What would you do if had a chance encounter with the one politician you most disdained? What would you say if you ran into your governor at your local Starbucks? Lake Worth resident Cara Jennings recognized Florida Governor Rick Scott as she worked at her local Starbucks in Gainesville on Tuesday. In a 47-second video posted online by Stephen Bender, Jennings is seen delivering a searing and passionate rebuke of the Republican governor’s decision to not expand Medicaid in his state. Scott, a vocal and strident Obamacare opponent has refused to help implement the health care law in his state despite at times strangely indicating support for the law…. “You cut Medicaid so I couldn’t get Obamacare,” Jennings shouted at a startled and defensive Scott, as an aide rushed to calm the situation down. “You’re an asshole,” Jennings continued undeterred, “You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”…. Scott’s spokeswoman Jeri Bustamante then swooped in to divert Jennings’ attention, but Jennings swiftly swated her down: “I’m not talking to you.”…. The Governor then attempts to spin his refusal to expand access to healthcare to low-income Florida residents into some sort of job creating measure. “We’ve got a million jobs,” he reminded Jennings.
There are few things I enjoy more than watching Republicans face the consequences of their self-interested decisions, many of which are intended to primarily benefit the 1% to the detriment of the rest of us. Most Republican elected officials have learned to isolate themselves from their constituents, in part because they only need their votes every two or four years, depending on the office they hold. More than that, though, interacting with constituents can devolve into an intensely awkward and uncomfortable encounter. Being confronted with the consequences of your policies can be like that when you don’t give a damn about those you represent until such time as you need their votes to keep your job.
Rick Scott is an inept and incompetent empty suit elected (and re-elected) Governor by the people of Floriduh. In fairness, Ms. Jenning’s rage, while understandable, should not be accepted as placing 100% of the blame for what Scott had done to Floriduh. Voters in the Sunshine State bear a fair amount of responsibility for having standards so low as to vote twice for a CEO who probably should be in prison. Scott ran a healthcare company so corrupt it admitted to 14 felony counts involving its business and Medicare billing practice. While Scott was not charged personally, he was at the helm of the ship of the S.S. Ethical Vacuum when it struck the iceberg.
As the Governor and his staff scrambled to exit the Starbucks without their coffee, Scott struggled to get a defense in as Jennings’ powerful accounting of the conservative lawmaker’s impact on the lives of many Floridians drowned him out.
“You stripped women of access to public health care. Shame on you, Rick Scott! We depend on those services,” Jennings shouted to Scott. “Rich people like you don’t know what to do. When poorer people like us need services you cut them. Shame on you, Rick Scott! You’re an embarrassment to our state!”
Jennings, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom, later told ABC Action News that she had recently been reading about Scott’s defunding of Planned Parenthood, the 12th Republican governor to do so, despite a state agency dropping an investigation into the women’s health provider ordered by Scott. Jennings said that when she recognized Scott’s profile in line at Starbucks, “I didn’t think about whether I should do it or not. I thought, ‘Here’s my chance to tell the governor how I feel about the horrible bill.’”
“A number of people came up to me and thanked me,” Jennings told ABC.
Gov. Scott could have made things much easier on himself if he hadn’t spent his time as Governor treating Floridians with such dismissiveness and disdain. He’s made it crystal clear that he cares about residents of the Sunshine State only insofar as he’s needed their votes to keep his job. Perhaps if he’d made it known by his actions that he cares about Floridians and their circumstances things would be different. That he couldn’t be bothered to focus on improving the live and circumstances of Floridians not in the 1% speaks volumes about Scott’s (complete and utter absence of) character.
If you going to be a douchebag and set policy based on what the Koch Brothers want at the expense of the people who voted you into office, you can’t claim to be surprised when your constituents turn even a simple foray to a Starbucks into a journey into the heart of darkness.
Next time, Gov. Scott may want to remember that he’s not exactly view by Floridians as a man of the people and try sending an intern to fetch his grande blood-of-a-poor-Latino-child latte
