Former lawmaker and director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Jared Moskowitz, spoke to the Tallahassee Capital Tiger Bay club and reflected on his time working with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Moskowitz, who is currently in professional “purgatory,” said he feels the politics of today consist of people living in “bubbles.”
“I see a generation of elected officials more interested in Twitter followers than passing bills and legislation,” said Moskowitz. “Instead of trying to build consensus or moving the ball down the field, you know, all they want to do is have one play, throw the Hail Mary that converts into a touchdown. Instant gratification. And it gets rewarded.”
Moskowitz said he was not encouraged to take the position in the DeSantis administration by political consultants citing the potential for political ostracization.
“They all told me, I was out of my mind, I would never be elected to anything, my political career would be over, I would be a pariah,” Moskowitz said. “And none of that has turned out to be true.”
While working alongside and for DeSantis during the bulk of Florida’s fight with the COVID pandemic, he was interested to see what the conservative, Republican political camps were like. As a Democrat, he said he was familiar with how Democrats talked within their “bubbles,” but exposure to the other side of the aisle was beneficial.
“We live in bubbles,” Moskowitz said. “I got a rare glimpse at the Republican bubble. In some ways it was frightening, but in other ways it was identical to the Democratic bubble. Our policy disagreements have turned into such a vilification of people that we probably have never spent time with, and we don’t understand.”
The Division of Emergency Management is now run by Kevin Guthrie who has worked in public emergency services for over three decades.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Jared Moskowitz” by Jared Moskowitz and photo “Florida State Capitol” by DXR CC BY-SA 4.0.
