Now it’s personal: All those political TV ads and what they mean

07-13-20 Levitra football ad 3

Blasts from the past and present: Levitra Man and William Figlesthaler. (Images: You Tube, Figlesthaler for Congress)

July 17, 2020 by David Silverberg

You’ve seen them—and seen them and seen them and seen them: the local political ads on television if you’re in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples media market.

We’re going into the home stretch before the primary on Aug. 18. Voting starts on Aug. 8 and people are already casting mail-in ballots.

As a result, the campaigning is getting harder, the attacks getting sharper and the ads are becoming more negative. With traditional face-to-face campaign tools like rallies, door-to-door canvassing and meet-and-greets unavailable due to the pandemic, this year’s election really rides on television advertising.

So while everyone can see the ads—in fact, they’re impossible to avoid in the 5 pm to 6:30 local news hours no matter how hard one tries—what are the dynamics behind them? Why are particular candidates using particular arguments and images? Why are they attacking particular opponents? Are the campaigns succeeding in their goals?

Well, you—the voter—be the judge.

And don’t forget: This article only covers the Republican rumble in the 19th Congressional District. There are good Democratic alternatives in every race.

PAC men: Casey Askar versus Byron Donalds

Who would have thought that state Rep. Byron Donalds (R-80-Immokalee) would emerge as a major player—or threaten the richest candidate, businessman Casey Askar?

The 2020 2nd quarter fundraising totals for the 19th Congressional District were released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday, July 16. As of June 30, when the books were closed, Byron Donalds was third, having raised $778,962.94 and having $328,588.43 on hand. That put him well behind Casey Askar ($3,656,255.85 raised, $1,760,828.90 on hand) and William Figlesthaler ($1,986,420.40 raised, $709,435.00 on hand).

(The Paradise Progressive will be doing individual analyses of candidate’s financial reports in future articles.)

But Donalds’ campaign fundraising and totals don’t tell the whole story. He has a not-so-secret weapon: an endorsement and support from the Club for Growth Action, a Super Political Action Committee (PAC). Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of a cause or candidate as long as they don’t coordinate with the candidate’s campaign.

Pro: Club for Growth Action’s ad in praise of Byron Donalds. (Image: Club for Growth Action)

Club for Growth is not just any old conservative political organization. It touts itself as “the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation, we win tough battles and we have an enormous influence on economic policy.”

In a 2016 Politico Magazine article, author Simon Van Zuylen-Wood characterized it as a “deep-pocketed interest group that is feared by Republicans who come into its cross hairs for supporting tax or spending hikes.” It claims membership of “250,000 pro-growth, limited government Americans who share in the belief that prosperity and opportunity come from economic freedom.”

No surprise, Democrats are not enchanted. “The Club For Growth has done an absolutely terrific job pushing reckless and extreme Republicans through primaries, thinning out an already out of touch and cash-strapped class of Republican recruits,” Robyn Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The Hill.

Club for Growth Action is the Club’s spending arm and this year it chose to endorse and spend on behalf of Byron Donalds, the only Florida candidate and the only African American of the 49 candidates it is supporting.

Club for Growth Action’s intervention is what in military terms is called a “force multiplier.” It suddenly makes Donalds one of the best financed, if not the best financed candidate, in the race. Now, not only is he running his own ads touting his allegiance to Trump and his conservatism, he has outside ads backing him up, putting him on a par with the until-now richest candidate, Casey Askar.

Pretty clearly Askar—and/or his staff and consultants—are painfully aware of it too, because they’ve suddenly decided to go after Donalds with negative TV ads. To do this, they’ve focused on Donalds’ and the Club for Growth’s Achilles heel.

In a Republican primary race built on fanatical fealty to Donald Trump that allows no room for deviation or impurity, Club for Growth has a dark past: In 2016 it opposed Donald Trump. “There’s nothing conservative about Donald Trump,” one of its operatives stated at the time.

And what is Byron Donalds’ sin? His 1997 drug bust, which he himself acknowledges in his campaign video? An admitted acceptance of a bribe in 2000? Nah, that’s just water under the bridge. His real crime is political heresy, which the Askar opposition team uncovered: In the past, Byron Donalds didn’t support Trump! In fact, he thought Trump was something of a jerk and said so. Imagine! Impure thoughts!

In a television ad approved by Askar, he brings up Donalds’ past opposition to Trump and Donalds’ tweets disparaging Trump and expressing relief when Trump announced in 2011 that he wouldn’t be running.

A lengthier and more explicit video was issued by another Super PAC, Honesty America PAC, which identifies itself only as “conservative voters, frustrated with politicians who promote themselves and their ‘public service’ with no regard for the truth”—no names, no further identity on its website, and with a Twitter account that only activated in March. A search of FEC records reveals Honesty America Inc., a Super PAC based in Alexandria, Va., incorporated on April Fool’s Day, 2020 with David Satterfield, a professional campaign compliance consultant, as its treasurer.

Original sin: Honesty America PAC’s anti-Donalds video. (Image: Honesty America PAC)

Byron Donalds has responded with a video of his own called “Dishonest attacks by Casey Askar.”

In the video, Donalds says: “My opponent, Casey Askar has decided to attack me, not on my conservative record, which started here in Southwest Florida with the Tea Party movement and he’s not attacking me on my conservative record in the Florida legislature, where I have stood up even to my own party to protect your constitutional Second Amendment rights.” He then goes on to rebut the attacks, attributing them to youth or to his existence in the days prior to Trump’s time as a politician.

Askar himself is not immune to criticism and worse. An FEC complaint has been filed about the source of his $3 million loan to his campaign and a complaint to the state’s attorney charged that his Harvard Business School degree was bogus, a charge Askar is fighting with a lawsuit. But aside from these public attacks, a variety of campaign operatives of unknown provenance and motivation are peddling information about Askar behind the scenes. (For more, see “Sleaze, slime and slander: Southwest Florida’s summer in the swamp.”)

To a skeptical outsider, the charges and countercharges sound like a metaphysical argument among Inquisition judges over who should be burned at the stake. But in the real world, the heat is rising because the candidates are fighting over a shrinking share of undecided Republican voters who will determine the primary winner.

However, given the rising passion, politics and friction, both Askar and Donalds may spontaneously combust well before August 18.

Figlesthaler assumes human form

In his campaign ads Dr. William Figlesthaler has played different roles: He’s been the angry Dr. Zhivago populist in a white lab coat. He’s been the Knight Trumplar on his iron steed, doing battle with the goblins of the left. He’s been the Grim Reaper stalking down corridors like a crazed Jack Torrance in The Shining.

But viewers knew something had changed when he shaved off his signature five o’clock shadow and stopped snarling at the camera.

07-16-20 Fig shaven cropped — Say cheese: A newly shorn William Figlesthaler tries to smile.

In his first post-shave video, “A Legacy of Success,” issued on July 7, Figlesthaler touted his past successes in a way strongly reminiscent of Askar’s ads. He even tried to smile. Still, it was strange seeing him shorn and in the end his face seemed flat and featureless, like a botoxed balloon. (Bad lighting on that last shot, guys!)

In his latest video, Figlesthaler tries to be…human. It’s called “Just a Regular Guy.” After all his larger-than-life personas in his previous ads, this time he’s just a salt of the earth papa.

In the video he throws around a football in a field with a young boy—presumably his grandson—and he tells viewers he’s just a regular guy like everyone else.

The ad seemed eerily familiar to this viewer. Where had this scenario appeared before?

Does anyone remember back to 2003 and an ad for a drug called Levitra?

In that TV spot a middle-aged man enters a garage and sees an old football. He picks it up, goes in the backyard and throws it, trying to send it through the center of a tire hanging from a tree. At first he misses.

The narrator intones: “Sometimes you need a little help staying in the game.” The name of Levitra, a male enhancement drug, pops up. The ad, until then in black and white, suddenly goes to color.

Now the man has energy. He’s running around the backyard, throwing the football through the tire—again and again and again.

His wife (presumably?) comes to the door and sees him active and energetic. She joins him in the backyard. They’re happy, snuggly and kissy-faced.

It’s a metaphor!!! Get it?

A newly energized Levitra Man makes a score. (Image: YouTube)

On the one hand the similarities between Figlesthaler’s ad and the Levitra ad (“Staying in the Game,” its proper title) might have been inadvertent. Perhaps his video production company is staffed by people too young to remember Levitra Man.

But “Just a Regular Guy” comes at a time when Figlesthaler’s campaign is being blasted as nothing more than a mid-life crisis on the website Freaky Fig, posted by…wait for it…Honesty America PAC, the same one attacking Byron Donalds to the advantage of Casey Askar.

Figlesthaler has pledged to keep fighting to the bitter end in the video “Everything I’ve Got.” He’s certainly staying in the game—financially.

Not to abandon objectivity or favor any particular campaign here, but maybe Figlesthaler would benefit from addressing genuine policy issues and the real legislative needs of Southwest Florida? He is, after all, running for the United States Congress. But understanding those would take work.

Meanwhile, as of today, there are 32 days until Primary Day.

And remember: There are Democrats to vote for in November.

Liberty lives in light

Paranoiapalooza: SWFL’s Republican video wars

Dane Eagle takes aim in his latest campaign video. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

June 24, 2020 by David Silverberg.

Antifa, rampaging Democrats and George Soros are banging at the gates, defiling churches and about to murder you in your bed—right here in Southwest Florida, this hotbed of anarchy and insurrection.

That, at least, is the impression three local Republican congressional candidates are creating with a blitz of videos released over the past two weeks by their campaigns.

The videos are now on the Internet, and while they haven’t yet been broadcast on local television, they may soon be.

All were clearly made during the initial days of outrage over the murder of George Floyd. All reflect President Donald Trump’s initial characterizations of the resulting protests.

Each is also in competition with the other, intended to differentiate its candidate from the nine candidates running for the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Francis Rooney in the 19th Congressional District, the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island.

Most of all, each video attempts to one-up the other, each displaying a mounting sense of extremism, hysteria and paranoia.

Casey Askar and “Home of the Brave”

Casey Askar in his June 12 video. (Image: Casey Askar for Congress)

Casey Askar started the stampede on June 12 with his 30-second video called, “Home of the Brave.”

It’s narrated by Askar, who intones over a variety of visuals: “Our president is under attack from the media, government bureaucrats and radical socialists and violent anarchists. They’re desperate to destroy him because in spite of all their lies and conspiracies, lockdowns and riots, President Trump is fighting to keep America the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Askar then appears and says he’s running for Congress “to stand with President Donald Trump” and pledges to “always have the president’s back.”

William Figlesthaler gives his all

Dr. William Figlesthaler calls the Democratic Party “a criminal enterprise.” (Image: Figlesthaler for Congress)

Apparently worried that he’d be left behind as a Trump defender, on June 14 Figlesthaler issued his latest 30-second spot. Titled “Everything I’ve got,” it tries to go at least one level better—or lower—than Askar’s ad.

After introducing himself, Figlesthaler says “America is “at its greatest crossroads yet,” over visuals of House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) ripping up Trump’s State of the Union speech.

Against a backdrop of rioting and burning buildings Figlesthaler continues: “The Democrat Party has transformed into a criminal enterprise that is destroying our country from within: trampling the Constitution, defunding our first responders and wreaking havoc on our churches and businesses.”

It’s not the time to send “weak leaders to Washington,” he says, and he’ll fight “the radical left” with “everything I’ve got—you can count on it.”

The video gives off a whiff of desperation; Figlesthaler seems not only committing to the political fight but committing to continue what appears to be a faltering political campaign right up to the end.

Dane Eagle on the firing line

Dane Eagle is ready to take his shot. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

On June 18, state Rep. Dane Eagle (R-77-Cape Coral) entered the fray with his own march to the margins, a 1-minute video called “Stop Antifa.”

“Antifa terrorists have declared war on our country,” he declares. “They’re killing our police, looting our businesses, assaulting the elderly and burning our churches. To make matters worse, the Democrats are doing nothing to stop them. In fact, they’re doing just the opposite: Biden and Hollywood elites are bailing the terrorists out of jail. AOC and the squad are organizing the riots, and Nancy Pelosi is cheering them on.”

Eagle then introduces himself and says that he’s running for Congress “because we cannot continue to let the radical left continue to destroy our country.” He wants law and order, arrests of all Antifa terrorists, investigations of those who are funding them (with a picture of George Soros) and their sympathizers voted out of office (with a picture of a laughing Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi).

“If we do not do that, everything we love about America is at risk: our freedoms, our jobs, our safety—all of that—is at stake. I’m Dane Eagle and I approved this message,” he says amidst swelling music. Wearing ear and eye coverings, he then turns down a shooting range and squeezes off three shots from a pistol. The visual ends before the viewer can see the target or his marksmanship.

Analysis: Firing their shots

On the one hand, any thinking person might laugh off this kind of exaggeration as the hyperbole of a campaign season. To the best of anyone’s ability to determine, there’s no Antifa in Southwest Florida (at least none that’s been publicly identified), there’s been none of the isolated destruction that plagued early protests elsewhere and the initial outrage over the death of George Floyd is calming as serious people get to work on serious reforms.

Of course, that’s not what prompted these videos. There’s a strong element of one-upsmanship as each candidate tries to appeal to a very small base of likely Republican primary voters.

But they’re doing it by stoking paranoia and “hatred, prejudice and rage,” to use Donald Trump’s own words.

It’s also interesting that only Askar mentions Trump in his video. The other two mainly lash out at perceived enemies.

Of the three, the Eagle video is the most problematic because it literally ends with gunfire.

There are several elements at work here. One is that Eagle has had a gun problem since he announced his run for Congress in October of last year. Since he served as the Florida state House Majority Leader, he is blamed by pro-gun advocates for the gun restriction reforms passed in Florida in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting in 2018. He takes continuous fire from the right for passage of these reforms. He has been accused of bowing to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push for gun violence reform and by implication taking his money.

As a result, he’s made a point of his support for gun ownership and always includes gunfire in his videos.

In his first, announcement video, the gunfire is peripheral and mentioned in passing.

Opening up with an automatic weapon in Dane Eagle’s first announcement video. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

But in his current video the hysteria builds to a crescendo and then Eagle blasts away. A clear inference can be made that he’s encouraging the shooting of the enemies he’s identified: protesters, Democrats and phantom terrorists. Nor is it a great leap of imagination to envision some impressionable souls following his example—except not on a gun range but at demonstrators or on a street.

Aside from this video’s potential incitement to gun violence, Eagle runs the risk of civil or criminal liability as an accessory before the fact if there’s a politically motivated shooting anywhere in Southwest Florida. It wouldn’t take much for a prosecutor or plaintiff to connect to Eagle if a perpetrator’s viewing of the video can be established.

This liability could also extend to local television stations should they run the video as a broadcast commercial. It might be a wise course for them to reject any such advertisement if offered.

Ultimately, all these videos and the entire tenor of the Republican primary campaign to date reflect the erosion of a common language for civilized political dialogue. This can entirely be laid at the feet of Donald Trump’s absolutist, brutalist, win-at-all-costs, demonizing, denigrating approach to politics. We see it at the national level and now we’re seeing it in Southwest Florida.

Of course, the ultimate outcome of this turkey shoot will arrive on Primary Election Day, Aug. 18.

Hopefully we can all get there without anyone being shot.

Liberty lives in light

The curious case of Casey Askar

03-27-20 Casey Askar

Republican congressional candidate Casey Askar. (Photo: Casey Askar for Congress campaign)

May 15, 2020 by David Silverberg.

Why would a man making a great deal of money with a successful business in a specialized field want to subject himself to the expense, uncertainty and scrutiny of running for the Congress of the United States?

Ask Casey Askar, because back on March 20, just as the coronavirus pandemic was breaking, he waded into the warm, swampy waters of Southwest Florida’s 19th Congressional District as a candidate for the US House of Representatives.

Askar might have been counted as just one of 10 Republican contenders elbowing each other for a shot at Rep. Francis Rooney’s seat except that he decided to put serious skin in the game. In the first quarter of 2020 he gave his own campaign a $3 million loan on top of $506,230 in campaign contributions.

Askar might not have been considered a serious contender based on his personal profile, civic involvement or policy positions but that kind of money made him the best-financed candidate in the 19th District. It means he has to be taken seriously if only for the cash alone.

A television ad for Askar is now running on local TV stations, so voters are likely hearing his name for the first time.

So, who is Casey Askar, who is supporting him, what would he mean for Southwest Florida and what are his chances of winning?

Pizza man

Officially, Askar’s is an immigrant success story. He tells it in a campaign video and on his website.

At age 7 he and his family fled their home in Iraq because of persecution of Christians. Although he doesn’t give a year for this exodus, Askar does reference Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein is gone, hanged after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but it’s worth remembering his dictatorship to put Askar in context. Saddam was a brutal, absolute tyrant. An Arab nationalist, he promoted his interests first and on his own initiative mired his country in wars with Iran, Kuwait and the world’s countries, led by the United States. He divided Iraqis, oppressing Iraqi Shiites and at one point gassing Iraqi Kurds. So crushing was his tyranny that in 1989 an Iraqi dissident authored a book that summed up his reign in its title: Republic of Fear.

After getting to the United States, the Askar family opened a store, where Askar worked. At 18 he joined the US Marine Corps and when his father fell ill, as the oldest of four children, he became head of the household (although he doesn’t say at what age this occurred). He worked in the family store and saved up enough to buy a small gym. He was able to expand the gym and open up half a dozen locations around the country.

05-15-20 Askar Marine — Casey Askar in Marine uniform.

While his campaign biography does not mention his geographic roots in America, Askar’s base is Detroit, Michigan, which is home to a lively and active Middle Eastern immigrant population.

Oddly, he also doesn’t mention in his campaign biography that along the way he obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School (perhaps as a veteran’s benefit?). He also never mentions his current age.

Early on, perhaps when he expanded the gym, Askar learned the magic of franchising. His fortune has been built on franchising and its associated specialty, branding. And its foundation was…pizza.

“I had a vast array of business and franchise experience from early on in my career. In 2006, I was given the opportunity to buy Detroit-based Papa Romano’s and I was instantly hooked on pizza concepts,” he told the website Franchise Chatter in 2015. “Pizza is consumed in the US on such a large sale, and we know it’s not going away any time soon – there’s tremendous staying power. Being involved in the pizza industry as a franchisor is a great opportunity because there are simple operational processes that allow you to master the system.”

After Papa Romano’s, his company, Askar Brands, purchased one new pizza “concept” every year until 2010 and expanded the ones it already had. By 2015 it had 200 pizza “units.”

It also shared its expertise with other small, regional pizza chains, helping them expand.

“Our biggest success story comes with Denver-based Blackjack Pizza, which we acquired in 2012. This was an attractive company to us because it was a successful, homegrown, regional brand,” Askar recalled in the interview. “We retained many of Blackjack’s original employees and have been able to apply our operational resources and expertise to turn Blackjack Pizza into one of the most popular pizza concepts in the western US states.”

05-15-20 Askar-Brothers — Sam Askar (left) and Casey Askar in an undated photo.

Today Askar Brands, where Askar is president and Board chairman while his brother Sam is chief executive officer, lists seven restaurant chains in its portfolio: Papa Romano’s, Papa’s Pizza, Breadeaux Pizza, Blackjack Pizza, Mr. Pita, Stucchi’s and CJs Brewing Company. Most, though not all, are based in the upper Midwest, and Detroit, Michigan area.

In addition to brands, Askar built companies to support restaurant chains and franchisees and owned and managed commercial real estate.

In February of this year, using proceeds from fossil fuel investments he sold, Askar formed Southeast Enterprises Holdings to purchase 47 Dunkin’ Donuts (since re-named just Dunkin’) stores in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach markets in Florida. He also laid plans to expand the franchise throughout South Florida.

“As we did our research, our data really showed where Dunkin’ has been going and their trajectory continues to go up,” Askar told Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News.

Askar didn’t reveal when—or if—he moved full-time to Southwest Florida, although he has been characterized as a resident of Naples. He and his six children attend St. Ann’s Church and he is involved in a variety of schools and civic organizations, including Ave Maria University.

For all of his business success and philanthropic activities, Askar has no record of political involvement, legislative experience or even political donations of any kind.

So naturally, it made sense to run for Congress.

To fill in some of the gaps in Askar’s biography, on April 23, The Paradise Progressive submitted questions to Askar in an e-mail to his campaign.

Personal:

What is your age? (Does not appear on your website or Facebook page)

Have you ever held an elected or appointed governmental position?

Do you have any legislative experience?

Are you a full-time Floridian and do you live in the 19th Congressional District? (If you want to be more specific about your place of residence that will be welcome—I’m refraining from asking your street address).

No response has been received—and none is expected.

Business man

When Askar filed his 2020 campaign report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for the first quarter of the year, it was impressive and not just for the $3 million personal loan he’d made to his campaign.

Clearly, he’d been busy. He had 270 donations that netted him $506,230. Some of these donors contributed to both his primary and general election races, so there were fewer donors than donations (i.e., the same person contributed twice). Also, members of the extensive Askar clan kicked in as well. Notwithstanding these factors, it was an impressive range of donations and even more impressive than the amount was the nature of the contributors.

05-12-20 Askar's donors — Geographic distribution of Askar’s donations

Unlike some of his rivals, the majority—102, or 62 percent—came from Florida, which indicated some grassroots support that could translate into votes at the polls. Unsurprisingly, given his origin and business interests, the next largest portion—28 percent—came from Michigan. Of his Florida contributions, the vast majority, 65 percent, came from Naples in Collier County. There was little representation of Lee County, where only three donors were based in Fort Myers, seven in Bonita Springs and two in Estero.

Despite his newcomer status on the political scene, Askar had been laying the groundwork for some time among his business friends, franchisees and acquaintances.

There were some local A-list business types supporting Askar’s bid. Chief among these was Rocky Patel, the restauranteur, cigar entrepreneur and owner of the high-end cigar bar “Burn,” which has an outlet in Naples’ Mercato mall (currently closed during the pandemic). Not only did Rocky himself contribute to Askar, so did the top managers of his entire organization. Another standout name was Todd Gates, owner of Gates Construction, which has done extensive work in Southwest Florida.

It’s clear that Askar is the business candidate in the District 19 race. He’s also a Republican “Young Gun,” part of a candidate recruitment program run by House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-23-Calif.). It may have been this organization that recruited and urged Askar to run for Congress.

When he filed his FEC report Askar hadn’t spent much yet. He paid the state’s $10,440 filing fee to get on the ballot and he paid $12,916.21 to Winred, a national, online conservative fundraising organization also being used by other District 19 Republican candidates. There was no mention of staff salaries or consultant fees.

To clarify Askar’s candidacy, these questions were submitted to the Casey Askar campaign on April 23:

I’ve reviewed your website and personal story. What, however, do you feel specifically qualifies you to represent Southwest Florida?

Why are you a better a candidate to serve SWFL in Congress than any of the other candidates running?

No answer has been received.

Trump man

When he first announced his candidacy, Askar was a simple, two-dimensional Trumper. His main plank was that he stood with President Donald Trump. He made no mention or had any apparent interest in local issues.

Since then (and following questions from The Paradise Progressive, below), Askar and his campaign consultants have filled out some of his policy positions. He’s pro-Trump but otherwise his policy positions are standard, conventional, conservativism.

He’s also bought television air time and his ad campaign not only expresses support for Trump, he also makes a point of blaming China for the COVID-19 outbreak. In the ad, while a blot of red spreads out from China across the globe, Askar intones, “China unleashed the Wuhan pandemic on the world, costing trillions, costing jobs, costing American lives.” Then he appears on the screen and says “This crisis proves that President Trump is right” and expresses support for all of Trump’s positions. The ad is called “China must pay, America must rebuild.”

On other issues he decries government spending. “Washington’s problem is not that it taxes too little, but that it spends too much,” his website states. He’s anti-choice; pro-gun; pro-border wall; pro-lower prescription drug prices; pro-veterans; anti-China; pro-Israel; and pro-religious freedom.

His only mention of a local issue is water quality where he calls for full funding of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and completion of its projects. Weirdly, he calls for “completion” of the Everglades Agricultural Area, which is not a project but a special area south of Lake Okeechobee established by Florida in 1948. (This reference may be the result of ignorance, carelessness, bad staff work or all of the above.)

To clarify Askar’s political positions, in its April 23 message to the Askar campaign The Paradise Progressive posed the following questions:

What do you regard as the primary interests of Southwest Florida vis-à-vis the federal government?

Do you believe that climate change is induced by human activity?

What committee assignments would you pursue in Congress?

If you were in Congress right now, what specific actions would you take to serve SWFL regarding the Coronavirus pandemic?

When the 117th Congress takes office in January 2021, the United States is likely to be in the midst of a deep economic downturn, even a depression. As the member of Congress from the 19th Congressional District, what would you specifically do at the federal level to support, sustain and improve the economy of Southwest Florida?

What specific actions would you take in Congress to advance CERP and ensure that Florida and SWFL receives its full, contracted appropriation?

What specific actions would you take in Congress to prevent oil exploitation off the Southwest Florida coast?

What specific actions would you take in Congress to advance work done to date to prevent harmful algal blooms?

If the election is held as scheduled, there is a high probability that you would serve in a Democratic House of Representatives. What specific actions would you take to work with a Democratic majority?

To date no answers have been received—and none are expected.

Congress man?

So what are Askar’s chances and what would his election to Congress mean for Southwest Florida?

The crumbling crust

The only thing that makes Askar a credible candidate in the 19th Congressional District is his cash; otherwise he would not be a factor in this election.

The fact that the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown has stopped all forms of in-person campaigning means that campaigns are now almost completely reliant on digital or broadcast media, with the latter being more powerful. However, it is also very expensive.

In the past Askar’s lack of a public profile, endorsements, political networks, field organization, volunteers and infrastructure might have crippled his campaign. Now he has to be considered the front runner if only because he has the potential means to blanket the airwaves. That, plus the cost of consultants and paid campaign workers, is going to make this a very expensive project for him.

But as COVID-19 has given to Askar with one hand, it may have also taken away with the other. One has to wonder about the state of a business empire built on casual, seated dining, which is the kind of enterprise most impacted by the pandemic lockdowns. And this is especially true for pizza, where Askar’s dining-in restaurant chains are up against dedicated take-out “concepts” like Domino’s. What is more, the lockdowns are especially stringent in Michigan, where the majority of Askar’s businesses are based. The pandemic has also completely disrupted the restaurant supply chain and delivered a blow against the kind of commercial real estate and rental holdings in his empire. Keeping what he’s built is going to take care and attention. Of course, only his accountant knows for sure.

These factors are also going to affect his donors, some of whom are restauranteurs, reducing their future donations.

Right now his investment in South Florida Dunkin’ franchises looks like prescient move—but he may also regret making that $3 million campaign loan, which could have been used to save jobs and keep units functioning.

The bottom line is that Askar may not be as rich a candidate as he was when he closed his FEC campaign books on March 31. And he has to ask himself whether pursuing a $174,000 annual salary as a member of Congress is worth turning away from a business empire it took him a lifetime to build and which needs his management now. Then again, he’s got plenty of relatives to look after it.

Joining the sad parade

The likelihood is that Askar was recruited by Rep. McCarthy’s Republican Young Guns. One can almost hear the pitch: “You’re an attractive candidate with a biography of business success and military service. You’ll have an easy run in a safely Republican district, backed by the Republican National Congressional Committee and its donor network. You’re from the Midwest and so are most of the voters who will vote in the primary. All you have to do is win the primary, which is decided by a few old people who automatically vote Republican. You’ll be able to buy them with some TV spots. It’ll be a cakewalk: no muss, fuss or mess.”

Of course, the nine other Republican candidates running might beg to disagree.

But unconsidered in this are the interests of Southwest Florida. With Askar the region and its people would get yet another rich but untutored congressional representative, an alleged “outsider” with no knowledge of Congress, legislation, politics or government. (To read the full history of the 19th Congressional District’s representation in Congress, see the article “A tale of two swamps: Why Southwest Florida can’t keep its congressmen.”)

Askar would join a sad parade of wealthy Southwest Florida businessmen who ran as outsiders, ignorant of government and proud of their ignorance, who foundered once they arrived in the nation’s capital.

Thinking that they’d be treated like imperial CEOs, these men discovered they were really just foot soldiers and cannon fodder. When the heady buzz of election victory and the novelty of putting “Rep.” in front of their names wore off, they faced tough choices and the real pressures of governing. Their reactions were to withdraw from their congressional duties into absenteeism and retirement and not promote the region’s vital interests.

In the end, the real losers were the people of Southwest Florida.

The tragedy of Casey Askar

Despite these considerations, Askar has a relatively good chance of winning his primary—certainly as good, if not better, than his Republican competitors. But to at least get past the primary he’s got to win over the hardcore Trumpers in the District who are certain to vote in that primary regardless of plagues, hurricanes or infirmities. That means Askar has to continue to prove his total and undying loyalty to President Donald J. Trump.

And therein lays the tragedy of Casey Askar.

Casey Askar is an immigrant who thrived and succeeded in America and served her in uniform. He’s proud of his success and hard work and entrepreneurship as well he should be. Now he has a shot at reaching a new pinnacle in life by being elected a member of the United States House of Representatives.

But to do that he has to pledge his loyalty and vow to implement the program of a man dedicated to making sure that no one like Casey Askar will ever rise again. Trump is a man who despises immigrants like Casey Askar, whether they come to the United States legally or illegally, seeking a better life or just asylum.

If Donald Trump had been president when Casey Askar and his family left Iraq, they would have been shut out of America. They were coming from a largely Muslim country; they were poor; and they were fleeing a strong man, an autocrat, whom Trump would have likely admired. They would have been forced to wait for acceptance in some other country and the children might have been separated from the parents. They might have even been put in cages.

There’s no indication from any of his public sources that Askar is thinking deeply about the implications of what he’s doing and saying. There’s no sense that he’s pondering beyond just the next step in his campaign. What he does—what all candidates do—in the quest for public office has a profound effect on the future of America, whether they’re running for dog catcher or president.

Casey Askar, an Iraqi immigrant, is running to bolster the rule of a man who is profoundly anti-immigrant, instinctively anti-democratic, and deeply racist; a man who plays Americans off against each other and is driven by, to use his own words, “hatred, prejudice and rage.”

It is this man’s program that Askar is pledging to implement. If Askar wins on his current platform he will have a historic role in turning the open, tolerant America that welcomed and nurtured him into a closed, isolated society dominated by a single tyrant. He will be an accomplice in turning history’s greatest republic of reason into a third-rate republic of fear. Askar fled such a place before—it was called Iraq. Now, while celebrating his own success as an immigrant, he is running on a platform that will encourage, embolden and enable an American Saddam Hussein.

Is this what America really needs? And is this what Casey Askar really wants?

Liberty lives in light

Rooney reaches 2-year mark in avoiding constituents, town halls

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) at a May 31, 2017 town hall in Bonita Springs. (Photo by author)

730 days (2 years) since Rep. Rooney has met constituents in an open, public forum

Feb. 22, 2020 by David Silverberg

Today, Feb. 22, marks two years since Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has faced constituents in person in an open, public forum to hear their concerns and answer their questions.

It was on Feb. 22, 2018 that Rooney held his last two town hall meetings, one on Marco Island, the other in Fort Myers.

Rooney announced his retirement from Congress on Oct. 19 of last year. He’s not running again but he’s still representing the 19th Congressional District in the US House—and doing it in a radically different way than he did prior to last Feb. 22.

However, constituents may never get an in-person explanation of the changes since an actual public appearance by the congressman to answer constituent questions seems unlikely to ever happen again.

Absenteeism

There have been many changes for Rooney since his retirement announcement but one major difference is in his behavior—he’s been absent a lot more from Congress than previously.

Rooney has missed 25.4 percent of the votes in the 116th Congress, making him the sixth most absent member, according to ProPublica, a public reporting initiative. This is in stark contrast to his first term in the 115th Congress, when he only missed 10.1 percent of the votes and was the 33rd most absent member.

These absences include critical votes such as allowing the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices or opposing Trump’s withdrawal of US troops from Syria, and major federal budget measures.

In this regard, Rooney is behaving very similarly to former representative and fellow Republican Curt Clawson (2014-2016), whose absences also went up strikingly after he announced in May 2016 that he would not be running again, according to the website GovTrack.

Apparently, working in Congress as a lame duck is not that much fun.

Metamorphosis

Rooney is no longer the reliable Trumper he was when first elected.

During his first term in Congress Rooney voted 95 percent of the time with President Donald Trump. He advanced the president’s positions and defended him in the media and was praised for it by Trump during the president’s appearance in Estero on Halloween night 2018.

“He’s brutal,” Trump said of Rooney, to applause in the Hertz Arena. “He gets the job done.”

Between that, Rooney’s conservative base and his self-financed campaign, Rooney won re-election in 2018 by 63 percent.

However, that election brought in a Democratic majority in the House and Rooney successfully accommodated himself to it (a trend well documented by The Paradise Progressive).

Behind the scenes, though, Rooney was apparently changing. He’d always made water purity and Everglades restoration a key plank in his platform and he was pummeled during the 2018 red tide/blue-green algae crisis. However, he consistently denied the reality of man-made climate change; in fact, his denials elicited outrage at his last town hall meeting.

Sept. 11, 2019 was as momentous a day in Rooney’s world as it had been 17 years before for the nation. On that day Politico magazine published an op-ed by Rooney in which acknowledged climate change in a big way.

“I’m a conservative Republican and I believe climate change is real,” Rooney wrote. “It’s time for my fellow Republicans in Congress to stop treating this environmental threat as something abstract and political and recognize that it’s already affecting their constituents in their daily lives.

“If we don’t change our party’s position soon, our voters will punish us,” he warned.

Rooney had apparently learned from the previous year’s red tide and blue-green algae blooms that he ignored environmental issues at his peril. Southwest Florida voters had come to accept the reality of climate change, as documented by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. If Rooney was going to get re-elected in 2020 he had to go with the flow and as a newly-minted member of the House Science Committee, he couldn’t deny the reality of the data.

“Climate and the environment must be bipartisan concerns, but Republicans are lagging,” he wrote. “Congress must work together to find solutions that will advance the goals of both parties and the best interests of the American people.”

In that spirit of bipartisanship, Rooney got important environmental legislation passed by the entire House of Representatives. It was House Resolution 205, the Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act of 2019, which made permanent the moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Florida coast. A key figure in making that happen was House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), who agreed to Rooney’s request to move the bill.

It passed on Sept. 11—the same day his op-ed was published in Politico.

Heresy

Rooney was clearly positioning himself for his next run for Congress and doing so successfully. He was shoring up his environmental flank and building moderate support with centrist, bipartisan positions.

But at the same time President Donald Trump’s behavior and the impeachment inquiry in the House derailed any such mundane considerations.

After Mick Mulvaney, White House chief of staff, announced that the president had demanded a quid pro quo from Ukraine in return for releasing military aid approved by Congress, Rooney said he was open to considering evidence of presidential wrongdoing, dissenting from the Trumpist propaganda line and party discipline. This was more than his local political base would tolerate and Rooney announced his retirement the next day.

Despite his openness to the evidence and a short period of wavering, Rooney voted against impeachment.

Although he voted for the president and followed party discipline, Rooney remains a pariah at home among Southwest Florida Trumpers and presumably in Congress where he appears to have been cast into the wilderness by the president and his fellow Republicans.

Now he doesn’t seem to be reliably showing up for work.

Lessons

The arc of Rooney’s congressional career shows the perils of supporting a would-be absolutist dictator.

It needs to be remembered, as people look back fondly on Rooney’s environmental record, that during his elected political career he campaigned for, supported, enabled and defended Donald Trump, a man whose highest priority is the blind, unthinking obedience of everyone around him—and the nation at large.

The moment Rooney showed the most fleeting flash of independent thought, the slimmest sliver of an open mind, he was cast into an outer darkness of exile and excommunication. None of his past support, his “brutal” defenses of the president, his call for a political purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, his faithful adherence to the president’s wildly changing and unstable doctrines made any difference.

In this, Rooney’s experience is similar to that of fellow Floridian Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-1-Fla.), who was a loud and outspoken Trumper and the man who in Trump’s defense ostentatiously led the Republican charge on the House Intelligence Committee’s secure chamber to protest its impeachment proceedings. Yet when Gaetz voted one time against the president’s wishes, voting to restrict presidential warmaking power against Iran, none of his previous fealty counted or was remembered and he too was cast out.

Rooney and his fellow Republicans, especially Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have enabled and elevated one unworthy and unfit man to dictator-level status. That exaltation brings with it all the abuses and perils of dictatorship: corruption, megalomania, bigotry, rage, oppression, absolutism, fanaticism; what might be called the seven deadly sins of dictatorship. And as with all dictators, the tyrant’s wrath can fall suddenly and unexpectedly on anyone at any time for any reason—or for no reason at all.

Rooney has experienced this at a high governmental level; the American people are beginning to experience it at the grassroots.

It would be nice to discuss all this with Rep. Rooney in person—if he ever again holds a town hall meeting.

Liberty lives in light

The tragedy of Randy Henderson

Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson in his campaign video. The clip of him giving Rep. Ilhan Omar the key to the city is on the television screen behind him. (Image: Randy Henderson for Congress campaign)

Feb. 13, 2020 by David Silverberg

Fort Myers mayor and congressional candidate Randy Henderson is exactly where a politician doesn’t want to be: he can’t appease the fanatics and he has offended the moderates. He’s like a freestyle mountain climber who’s halfway up the rock face with no shelter and the weather moving in. He has no cover and there’s no retreat.

Of course, he has no one else to blame for this predicament.

Will his candidacy continue? And how did he get here?

The video and its origins

Among the eight Republican candidates vying for Rep. Francis Rooney’s congressional seat in the 19th Congressional District, Henderson, at least from the time he declared his candidacy on Nov. 26, 2019, was the most moderate.

His platform rested on his record as a successful three-term mayor of Fort Myers, a record of economic achievement, downtown renovation, pragmatic problem solving and improving the quality of life. While his competitors brayed about their loyalty to Donald Trump’s policies and pronouncements, Henderson kept largely silent on that front and pledged to work for the welfare of all of Southwest Florida’s people.

But apparently Henderson decided that wasn’t working much for him. For the ever-Trumpers among Republican primary voters, Henderson had some serious vulnerabilities.

While the Republican field featured a candidate whose arrest for driving while intoxicated was caught on a police dashcam (Dane Eagle), a candidate who was arrested for selling and possessing illegal drugs (Byron Donalds) and one who had done hard prison time (Antonio Dumornay, now an Independent), Henderson’s vastly more serious sins in their eyes consisted of welcoming President Bill Clinton to the city of Fort Myers when he came to campaign on his wife’s behalf on Oct. 11, 2016 and in 2017 greeting Ilhan Omar, then a Democratic state legislator from Minnesota, to Fort Myers and giving her the key to the city.

So Henderson decided to get ahead of the right-wing wave and one week ago, on Thursday, Feb. 6, he released a 1-minute, 13-second campaign campaign video called “Done Playing Nice.”

The purpose of the video was to position Henderson as a mini-Trump as mean and tough as his competitors and expiate his prior sins.

The video opens with a video clip of Henderson handing Omar the key to the city. Henderson swings away from the TV monitor.

“Yep, that’s me giving Ilhan Omar the key to the city,” he says, sitting at a desk. “I didn’t know her politics then – or that she is an anti-Semitic socialist. Watching that now… makes me sick.”

He explains: “I’ve had to show respect to all kinds of people as Mayor… I even had to welcome Bill Clinton to town… but I’m done playing nice with people who won’t show respect to President Trump.”

Henderson gets in a small plane and takes off, while saying that by governing according to conservative principles and the Trumpist formula, he’s built Fort Myers’ economy.

Then, apparently the plane has landed and Henderson appears in front of the US Capitol. “My name is Randy Henderson. I’m running for Congress because President Trump doesn’t need more radicals in Congress pushing partisan impeachment… he needs allies who know how to grow the economy. And if you send me Congress, I’ll represent your values, be an ally to President Trump… and I’ll get that key back.”

Then, as the image fades out, text appears in the lower left corner of the screen saying “Sorry, Ilhan.”

But it’s not clear if Henderson is apologizing to Omar for taking back the key—or apologizing to her for having to make this video to get himself elected.

Fallout

Reaction to the video has been swift and vocally negative.

Gabriele Spuckes, chair of the Lee County Democratic Party, called for Henderson’s resignation.

“If the Mayor can’t run a campaign with maturity and professionalism he should resign as Mayor of Fort Myers to avoid further embarrassing himself and the people of Fort Myers,” she stated.

“It is disappointing that at a time in our nation’s history when civility is rare and bi-partisanship almost nonexistent, that Mayor Randy Henderson of Fort Myers would engage in inappropriate, petty and childish rhetoric that is frankly insulting to the residents of this city, all of whom are his constituents, as well as the voters in the rest of the 19th district who he would presumably want to be his constituents,” she continued.

She called on Henderson to apologize to all the residents of the 19th Congressional District and abandon “this low road he has embarked on” and instead address Lee County residents’ needs and desires.

Members of the mayor’s diversity committee were reportedly considering resigning as a result of the video, including Peter Ndiang’ui, its chairman and the person who, as a member of the African Network of Southwest Florida, first invited Ilhan to Fort Myers.

At least one of Henderson’s Republican competitors wasn’t buying his act. State Rep. Byron Donalds (R-80-Immokalee) told Fox4 News: “In political campaigns, you’re going to see a lot of people try to rebrand themselves. Calling themselves conservative. Mayor Henderson or anyone else who’s running, they’re going to have to stand not just on what they’re saying in this campaign, but what they’ve done over their time in politics,” he said.

Henderson hit back at his critics in a Facebook posting on Monday, Feb. 10: “You may have seen me in the news recently,” he wrote. “I spoke up against socialism and anti-Semitism, and the ‘politically correct liberal mob’ went nuts. It’s the Democrat playbook. They can’t beat us on the substance, so they attack your character. Ilhan Omar’s actions were censured in the House of Representatives!”

The next day he did another post, trying to turn the controversy to his fundraising advantage: “Democrats are coming after us for telling the truth! We will never stop fighting against the socialism and anti-Semitism that is being peddled by Ilhan Omar and her supporters. Donate here to help us fight back.”

Commentary: Joining the stampede

Aside from its pettiness and meanness, what is so stunning about the “Done Playing Nice” video is that it’s so out of character for Henderson.

As a mayor, Henderson governed moderately and inclusively. He also governed relatively wisely and had a record of achievement of which he was rightly proud. He enjoyed considerable goodwill across the political, racial and ethnic spectrum. Fort Myers thrived.

When he declared his candidacy for Rooney’s seat Henderson seemed one of the only sane Republicans anywhere in the country, someone immune from Trumpist madness, which was leading his followers over a cliff, as Rep. Rooney once put it.

But in a hyper-partisan local race for Congress full of loud, fanatical mini-Trumps appealing to the extreme right wing of the electorate, Henderson’s sanity and reasonableness clearly didn’t sit well.

This was reflected in his fundraising. Although he was one of the first Republicans to declare his congressional candidacy, Henderson raised an anemic $68,391.74 in 2019, the sixth lowest total of all District 19 candidates, according to the Federal Election Commission.

So Henderson has made the calculation that he’ll use the Trump playbook and portray himself as a blindly loyal, fanatical, obedient Trumpist fighting against the “politically correct liberal mob.” After all, it’s not thinking people who appreciate good governance who determine the outcomes of Republican congressional primaries.

But this is not likely to work with anyone. The true Trumpers know Henderson’s not really one of them. His Republican competitors have far more genuine Trumpist credentials. He has now lost whatever moderate support and goodwill he once enjoyed. He has probably lost many of the supporters of all parties who formed the base he built over three terms in Fort Myers.

Henderson’s “Done Playing Nice” video doesn’t establish him as a tough, aggressive mini-Trump; on the contrary, it reveals him as a moral coward, abandoning decency to join the stampeding Trumpist herd.

In this, Henderson is a tragic political figure, a man who knew better but sold his soul to something dark and evil. It also reveals the insidiousness of Donald Trump’s corrosive impact on national politics, his meanness, pettiness and paranoia leaching down as far as the remote reaches of Southwest Florida.

Randy Henderson may be done playing nice—but the voters of Southwest Florida are also done playing nice with him.

Liberty lives in light

Marches, demonstrations show SWFL vitality, determination

Marchers in Saturday’s Women’s March fill Naples’ Fifth Avenue. (Photos: Author)

Jan. 20, 2020 by David Silverberg

Today, marchers in Naples and Fort Myers will commemorate the life and legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). This past Saturday, Jan. 18, activists marched in support of democratic values, liberal causes and to protest the Trump administration’s corruption and assault on women and their concerns.

Saturday’s Women’s March to Win in Naples and the march in Fort Myers were vigorous, enthusiastic and exuberant. The same spirit will likely pervade today’s marches.

But do such marches and demonstrations make a difference, especially in broadly conservative and predominantly Republican Southwest Florida?

The ultimate results won’t be known until the election in November. However, the robust turnouts for the women’s marches demonstrated that liberal political activism in Southwest Florida is alive, well and energetic—and poised to make a difference in both election results and people’s attitudes.

Organizers of the Naples march, formally titled Women March to Win, included Collier Freedom, the Collier County Democratic Party and its Environmental Caucus, SWFL Justice for All, Showing Up for Racial Justice, and Collier Students for Change. The Fort Myers march was hosted by the Alliance and Women’s March Fort Myers, a 501c3 non-profit organization.

The Naples March was significant in that it was the first time since the marches began in 2017 that organizers received a permit to use the street rather than just the sidewalks. Marchers started and ended in Cambier Park.

Both local marches were part of demonstrations that took place around the country.

The historical context

Women’s March participants take the stage at Cambier Park to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage.

Marches and parades probably began when humans started walking upright. They’ve always been expressions of enthusiasm and triumph but in the current context they’re also important for marking critical historic occasions.

This year’s Women’s Marches commemorated the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and in a more recent context, the outpouring of protest in 2017 against President Donald Trump’s racism, bigotry and misogyny.

The MLK parades celebrate MLK’s commitment to non-violence, peaceful resistance and his efforts to achieve equality, fairness and justice.

So such parades and demonstrations serve the purpose of passing on a legacy to the next generation, honoring the struggles that have gone before and remembering the values that powered the movements.

A show of strength

Some of the groups hosting the Women’s March in Naples.

Turnout at demonstrations is always a measure of the strength of a movement and the broadness of its appeal.

In 2017, an estimated half million people turned out in Washington, DC for the first Women’s March, vastly eclipsing Trump’s paltry inauguration crowds. In Naples, 2017 turnout was unexpectedly large, with several thousand people filling Cambier Park and surrounding streets. It was especially surprising in light of Naples’ seeming somnolence, its apparent conservatism and its reputed indifference to politics. Organizers had expected a crowd of around 500 people; ultimate participation was orders of magnitude larger.

This year, an estimated 3.000 people participated in Naples based on a count of wrist bands provided by March organizers in an effort to get an accurate tally. The count may actually be higher, according to Cynthia Morino-Clark, a March organizer, since not all volunteers attending the march received wristbands. In Fort Myers, WINK News estimated that over 2,000 people marched from the Alliance for the Arts to Centennial Park.

Turnout should be good in this year’s more traditional, more officially organized MLK parades.

In addition to their other purposes, demonstrations of this type also forge solidarity among demonstrators. Particularly in Southwest Florida where liberal activists may often feel that they’re struggling in isolation, demonstrations are an expression of common purpose and wider support.

Electoral exposure

Democratic congressional candidate David Holden and supporters.

Parades, marches and demonstrations are always an opportunity for electoral candidates to show support for the cause and greet people.

Democratic candidates for office appeared at both Women’s Marches this year: congressional candidates David Holden in Naples and Cindy Banyai in Fort Myers; Sara McFadden and Maureen Porras for state legislature in Naples and John Jenkins, a candidate for Collier County Commission.

Democratic congressional candidate Cindy Banyai (center) and supporters demonstrate in the Fort Myers Women’s March. (Photo: Cindy Banyai campaign)

Voter turnout was a major theme of the Women’s Marches, which featured exhortations to vote and voter registration opportunities during the rallies.

Conversely, the Women’s Marches were also an opportunity to protest against Trump administration policies and prejudice.

01-18-20 Provocateur — The Trumper provocateur.

That sentiment wasn’t universally shared. A Trump provocateur inserted himself at the head of the Naples parade, although he was later separated by police from the main body of the march. He then posted himself outside Cambier Park. He has appeared to disrupt other events in the past, like gatherings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors. Asked his name, he replied “Donald Trump Jr.”

Spreading the word

Spectators at the Naples Women’s March show their support.

Demonstrations, marches and parades help spread a message. Though spectators were sparse at the Women’s March in Naples, the march did elicit spontaneous support from observers.

Coverage of the march by local traditional media was erratic. WINK-TV reported both marches with extended coverage. The Naples Daily News covered it with photos on page three the following day. NBC-2 television news did not mention a single word about the march in its 6:00 pm broadcast that night and only posted a short story prior to the march on its website.

The MLK Parade, since it is scheduled annually and is a more formally organized event, should receive at least some coverage in all Southwest Florida’s media outlets.

The usefulness of events

A very determined marcher.

The United States Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to peacefully assemble and petition government for a redress of grievances. As long as those rights remain inviolate, demonstrations, marches and protests will occur.

Demonstrations can make a difference—and in a place like Southwest Florida, where a single party dominates all government, they are particularly important as an expression of popular sentiment and peaceful dissent.

Liberty lives in light

Water, wetlands and oil: The Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor, enviro edition

Rep. Francis Rooney faces the media on May 10 at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida days after his closed-door meeting on harmful algal blooms. (Photo by the author)

524 days (1 year, 5 months and 9 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has faced constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

July 31, 2019 by David Silverberg

In Southwest Florida the three biggest environmental issues are water, wetlands and oil. Address those and you’re basically covering your environmental bases.

Certainly Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.), whose district covers the coast from Cape Coral to Marco Island, was active on this front in the past three months as he aggressively positioned himself as a “green” Republican. He has managed to raise his lifetime score with the League of Conservation Voters, the best political barometer of environmental sensitivity, from zero percent at the start of 2018 to 10 percent today.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) has never made much of an effort on the environment even though his district covers much of the Everglades. He has an 11 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters and as long as he keeps his Cuban-American constituency happy in Hialeah, which he does with regular fulminations against the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes, he doesn’t need to make the effort.

But the 19th Congressional District is extremely environmentally sensitive, as Rooney learned to his pain last year.

Water

Water quality is Rooney’s number one issue, according to his website. But while he campaigned on promoting pure water in his first race in 2016, he was caught completely flatfooted last year when both red tide bloomed in the Gulf of Mexico and blue-green algae filled the canals of Cape Coral and the Caloosahatchee River.

For weeks over the summer, as the blooms gathered strength, nothing was heard from Rooney. It was a serious lapse that his Democratic opponent, David Holden, tried to exploit in the general election. (Full disclosure: this author helped.)

Rooney won his race in the 2018 midterm election, but he’d received a wake-up call. In 2019 he began working to make up this deficit.

On Jan. 10, he introduced the Protecting Local Communities from Harmful Algal Blooms Act (House Resolution (HR) 414). This consisted of a three-word amendment to the Stafford Act (The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act), which provides the legal framework for disaster response. The bill would add “or algal blooms” as major disasters subject to federal action. The bill was cosponsored by eight Republicans and six Democrats, some members signing on as late as June.

However, after being referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s emergency management subcommittee in February, the bill hasn’t made any further progress in the House.

Rooney had some success in 2018 bringing together federal officials to see local conditions and in May 2019 he tried again. This was to be a grand gathering of Southwest Florida officials like mayors and experts from relevant federal agencies to coordinate their responses to “harmful algal blooms,” as they are now known, or HABs. Rooney’s team over-hyped the gathering but then had to suddenly announce that it was closed to the press and public, causing outrage and charges that the meeting violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

According to Rooney, officials of one federal agency refused to attend the meeting if it was public and that agency was widely believed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was a measure of the Trump administration’s descent into secrecy that this once most public of agencies, whose very mission depends on its relationship with the press and public, has now drawn a curtain over its activities.

If it was, indeed, the CDC that insisted on secrecy, it was an instance of the administration screwing Rooney—and royally. To ensure the meeting proceeded with CDC participation, he bore the brunt of the criticism for closing the meeting, which he did not in fact have the authority to do and which, argued the lawyer for WINK-TV, violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

But adhering to the spirit and letter of the Florida Sunshine Law has become a lower and lower priority in the great state of Florida. Indeed, the meeting was blessed by the presence of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Rooney tried to make up for the public and media outrage with a subsequent meeting on May 10 that served as a public airing of grievances for conservation groups and environmental activists. They were able to vent and it brought him some favorable press but he was the only elected official present and the auditorium at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida was not exactly “the room where it happened,” as it’s put in the musical Hamilton. There were no elected executives or government experts present and no decisions were made. Still, Rooney had thrown a sop to the press and public.

But whatever good the meeting had done now faced a new threat—the possibility of another government shutdown because of conflict over reaching a budget agreement or raising the federal debt ceiling. In the January 2019 government shutdown essential government operations had been affected; in particular, national weather forecasting, so essential to Southwest Florida, was cut back.

This particularly affected the response to HABs; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a key player in monitoring their development. A NOAA expert was at the May 7 closed-door meeting and NOAA weather predictions are essential to warning of HABs or red tide so that local officials can prepare. If the government shuts down and NOAA stops working, Southwest Florida will, literally, be at the mercy of the tides.

Accordingly, on June 14 Rooney introduced the Harmful Algal Bloom Essential Forecasting Act (HR 3297), which would exempt NOAA forecasting from any government shutdown. The bill has, as of July 9, nine cosponsors, six Democrats and three Republicans. Ironically, one of the first cosponsors was Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-13-Mich.), a progressive member of the “The Squad” and the target of President Donald Trump’s twitter rage.

The legislation is even more ironic in that Rooney voted repeatedly against bills in January to end the government shutdown and then voted again against a two-year budget deal negotiated between President Trump and House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), which will bring stability to the budget and debt ceiling processes. In effect, he was saying it was OK to shut down the government and keep it shut down, just not the agency essential to his district’s health and well-being that he cared about.

All that said, the bill was referred to the House Science, Space, and Technology; Natural Resources Committee’s water subcommittee, where it remains.

Wetlands

The Everglades are the wetlands that dominate Southwest Florida’s existence and restoring and preserving them is part of a half-century continuum of environmentalist activism. However, politically, the nuts and bolts of Everglades restoration come to a matter of dollars and cents—in particular federal versus state dollars and cents.

The US federal government is pledged to provide $200 million per year for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) whose centerpiece is the creation of reservoirs that will clean water from Lake Okeechobee before it’s allowed to flow out the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. This is intended to equally match state funds for CERP.

Rooney has been an advocate for the Everglades since his 2016 run and has consistently pursued measures to complete or advance their restoration.

This year in his Fiscal Year 2020 budget, President Trump allocated only $63 million for CERP, setting off howls of protest among Florida lawmakers. Florida’s two senators, along with Rooney and Rep. Brian Mast (R-18-Fla.), sent a letter to Trump protesting the underfunding. Diaz-Balart, notably, did not sign on although his district covers more of the Everglades than Rooney’s.

Trump agreed to come to Florida to see and be seen on the site and on April 29 he toured Lake Okeechobee and the Hoover Dike where he was met by DeSantis and virtually the whole Republican Florida delegation including Diaz-Balart and Rooney. The latter buttonholed him and—as Rooney would put it— “carpet-bombed” him about Lake O and CERP. Trump subsequently reversed course and asked that the full $200 million be included in the budget request.

Rooney worked hard along with other Florida members to get the money approved by Congress and succeeded. It was included as part of a two-year compromise budget deal reached by Trump and Pelosi. Trump tweeted that it should be passed: “House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets. I am totally with you!”

And then, when the budget deal was placed before the House of Representatives for approval, Rooney voted against it (!), denouncing it as irresponsible.

If ever there was a disconnect between the ideal and the practical, between the ideological and the pragmatic, between sight and blindness, between success and failure, this was it.

Fortunately, the House passed the budget deal. As this is written it is before the Senate and if passed there, it is expected—expected—to be signed by the President.

If it becomes law, that budget will include funding for Everglades restoration, which Rooney worked so hard to obtain and then voted against.

Oil

In a break with conservative anti-taxation orthodoxy, on January 24, Rooney signed on as a co-sponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019, (HR 763), introduced by fellow Floridian Rep. Ted Deutch (D-22-Fla.). Of the original six co-sponsors, Rooney was the only Republican.

Today the bill has 58 co-sponsors—and Rooney remains the only Republican.

The original Deutch bill imposes a fee on the carbon content of fuels, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, or any other fossil fuel product that emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“Francis Rooney Endorses Large Tax Increase,” raged the website of Americans for Tax Reform, a fiercely anti-tax group led by lobbyist Grover Norquist. “Rooney claims the bill is ‘revenue neutral’ but this is not a truthful assertion. The bill is a tax increase, a very large tax increase.” The group urged readers to call Rooney and push him to take his name off the bill.

Rooney didn’t and on July 25 he both doubled down on it—and tried to make his support more palatable to conservatives.

Rooney introduced the Stemming Warming and Augmenting Pay Act (SWAP Act) (HR 4058) and he signed on as the only other co-sponsor of HR 3966, sponsored by Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3-Ill.), who also co-sponsored Rooney’s bill. Both bills would use taxes taken from fossil fuel polluters and use them to reduce Social Security taxes, increase payouts to Social Security beneficiaries and establish a trust fund that would help low-income people offset energy costs.

Rooney’s bill, however, has a big tradeoff: It would prohibit the federal government from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act for 12 years.

It’s a classic business approach to a problem, using money instead of regulation to get a desired result: if you pollute you pay—but you’re also unregulated. As its acronym implies, it’s a swap.

It joins another Rooney bill introduced on June 21, the Eliminating the RFS and Its Destructive Outcomes Act (HR 3427).

And what is RFS? RFS is the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. It requires that transportation fuel sold in the United States have at least a component of renewable fuel. It was put in place in 2005 to reduce pollution and fight climate change.

Science versus Trumpism

The irony of Rooney’s situation is that he’s making more progress on environmental issues in a Democratic House than he did in the Republican-dominated 115th Congress.

This also applies to issues of oil exploration and exploitation. He teamed with Rep. Kathy Castor (D-14-Fla.) to oppose oil drilling in Gulf coastal waters. This was a far cry from the previous Congress when his efforts to protect the shore were repeatedly blocked by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-1-La.), the House Majority Whip, who defended the oil and gas industry and its interests.

When Rooney introduced a bill to protect coral reefs from the harmful effects of chemicals in sunscreen (HR 1834), he was joined by three Democratic co-sponsors and only a single Republican.

His position on carbon taxation and his increasing number of breaks with the Trump line are getting him fire on the right and it is possible that he will face a primary challenge—for being a RINO (Republican in Name Only) of all things.

It’s now more difficult to simply label Rooney as a blindly loyal Trumpist as he was when he first took office. Then, he shared the stage and defended his master and railed against socialism, gun control and refused to admit the reality of climate change. He readily sought the media spotlight, held wildly contentious town hall meetings and called for a political purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation so that Trump could fill it with willing hacks and sycophants.

While Rooney’s positions on budgets, social issues, labor and immigration still mark him as a hard right-winger, it’s clear that he’s learning that if he’s going to be effective on the environment, Southwest Florida’s primary, existential issue, he has to both compromise and make common cause with the Democrats, liberals and even—gasp!—progressives he once disparaged so readily.

He also seems to have awakened to the contradictions and absurdities of Trumpism, as shown in his increasing number of votes in 2019 against the President’s line. This is a president who is indifferent toward environmental protection—when he isn’t actively hostile to it. If Southwest Florida is going to remain livable, this president has to be resisted.

Yesterday, July 30, Rooney was named a member of the House Science Committee. Science is supposed to be factual, objective and realistic. That’s tough to pursue with a president who is delusional and even deranged and who dismisses any fact he doesn’t like as “fake.”

When Congress reconvenes in September it will be interesting to see if Rooney can navigate between science and Trumpism and where his true commitment lies—and how that will play at election time.

Liberty lives in light

The Paradise Progressive will be on hiatus in August and September.

Gerrymandering comes home to Southwest Florida

The Republigator, a Florida salute to Elkanah Tisdale and his original Gerrymander, showing the attempted devouring of Democratic congressional districts. (Illustration by the author © 2019.)

July 1, 2019 by David Silverberg

Back in 1812, when Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry signed into law a contorted legislative map that favored his Democratic-Republican party, artist Elkanah Tisdale drew a cartoonish map that showed the new districts creating a lizard-like shape.

Unveiled at a dinner party, one guest compared it to a salamander. No, said another guest, “a Gerry-mander.” Published in the Boston Gazette on March 26, 1812, the cartoon gave rise to the term “gerrymander,” which today survives to describe politically-motivated boundary drawing designed to produce a desired electoral result.

The_Gerry-Mander_Edit — The original cartoon giving rise to the term “Gerrymander.”

Gerrymandering has been practiced in America since before creation of the country—colonial political boundaries were similarly inspired. It will clearly be with us for a lot longer because on June 27 the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the practice by ruling 5 to 4 in the case of Rucho vs. Common Cause, that the federal courts do not have a role in preventing extreme partisan gerrymandering.

For Democrats and everyone who fears that Republican-dominated legislatures will impose their will into perpetuity, it was a deep blow.

“The partisan gerrymanders in these cases [North Carolina and Maryland] deprived citizens of the most fundamental of their constitutional rights: the rights to participate equally in the political process, to join with others to advance political beliefs, and to choose their political representatives,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan for the minority in an impassioned dissent. “In so doing, the partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people. These gerrymanders enabled politicians to entrench themselves in office as against voters’ preferences. They promoted partisanship above respect for the popular will. They encouraged a politics of polarization and dysfunction. If left unchecked, gerrymanders like the ones here may irreparably damage our system of government.”

Ironically, Kagan cited Florida as a state whose courts intervened in an extreme gerrymander and ordered it changed. The Florida Constitution has a provision called the Fair Districts Amendment stating that no districting plan “shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party.”

In 2012 the state’s districting map was challenged because Republican legislature had packed African-American voters into a 5th Congressional District that looked like a Burmese python slithering up the peninsula’s spine. It took six years of litigation to change that district’s boundaries but the Florida Supreme Court finally forced adoption of a new map.

Despite Florida’s constitutional commitment to fair districts, the state is nonetheless politically gerrymandered and nothing proves it like Southwest Florida’s two congressional districts encompassing most of Lee and Collier counties.

Southwest Florida: The 19th Congressional District

Florida_US_Congressional_District_19_(since_2013)

The 19th Congressional District runs along the Gulf coast from Cape Coral to Marco Island. Goodland is its southernmost community. It includes Pine Island and Sanibel.

Ordinarily, including coastal and island communities would make sense; after all, it’s where much of the population lives. But what’s peculiar is the 19th’s eastern boundary: In Lee County it includes a sliver of Lehigh Acres then follows Rt. 75 southward for a while before suddenly cutting inland and making Livingston Rd. in Collier County its boundary.

Why these jigs and jags? Because whoever drew this line did it to limit the inclusion of potentially Democratic and Hispanic communities like Lehigh Acres, Golden Gate Estates and Immokalee.

The result is a District that is 83.5 percent white and older (27.7 percent over 65), according to Democratic Party statistics—and reliably and overwhelmingly Republican.

Southwest and South Florida: The 25th District

Florida 25 CD 6-30-19 The 25th Congressional District is an enormous, ungainly area that stretches from the western Miami suburbs, chiefly Hialeah, and encompasses large swaths of the Everglades and sparsely populated wilderness until it reaches Collier and Lee counties—where it absorbs Golden Gate and Immokalee. (Lehigh Acres is mainly in the 17th Congressional District, another Republican district.)

The population of the 25th is 44 percent Cuban-American, the most of any congressional district in the United States and the district lines are drawn to absorb any non-Cuban Hispanic voters into the Republican Party. Clearly, the Republican hope is that all Hispanic voters will reflexively vote for a Hispanic name. Accordingly, the District’s representative is Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who has been in Congress since 2003, outliving three redistrictings.

The Collier and Lee portions of the 25th are merely the tail on the 25th’s dog but they do ensure that potential Democrats there don’t vote in District 19 elections.

Surgical gerrymandering and the future

The district lines of the 19th and 25th and, to the north 17th, have been surgically gerrymandered to divide or dilute the votes of any potential Democratic communities (chiefly Lehigh Acres in Lee County and Golden Gate in Collier County). In the 19th District there is even a point at Potomac Place where the district line is so exact that it slices through a cul-de-sac in what appears to be an effort to avoid or include individual homes.

The 19th District’s lines in particular appear drawn to deliberately create a racially, ethnically and politically homogeneous white Republican district.

In fact, the 19th District may be in violation of both Supreme Court rulings against racially-based districting and Florida’s constitutional prohibitions against extreme partisan gerrymandering. A lawsuit brought against the lines of this district would have an excellent chance of succeeding— although at this late date, on the eve of a new census and new maps, such a lawsuit is unlikely.

Are there alternatives? Of course there are! It was the advent of computing that allowed gerrymanderers to precisely draw their lines based on racial and partisan data. But computing also provides potential computer-drawn maps that are neutral and equitable. Sadly, no legislature drawing the lines wants to give up its power to choose its voters, so these computer-generated maps remain conceptions only.

Florida is certainly no different from anywhere else and may be worse in some respects. But the only way to change the maps after the next census (which will presumably occur as scheduled despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to delay it) is to win the legislature and ensure that the maps are fair and equitable. If they’re not, they need to be challenged both in state court on the basis of the Fair Districts Amendment and in federal court on the basis of racial bias.

“As voters, we’re told that our elections are safe from meddling and that we have free and fair elections, yet today, the Supreme Court turned its back on good government with its non-decision on gerrymandering,” said Annisa Karim, chair of the Collier County Democratic Party following the Supreme Court’s decision. “Now it’s up to us, the voters, to fix this problem. It starts with working hard to elect responsible, fair-minded legislators willing to put the public good over partisan politics.”

She continued: “This is another reason why the 2020 election is so important–we will not only be electing a president, but a state Legislature that will control how Florida votes for the decade to come.”

In her Supreme Court dissent, Justice Kagan asked: Can voters break out of the partisan boxes that gerrymandering creates?

“Sure,” she answered. “But everything possible has been done to make that hard. To create a world in which power does not flow from the people because they do not choose their governors. Of all times to abandon the Court’s duty to declare the law, this was not the one. The practices challenged in these cases imperil our system of government. Part of the Court’s role in that system is to defend its foundations. None is more important than free and fair elections.”

For further reading:

There’s a lot of material out there regarding gerrymandering.

The single greatest resource on the current state of gerrymandering is FiveThirtyEight.com’s Gerrymandering Project and its Atlas of Redistricting. An interactive map that provides an array of alternatives to current lines, the reader can redistrict according to a variety of criteria. You can go straight to Florida’s map and check out the state’s possible districts. Imagine a 19th Congressional District that includes Key West—or Clewiston! It’s in there.

Former President Barack Obama recorded a short video about redistricting that’s posted on YouTube.com. It’s refreshing to hear a president speak in complete sentences again.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee is attempting to prepare for the 2021 redistricting process and is encouraging activism and participation.

Bushmanders and Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections, is a book published in 2001 that exposed racial and partisan gerrymandering and some of the absurd results. It’s a bit dated now but still informative. There have been many other books on the process since then. For example, Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America’s Democracy tells the story of the Republican post-2008 effort to use gerrymandering to ensure Republican rule.

For some detailed history of gerrymandering, an excellent article is the Smithsonian’s Where Did the Term “Gerrymander” Come From?

Liberty lives in light

“Hatred, prejudice and rage:” What Democrats will face in the race to 2020

June 25, 2019 by David Silverberg

On Wednesday evening, June 26, Democrats will begin two nights of debate in order to begin distilling down their massive field of candidates into something manageable.

It’s no coincidence that the event kicking off the Democratic campaign will be held in Miami. It’s a bid for attention in the most crucial state of the 2020 election.

Donald Trump knows this. Last week, on June 18, he kicked off his own campaign with a rally in Orlando.

That speech, although discursive, disconnected and somewhat demented, bears special attention because it revealed much about the themes and the angles of attack that the eventual Democratic nominee and, indeed, all Democrats, liberals and progressives, can expect from this Orange Animal—and should be preparing to counter during the long march to the election. (An excellent transcript of the speech, broken into five-minute text, audio and video segments, is available at the website Factbase.)

While Trump has been on a media blitz since the speech, giving interviews that are calmer but no less alarming, the Orlando speech is the kind of red meat emotionalism at the heart of his campaign.

Trump obviously enjoys his rally speeches. He can vent and act out without any contradictions and he doesn’t have to think carefully but can just spew. Whatever is in his head is validated by the roar of the crowd.

The true test of oratory is whether the speaker can bring the listener, not just to his point of view, but into his mind and even personality—to make the audience both think and feel his thoughts and emotions. Adolf Hitler excelled at this. So does Trump. It is the very essence of demagoguery.

So what can the world of thinking people expect from the Trump campaign in the days ahead?

“Hatred, prejudice and rage”

At his speech, Trump declared that: “Our Radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage.”

Trump has a glaring tendency to project his own emotions, intentions and thoughts on others.

“…What he does is, he projects,” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) pointed out in a June 13 interview. “Like when he says, ‘Nancy’s a mess,’ that means he’s a mess. When he says, ‘Nancy’s nervous,’ that means he’s nervous. He’s always projecting. …He’s always talking about himself, no matter who the subject of the sentence is.”

There is no clearer declaration of the underlying dynamic driving the 2020 Trump campaign than those three words that say it all. Democrats can expect Trump’s “hatred, prejudice and rage” to take the lowest, vilest and pettiest forms imaginable—and unimaginable. Their campaign must be able to counter those powerful emotions and offer an alternative that is more compelling and inspiring.

As Michelle Obama said, “When they go low, we go high”—but the “high” must impel people to act in their own interests and the nation’s.

Trump is still running against Hillary Clinton—and will continue to do so

Trump mentioned Hillary seven times during the course of his speech, before mentioning any other candidate. He has such a deep hatred of her, he so enjoyed defeating her and he gets such powerful emotional satisfaction from denigrating her that he could not stop attacking her during the speech. This will likely continue on the campaign trail regardless of who becomes the Democratic nominee.

In calmer, scripted moments Trump will attack individual Democrats and the party as a whole, as he is already doing. But when he gets wound up at his rallies, when he’s speaking emotionally, he will be turning his ire against Hillary Clinton.

The question is: Will his supporters—and more importantly, independent, undecided and traditional Republican voters—go along with this or become tired of this worn out trope?

Democrats may be tempted to defend Clinton on the campaign trail. It’s a natural inclination against such obvious unfairness and blind hatred. But what’s past is past. Better to let the Orange Animal exhaust his rage against someone who isn’t running and isn’t relevant to next year’s contest.

Trump casts his campaign as a movement

“We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God,” Trump told his followers in Orlando. This expression, which has eerie echoes of Hitler’s, “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (One People, One Nation, One Leader), casts Trump’s campaign as a movement rather than a mere political campaign. Being part of a movement gives followers a sense of being part of something greater and more compelling than just getting an individual elected. They’re trying to change the universe—or so Trump would have them believe.

Democrats—with both a big and small “d”—need to forge more of a sense of themselves as their own movement. Theirs is a movement to preserve democracy in America against the threat of dictatorship and—yes—Fascism.

Right now all the Democratic candidates are offering what they may think are big, positive ideas. But what they need to forge is a movement that is more powerful and more attractive than Trumpism that can preserve the Constitution and democracy in America.

Trumpism versus Socialism

“America will never be a socialist country, ever,” Trump brayed. “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream.”

Trump and his followers will be casting the choice for Americans as one between socialism versus freedom—or, really, Trumpism. They will use “socialism” as an insult, a threat, a bogeyman, taking the place that “Communism” used to occupy.

The real choice for Americans, however, is between democracy and dictatorship. A second Trump administration could mean the end of constitutional government. If he stays in power, 2020 could end up being the last American election.

Any Democratic nominee has to make clear that this is what’s at stake in the next election. It’s not just about particular policy choices. This election is about fundamentals. It’s about the nature of the United States into the foreseeable future. While those may be clichés spouted about any election, this time really is different. Never have the stakes been so high and never has the threat been so real.

All this is worth keeping in mind as we watch the Democrats mix it up in Miami.

Liberty lives in light

Analysis: Trump’s border shutdown will mean pain in the pocketbook for SWFL

04-03-19 surprised-grocery-shopping-woman

April 3, 2019 by David Silverberg

The big, immediate headline after President Donald Trump threatened to close the US border with Mexico was that the American avocado supply would dry up in three weeks.

That would certainly hit Southwest Florida, even though the state is a major avocado producer. Still, although an avocado shortage would hurt a lot of local restaurant menus, most Southwest Floridians could live a few weeks without guacamole.

But more seriously, the local impact of a border shutdown would depend on its extent and its duration.

For consumers, it would immediately be felt most keenly in the grocery shopping cart, later at the gas pump and possibly in a recession.

The closing

Trump announced the possible border closing during his visit to Lake Okeechobee on Friday, March 29, managing to divert national media attention from his supposedly great efforts on behalf of the Hoover Dike and the Everglades.

Since the offhand announcement, the administration, facing an uproar over its implications, has clarified that it would not apply to truck traffic (which is also one of the major means of drug smuggling into the United States).

Precise details of the closing remain sparse because the possible closing was hardly a carefully considered or vetted policy. Its nature and extent continue to rest on the whims and moods of Donald Trump. On Tuesday he reiterated his threat. “If they don’t stop them [migrants], we are closing the border. We’ll close it. And we’ll keep it closed for a long time. I’m not playing games,” Trump said.

Having lost the battle of the US government shutdown, it seems he’s seeking to shut down something new.

This prompted a rare dissent from even so staunch a Trump enabler as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader. “Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country,” said McConnell on Tuesday. “I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing.”

Even conservative economist Arthur Laffer, inventor of the “Laffer curve” during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, said that a border shutdown “will hurt us a lot.” US-Mexican trade is “a win-win game on trade,” he said during an interview on Fox News.

Pain in the produce aisle

Mexico is currently the US’ third largest goods trading partner, according to the US Trade Representative. As of 2017, the most recent year for which statistics are available, US and Mexican two-way goods trade totaled $557.6 billion. Goods exports totaled $243.3 billion; goods imports totaled $314.3 billion. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Mexico was $71 billion in 2017.

The primary goods imported from Mexico were vehicles, electrical machinery and machinery, optical and medical instruments and mineral fuels like oil.

Since Southwest Florida is not a center of commerce or immigration and has no cross-border transportation, a border shutdown would not initially be felt by businesses here.

But a border shutdown would be felt by every American consumer and Southwest Floridians are no exception. Costs would rise exponentially, particularly for foodstuffs.

Mexico is the largest supplier of agricultural imports to the United States. In 2017 that trade totaled $25 billion. Leading categories included fresh fruit ($6 billion), fresh vegetables ($5.5 billion), wine and beer ($3.3 billion), snack foods ($2.1 billion), and processed fruit and vegetables ($1.5 billion).

Suddenly, these goods would become scarcer and prices would rise for all foods, even those produced in Southwest Florida like tomatoes and strawberries. Southwest Floridians would be facing substantially higher food bills.

Pain at the pump

A border shutdown would have big implications for oil and gas, both for consumers and for Southwest Florida itself.

There would be substantial pain at the pump. The US imported $11 billion in mineral fuels from Mexico in 2017. A US-Mexico border closing, coming on top of sanctions placed on Venezuelan oil would drive up gas prices even further than the significant increases felt over the past month. Southwest Floridians would know that there’s a border shutdown every time they filled the gas tank.

But then, with oil prices rising, exploring, exploiting and extracting Florida’s oil, both in the Everglades and offshore, would become much more attractive and urgent to oil companies. The combination of oil industry profit-seeking and the Trump administration’s environmental indifference would nearly guarantee drilling off Southwest Florida’s coast and in the Everglades, although that would take several years to implement.

Southwest Florida would feel a double whammy from a border shutdown: both high gasoline prices in the short term and a degraded environment in the long term.

Pain in the pocketbook

As stated at the outset, the full impact of a Mexico border shutdown would depend on its extent and duration. The longer the shutdown, the greater the pain and expense and the deeper the effects would be.

What can be stated with certainty is that Trump is systematically impoverishing the United States just as he bankrupted his gambling casinos. The US national debt has now ballooned 77 percent in the first four months of fiscal year 2019 to $310 billion, up from $176 billion the previous year. Under Trump the trade deficit has reached over $100 billion, going from $502 billion in 2016 to $621 billion in 2018, an increase of 19 percent. Particularly hard hit is the once healthy and thriving US agriculture sector, with previously prosperous farmers now having to rely on government aid due to an unnecessary trade war with China.

A border shutdown would deliver a blow to the economy as a whole and consumers across the nation and would be particularly painful in Southwest Florida with its population of retirees, seniors and people on fixed incomes who would have difficulty coping with skyrocketing food and gas costs.

Even the threat of a shutdown is proving disruptive and disturbing to commerce and consumers.

The conclusion is clear: an unnecessary and absurd border shutdown is no way to make America great “again.”

Liberty lives in light

To read more about the impact of Trump trade policy on Mexican beer imports, see: “Farewell, my little Coronitas!”

Blasts from the past and present: Levitra Man and William Figlesthaler. (Images: You Tube, Figlesthaler for Congress)

Pro: Club for Growth Action’s ad in praise of Byron Donalds. (Image: Club for Growth Action)

Original sin: Honesty America PAC’s anti-Donalds video. (Image: Honesty America PAC)

A newly energized Levitra Man makes a score. (Image: YouTube)

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Dane Eagle takes aim in his latest campaign video. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

Casey Askar in his June 12 video. (Image: Casey Askar for Congress)

Dr. William Figlesthaler calls the Democratic Party “a criminal enterprise.” (Image: Figlesthaler for Congress)

Dane Eagle is ready to take his shot. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

Opening up with an automatic weapon in Dane Eagle’s first announcement video. (Image: Dane Eagle for Congress)

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Republican congressional candidate Casey Askar. (Photo: Casey Askar for Congress campaign)

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Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) at a May 31, 2017 town hall in Bonita Springs. (Photo by author)

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Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson in his campaign video. The clip of him giving Rep. Ilhan Omar the key to the city is on the television screen behind him. (Image: Randy Henderson for Congress campaign)

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Marchers in Saturday’s Women’s March fill Naples’ Fifth Avenue. (Photos: Author)

Women’s March participants take the stage at Cambier Park to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage.

Some of the groups hosting the Women’s March in Naples.

Democratic congressional candidate David Holden and supporters.

Democratic congressional candidate Cindy Banyai (center) and supporters demonstrate in the Fort Myers Women’s March. (Photo: Cindy Banyai campaign)

Spectators at the Naples Women’s March show their support.

A very determined marcher.

Liberty lives in light

Rep. Francis Rooney faces the media on May 10 at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida days after his closed-door meeting on harmful algal blooms. (Photo by the author)

524 days (1 year, 5 months and 9 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has faced constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

Liberty lives in light

The Republigator, a Florida salute to Elkanah Tisdale and his original Gerrymander, showing the attempted devouring of Democratic congressional districts. (Illustration by the author © 2019.)

Liberty lives in light

Liberty lives in light

Liberty lives in light

©2019 by David Silverberg