Saturday, September 26, 2009

Sanibel's True Colors

Prior to the last Presidential election, there was a lot of speculating on where the state of Florida was going to go.

Historically, the state wore the red in the flag.

In years gone by, Florida was always the "count on" conservative state, though the red was concentrated in the rural areas of the north.

But as folks from New York and New Jersey moved down, and Latinos and Haitians immigrated in, the solid red became subdued in color.

And once
the mortgage crisis hit, jolting the high-foreclosure state and its presidential politics it was any body's guess as to how the state would go in the Presidential election.


As everyone now knows, the sunshine state backed Obama. More Floridians voted for John McCain than Barack Obama on Election Day, but the Democrat sealed his victory in the state by winning more early and absentee votes.

An Associated Press study of 94 percent of the state's total shows that the Republican beat Obama by almost 5 percentage points on Nov. 4, but Obama trumped McCain by 11 percentage points in early and absentee balloting. Overall, Obama beat McCain 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent in Florida, becoming only the third Democrat in 11 presidential elections to carry the state.

But the red has been so diluted by blue on Sanibel, that it has nearly been extinguished.

Lively debate around politics is still alive and well, however, as residents on the Island as well as visitors to the Island, come in all shades.

Open minds and discussion of the political arena and world concerns can be found in every corner of Sanibel, so a search for pure red or pure blue on this 12 mile tropical paradise is difficult to find.

The only pure color that will reveal itself in the end of a search is green. Those who live on or travel to Sanibel largely do so for enjoyment of the environment. And they want it natural, peaceful and green. Luckily for residents and visitors alike, they will find it that way 12 months of the year!






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