The Starbucks Encounter Between Governor Scott and the Protester

Last week our Florida governor, Republican Rick Scott, paid a visit with his entourage to the downtown Gainesville Starbucks.  While he was at the counter to place his order, a young woman who was seated facing the counter began to yell at him, complaining that a policy of his had cut needed funding in some area with which she was concerned.  After seeing that this person would not give the governor any peace in this situation, he and his group quietly turned around and left the store.  As it turned out, someone made a video of the incident with their smartphone and it became viral on the Internet.  Facebook even featured it.  Then, a few days later, the governor's office released its own video on YouTube, belittling the protester's position while depicting her as someone with a problem (with negative connotations) and boasting that almost anyone who wanted a job in Gainesville was successful and everybody should be happy...

Well, when I first heard the story on the radio last week, I wondered which Starbucks it was...was it the one at Magnolia Parke I frequent the most?  No, alas, it was the one where it's so doggone difficult to find a parking place...unless you're the governor, of course.  I personally don't care for Rick Scott and dislike his ideologically-based method of governing.  That having been said, he is our (twice) duly-elected governor and, as such, deserves to be treated with respect if for nothing more than for the office he holds.  Were I there at that Starbucks, I would have probably greeted him and been polite...or just minded my own business.  Look, folks, I know many of you despise Scott...but how many of you actually went to the polls to vote for his worthy opponents, Alex Sink and Charlie Crist,  in 2010 and 2014 respectively?  I ask that because of the discrepancy in Florida voter turnout between presidential and off-year elections (Florida elects its governors between presidential elections).  In 2008, when Obama won Florida, the voter turnout was 64%.  Two years later,when Scott won over Sink for his first term, it had diminished to 48% and he won by only 1%.  Then, in 2012 Obama once again won Florida with 64% turnout.  Guess what happened two years later...Scott beat Crist for his second term again by only 1%...and the voter turnout had gone down to 42%...

I have a big problem with the folks in this year's presidential campaign who feel they have to follow a "hero" in order to feel motivated to get off their butts and vote in an election. I'm especially thinking about candidates like Trump and Sanders who have their own fanatical followers.  Obama was like this to an extent as well.  But many of these voters, if their guy isn't on the ballot, won't go and vote in elections that are nearly as important to them as the one which features their idol.  And that's just plain stupid... 

As for Scott's retaliatory video criticizing the protester and playing up his own accomplishments, I would find it difficult to understand the motive for making it with the governor almost midway through his second and final term in office...unless, of course, he was campaigning to be put on Donald Trump's ticket as running mate in the general presidential election.   And putting down women is obviously something that he feels will ingratiate himself with the Donald...