Jimmy Buffet and His Version of Florida
Jimmy Buffet died on the same day as the county-wide Nazi marches throughout Central Florida.
Labor Day Weekend was bookmarked with tragedy as we lost the man behind Cheeseburger in Paradise, and then saw Florida looking more and more like South America after Hitler offed himself. Florida has become a safehaven for Nazi sympathizers and 21st-century Nazis, and this is a sentence that deserves more worry, panic, and frustration from the White House---and it really hasn’t much happened.
THIS is likely why Jimmy Buffet likely died while living in another state, and not the state that built his career and gave him success beyond his wildest dreams.
The contrast of one of Florida’s most famous men in its entire history passing away during an era where the Sunshine State is being inundated with Nazis and political leadership that courts them is jarring. Jimmy Buffet helped Florida become the mecca for tourism, relaxation, beaches, and retired folk, but he definitely didn’t want to see it transform into such a dismal ugly mess.
Jimmy Buffet’s legacy is a complicated one, but not because he himself was problematic, for despite his billionaire capitalist ways nonetheless did a ton of fantastic charitable work ranging from helping save the manatees from extinction to helping Haiti after their devastating earthquake back in 2010. But its complicated because even within his lightly progressive (by modern American standards) lyrics about relaxing, actually enjoying life, and openly having a good time with whomever also appreciates the beach and a good cocktail, his empire built a following full of those who exploit Florida and take full advantage of what the state offers while simultaneously ruining it for future generations.
Buffet gave back to the state that gave him a second chance at a music career after he didn’t succeed in Tennessee as a country singer. Buffet found his voice, his personality, and his ever-growing fanbase in Key West, before the love spread throughout Florida and beyond. Despite having only two Top 40 hits after 1979, his albums were always sleeper hits with consistent sales over the decades as people began associating him with the branding of Florida, the branding of what Florida can offer. There’s a vision of Florida that didn’t really develop until Jimmy Buffet’s 1970s wave of tropical rock and country tunes. Most importantly, his message is an anti-thesis to the wild capitalist mindset of constantly working and only finding enjoyment when the paychecks are good. Buffet musically peaked right around the Greed is Good era under Reagan. Best of all, he gave back to Florida as his empire and music career exponentially grew, but his mostly-conservative fanbase don’t have the same ideals.
As I’ve been ringing the alarm for years, conservatives, MAGAts, rich capitalist vultures, and greedy politicians have been wrecking the state of Florida for decades now, especially revving up the ridiculousness during the 2000 election. They have transformed what should have been an friendly, progressive state with environmental wealth into this safehaven for greedy rich people that hate taxes, extreme right-wingers that don’t like seeing minorities in their streets, and worst of all political criminals hiding in a state that constantly fails to bring justice to those harming the system of politics and social infrastructure.
It is not a coincidence that Trump lives here, not a coincidence that Nazis are proudly marching here, not a coincidence that the senator directly linked to the biggest medicare scam in history remains in power. At the same time, we’re seeing shrinking wetlands in the everglades, more environmental disasters in the gulf, lack of progress in defending the fragile varied ecosystem within the state, voter suppression, intense gerrymandering, wild escalating costs of living, and worst of all an effort to try to rewrite history so all the political and actual atrocities committed against Floridians, especially Native and Black Americans, can be watered down and justified as a means to an end. The vision Jimmy Buffet had for Florida is nowhere near the realities of what the state has become.
We’ve had so many close calls that could have turned things around. Al Gore was a thousand votes short of winning his election (and he likely wins had the recount been allowed to continue), Andrew Gillum was so so damn close to beating Ron DeSantis back in 2018 (this loss hurts me significantly more than Trump winning in 2016 because he ran such a good campaign). But these are the cards we’re being dealt, the Miami Zone is constantly underwater with poor infrastructure and more powerful storms, Florida’s largest employer is literally in a lawsuit against the current governor, the ex-president that tried overthrowing an entire damn election lives here and maintain a cult-like fanbase, and worst of all we’ve seen gerrymandering and more polarizing politics tear apart communities that usually were politically peaceful and friendly---Sarasota County being the biggest example.
Of course, we can’t forget the voter suppression as Republican leadership put more obstacles for voters who did their time in prison, shortly after the Florida voters approved handing former felons their voting rights back after they finished their punishment. This was done clearly to go after Black Floridians, which of course end up in jail at four times the rate of white Floridians thanks to the racist policing system, and between that and the educational reformatting of slavery’s horrors leads to atrocities like the mass shooting from the Neo-Nazi with psychological problems.
Back to Jimmy Buffet however, as he is an example of someone who benefitted from Florida but also took efforts in ensuring that the state remains healthy, clean, prosperous, and prepared to joyfully receive more people in the generations to come----even if the results are definitely less than desirable. We just don’t see many Jimmy Buffets in the United States.
Also, in this era where we’ve seen many music artists completely change their ways to the uglier side as the turn of the century slowly took away their influence and popularity, its honestly a breath of fresh air to see the consistency of Jimmy Buffet. Buffet throughout his life performed for progressives, for soldiers, for the Gulf Coast tourism industry post-Deepwater Horizon, even for people all the way out in Hong Kong. You’re not going to find ugly scandals about him, which is refreshing in a world where there are fewer and fewer authentic heroes and people to look up to.
Margaritaville will stand tall long after Jimmy Buffet makes it to the endless beaches in the sky. But, someday hopefully in my lifetime, we’ll see Buffet’s visions of what Florida can be come steer closer to reality and much MUCH farther away from what it has become.
Rest in Paradise, Jimmy Buffet. Sorry our Sunshine State is currently poisoned with nazis.