Are the Dems losing Florida?

As everyone knows, Florida has been razor thin in the past two presidential elections.

So why is the Democratic Party trying so hard to alienate Democrats in Florida?

"This whole thing here is a joke," said John Taylor, a hulking schoolteacher from Jacksonville wearing the tallest, most bodacious Chef Boyardee-style, star-spangled red-white-and-blue hat you ever saw. "How stupid the Democrats are--we're shooting ourselves in the foot!" Taylor angrily recalled some of the Republicans' tactics for suppressing the Democratic vote in 2000 and 2004. "They stole two elections, and now we've been working six years to make sure that don't happen again. And the Democrats screw us!"


The whole issue is that Florida chose to move up its primary. The Democratic Party didn't like that, and asked candidates not to campaign there. Now the Party is threatening not to seat Florida's delegates at the Democratic National Convention. The Florida party is suing the national organization.

Bill Schneider addresses the issue here at CNN.com (video link), showing that Clinton polls well in Florida. But the Nation piece cited above indicates that polling may not matter if Florida Dems who are angry at the party stay home or vote for a third party or independent candidate. As we've seen in the last two cycles it won't take many disgruntled Dems to swing the election.

So why is Howard Dean taking this position, exactly?

Another excerpt from the Nation piece indicates the deep level of anger and resentment on the part of rank and file Democrats:

"I'm going to have to resign from the Duval [County] Democratic Party"--he serves on its executive committee--"just so that I can vote for somebody else. I'm going to vote Libertarian, probably. Or I might cross over and vote for Huckabee. My wife will kill me. She's the treasurer of the Duval Democratic Party! She retired from her job to work full time, for no money, for the Democrats. And I'm the man in the hat! But why not? What difference does it make? The Democrats don't care about us in Florida."

"I think it sucks," says Bob Matherne, a bearded middle-aged fellow in a Kucinich shirt. Matherne's been registering LGBT voters in Sarasota for months now, but daily headlines featuring the war between national and Florida Democrats have made it tough. "People don't understand the situation--and neither do I, really. They're asking for clarification: 'What's going on? The Republicans aren't being penalized for the early primary. Why are we being penalized? Why would Democrats do this, already knowing about Florida's problems with voting?'"