Florida: Worst State Ever

[Jmpty]

Video from John Oliver sums it up pretty well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/1 ... 03714.html

[mykcob4]

Florida is pretty bad but Texas and Oklahoma are still worse.

[Shiranu]

Florida is pretty bad but Texas and Oklahoma are still worse.

Okay, I'm sorry to take this rant out on you... but...

I'm so sick of people saying Texas is a terrible state. It is one of the top white collar states in the U.S., the largest city with an openly gay mayor, several openly gay state legislators in its history,  it has the worlds largest hospital, the largest military hospital, one of the music capitals of the world, Julian Castro in San Antonio who is one of the up-and-coming presidential candidates (hopefully), it pays more in taxes than it receives from the gov't, and is home to some huge liberal communities.

Judging Texas is like judging the United States... it is too big of state filled with various political and ethnic groups to put them into one bundle. And you are going to tell me North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas are better than Texas?

I'm sorry, but Texas gives FAR more to the United States than it takes from it, and is becoming more and more a swing state as demographics change.

Now, if you said West Texas, North Texas or East Texas... yeah, 100% agree those places are terrible. But Central Texas is far more liberal than most of the United States. Or if you say Rick Perry and the State Legislator... yeah I'll give you that.

[Hydra009]

Florida is pretty bad but Texas and Oklahoma are still worse.

Okay, I'm sorry to take this rant out on you... but...

I'm so sick of people saying Texas is a terrible state. It is one of the top white collar states in the U.S., the largest city with an openly gay mayor, several openly gay state legislators in its history,  it has the worlds largest hospital, the largest military hospital, one of the music capitals of the world, Julian Castro in San Antonio who is one of the up-and-coming presidential candidates (hopefully), it pays more in taxes than it receives from the gov't, and is home to some huge liberal communities.

Judging Texas is like judging the United States... it is too big of state filled with various political and ethnic groups to put them into one bundle. And you are going to tell me North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas are better than Texas?

I'm sorry, but Texas gives FAR more to the United States than it takes from it, and is becoming more and more a swing state as demographics change.

Now, if you said West Texas, North Texas or East Texas... yeah, 100% agree those places are terrible. But Central Texas is far more liberal than most of the United States. Or if you say Rick Perry and the State Legislator... yeah I'll give you that.

It may have a liberal minority (as do all of the states you've listed) and is very progressive in places (again, they can all claim that), but that doesn't outweigh the fact that the "leadership" (Perry et al) is terrible and continues to push a benighted social agenda so egregious that it pisses off all but the most diehard conservatives and generally annoys even other solidly red states with its regressive policies (abortion, for starters), disproportionate influence on national public education (often for the worst), and strange - even amongst southern states - obsession with prayer, guns, and capital punishment.

I could rebut similar criticisms of my own state of North Carolina by pointing to UNC and Duke, extolling its engineering, biotech, medical, and banking prowess, as well as its fairly liberal communities.  But I won't.  Because nothing I could say would negate the fact that it's also a Republican-leaning state (proud home of 5-term windbag Jesse Helms) with plenty of truly reprehensible policies to show for it (Amendment 1, 'nuff said) and continues to be a hotbed of fundy-conservatism of the vilest sort.  A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good.

[Shiranu]

I could rebut similar criticisms of my own state of North Carolina by pointing to UNC and Duke, extolling its engineering, biotech, medical, and banking prowess, as well as its fairly liberal communities. But I won't. Because nothing I could say would negate the fact that it's also a Republican-leaning state (proud home of 5-term windbag Jesse Helms) with plenty of truly reprehensible policies to show for it (Amendment 1, 'nuff said) and continues to be a hotbed of fundy-conservatism of the vilest sort. A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good.

Is NC going to be a swing state in an election or two though? That's thing, liberals aren't some fringe group in Texas... because of changing demography Texas is suppose to become a swing state in the next election or two.

And I agree with your last statement, hence the annoyance I have at all the anti-Texanism going around the media and forums lately. They may not washout the bad, but the good from Texas far outweighs the bad imo, and it contributes far more to the nation than nearly any other state both economically (in taxes) and job-market-ly.

[Jason78]

I'm so sick of people saying Texas is a terrible state.

We've still not forgiven you for inflicting George Bush on us.

[aileron]

Is NC going to be a swing state in an election or two though?

NC already is a swing state.  In the '08 election NC went for Obama with the closest margin in the country.  In '12 NC went for Romney, also with the closest margin in the country.  We have one Republican senator and one Democratic senator.  Unfortunately right now both the legislature and governorship are in Republican hands because of the demoralized election for Democrats in 2010, but that won't last.

[Solitary]

For stupid politics it's hard to beat Arizona.  :roll:  Solitary

[Shiranu]

I'm so sick of people saying Texas is a terrible state.

We've still not forgiven you for inflicting George Bush on us.

Well shit, that one is a good point :.

To be fair to us, at least he wasn't born here. You can thank Connecticut for spawning him.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Texas had ME and still has my sister, her kids and grandkids and my brother and his fat, ugly girlfriend... 2 out of 7 ain't bad, eh? :)

[Eric1958]

I'd point out the fact that Texas has a love of capital punishment and one of the highest murder rates in the country. Then there's the large percentage of people who have no health insurance combined with a governor who decided not to allow an increase in Medicaid that would have helped those people.

And while Texas may become a swing state it's also got a republican dominated legislature that is going to do everything in its power to keep that from happening.

[Shiranu]

Still a better state than basically every other Southern state and Arizona.

[Brian37]

Why is it warm places seem to have more nuts than cold places?

[stromboli]

Arizona gets a bad rap, but there are a lot of liberals down there, especially in Phoenix. The Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist of the Arizona Republic is Steve Benson, ex-Mormon atheist. So there are liberal voices there.

[wolf39us]

**Goes to find 1 area in Alabama with some intelligent life in it...  **Declares no problem with Alabama

Tired of these people picking on Alabama!!

/end joke