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1 year agoI can’t speak for other cars, but my Prius uses the electric assist motor as the starter motor as well. Compared to a regular ICE car that’s a massively stronger electric motor than average starting a smaller than average engine.
My favorite thing about it though is I have the longer hatchback model and if you replace one of the back seats you can fully lie down for car camping. What about the heat you may ask? I can just leave the AC on overnight, the car will start up and use the engine like a generator to recharge the battery then turn back off autonomously. I always keep some spare gas in case but I’m always shocked how little it uses.
Oh they for sure care, just yesterday I was listening to a podcast and one of the ads was for Orlando. The theme of the ad? “Orlando is still great for gay people” They cited all kinds of statistics in an attempt to prove gay people should still visit and that it was a safe and fun place for them. They understand how critical those DINK tourists are, especially when you already have a lot of infrastructure and investment in attracting and serving them.
DeSantis doesn’t care, but I promise you that lots of conservatives on the ground will start caring when their business traffic starts to choke off. Conservatives retire to Florida, but I’d imagine liberals make up at least half of the tourists between spring break, nightlife/LGBTQ hotspots, and how “woke” Disney has become.
Florida’s current economic landscape is only possible due to tourism money, and once that reality becomes clear people are suddenly going to become far less concerned with non economic issues. Even the promise of tax cuts won’t work when entire industries see their revenues drop by meaningful %'s.
I’m from Kansas, I know what it looks like and feels like to live in a conservative economic death spiral. The reality is you have to let it start getting worse before people take it seriously and put a stop to it. Even the conservatives here voted out Brownback after he started gutting every maintenance, service, and school budget in a failed attempt to balance his tax cuts. All those people who treat politics as a game get real serious once it hurts them directly, but until then I’m not sure there’s an effective way to reach them.