Abortion. Guns. Is it enough to wake up voters?

TALLAHASSEE — Abortion and guns. Guns and abortion. Eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after nearly 50 years. Allowing legal gun owners to openly display firearms without a permit, in Florida of all places — the scene of two of the worst mass shootings ever at Pulse nightclub and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Abortion and guns.

If there’s another political issue that can more effectively motivate Democrats and independents and get them to go to the polls — especially women, who already vote more reliably than men — I can’t think of one.

We know a few things about midterm or non-presidential statewide elections in Florida. Republicans have massively more money than Democrats, a lot more Republicans bother to vote than do Democrats, and Republicans win — though often by very small margins.

We also know too many Democrats in Florida blissfully ignore political campaigns until a few weeks before Election Day.

If that ever were to change, you’d think it would be this election, with the anticipated repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court and Gov. Ron DeSantis giddily pledging to sign an open-carry gun law before leaving office. There’s a reason why even this pro-gun Legislature has not sent that to him: It’s highly controversial and opposed by much of the voting public and in the past by Florida sheriffs.

History shows us Democrats and independents need an overwhelming reason to vote in a midterm, and at the moment they have at least three: abortion, guns and DeSantis, whose intensely polarizing presence and increasingly extremist agenda is a campaign issue all by itself. He’s a serious contender for president in 2024 — if he’s not stopped in 2022.

Can anybody stop him? There appears to be only one person: Charlie Crist. At first glance, that appears highly unlikely, if not impossible, in part because this looks like a rough mid-term cycle for Democrats because of inflation and other factors.

Besides, DeSantis has $100 million in the bank and all the trappings of incumbency, and the Republicans have passed Democrats in registered voters in Florida.

But on abortion and guns, he’s on the wrong side of public opinion, on top of his bullying tactics toward Blacks, LGBTQ Floridians, protesters, private businesses, kids wearing masks, voters, school boards, Disney — the list goes on.

So cocky and certain of his re-election prospects, DeSantis is clearly playing to a political audience far beyond Florida, and he has likened the Democratic Party to a “dumpster fire.”

As for Crist, he lost his last two statewide elections before winning a seat in Congress in St. Petersburg. His story is familiar as a Republican-turned-Democrat and a perpetual candidate who in the past tried too hard to be all things to all people.

Crist will face Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Sen. Annette Taddeo of Miami in the August Democratic primary.

It’s time for voters to take a fresh look at Crist and for Crist to forcefully explain, news cycle after news cycle, why the stakes are so high, and to remind voters that we live in a treacherous moment that is unparalleled in Florida history.

Crist took a step in that direction this week with a forceful speech that made the case against DeSantis.

Marking one year since he entered the race, from the lobby of a law office in Tampa’s Ybor City and speaking with a TelePrompTer, Crist looked past his primary rivals. He called DeSantis a bully, compared him to the world’s worst dictators, like Putin and Maduro, and said what can’t be easily distilled into a snappy sound bite: Our political institutions, starting with the Legislature, are breaking down before our very eyes.

“In normal times, Floridians could count on the checks and balances woven into the fabric of our state to limit an authoritarian-minded, power-hungry governor. Not anymore,” Crist said. “We have a moral responsibility to stop him.”

The speech is on Crist’s Facebook page. As is so often the case, the news media paid only perfunctory attention and the public ignored it completely.

Does a majority of Floridians really want to keep living like this? That’s hard to fathom.

Slowly but surely, Democrats are coalescing around Crist.

“I think he has the best chance to win against DeSantis. I think we need to consolidate around one candidate,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who said she’s hearing from more voters who are scared about a future with more DeSantis. “I can’t tell you how much angst there is out there.”

Abortion and guns.

Abortion, guns and DeSantis.

Isn’t that enough?