It Will Take Competence To Fill The DeSantis Vacuum

American Thinker ^ | 18 Jul, 2026 | David DeMay

[MtnClimber]

Florida’s next governor needs a stress test, not a coronation.

A few days ago, I posited that St. Pete Beach in Florida is showing signs of strain, hinting at a lack of the resilience that was once part of its fabric. Given that hurricanes are inevitable, I worried that its general inability to cope with even minimal pressure put it at risk of collapse in the event of another natural disaster.

Some commenters thought I was exaggerating a bad restaurant experience and overextending it. It’s worth taking that criticism seriously because the objection shows that I failed to make myself clear.

I wasn’t claiming that a tight parking lot and cold fries add up to a verdict on the entire state, nor was I calling St. Pete Beach unlivable. Instead, I was arguing that a community’s standards—the small, unglamorous commitments to safety, accessibility, and basic care for the people you serve—are the first things to erode when an economy is stretched thin.

A restaurant cutting corners on parking striping and food quality isn’t a scandal. It’s a symptom. And symptoms are worth naming precisely because they’re small enough to dismiss and common enough to matter.

I spent a decade in a volunteer uniform enforcing exactly this kind of compliance for the City of Fort Lauderdale—the invisible scaffolding that keeps a community functioning for everyone, not just the people who can squeeze through a two-inch gap. I don’t think that standard should apply only to the public sector while the commercial sector gets a pass because the economy is tight and everyone’s in a hurry.

The public deserves better from both. If pointing that out counts as handing ammunition to the other side, the problem isn’t the observation—it’s how little tolerance we’ve built for anyone noticing that things are fraying

[yuleeyahoo]

That was because DeSantis ran a horrible campaign.

[Waverunner]

The PR machine blamed all the deaths on personal choice and all the good things happening post Ian as DeSantis leadership. The Florida Guard opened a bridge quickly, DeSantis leadership, No power for over a month, crickets.
Failure of the flood insurance system, crickets. Deadliest hurricanes to ever hit Florida..
Notice there’s only one on the list since 1935

Hurricanes causing 100 or more deaths in Florida[42]
Name Year Number of deaths

“Okeechobee” 1928 2,500+
Unnamed 1781 2,000
Unnamed 1622 1,090
Unnamed 1553 700
Unnamed 1553 <700
Unnamed 1559 500
Unnamed 1559 ~500
Unnamed 1683 496
“Labor Day” 1935 409
“Great Miami” 1926 372
Unnamed 1563 284
“Florida Keys” 1906 211+
Ian 2022 150

[TBP]

WE need him in elected office.

[Justa]

“Then you must know why the election with Guillaum was so close.”

Fraud

I observed it when I went to vote. Halting completed ballot deposits into the collection box to take a sampling of completed ballots when the box was full and needed to be replaced. I was waiting to deposit my ballot when the poll worker halted voting. I was standing right behind her. All she had to do was pull one box and put in an empty box. Instead she took 20 mins doing a sampling. Hand counting ballots, stopping every 5th ballot and looking at the selections. Then counting off the next 5 and repeating. It tells them how many votes they need to manufacture.

But you probably already know this and don’t care.

Lemme guess, you’re also anti-Ice cuz illegals are needed to put on voter roles to create more D votes and cover for D fraud. Sorry for you but Desantis cleaned up FL voter roles and election process making it much harder to CHEAT.