Palm Beach County isn’t exactly known for its good voting record.
In the 2008 presidential election, there were numerous voting glitches, and in 2000 it became the center of a national controversy with its hanging chads and the highest support Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan ever had in their numerous presidential runs.
But this time, the problem isn’t with the voting equipment or poorly designed ballots. It’s with the candidate.
Allen West is a conservative darling, fighting for Ron Klein’s 22nd District seat in the U.S. House. He spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year and is a member of the tea party movement. This is his second attempt at the seat, and the political winds are blowing in his favor this time.
So, in a year where feelings of anti-incumbency are in the air and the common political sentiment is “throw the bums out,” how could West not win in a district that only trended one percentage point higher toward Democrats than the national average in 2008? (For those keeping score at home, that makes Florida’s 22nd District 53 percent Democratic and 47 percent Republican.)
The answer, quite plainly, is intolerance.
Just this past week, West didn’t choose to attack something as blatantly liberal as arugula or lattes, or something surprisingly conservative like gas-guzzling SUVs or half-pound hamburgers, but rather something that fell in the middle of the continuum of American politics — the idea of tolerance.
West attacked a Gainesville icon — not something like Satchel’s or Century Tower, but the COEXIST bumper stickers made with different faith symbols affixed to cars, bikes and scooters. Now, the stickers weren’t established here and aren’t limited to just college towns, but they seem more prevalent here. My statistics professor would lecture me on how I didn’t use the correct sample size and how I only surveyed a few parking lots, but this is an unofficial poll, of course.
If you’ve not seen these stickers, here’s a quick rundown. The “C” is replaced by a star and crescent, symbolic of Islam. The “O” is replaced by a peace sign usually, with the “E” either representing the two signs for man and woman combined or representing science, as in E=MC squared. The “X” is replaced by a Star of David for Judaism, the “I” is usually a Pagan or Wiccan symbol, while the “S” is usually a yin and yang combined. Finally, the “T” is replaced by a cross, symbolic of Christianity. Sounds pretty innocent, right? After all, it’s a bumper sticker, not a death threat.
Not if you’re Allen West.
He believes, as he articulated to a public forum on March 8, people with the COEXIST bumper stickers represent “something that would give away our country” and “are afraid to stand up and confront that which is the antithesis, anathema of who we are.”
So wait, people who are not pushing a religion but rather the belief that it’s okay to tolerate other people are going to destroy these great United States?
West’s complaint centers on Islam (surprise!), and represents the Islamophobia that is sweeping the conservative movement in America.
Ron Klein might have just gotten a belated birthday gift or even worse — West’s fear mongering might have just won him those same voters who accidentally voted for Buchanan and Nader in 2000.
Good luck, Palm Beach.
Sean Quinn is a first-year political science student. His column appears every Wednesday.
