{"id":377045,"date":"2026-08-21T00:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377045\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T00:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:34:10","slug":"nick-weston-florida-wont-defeat-socialism-with-a-history-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377045\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Weston: Florida won\u2019t defeat socialism with a history lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Florida just nominated a self-described democratic socialist for the United States Senate. Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, beat a far better-funded, establishment-backed opponent by 12 points Tuesday night in a state that has turned solidly Republican over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Nixon centered her campaign on a genuine problem: Housing, groceries, insurance \u2014 everything costs more than it did five years ago, and Florida families are stretched thin trying to keep up. She named that struggle plainly while her opponent spent millions saying less. Voters noticed.<\/p>\n

The platform she\u2019s offering as the fix would deepen the hole they\u2019re already in and cause lasting systemic damage. But the lesson of Tuesday night is that nobody wins an argument against socialism by simply pointing out that it has failed every time throughout history. Leaders have to offer a better alternative.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s proposing a national rent freeze and eviction moratorium, government-run childcare with state-set wages, a universal jobs program, Medicare for All, tuition-free college and debt cancellation. All funded by taxing the wealthiest Americans.<\/p>\n

Every plank fails in a similar way. A rent freeze caps what a landlord charges without building a single home, so the builder weighing Tampa against Nashville picks Nashville, and the housing shortage continues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

State-set childcare wages cause smaller centers that can\u2019t afford them to close, leaving parents with fewer options than before.<\/p>\n

Tuition-free college hands universities a blank check and removes any reason to control what they charge. Debt cancellation rewards the schools that priced students out in the first place.<\/p>\n

In each case, the policy treats the symptom by attacking whoever supplies what people need, even as supply is already falling short.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the pattern socialism produces everywhere, in every form.<\/p>\n

It identifies real suffering, promises to end it by government decree, and then creates more hardship and inequality. Venezuela sat on the largest proven oil reserves on the planet and ended up rationing flour. Cuba is 90 miles from Key West, and the people who risked their lives to flee its disastrous socialist policies are our neighbors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Six days before Nixon won her Primary, DSA marked Fidel Castro\u2019s 100th birthday by calling him a \u201cstalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The promise is always abundance, and the delivery is always scarcity.<\/p>\n

So what defeats this rhetoric? Not an economics lecture delivered to a family that can\u2019t make rent this month. The free market is a tool, and tools get judged by what they build. An economy that generates enormous wealth while a working father can\u2019t afford a home for his family isn\u2019t working the way it should: producing dignified work, homes people can own and paychecks a family can actually live on.<\/p>\n

That reframing changes what good policy looks like. Take housing. Florida\u2019s Live Local Act trades a property tax break to large multiunit developers who keep rents within reach. Extend that same deal to individual landlords renting single-family homes, and rents come down without a price ceiling. Pair it with zoning that lets builders put up homes, townhomes and duplexes near where people actually work, and permitting timelines measured in weeks rather than seasons, and the supply starts catching up to the demand.<\/p>\n

The same logic applies broadly. Instead of a government-run childcare system with state-set wages, expand the child tax credit so parents can choose their own arrangement, whether that\u2019s a daycare, a grandmother or a parent staying home. Instead of a federal jobs program, fund apprenticeships and trade schools that put a 22-year-old on a path to a $70,000 salary without $80,000 in student loans. Instead of debt cancellation that rewards the institutions that priced college out of reach, tie federal support to schools whose graduates actually earn enough to repay it. Instead of funding it all with new taxes, reward employers who hire here and build here with a tax code that creates jobs and raises wages.<\/p>\n

Floridians should treat Nixon\u2019s win as the wake-up call it is.<\/p>\n

Fellow democratic socialist Richie Floyd was re-elected to the St.\u00a0Petersburg City Council this year without drawing a single opponent. Tampa\u2019s DSA chapter has spent this cycle organizing across Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n

The socialist movement isn\u2019t just coming to Florida. It\u2019s already here.<\/p>\n

The affordability crisis is real, and anyone who dismisses it deserves to lose an election. Socialism is growing in the vacuum created by broken free-market promises. Florida can\u2019t defeat socialism with an economics lecture and a history lesson. We\u2019ll defeat it by putting the American dream back within reach: the promise that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Nick Weston is a former congressional staffer and St.\u00a0Petersburg resident who holds a Juris Master\u2019s in national security from George Mason University\u2019s Antonin Scalia Law School. His work has appeared in Florida Politics, the Tampa Bay Times and the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida just nominated a self-described democratic socialist for the United States Senate. Angie Nixon, a member of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[836,67180,18523,3853,3068,133817,77284,151391,28,11439,30,29,4833,47501,58876,17473,151756,109518,117482,7357,30495,199,1526,21491],"class_list":["post-377045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-affordability","tag-alex-vindman","tag-angie-nixon","tag-ashley-moody","tag-childcare","tag-democratic-socialism","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-dsa","tag-florida","tag-florida-economy","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-politics","tag-florida-senate-race","tag-housing-affordability","tag-live-local-act","tag-medicare-for-all","tag-nick-weston","tag-rent-control","tag-richie-floyd","tag-socialism","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tampa-bay","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}