The Political Whore

Our former gov, Jeb Bush, is speaking out against expanding gambling in Florida, telling the Florida Baptist Witness:

… gambling expansion is a “narcotic” state leaders should reject even though the “allure of gambling is probably even stronger today” with the state budget deficit.

Gambling can be opposed for moral, economic, fairness or social costs reasons, but the “combination of all of them” make for a “very compelling argument” against expansion, Bush said.

“I think gambling is a vivid example of a culture that demands immediate gratification,” giving an “impression that you can achieve things without work” and “that luck matters,” Bush said. As such, gambling is a “deterrence for true economic development.”

According to Bush, “the bottom line is that this is a money-making enterprise for a select few that do really, really well at the expense of the communities” where they exist.

Bush continues that the drive to expand gambling is not “unstoppabl” but he is careful not to criticize his successor, Charlie Crist, directly, saying there may be circumstances that he is not privvy to.

How about a state economy that is in shambles, education reforms that have done nothing to make public schools better or more accountable and a lingering land-hucksterism that Bush did nothing to curb in his eight years in the gov’s mansion in Tallahassee?

I especially love Jeb!’s overall assessment of how our state should be, as elucidated in the FBW lede:

If the Sunshine State had a mission statement it should be “Florida is a family-friendly, wholesome, prosperous place” and “gambling doesn’t have a part in that,” former Gov. Jeb Bush told Florida Baptist Witness in an exclusive interview.

Make that quote “heterosexual, traditional nuclear family-friendly, wholesome prosperous for connected land developers place.”

(photo courtesy of Adrian Sampson) 

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