Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after he named her his running mate in 2020. (Photo: Biden campaign/Adam Schultz)
July 12, 2024 by David Silverberg
There may be a simple solution to the dilemma that Democrats are facing right now in the presidential race.
Perhaps switching the presidential ticket to Kamala Harris for President and Joe Biden for Vice President would be a winning combination that will preserve democracy, defeat Donald Trump, and protect the United States from the ravages of dictatorship, tyranny and terror.
This ticket will put the younger, dynamic face of Kamala Harris at the front of the Democratic campaign while keeping the wisdom, maturity and steadiness of Joe Biden in the administration. The two have successfully collaborated and could continue their partnership after winning election. Together they could build on their record to date, “finish the job” as Biden has declared he wants to do—and then go on to new initiatives.
It would be perfectly legal. Biden has served a single term as president and is eligible to serve another if called upon to do so. It would also preserve the campaign fundraising done to date. It could unite the entire Democratic coalition again: Democrats who stand with Biden with those concerned about his ability to win, those who support Harris and ethnic, immigrant and progressive communities. Printers wouldn’t even have to change the typeface on the campaign signs.
Of course, at the moment Biden is adamant that he’s all in, that he can win and that he has the wherewithal to do it. As he has pointed out, the campaign hasn’t even kicked into high gear yet. He’s probably right.
But the questions about his capabilities are overshadowing the real issue of this year’s election: whether the United States will remain a democracy or be ground under the criminal heel of Donald Trump, his cult and Project 2025.
Obviously, this decision would require the consent of the principals and have to be ratified by the entire Democratic Party.
Moreover, this is a proposal coming out of nowhere, far from the power centers of Washington, DC, and the Party’s inner circle but this author hasn’t seen it proposed anywhere else.
At least it’s an option and worth considering.
If America is to remain the citadel of democracy, if Americans are to remain free, if the world isn’t to surrender to Vladimir Putin and the forces of autocracy, Donald Trump and dictatorship must be defeated.
A Harris-Biden ticket would have a high likelihood of doing that.
Pro-choice demonstrators rally in Naples, Fla., on May 3, 2022. (Photo: Author)
July 11, 2024 by Christina Diamond
Floridians are angry. We have been angry since the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago and more outraged since our Republican-controlled state legislature subsequently passed a 6-week abortion ban. Our anger has been channeled into action. We have worked hard to ensure that a constitutional amendment to allow abortions until viability will appear on the ballot in November as Amendment 4. However, merely passing this Amendment does not guarantee the reproductive choice Floridians hope for. In addition, we need state legislators who will support it rather than work to kill it.
Florida is under the national spotlight. Choice is on the ballot in November throughout the country. The overwhelming majority of Floridians and Americans think we should all have the freedom to make our own personal healthcare decisions without interference from politicians. Polls show that well over 60 percent of registered voters in the state support Amendment 4, the threshold required for it to pass.
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis and his Republican super-majority in the state legislature are actively opposing the Amendment. No surprise. They are the ones who voted to pass the 6-week ban in the first place. In recent constitutional amendments that Florida voters passed, Florida’s elected Republican representatives ignored the voice of the people and passed laws or filed lawsuits that put obstacles in the path to implementing the voter-approved change. Unless we elect more pro-choice legislators this year, the Republican super-majority will undoubtedly weaken, stall, and hinder the full enforcement of Amendment 4.
Voters must understand that electing representatives to the Florida legislature who will carry out Amendment 4 is the final step in restoring access to this critical reproductive healthcare. Ruth’s List Florida is working to do just that. Our organization recruits, trains, and helps elect pro-choice women to the state legislature. Electing these women is key to ensuring that Amendment 4 is implemented and that the will of the voters is realized.
Ruth’s List is committed to electing thoughtful, forward-thinking pro-choice women who will roll up their sleeves and drive meaningful change as elected officials. With financial support and campaign training, Ruth’s List works to help qualified women win elected positions across the state at all levels of government- women who fight for what Floridians want- the opportunity to live their best lives without government interference in their most personal decisions.
On Amendment 4, Ruth’s List (ruthslistfl.org) is clearly in touch with the majority of voters in Florida. We strongly support Amendment 4 by working to ensure that more pro-choice women are elected to the state legislature so that the Amendment is fully enacted. As Floridians, we must pass Amendment 4 and we must elect the pro-choice women who will implement it. Lives depend on it. Failure is not an option. The opportunity to cast a vote to reverse the 6-week abortion ban is now.
Christina Diamond is chief executive officer of Ruth’s List Florida. She is president and owner of Diamond Strategies, a campaign consulting firm, based in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Ruth’s List was founded in 2008 by Alex Sink, who at the time served as Florida’s Chief Financial Officer. It is named for Ruth Bryan Owen, the first woman elected to Congress from the South, who took office in 1929.
To: Nikki Fried, Chairwoman, Florida Democratic Party
From: The Paradise Progressive
RE: Request
Chairwoman Fried:
Back on March 15 you tweeted an open request for suggestions for the Florida Democratic Party: “Tell me what you want to see from your new @FlaDems Party. Today, this cycle, this decade. I’ll read the replies.”
The most constructive and long-term contribution I believe you can make to the Florida Democrats is to define what the Party is for.
I don’t mean issues; the Democratic Party has plenty of good issues. But the opposition has themes, broad, simple concepts that they can pound into the most primitive brains.
I’m writing from a lone liberal perspective way down at the bottom of the state and at the root of the grassroots—or in the sand, the sawgrass and the mangroves, as it were. Here in deep red, fanatically MAGA Southwest Florida, Democrats are outnumbered 65 percent to 35 percent in party registrations.
Anyone on any street corner in Southwest Florida can tell you in a nutshell what MAGA Trumpers believe; basically, God, guns and Trump, as well as, in no particular order: no vaccines, no health mandates, no science, no education, no church-state separation, no abortion, no women’s rights, no learning, no tolerance, no immigrants, no voting, no government and no inclusion.
A souvenir t-shirt sold in Naples, Fla. (Photo: June Fletcher)
Democratic principles can’t be recited the same way by either friends or foes. They’re all over the place. Will Rogers’ old adage still holds true: “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”
What is more, DeSantis, Republicans, MAGAs and Trumpers have successfully used the most extreme fringe causes of the Democratic Party to shape the party’s identity in the public mind. They are defining the Democratic Party.
So what would be most helpful would be a three-word encapsulation of the Party’s core values and principles. Three-element slogans have enormous power. (For example, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” or “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” or “liberté, egalité, fraternité” or “truth, justice and the American way.” Donald Trump himself once inadvertently best characterized his principles as “hatred, prejudice and rage.”)
If it were up to me, I’d like to see the Party’s principles be “democracy, dignity and justice.” But while that floats my boat, I’m not sure how it would focus-group. There may be more effective slogans out there. The main point, though, is that the Democratic Party has to stand for something positive and whatever that is has to be clear, simple and strong.
So, I’m just asking for three words. Any three words you think would work. I think if you can provide them, we’ll all be better off.
Thank you for your time and attention and I’m available for any questions or to provide any further information you may require.
The Collier County Board of Commissioners considers an anti-health ordinance and resolution at its March 28 meeting. (Image: CCBC)
April 10, 2023 by David Silverberg
Honorable Commissioners:
I am writing to address the misleadingly titled “Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights Ordinance” and the “Collier County Health Freedom Resolution” that you are scheduled to consider tomorrow as agenda item 10A.
I very much regret that it appears I cannot be there to speak in person, so this message, which I am also publicly posting online, will have to do.
The objections I expressed to the ordinance at your March 28 meeting have not changed: the ordinance is redundant of state law; it is unnecessarily time consuming; it is unnecessarily expensive; it is unnecessarily divisive; it interferes with the professional and scientific administration of medical measures both individual and for the public as a whole; it is likely to be challenged on constitutional grounds and the county will have to bear the costs of any litigation defending it. Also, it will impede public health measures in the event of another emergency. Lives will be lost because of it.
Additionally, both the ordinance and the resolution, as last drafted, contain significant errors of fact and perception.
As Commissioners McDaniel and LoCastro pointed out at the last meeting, the draft resolution submitted then was angry, accusatory, conjectural and even violent in its language.
Neither the ordinance nor the resolution are worthy of approval and implementation in Collier County. They both should be rejected unanimously by the Board. Alternatively, as Dr. Michael Finkel has suggested, the ordinance could be submitted to a full referendum by the voters in next year’s general election.
Far more appropriate and constructive would be a memorial honoring the efforts of Collier County’s medical and healthcare professionals. They served and protected the county during the worst ravages of the COVID pandemic. Nor should the victims of COVID be forgotten. I elaborated on this in my message of April 2nd and posting of April 3rd.
At the very least Collier County should honor these professionals and victims with a resolution and proclamation expressing the county’s gratitude for their efforts and memorializing their passing and I urge you to pass such a measure.
Once again, I strongly urge you to reject this proposed ordinance and resolution. By doing so, you will be protecting the health of Collier County’s residents and maintaining its reputation in Florida and the world as a welcoming place of reason, rationality and common sense.
A Naples resident looks out over the pier after Hurricane Donna in 1960. (Photo: Collier Museum)
Oct 12, 2022 by David Silverberg
Even weeks after Hurricane Ian stormed ashore in Lee County it’s still shocking to see the debris and destruction all along the Paradise Coast. New victims are being found and new stories of survival are coming to light.
But as stunning and disorienting and overwhelming as the storm’s impact continues to be, it’s not too soon to begin thinking about building back—better.
A disaster is awful but it’s also an opportunity. With a blank slate and a clear field, post-disaster periods can also be a time for grand plans and sweeping visions.
That may seem illusory as people just find places to live, food to eat and get back basic utilities like electricity and water. But it would be a mistake to overlook the chance to reinvent, reform and uplift communities that seem at the moment to have lost everything.
The rebuilding process can be tricky, though. The inclination of people is to try to rebuild exactly what went before and to do it as quickly as possible. There is always a clash between those who want to restore and those who want to renew and getting to one or the other of those destinations can be a winding and uncertain road.
Southwest Florida is hardly the first place to face such a dilemma.
Past examples
To reach back in time and space to an example long ago and far away, this is what happened in London after the Great Fire of 1666. This immense conflagration leveled much of the ancient city, including its crowded medieval streets and tenements. In its wake, planners and architects like Chistopher Wren envisioned a new, clean and fresh London rebuilt in the latest style and according to rational principles.
However, property owners and landlords wanted to rebuild their buildings on their holdings as quickly as possible and as closely to the previous plans as they could.
What resulted was a jumble of claims and counter-claims that was so chaotic and complex that Londoners created a special court to sort through them all. It took many years to resolve them. Meanwhile, what was rebuilt was a hodge-podge of the old and the new. Christopher Wren never got his sweeping new city but he was able to design and oversee the construction of a new St. Paul’s Cathedral, the one that stands today.
Closer to home in time and location, in 1960 Hurricane Donna swept into Naples, Florida and wiped out what was largely an undistinguished and utilitarian downtown. Naples rebuilt but its retail center, Fifth Avenue, declined in the face of suburban mall competition. In 1992 local merchants brought in Miami architect and urban planner Andres Duany to take a holistic view of the town.
“The key to reviving Fifth Avenue is not solely to make it work competently from the point of view of retail,” Duany told the city council, businesspeople and community leaders in 1993. “…Fifth Avenue must be made into a community space, a civic space, a place where neighbors can come to know each other.”
Duany’s detailed planning and vision not only revived Naples’ downtown, it made it a tourist destination and created a consistent, themed urban landscape that supported vibrant retail businesses and restaurants.
This year Naples took its own hit from Hurricane Ian, with storm surge flooding Fifth Avenue. Some stores and restaurants remain closed and some will no doubt not reopen. But it’s also likely that it will revive and attract new businesses—and that revival will build on the planned concept already in place.
Another town that sought to build back better after a disaster was Greensburg, Kansas. On May 4, 2007 an E-5 tornado swept into the small town of 1,400 people, killing 12 and virtually wiping it off the landscape.
The town’s council, meeting in a parking lot, decided that when they rebuilt they would do it in as energy-efficient and environmentally friendly a way possible.
When Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) visited a few days later and learned of the plans, she told them “‘It sounds like you’re going to build it green,’” then-city manager Steve Hewitt recalled to The Washington Post in a 2020 article. “Then we walked out to a press conference and Governor Sebelius said we were going to put the green in Greensburg. We were already talking about it, but she helped brand it and gave energy to what we were trying to do.”
It should be noted that Greensburg was not the home of tree-hugging hippies. It was a conservative Republican town. But city leaders could see a reality beyond political orthodoxy.
As of 2020, according to the Post, “…Greensburg draws 100 percent of its electricity from a wind farm, making it one of a handful of cities in the United States to be powered solely by renewable energy. It now has an energy-efficient school, a medical center, city hall, library and commons, museum and other buildings that save more than $200,000 a year in fuel and electricity costs, according to one federal estimate. The city saves thousands of gallons of water with low-flow toilets and drought-resistance landscaping and, in the evening, its streets glow from LED lighting.”
Greensburg has had its challenges (among others, at one point a wind turbine collapsed in a field). Its green rebuilding was not a panacea and did not result in an economic boom. But it put the town on the world map as a visionary municipality and made it stand out among all the other places on the plains. It also attracted $120 million in disaster relief funds from Kansas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Agriculture Department. To this day it remains an American touchstone in disaster recovery and rebuilding.
A coastal Renaissance?
It may seem premature to note this but towns like Sanibel, Matlacha and most of all, Fort Myers Beach now have similar opportunities to plan their rebuilding along rational, visionary lines.
As Greensburg chose to build back better emphasizing energy efficiency and environmentalism, the towns of the Paradise Coast now have an opportunity to be world leaders in climate resilience and protection, rebuilding to take into account climate change and sea level rise—and anticipating its effects.
They have the potential to update their water management practices and systems and have an unparalleled resource in Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School.
Like Greensburg, they can also rebuild in an environmentally and energy-efficient way.
Like Naples, the rebuilt towns can be made more esthetically pleasing and pedestrian-friendly, perhaps with waterside boardwalks or promenades and a re-built Times Square in Fort Myers Beach, where “neighbors can come to know each other,” as Duany put it.
To rebuild in this fashion would attract federal support and funding that is sorely needed now. Unfortunately, before Hurricane Ian, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) line-item vetoed $1 million for Times Square renovation in Fort Myers Beach. Perhaps that state money can be restored and increased for rebuilding.
The alternative is to allow a haphazard scramble. In this case, the likely scenario is that developers and speculators swoop in and buy up distressed beach properties from desperate owners for pennies on the dollar. Building commences in a chaotic, uncoordinated way and the result is an unsightly and inefficient mish-mash of commercial and residential buildings.
Better rebuilding will take a lot of discipline, cooperation and coordination. Naples’ 1994 revival was done by the city council, business owners and residents all working together guided by a common vision. To successfully rebuild Hurricane Ian’s communities will take similar unity.
But the time to start doing this is now. The potential rewards justify the effort. If people are willing to be cooperative and patient, Hurricane Ian may be the precursor to a Paradise Coast renaissance—but only if Southwest Floridians are willing to build back better together.
The Democratic presidential candidates on the debate stage in South Carolina on Feb. 25. Since then, Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have dropped out.
March 3, 2020, by David Silverberg
As Floridians, we’re left out of the party that is “Super Tuesday” when Democrats in 14 states and one territory (American Samoa) vote for their preferred presidential candidate.
By tonight, and certainly by tomorrow morning, we will likely know the nominee of the Democratic Party.
There will be anger and disappointment—even disgust—among some Florida Democrats no matter who emerges victorious.
Sadly, we have two weeks until Florida Democrats get to vote. The primary falls on St. Patrick’s Day, so prayer and alcohol are two possible consolations. Still, whether your preferred candidate makes it through to receive your vote or you’re faced with an unpalatable choice on March 17, there are important truths—vital, inalienable truths—to keep in mind. And these overshadow all else.
There is only one real issue in this presidential election: Democracy or dictatorship.
For all the media focus on personalities and debate points and the candidates’ records and positions on any other issues, in the end the 2020 election will decide whether the United States will be a free nation of principles, law and institutions ruled by its people or a plaything subject to the tyranny of a single man. All other considerations of the presidential primary process are subordinate to that one great truth and consequence.
Every Democratic candidate will work to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution.
For all their differences of personality or position, all Democratic candidates can be counted upon to strive to fulfill the presidential oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Donald J. Trump, who governs as though he’s unaware that there’s a Constitution at all and routinely violates its provisions, was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. He’s a tyrant in his heart as well as in his actions and his rule will become more tyrannical if it continues.
All Democratic candidates will support the rule of law and fair and equal justice for all.
This seems so plain and obvious and self-evident but it is not. Donald J. Trump clearly believes he is above all laws and acts accordingly. He only escaped removal through a gravely flawed and deliberately biased trial in the Senate. He has pardoned, excused and commuted punishment for criminals and miscreants of all stripes and natures as long as they’re his friends and sycophants.
Any Democratic candidate will uphold the rule of law and will take seriously the oath to enforce it equally, justly and vigorously—and will submit to the laws on the books like any other citizen.
All Democratic candidates will support the human rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
Again, it would have been unthinkable in the history of the United States but we must worry about a president who attacks rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, chief among them those of the 1st Amendment: freedom of speech, the press, worship and the right to petition government. In 2020, those rights and all others are at risk. Donald J. Trump threatens all of them—and every other human right and amendment in the Constitution.
Far from the United States pursuing a mission abroad to ensure the human rights of all people, in 2020 American citizens must ensure that they preserve those inherent rights in their hearts and heartland. Any and every Democratic candidate stands to preserve and protect them.
Truth matters to all the Democratic candidates.
President Abraham Lincoln reportedly said: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” But Donald J. Trump turns that on its head. His philosophy might be expressed as: “You can fool all the people all the time and when you can’t you should try—and that includes fooling yourself.”
In politics there are inevitably shadings of truth and attempts to spin events to one’s advantage. But the United States has never before had a president who lies so instinctively, so inherently and so incessantly. He not only lies to the nation and the world but to himself and then believes his own lies. It is safe to say that any Democratic candidate will show a decent respect for the truth and objective reality and will act on the facts accordingly.
Science matters to all the Democratic candidates.
It is extraordinary that any modern human being would think that he could change the course of a hurricane with a Sharpie and then force respected scientists to confirm his delusion. It is extraordinary that any modern person would dismiss any scientific evidence he doesn’t like as a “hoax,” whether that’s climate change or the danger of a plague.
It can safely be said that every Democratic candidate will respect science and scientifically reached conclusions of fact and act on that rather than delusions and lies.
Every Democratic candidate will be concerned with protecting and preserving the natural environment.
Far from dismissing science and actively working to destroy the very planet on which we all live, as Donald J. Trump does, every Democratic candidate will work to preserve the natural environment, to keep it habitable and to pass on livable conditions to future generations. There may be differences of degree or emphasis but there won’t be the wholesale dismissal of environmental conditions and environmental science as a “hoax.”
* * *
These are just a few of the crucial truths that set all the Democratic candidates apart from Donald J. Trump. The most fundamental, supposedly self-evident truths of the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” are at risk.
It’s safe to say that the election of 2020 is the most critical since the first election of 1788; that it will determine whether America remains a democracy or lapses into dictatorship; that Donald J. Trump is a tyrant at heart and by both instinct and design aims to establish a tyranny over the United States more complete than any King George III ever imagined; and that every democrat—and that includes any person who believes in democracy at all—has an obligation to preserve, protect and defend the democracy and Constitution that has governed this nation and pass it on to future generations.
Against those kinds of stakes, the warts and pimples, the lapses and trivialities of different Democratic Party candidates fade into insignificance.
In Florida we don’t get to participate in Super Tuesday. But on March 17 and again on Nov. 3, we have to vote like our lives depend on it—because they do.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
By Eric Larson
“I thought about Winston Churchill. How did he withstand it? And his family and friends? Mine is a more intimate account that delves into how Churchill and his circle went about surviving on a daily basis.”
On Saturday, Jan. 19, women sent a strong message at the Women Leading the Way March in Naples’ Cambier Park, organized by Collier Freedom.
While controversy around the national Women’s March may have impacted turnout, which was less than in previous years, the spirit and enthusiasm was obvious—and the message was unmistakable.
Mirlande Desir
Longtime resident 93-year-old Myra Daniels, as well as 16-year-old youth activist Anna Barry, declared the need for women to continue breaking gender barriers. Mirlande Desir, of the Naples Haitian community, called for comprehensive immigration reform and protection for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and TPS (Temporary Protected Status) recipients. Pam Keith, the first African America female to run for U.S. Senate from Florida, encouraged engagement with fellow citizens, even Trump supporters, about issues such as Medicare, Social Security, and healthcare.
Pink T-shirts of Planned Parenthood supporters dotted the crowd, as well as red T-shirts from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Susan Cone, president of the local Moms Demand Action chapter, reminded everyone that gun violence is a non-partisan issue. Public pressure after the Parkland shooting caused Florida to pass small, but meaningful landmark gun safety legislation in 2018.
Jennifer Boddicker
Annisa Karim, Collier County Democratic Chair, voiced the need for better representation and engagement with local government. David Holden, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, encouraged male allies to listen and avoid mansplaining—drawing chuckles from the crowd.
Penny Taylor, Collier County commissioner, gave a history of females in government in Collier County.
Several speakers (including myself) called for attendees to get involved and elect more women at all levels of government. We also celebrated a record 118 females elected to the US Congress in 2018, including people of color, Muslims, and members of the LGBTQ community.
There’s no evidence of a humanitarian or security crisis in Southwest Florida. The foreigners who usually arrive fly into Florida Southwest International Airport or drive down Route 75 from Ontario. A wall around Florida would be more useful for keeping out seawater than keeping out migrants.
As a result, there was very little in President Donald Trump’s national speech that seemed to apply to Southwest Florida. This was a national debate on a national issue that must be resolved in Congress at a national level.
However, what did flow out of Trump’s speech that can affect Southwest Florida and every city and town in the nation was his clear hatred of all immigrants, his stereotyping of broad swaths of people and his citations of only the worst examples of human behavior.
For every instance of an undocumented migrant who committed a crime, one can also cite the example of an immigrant who came to America, worked and thrived, perhaps put his life on the line in service to the United States and his fellow Americans and who made a contribution—some major, some minor—to this country.
But these don’t matter to Donald Trump. His poisonous hatred is capable of infecting Southwest Florida. It cannot help but lead to rising intolerance, suspicion and xenophobia. In the days ahead there will no doubt be instances of violence and hate crimes as a result of the kind of prejudice that Trump is promoting.
We can have debates over border security and the need for a wall. We can fact-check his figures and dissect his language. We can weigh the costs of his government shutdown. But what we can’t do is close the door and put back the bigotry that he releases into our homes.
Enough time has passed that generations—and Trump in particular—have forgotten where this kind of hatred led. Unchecked in Germany, it led to domestic tyranny, the Holocaust and World War II.
But closer to home, it’s worth remembering that this kind of prejudice and hatred, whipped up by hysteria and unconfirmed accusations, led to the lynching of two African-American teenagers in Fort Myers as recently as 1924.
We’ve long put away the days and passions of Nazism and Jim Crow and they should never be resurrected. But Trump is deliberately resuscitating long-dead demons of racism and hatred in pursuit of his narrow personal ends.
It’s up to everyone who knows history, who opposes bigotry and wants a big, vibrant and prosperous America and a peaceful and inclusive Southwest Florida to battle these demons, whether they appear in our hearts, our minds or in our dealings with our neighbors—no matter where they were born.
The Democratic presidential candidates on the debate stage in South Carolina on Feb. 25. Since then, Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have dropped out.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
The Paradise Progressive 