Seaweed and Shootings
A simple Rundown of the Race Between Bill Nelson and Rick Scott
Rick Scott and Bill Nelson are competing for a position in the Senate to represent Florida. The main issues that confront Floridians today are water pollution and gun rights, of which the candidates have different views.
Many citizens rely on the sea water to be clean for their drinking water, or for usable beaches as a place to relax and play. Nelson said: “parents… have worried about letting their children play outside… Business owners [are] worried about the algae. How about bait and tackle shops? How about anything associated with the beach?” Here, Nelson shows that he is thinking of all types of citizens and the jobs that they have, comforting his citizens by showing that he cares for all of them.
On the other hand, Rick Scott has mostly ignored the algae blooms. Rick Scott, in his position, has a lot of influence on what he spends money on. For example, he chose to cut $700 million from water management programs in Florida. However, this makes sense, as he is a part of the Republican party.
Contrary to the liberal family models, the Republican model of society consists of a father figure that makes the family decisions and teaches his children right from wrong. This will set up his children to make good decisions and be able to support their own self-sufficient family later in their life. Scott, by redirecting money meant for water management, conveys to his audience that he thinks that they should be self-sufficient, so he will spend money only in areas that are beyond the control of the people. This would appeal only to Floridians that are rich enough to be self-sufficient.
Since Nelson is a Democrat, he generally treats his citizens like they are all entitled to a fair treatment. In terms of gun control, this means that he believes everyone gets equal security. So, no one should be allowed to have a gun if either the weapon or the person is a threat to others.
Nelson’s ideas on gun rights are based on fairness. In general, guns are dangerous, so Nelson does not advocate for anyone to have access to a firearm, but people do get the right, mainly for hunting. Still, those people are under strict rules of Nelson, who believes that guns are unnecessary for normal, working class people because policemen can be on hand to quell any threat nearby. There is no need for self-protection when we have such a good police force. Nelson allows for farmers to have access to a weapon, so that they will continue to support his stance on gun control.
Scott has a different plan to limit the gun violence in Florida. He says: “We will require all individuals purchasing firearms to be 21 or older.” and “We will prohibit a person from purchasing a firearm if they are subject to an injunction for protection against stalking, cyber-stalking, dating violence, [etc].” by using the exclusive “we” in this quote, Scott isolates the population that is prohibited to buy guns, making the audience feel more removed from those dangerous people, and comforted by Scott’s quote. This shows all audiences, whether they are for or against gun control, that he is on top of gun violence.
The audiences in Florida, farmers and the working class, have different views on gun control and water conservation. While Nelson appealed to both audiences, Scott chose to appeal to the smaller audience on the issue of algae blooms. Since he ignored such a large population of Florida, that is why he will lose the election.
After the election, Scott won, but it was a razor-thin margin. Bill Nelson called for recounts, and I hope the vote will be changed in order for my prediction to prove correct.
