators Representatives, Southern Florida, Christopher Warren, Miami Rieff, Pigs Cubans, south florida, dade county, cuban refugees, cuban revolution, manning dauer, miami cubans, southern politics, mariel boat lift, us-cuban relations, castro regime, mariel boatlift, cuban boat people, wave cuban boat, presses florida 1984, gainsville university presses,
Approximate Word count = 4170
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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