Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, ready for the Senate and on a roll

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. (Photo: Author)

April 7, 2024 by David Silverberg

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is on a roll.

The 53-year old Democratic candidate for the US Senate seat now held by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), 71, had a compelling case to make when she announced her candidacy last August. A former representative from the Miami area, she was a credible candidate but faced a long, difficult path ahead.

However, when the Florida state Supreme Court issued its decisions on April 1 to both permit a six-week abortion ban to go into effect on May 1 and at the same time allow a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women’s right to choose to appear on the ballot in November it was, as Mucarsel-Powell put it, “a game changer.”

With the abortion issue front and center, Florida is now in play, in the view of President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

But that doesn’t surprise Mucarsel-Powell at all.

In her campaign travels she says she discovered a secret.

“I’ve learned that Florida is not a red state,” she said. “It remains a purple state, a diverse state, an independent state, a state where there are more things that bring us together than not.”

And by bringing people together she just may become Florida’s next senator.

An immigrant success story

In late March, Mucarsel-Powell (or DMP, as her staff refers to her) sat down with The Paradise Progressive for an extensive interview. It took place at Acopio Coffee, a newly-opened shop in Naples specializing in Columbian coffee.

Mucarsel-Powell was relaxed and right at home there, switching easily between English and Spanish as she spoke to the Columbian owners. A pleasant, accomplished and articulate woman, she grows intense and emphatic when discussing issues close to her heart—and there are many.

Debbie (her birth name) was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14 with her mother and three older sisters. At first they lived in a one-room apartment. She attended Pomona Catholic High School in Pomona, Calif., where she graduated in 1988 and then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Pitzer College in 1992 and a Master of Arts in international political economy from Claremont Graduate University, both in Claremont, California, in 1996.

She started working in a doughnut shop to help support the family when she arrived in the United States. She continued working throughout her education.

She pursued an academic career, rising to associate dean of Florida International University (FIU), a Miami-based school founded in 1965 that serves a heavily immigrant and professional student body. From 2003 to 2007 she served as its director of development and beginning in 2007 as vice president for advancement at its college of medicine.

She married lawyer Robert Powell and had three children; Willow, Jude and Siena.

She was also very active in numerous non-profit institutions and causes. Among them, she volunteered in the presidential campaigns of John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Political awakening

It was an encounter with pure, petty partisan politics that propelled her into electoral politics, she recalled.

Part of her job at FIU was raising funds for scholarships and healthcare programs. In 2016 the university had a program to send doctors and health providers into underserved communities to provide care.

But funding for the program was blocked both in Tallahassee and Washington, DC for reasons that had nothing to do with the program or its goals—or the people it helped.

“It just made no sense,” she recalled. “I was so upset. You follow certain policies but when you start understanding the situation and who is blocking it and why, that’s what prompted me to get involved. They were showing me all these reasons [for the obstruction] and I was like, ‘wait!’”

To make a difference, that year she ran against Republican Anitere Flores for a Florida Senate seat and lost.

However, in 2018 she ran against Rep. Carlos Curbelo in what was then the 26th Congressional District covering Homestead and the Florida Keys (which has since been redrawn to include much of eastern Collier County). She defeated him and served a term in Congress, during which she wrote a bill to expand Medicare Advantage coverage, worked to support families and small businesses and secured $200 million for Everglades restoration. She also voted to impeach President Donald Trump in his first trial in 2019.

In 2020 she faced Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez and lost in a close election, 51 percent to 48 percent.

During her time in Congress, she said, “the most frustrating thing was always trying to make things better for the people living here.” Most of the reason for the difficulty in doing that is “that you have extremists like Rick Scott who are blocking any sort of progress and making it much harder for people to get ahead.”

As the 2024 election approached, Mucarsel-Powell saw an opportunity to address that problem again. As senator, Scott not only stood in the way of progress for working people and families, he had also failed on a variety of political fronts and pursued extreme policies.

“So I was in Congress and while I was writing a bill that would expand Medicare coverage, Rick Scott was writing a plan to sunset Medicare, Social Security, and raise taxes on middle class families,” she recalled.

But the problem with Scott was not just in the past. “He supports repealing the Affordable Care Act. Living in a state like Florida you understand how critical our environment is, but Rick Scott has denied that climate change exists. When he was governor, he voted against any sort of green energy here in our state. I’ve done work with fishermen in the Florida Keys who understand that if we don’t have a healthy environment, it’s not just about clean water in our own lives but it’s also about our economy.”

The situation was enough to make her get back in electoral politics and run for Scott’s Senate seat.

Given the Scott record, “I think people across the state understand” why she’s running, she said. “I’ve been having those conversations. I have them every day.”

Protecting seniors

Mucarsel-Powell’s positions on most issues are largely centrist and oriented toward working families and everyday Floridians: bringing down the cost of living and insurance; reducing healthcare and medication costs; keeping people safe and protecting water purity and the environment.

But some issues stand out, and in these Mucarsel-Powell draws a sharp contrast between herself and Scott.

Extremely relevant to Southwest Florida with its large senior population is her absolute commitment to protecting Social Security and Medicare, programs that Scott has specifically targeted for elimination.

Mucarsel-Powell’s mother, Imelda, lives with her in Miami and the candidate knows how critical Medicare is for her mother’s health and Social Security for her livelihood.

“And it’s not just about my mother,” she points out. “We have the largest population of seniors who rely on these benefits to make sure they have access to healthcare. These are benefits that they they’ve paid into their entire lives.”

Knowing gun violence

Another issue that has a personal connection to Mucarsel-Powell is gun violence.

In 1995 her father, Guido, was shot and killed on the steps of the family home in Ecuador. To this day the circumstances are murky. It may have been a case of random violence. There has never been an arrest or prosecution.

“I was in the States. It was violence,” she recalled, referring to the situation in Ecuador. “It was someone on a motorcycle. I don’t have a lot of information. They were killing people for a lot of different reasons. It was devastating.”

She was 24 years old at the time.

Having experienced this kind of loss, Mucarsel-Powell is now a forceful advocate of background checks and closing gun purchasing loopholes—and she sees an international dimension to the problem.

“The reality is that if you have a violent criminal background you should not be able to purchase a weapon,” she said emphatically. “The universal background check is the simplest, most common-sense piece of legislation that we passed when I was in Congress. We should pass it again. I want to lead on that and there are a couple of senators who want to work on that and I think the majority of people agree, not just here in Florida but across the country.”

She especially dismisses the assertion that background checks are made at gun shows, an argument of pro-gun activists.

“I know for a fact that people can go into a gun show and walk out with a firearm. And then they trade them and sell them in the parking lot, by the way. And then what happens? Then we have gangs, drug-trafficking gangs that come to Florida because we have such relaxed gun laws. They purchase these weapons, get these weapons and then they take them to Haiti, they take them to Venezuela, they take them to Mexico. So if we want to talk about crime, let’s lead with that. Why are we allowing criminals to get weapons so easily in this country?”

This ties in with the need reform the immigration system and secure the border, an issue Republicans are using to hammer Democrats.

“Of course we have to secure our border,” she says. “That’s common sense. I voted for border security when I was in Congress but it’s going to get worse if we don’t do something to support the fight for democracy in these countries.”

Mucarsel-Powell was an advisor for the 2022 Summit of the Americas, a periodic gathering of North and South American leaders to discuss common concerns.

“We need to provide the support that we can so that we somehow make Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean places where people can remain,” she argues. “No family leaves on their own will. They have to. Many of them are desperate; they don’t have food for their children.”

That was one of the topics at the Summit of the Americas and she saw progress. “There was a migration agreement for Panama and other countries to help and to retain the migrants that are going through other countries. That is a possible solution for that problem. Mexico, the same thing.”

The right to choose

But looming over all other issues is the question of a woman’s right to choose. This issue and the question of whether to pass an abortion amendment to the state constitution is likely to propel the political debate all the way to November—and Mucarsel-Powell has a unique perspective.

“A woman’s right to choose is on the line right now and as a Latin American woman—I was born in Ecuador, I was raised Catholic—but the majority of women regardless of religion, regardless of background, understand that government should not interfere in that private decision between a mother or a woman, her doctor, her family, her faith and so this is going to be a critical issue in November.”

She continued: “They’re trying to suppress women by taking away their most fundamental right and that is privacy and the right for them to make their own decision about when and how to start a family. It’s also a safety issue for the mother and young women. What message are we sending to our daughters? So I think that’s going to be a critical issue in November and something that as a woman I will make sure to protect that right.”

Mucarsel-Powell welcomed the state Supreme Court’s decision to allow Amendment 4 on the November ballot. But it also provided her the opportunity to highlight Scott’s extreme positions on abortion and his support for a total abortion ban.

When the Supreme Court announced that in addition to allowing the amendment it would also uphold the state’s current six-week abortion ban, Mucarsel-Powell called it “outrageous and dangerous.” She pointed out that “Rick Scott proudly stated he would have signed this ban – a ban with hardly any exceptions – into law if he were governor.” She thinks that this kind of extremism will turn Floridians against Scott and in her favor.

Against extremism

Indeed, Mucarsel-Powell thinks that Floridians are tired of all the political extremism that has dominated the state.

“Unfortunately, because of the extremists who are trying to take over and have all the power in the state, people have felt targeted and intimidated,” she explained. “When a company, when a municipality, when an elected official has spoken against the extremists in Tallahassee there’s been forceful retaliation. What I’ve realized is that a lot of the people in this state have been living in fear and I think so many, regardless of political affiliation, are done with that. And they are organizing, they’re mobilizing, they’re energized.”

She continued: “Every event I go to, there is one Republican at the very least that comes and says, ‘I wanted to come, I wanted to hear you speak, I can’t stand what’s going on, I want to support you, would you speak to more of us?’

“As I travel the state I’m prouder and prouder and prouder of being a Floridian,” she said. “I’ve never been prouder because it’s been tough; for universities, for students, for teachers, for municipalities, for businesses, for the LGBTQ community, for immigrants—you name the group. For seniors, for parents, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’ve somehow been affected by the horrible policies that have been coming out in Tallahassee that Scott has proudly announced that he supports and he’s doing the same thing in DC.

“And so I think we have a really unique opportunity to make sure that we get our state back on track.”

Democracy on the line

It’s a fight, not only about issues and fundamental rights but about the future of democracy and she knows that some hard times lie ahead.

Rick Scott and the rest of her opposition “want to control and take power. They want to take over government to make money from government, so they’re going to do and say whatever they need to say, they’re going to delegitimize the opposition, target the opposition, silence the opposition and intimidate the opposition.

“As a Latin American I know it’s exactly what they do under dictatorships. It’s exactly what Russia does. You can see it. They’re doing everything in their power to target, to intimidate, to harass, to attack—it’s the same tactics.”

But Mucarsel-Powell is undeterred and sees a path to victory in November.

“This is a top pick up opportunity. If we don’t win Florida it’ll be very difficult to keep a Senate majority and we also know that Scott is eyeing leadership. He has expressed that. So it’s more critical than ever. The man will push a national abortion ban. He will sunset Medicare and Social Security. If anyone has any doubt they don’t know who this guy is.”

Her strategy, she says, is simple: “I think the most important strategy is making sure that voters across the state know who I am and what I stand for when they come out to vote. That’s the key to making sure that I win in November.”

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and her extended family. Her husband, Robert, is third from left. She, her mother Imelda, and children are at center. (Photo: Campaign)

Liberty lives in light

An exemplary election, a MAGA defeat and a stage set for November: Lessons from the Naples City election

*Collier County Supervisor of Elections Melissa Blazier at work. (Photo: Author)*

April 2, 2024 by David Silverberg

The election for the Mayor and City Council of the City of Naples is now finalized, certified and complete—and holds some lessons for voters both in Southwest Florida and beyond.

On Friday, March 29, the Collier County Canvassing Board certified the results for the non-partisan election. The incumbent mayor, Teresa Heitmann, won her race by 22 votes over competitors Councilman Gary Price and Ted Blankenship. A race for a third seat on the city council was decided by 34 votes.

*The final results of the Naples City election. (Chart: Supervisor)*

Because the margins were so tight—in the initial, unofficial count on election night, Heitmann was leading by just 12 votes—both races were subject to recounts.

For those unfamiliar with it, the City of Naples, Florida is a small, incorporated municipality of roughly 19,000 people. It resides within Collier County, whose Supervisor of Elections oversees its elections. There were 16,726 eligible voters in this contest, according to the Elections Office and turnout ran about 51 percent.

On the one hand, the smallness of the sample and the specificity of the issues—chiefly, controlling development—in the race make the election results unique to the city.

But on the other hand, given the closeness of the races and the ideological intensity of some of the partisans and candidates, there are larger lessons to be learned.

Lesson 1: Competence won

First, despite the smallness of the electorate, this was not a simple election. Whenever an election is this close and the outcome this uncertain, the supervisor and team overseeing the election count have to be at the top of their game to ensure the accuracy, integrity and legality of the results.

Indeed, sometimes simply making a system function as it ought is a true test of competence and effectiveness. Elections have been under scrutiny and pressure ever since Donald Trump decided to reject the results of the 2020 ballot and lie about its outcome.

In this regard, the Collier County elections office, under the leadership of Supervisor Melissa Blazier, acquitted itself in exemplary fashion. It’s in such instances that the 17 years of experience she had in election management come into play and prove its value.

While there were rumors and accusations about the results, Blazier addressed them in an X posting around noon on the day of the recount.

“Hi! Us again to alert you to some misinformation regarding the City of Naples mayoral race. We get it – the City of Naples races were CLOSE! So close we did a machine recount for both the mayoral race and for city council. The recounts confirmed the results of both races.

“There are some rumors out there that provisional ballots could have changed the results of the mayoral contest, particularly provisional ballots that were cast due to party affiliation,” she wrote. She noted that Florida is a closed primary state where voters must be members of the party on the ballot to vote in the primary and that they had to change their party affiliation by Feb. 20 to vote in the Presidential Preference Primary, which was held the same day.

“On March 22, the canvassing board was presented with 18 provisional ballots due to voters disputing their political party affiliation and casting an illegal ballot which were all rejected by the canvassing board in accordance with Florida election law.”

She continued: “During the review of these 18 provisional ballots, the canvassing board and members of the public who observed the process were presented with the voters’ information and evidence as to why the provisional ballots should be rejected in accordance with Florida election law. This included where the voters live. All 18 of these provisional ballots were not located within the City of Naples which means that the ballot they were issued did not contain the mayor or city council race.”

To date, these conclusions have not been challenged.

In fact, Councilman Ted Blankenship, the third place finisher in the mayoral race, conceded defeat the night of the election, stating in a Facebook post:

“God Bless Naples!

“Thank you to each and every one of you for standing behind me. Together, we ran a race focused on the issues important to our community and our country.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out in our favor.

“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve the people of Naples these last four years. I am disappointed in the results of tonight’s election, but my love for this community has not diminished in the slightest.

“Best wishes to those who were elected to serve our great town!”

Blankenship demonstrated civility and his concession was principled; unlike Trump, he didn’t call fraud or disparage the parties involved.

But his defeat provided its own lesson.

Lesson 2: MAGA doesn’t rule Naples

*Alfie Oakes shakes hands with Ted Blankenship during a campaign meeting at his restaurant, Food & Thought 2. (Photo: Blankenship Campaign)*

The city election was non-partisan in the sense that the candidates did not run under party labels. But that is not to say that parties and partisans weren’t involved.

Blankenship was the Make America Great Again (MAGA) candidate, endorsed by grocer and farmer Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III, an extreme Trumper and MAGA activist. Oakes’ Citizens Awake Now Political Action Committee contributed to his campaign. He was also endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, where Oakes is a committeeman, and which contributed $20,000 and an advertisement worth $1,500.

The city results contrasted with the past results in Collier County, where in the 2022 election all the Oakes-endorsed candidates won their races for the county Board of Commissioners and School Board, giving him almost complete dominance of the county. In this he effectively mobilized his thousands of MAGA followers and his Seed to Table market as a political platform.

The resulting county dominance has resulted in passage of anti-federal ordinances, an anti-science inspired restrictive public health law and termination of fluoridation of the county’s water.

But the city election proved that Oakes’ sway stopped at the city line. This came despite the overwhelming Republican advantage in registered voters (10,526 Republicans to Democrats’ 2,523). The results prove that a majority of Naples Republicans are not MAGA/Oakes Republicans—essentially, they’re two separate parties.

Lesson 3: Every single vote counts

There is nothing like an election whose outcome is decided by 22 ballots to drive home the point that absolutely every single vote counts—and that the counting must be done honestly and accurately.

The City of Naples election will hardly rock the nation—but in the upcoming election that will determine the next president, whether women will have the right to choose and if marijuana will be legalized, every single ballot will be precious and prized.

That election will also determine whether Blazier will retain her position as Supervisor of Elections. In this she’s up against two opponents who have absolutely no previous experience in election management and whose chief motivations for running are the discredited conspiracy theories and Big Lie allegations lingering from the 2020 election.

Tim Guerrette in particular, is backed by Oakes and as of last November had received over $89,000 in cash and over $18,000 in in-kind contributions as compared to Blazier’s roughly $62,000 and nearly $9,000 in in-kind contributions.

Guerrette has nothing like the experience and knowledge that Blazier brings to the task. Oakes has attacked machine counting of ballots, which was crucial in ensuring the accuracy of the Naples results so Guerrette would presumably terminate that if he was able.

Ultimately, if a MAGA candidate won the Supervisor of Elections position in November, voters in Collier County would never again have the confidence that their votes were being accurately, competently and neutrally counted—and in a tight election like that of Naples, that would make a big difference.

While the City of Naples election may not have been a preview of the outcome of the August 20 primary election and the Nov. 5 general election, these are some of the important lessons it provided.

And it brought home again just how critical it is for every citizen to have the vote, to exercise it—and to preserve it by keeping America a democracy.

For more information and analysis of the City of Naples election and in particular the funding behind it, see Sandy Parker’s Analyzing the 2024 Naples Mayor and City Council Elections.

Liberty lives in light

The Donalds Dossier: A ‘bloodbath’ defense, a dictator’s VP and the future of a soul

*Former President Donald Trump with Rep. Byron Donalds (Photo: Office of Byron Donalds)*

March 20, 2024 by David Silverberg

Last Saturday, March 16, Donald Trump, campaigning in Ohio, said: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” Given Trump’s past encouragement of violence and his past incitement of a mob attack on the US Capitol, the resulting furor might be understandable. However, Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans rushed to Trump’s defense, saying that he was only referring to the auto industry.

*Republican candidate Donald Trump makes his “bloodbath” statement at a rally in Ohio. (Image: YouTube)*

One of the MAGA loyalists vociferously defending Trump was Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), whose Southwest Florida district covers the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island.

“FAKE NEWS ALERT,” he posted on X the next day. “Yesterday, President Trump held a rally in OH. He spoke about how outsourcing the US auto industry would create an economic bloodbath. Now media is deliberately twisting his words in an attempt to dupe the American people. This ‘bloodbath’ hoax is SHAMEFUL.”

In and of itself Donalds’ reflexive defense of Trump was unsurprising. However, another statement was, in its way, even more extreme.

On March 7, Donalds was asked in an interview with the newssite Axios whether if he served as vice president in a Trump administration he would certify the Electoral College votes in the 2028 election.

Donalds said he wouldn’t do so automatically. “If you have state officials who are violating the election law in their states … then no, I would not,” he said, adding that “I already know” states did not follow election laws in 2020.

When asked if he agreed with then-Vice President Mike Pence’s certification of the results on Jan. 6, 2021, Donalds said “you can only ask that question of Mike Pence,” (which doesn’t answer the question, since Donalds was being asked for his opinion of Pence’s actions and had nothing to do with Pence’s opinion).

Donalds’ response raises the possibility—indeed, the likelihood—that if Trump won the presidency with Donalds as vice president, Donalds would enable a possible permanent, lifetime, unelected Trump presidency (really, a dictatorship) by tossing out Electoral votes in any election certification over which he presided.

Donalds is already on record voting to overturn the 2020 election, which he did on Jan. 6, 2021 before the Capitol was invaded by the Trump-incited mob that Donalds characterized that day as “lawless vigilantes” and “a bunch of lunatics.”

That day too, Pence certified the election results—for which action the mob attempted to lynch him.

Eyes on the rise

Donalds’ defense of a Trump “bloodbath” and his willingness to support a lifetime Trump presidency once again puts the spotlight on his longstanding quest to become Trump’s vice president.

Donalds himself has become coy about his aspirations. Last year when the idea apparently first occurred to him or he had some encouragement, he seemed especially eager. Last June he posted in a fundraising message: “…I haven’t heard nearly as much discussion about who the Republican nominee for Vice President should be. It’s critical that the nominee is another America First warrior who will stand up to the radical Left no matter what kind of witch hunts the radical Left and the Deep State throw at the ticket.” There was little doubt who he had in mind.

But in October last year when asked about a potential vice presidential slot at a Fort Myers town hall, according to a Naples Daily News article, he responded, “The speculation is out there. I’ve not talked to the president about it (but) if he goes, ‘All right, Byron, that’s what I want you to do,’ then yeah, all right let’s roll. Because you know it’s about the country.”

Nothing seems to have happened in the intervening time to indicate that Donalds is any closer to being tapped for vice president than was the case then. In fact, if anything, Donalds is further from the possibility.

But it’s worth asking, from Trump’s perspective: what would Donalds bring to a Trump ticket?

Assets

In a traditional political calculation, the vice presidential candidate is picked to balance the top of the ticket based on region, ideology, race, age or gender. Presumably, this “balance” attracts sufficient voters to make a winning majority.

Of course Donald Trump has tossed away all traditional calculations. There’s just no telling what his criteria would be for his vice presidential candidate—although the high likelihood is that it would be blind personal loyalty, subservience and a willingness to obey any command no matter how criminal, unconstitutional or even treasonous, especially given that he encouraged the attempted lynching of Pence when he refused to commit an unconstitutional act at Trump’s command.

But based on traditional calculations, the first and most obvious thing that Donalds would bring to a Trump ticket is just the fact that he is African American.

At its most basic, an African American on the ticket would shield Trump from charges of racism. It might attract the votes of a small sliver of other African Americans.

But Donalds is not the only African American willing to provide racial cover for Trump. He is competing with the much more prominent Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) who ran his own race for president, lost, and then very conspicuously endorsed the man who beat him.

The same applies to Ben Carson, who did the same thing in 2016. After his failed presidential bid he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the administration. Carson has been actively serving as a Trump surrogate on the campaign trail.

So Donalds must stand out in some other way and the way he appears to have chosen is by ostentatiously trumpeting his total personal allegiance and loyalty to Trump on every media platform available. He has completely bought into every Trump policy and position, no matter how extreme. He has relentlessly attacked President Joe Biden and his administration, proclaimed his belief in the Big Lie of a stolen election in 2020 and was the first Florida Republican politician to endorse Trump when he announced his current run in November 2022.

Yet, for all this loud loyalty, Trump has repeatedly snubbed and ignored Donalds since he first ran for Congress in 2020. (See “The Donalds Dossier: He’s just not that into you, Byron,” Oct. 30, 2023.)

The public can only guess why Trump continues to overlook and ignore Donalds. However, there are some liabilities that might be factors.

Liabilities

The first liability is that aside from a tiny fraction of the extremely conservative congressional Freedom Caucus, Donalds has no base of his own and what there is, is tenuous as well. It appears to consist mainly of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-3-Colo.), who appears about to lose her seat, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-14-Ga.), who was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus for being too extreme even for its members, and Rep. Chip Roy (R-21-Texas), who nominated Donalds for Speaker in January 2023.

*Rep. Byron Donalds sits uncomfortably between Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene while they both heckle President Joe Biden during his State of the Union speech in 2022. (Photo: Reuters)*

His support from other members of Congress is small, judging from the few PACs that contributed to his campaign in 2023. These include House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-1-La.), whose Eye of the Tiger PAC contributed $5,000 to Donalds’ campaign in 2023 as well as Scalise for Congress, which contributed $2,000. Other members of Congress whose PACs have contributed include Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Reps. Jim Jordan (R-4-Ohio), Jason Smith (R-8-Mo.), Patrick McHenry (R-10-NC), John James (R-10-Mich.) and former Wisconsin congressman and current Fox News commentator Sean Duffy.

After two terms Donalds is relatively unknown to the public at large, although he’s been working hard to become more prominent. But he would bring no national following to the ticket. Voters, especially black voters, would be mystified by his presence and likely as not would recoil from what they discovered on closer examination.

Also, despite his clear and undisguised ambition, Donalds has lost every election that he’s entered among his fellow Republican members of Congress. He lost his bid to be Republican conference chair and two bids to become Speaker of the House.

He made these efforts despite having a record that did not qualify him for an office higher than the one he already occupies. He has no significant legislative successes to date, nor can he boast of any congressional achievements, either major or minor. He’s still just a sophomore lawmaker grasping for promotion to the junior class. He doesn’t stand out intellectually, influentially or politically. (It was his presumption in this regard that enraged TV host Joy Reid when she interviewed him following his first bid for the Speakership.)

There is some debate whether a vice president could come from the same state as the president but this has largely been dismissed by analysts, who believe it would be permissible. However, it would introduce a complicating factor and element of uncertainty into any campaign.

More significant would be the searing scrutiny Donalds would undergo as a vice presidential candidate—and which he might not survive. He has already admitted to a drug-related arrest as a young man but there have been previous allegations of wrongdoing that would be re-investigated with far more rigor than in the past.

His private life would become wide open, including all the circumstances of his first marriage, divorce and remarriage. Any other skeletons would tumble out of their closets as well.

In examining the totality of Donalds’ pronouncements, actions and legislation, the portrait that emerges is that of a professional politician, almost wildly driven to rise on the national stage in any venue he can find; it doesn’t matter if that’s as a vice presidential candidate, a gubernatorial candidate or a House Republican leader.

The steppingstone

For voters in the 19th Congressional District, these are abstract considerations over which they have no influence. But in practical, immediate terms, what does Donalds’ approach mean for voters in Southwest Florida, who will have to decide whether to renew his contract in November?

“We’re a stepping stone for him in his ‘illustrious’ career,” Kari Lerner, Donalds’ Democratic opponent, said in an interview with The Paradise Progressive earlier this month. “I think the people of Southwest Florida deserve more than to be a stepping stone. I think they deserve more than to be stepped upon.”

Donalds’ political rise is not going to be enabled by attending to the mundane needs of his Southwest Florida district. There, the ongoing concerns are water, development, population growth, algal blooms, the Everglades, conservation and the tourist economy with the occasional hurricane recovery thrown in—hardly sexy national issues that are springboards to higher office. As Lerner noted, for Donalds Southwest Florida is a steppingstone, not a destination.

So while he has done things like submitting earmarks for projects benefiting the district—after some intense prodding—and writing letters when his constituents were afflicted with industrial pollution, his legislative record regarding his district’s core concerns is barely existent. He has not used whatever leverage he has in the Republican House and with the Republican leadership to advance any meaningful measure improving the lives, health or prosperity of his constituents beyond simply introducing 59 bills that have almost all gone nowhere. (Only one, the FISHES Act, House Resolution 5103 has had a subcommittee hearing.)

Instead, he has pounded the media pavements at every opportunity to raise his profile, grasped at every possible opening for higher position and made sure to reaffirm his utterly blind and unquestioning loyalty to Donald Trump.

This does not rebound to the district’s benefit, especially with Gov. Ron DeSantis, on whom Donalds turned his back in favor of Trump. The governor is in a position to veto appropriations to the region or dispense any favors or assistance if needed and he’s known to keep score and retaliate.

Basically, Southwest Florida has an ambitious but distracted representative whose chief focus is on his next possible step up the political ladder rather than on the sands and substance of the district he calls home (and that just barely, since gerrymandering is the only reason his home address is in the district’s boundaries—a favor of the governor, by the way).

On Nov. 5, Donalds’ contract will be up for renewal. District voters should think long and hard whether they should vote to renew it. In a year when so many loyal, traditional, lifelong Republicans have been exiled from the Party by Donald Trump, do they really want to send back to Washington to act and speak on their behalf a fanatically subservient Trumper, a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump president for life? This might be the year they want to make a change.

Meanwhile, Donalds has pursued—and is likely to keep pursuing—offices for which he is unqualified by any record of achievement as measured by traditional political calculations and expectations. In each case he has failed to attain his goals when subjected to the judgment of his peers and political elders.

Of course, in this he is likely encouraged by the example of his idol and hero, who attained the highest office in the land despite a complete absence of qualifications, knowledge or fitness.

As he has throughout his political career in Southwest Florida, Donalds has had to square a very difficult circle: he’s an African American in an 85 percent white, heavily conservative MAGA district, where a significant strain of white racism could be expected to influence voting.

What is more, he is mightily laboring in service to a presidential candidate whose racism is blatant, undisguised and appears to extend to Donalds himself.

Donalds has overcome this contradiction by presenting himself as even more extremely Trumpist/MAGA than the most extreme MAGAs in his district and nationwide—with the possible exception of Donald Trump himself.

Clearly, Donalds’ calculation is that the purity of his belief and loyalty will be sufficient for his MAGA voters, his fellow congressional Republicans and Donald Trump himself to overcome any racial prejudice they may harbor. Put another way, they’ll accept him if he’s sufficiently useful to their cause.

The irony is that Donalds’ rise in electoral politics to this point and in this place would have been impossible without the civil rights, racial integration and African American political success of the past century, progress that Trump, MAGAs and white supremacists are trying to undo by making America “great” again.

And, of course, if Trump is elected and establishes a dictatorship, as Donalds has stated he is willing to enable, there won’t be any electoral politics any more for anyone to rise, much less African Americans of any ideological persuasion.

Joe Biden ran for president at age 76 in 2020 because he recognized that he was fighting for nothing less than the soul of America.

An unkind critic might liken Donalds’ defense of Trump’s bloodbath pronouncement and willingness to promote a Trump dictatorship to selling his own soul to gain worldly prominence and power.

The state of Donalds’ soul is up to Donalds himself, of course. But as he continues to commit his soul to Donald Trump, he might want to consider the words of Matthew 16:26 in the New Testament: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Liberty lives in light

Preview of a purge to come: Donald Trump’s treatment of the Republican National Committee

*A montage of images from The Purge movies.*

March 17, 2024 by David Silverberg

Tuesday, March 19, Republican voters will have the final opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice in Florida’s Presidential Preference Primary.

There’s hardly any point in doing so, though. The Republican nominee is known. All his competitors have dropped out and the Florida Republican Party has already endorsed him. There is no suspense here.

Early voting results in Lee and Collier counties are reflecting the inevitability of the outcome and the lack of enthusiasm. As of Sunday, March 17, in Lee County only about 20.25 percent of voters had participated by mail and in-person voting. In Collier County that was only 17.91 percent and in Charlotte County it was 17.17 percent.

The participation rates may go up when the final in-person voting occurs on Tuesday.

But not only is there little mystery about the primary outcome, there’s also little mystery about what a Trump presidency will mean should he accede to the presidency by electoral or other means. If there’s any doubt, people need look no further than the Republican National Committee (RNC) in Washington, DC.

On March 8, Ronna McDaniel (née Romney) stepped down as chair of the RNC. Despite being described as “unfailingly loyal to Trump” by The New York Times, all her past fundraising, hard work and promotion of Trump wasn’t enough. Among her many sins was her insistence on holding debates open to all the Republican candidates, none of which Trump attended.

“It is a little bit bittersweet to be with all of you here today as I step down as chair after seven years of working with you all,” she said in her parting remarks.

Taking her place was Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, and Lara Trump, wife of Trump’s son Eric, as co-chairs. Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign advisor, was named the RNC’s chief operating officer. It put the RNC entirely in Trump’s hands.

Observers should regard the takeover of the RNC as a dress rehearsal for a Trump presidency. The way that Trump is treating the organization is the way he will treat the United States—and non-Trump Republicans, or as he calls them, Republicans In Name Only (RINOs)—if elected.

So what are the takeaways from the RNC takeover?

The purge

The first thing that Lara, Whatley and LaCivita did was fire 60 members of the RNC staff and cancel numerous existing contracts. Those who wished to reapply for their jobs could do so and be vetted on the basis of their loyalty to Trump rather than the Party.

The political professionals working at the RNC are hardly radicals, Marxists or Democrats; these are dedicated lifelong Republicans committed to the Party and its goals. The most senior of them had already weathered the Trump presidency, the Big Lie, the insurrection and the midterm elections.

But it wasn’t enough. As Charlie Kirk, head of Turning Point USA, the Trumpist youth organization, stated in a post on X on March 11, “Bloodbath at the RNC is underway. 60+ firings just today. This is excellent. The anti-Trump sleeper cells all have to go. The RNC is getting ready to win.”

Rick Wilson, a Florida-based veteran political operative, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and author of the book, Everything Trump Touches Dies had a very different take on the RNC purge. In a March 11 Substack post titled “The MAGA Mafia’s RNC Bust-Out,” Wilson wrote:

“The presumption that in 2024, nine years into Trump’s reign as the GOP’s dominant force, the RNC is stacked to the gills with secret RINO Fifth Column types is beyond ludicrous. Everyone in that building has survived the last few years by being as much of a Trump loyalist as can be imagined, but it does point to the Paranoid Style of MAGA politics. The Purity Posse is riding to the RNC, boys! Mount up!”

The war on competence

It is more than likely that the RNC staffers with institutional knowledge and professional competence will be replaced with people whose only qualification will be the depth of their fanaticism.

The same is likely to apply if Donald Trump attains the presidency. All of the proven knowledge, competence and capability of existing civil servants, diplomats and even—perhaps especially—law enforcement will be erased in favor of pure fanaticism in the service of Donald Trump. Unlike the clear qualifications that now govern government service, hiring will be done on the vague and subjective basis of personal loyalty and ideological purity. Even the military won’t be spared. The country and all Americans will suffer from the extreme loss of competence in running the nation’s affairs. The potential for corruption is immense and almost inevitable as has been proven repeatedly in Third World dictatorships.

This kind of behavior will leach down to the grassroots and it can already be seen in Southwest Florida with election challenges by ideologically driven, unqualified MAGA candidates to proven, veteran candidates for school boards, county commissions and election supervisors. The results have already resulted in School Board paralysis and in Collier County an extreme, MAGA-dominated Board of Commissioners that has passed anti-federal and anti-public health ordinances.

Nepotism and corruption

Like so many autocrats before him, Trump so needs personal loyalty from those around him that the only people he really trusts are family with blood or marriage ties. This was in evidence in his presidency when he entrusted a variety of sensitive tasks to his otherwise inexperienced and unqualified son-in-law Jared Kushner and elevated his daughter Ivanka to senior advisor.

Now with Lara as RNC co-chair, he can be secure in the knowledge that she will impose his will on the Republican Party.

As Wilson put it: “Lara Trump is there as the eyes and ears of the Family. Chris LaCivita is there to bleed every last drop of revenue and resources to a) the Trump effort and b) his friends and allies. Everyone who gets the jobs and contracts canceled en masse this week will be a LaCivita ally or crony. Lara isn’t sophisticated enough to understand what happens when all this rolls forward, but it won’t matter much.”

The same will apply if he becomes president. Donald Trump can be expected to draw on a variety of family members to do his bidding at the highest levels of the American government. This will run counter to American law and practice of prohibiting this kind of incestuous inside dealing, which violates American principles of merit, competence and honesty in government, replacing it with cronyism, corruption and outright theft.

If president again Trump will undoubtedly treat the United States Treasury as his personal piggy bank and all the previous Republican pieties about stewardship of taxpayer dollars and constraining government spending will be rendered null and void.

From a Party standpoint the change means starving the entire down-ballot ecosystem of the funds it needs to run candidates and campaigns at the state and grassroots levels.

As Wilson put it: the new RNC leadership “will bleed the RNC to a desiccated husk. They will break it, kill off any institutional knowledge or expertise in their desire to root out what human-flounder hybrid Charlie Kirk called ‘RINO sleeper cells.’ They will merge the operations into Trumpworld, and everything in Trump World exists to serve only Trump.”

Grassroots mayhem

More than anything else, what this dress rehearsal means for grassroots-level, conservative Republicans—like the Midwestern Republicans who reside in Southwest Florida—is that a lifetime of party loyalty and adherence to principle is now a hindrance.

This has already manifested itself in the MAGA takeover of Florida Republican Party executive committees. Traditional Republicans have been steadily pushed out over the past several years as committed MAGAs propelled the Party Trumpward.

A Republican—in Southwest Florida or anywhere—now has to be a total Trumper to comfortably remain in the Party. As an example of the consequences of apostasy, last year state House Rep. Spencer Roach (R-76-DeSoto, Charlotte and north Lee counties) had a bullet fired into his home when he dared to challenge the MAGA takeover of the Lee County Republican Party. In a January 2022 op-ed in the newssite Florida Politics titled “No Coronation for Donald Trump in ’24,” he dared to say that while he wasn’t a never-Trumper he also wasn’t an only-Trumper.

There will now be no non-Trumper Republicans of any kind in Trump’s party. There is no diversity or free thought there. Party members must totally endorse any Trump pronouncement, delusion or crime that he commits. The choice is between being a total-Trumper or RINO.

If there was any question of this before, Trump’s actions at the RNC make it official.

Again, Wilson puts it best: “This wholesale slaughter in the RNC is one more sign that the MAGA GOP isn’t simply post-partisan; it’s post-organizational, post-rational, and just another opportunity to monetize Trumpism.”

He continues: “This case of institutional [everything Trump touches dies] means the end of the line for the old GOP. The state committeemen and committeewomen, the state organizations themselves, the major donors, the people who work their way up to get convention seats and tickets are all in for a crashing disappointment. The RNC’s work in voter registration, research, digital, communications, and turnout will wither and die before summer. All that will remain is the RNC’s ability to sluice money (minus a little handling fee and the vig) into Trump’s gaping maw.”

If Trump accedes to the presidency either by election or other means these practices and proclivities will go nationwide.

At the organizational level, Trump will undoubtedly carry out a similar purge of what he and former advisor Steve Bannon have called the “deep state;” i.e., all the experienced, professional civil servants who make the government run to serve the American people. Because their loyalty is to the nation and the Constitution and not to Trump personally, they will be purged, en masse and immediately. The functioning of the country will come to a halt.

Taking their place will be pure Trump loyalists, people who will carry out Trump’s orders no matter how illegal, unconstitutional or even insane.

The country’s needs and priorities will be ignored; the only needs and priorities that will count will be those of Donald Trump himself.

In a way, Trump’s takeover of the RNC is a good thing: it provides such a clear preview of what a Trump presidency will mean.

And that also gives loyal patriots of all party affiliations the time and incentive to organize, mobilize and defend America from what is obviously a clear and present danger from within.

Liberty lives in light

Florida takeaways from President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech

*President Joe Biden delivers the 2024 State of the Union address. (Image: CSPAN)*

March 8, 2024 by David Silverberg

While President Joseph Biden’s State of the Union address to the nation last night, March 7, touched on the full spectrum of local and international issues facing the country, some items were of particular relevance to Florida—and seemed directly addressed to the state.

Seniors and Social Security

“Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors!” said Biden.

Senior issues Social Security and Medicare are particularly relevant to Florida.

With 20 percent (5.5 million) of its 20.8 million residents aged 60 and older, Florida is second only to California in numbers of seniors. It outnumbers the state senior populations of 20 other states combined, according to the Florida State Plan on Aging 2022-2025, which was based on 2021 figures.

What is more, a high proportion of the 900 people moving to Florida daily are seniors, according to the Plan.

“Florida’s future is linked to the financial security and physical health of its older population,” it states.

Given these demographics, Social Security and Medicare are key federal safety-net programs for the population.

“Many of my Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block” said Biden, drawing catcalls and denials from Republican lawmakers in the chamber.

However, the record supports Biden on this and the main Republican attack on Social Security has come from Florida’s own junior Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

On March 30, 2022 Scott unveiled an 11-point (later 12-point) “Rescue America” plan in collaboration with former President Donald Trump. Among its points: “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”

Biden called the plan “outrageous” at the time and pointed out that it would kill Social Security. Scott later denied that he had any intention of ending the program and even Trump denounced any intent to harm it. But there have been Republican rumblings of discontent with it ever since (indeed, there has been Republican opposition to it since 1935 when it was initiated).

In his State of the Union address Biden was firm in his defense of seniors and the key safety-net programs.

“If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them!” he declared. “Working people who built this country pay more into Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.”

He continued: “We have two ways to go on Social Security. Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. I will protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair share!”

Biden’s defense of senior programs was echoed by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running against Scott for Florida’s Senate seat.

“It has never been clearer that Social Security and Medicare are at stake this November – and in order to protect these essential programs, we have to beat Rick Scott, the architect who single-handedly wrote the plan to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block,” she wrote in a statement to The Paradise Progressive. “Our Florida seniors – including my mom – have been paying into Social Security for their whole lives, expecting it would be there to support them in their well-earned retirement. Unlike Rick Scott, I will never allow our parents’ and grandparents’ Social Security and Medicare to be threatened in the Senate or anywhere else.”

Biden also touted his efforts to bring down drug costs by empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies.

“This year Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis,” he said. “Now it’s time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 drugs over the next decade.”

He also stated that he wanted cap to prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year “for everyone!”

Women’s health and choice

Biden called on Congress to guarantee the right to use in vitro fertilization and restore women’s right to choose.

Last year Florida enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks.

“Like most Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right,” he said, crediting Vice President Kamala Harris for her work defending reproductive rights.

He blasted Trump, “my predecessor,” for being instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade and boasting about it.

“There are state laws banning the right to choose, criminalizing doctors, and forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states as well to get the care they need,” he noted.

“Many of you in this Chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom,” he said. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?”

He announced: “If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again!”

He also noted that medical research into women’s health issues has always been underfunded and he intended to change that, in part with an initiative on women’s health research led by First Lady Jill Biden.

However, he challenged Congress: “Pass my plan for $12 billion to transform women’s health research and benefit millions of lives across America!”

Book bans, history and education

Given the prevalence of book banning in Florida and legislative rules dictating the history taught in the state’s schools, Biden’s comments on the subject seemed aimed directly at Tallahassee.

After denouncing efforts to suppress voting and calling for passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, bills to protect the franchise, Biden addressed a wider issue.

“…Stop denying another core value of America—our diversity across American life,” he said. “Banning books. It’s wrong! Instead of erasing history, let’s make history!”

In the course of calling for increasing Pell Grants for working and middle class students to attend college and reducing the burden of student debt, he added “While we’re at it I want to give public school teachers a raise!”

Florida is currently ranked the 48th state in the nation for teacher pay at $47,500. A bill passed in the current state legislative session would raise teachers’ base pay to $65,000 and may go into effect if approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). However, the state is seeing an exodus of teachers due to legislated curriculum restrictions, ideological pressures, attacks on teachers’ unions, book bans and opposition to personnel diversity and inclusion.

Analysis: Florida, the world and the future

Although broadly addressed to the nation and the world, the program presented by Biden will have significant impacts in Florida if enacted.

But his proposals are unlikely—to put it mildly—to be advanced in the current Republican-dominated House of Representatives, which can barely keep the government functioning and whose leadership is subservient to the whims and prejudices of Biden’s predecessor.

Nonetheless, the vigorously delivered, directly confrontational speech seems to have energized Democrats and may have won over significant numbers of anti-Trump Republicans and independents.

That may just translate into votes on the ground in Florida. The challenge for Democrats will be to sustain the momentum and widen their coalition into November.

As Biden put it: “My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how old our ideas are? Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.”

He laid out his vision: “I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence.

“Above all, I see a future for all Americans!” he insisted. “Let’s remember who we are! We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together!”

Liberty lives in light

Kari Lerner: The courage and conviction to serve in Congress

Kari Lerner (center) explains her positions to voters following a parade in Fort Myers. (Photo: Campaign)

March 3, 2024 by David Silverberg

It takes great courage to run for Congress as a Democrat in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island.

But Kari Lerner, chair of the Lee County Democratic Party, has that courage. And she’s facing a formidable incumbent in Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.).

“There was no way Byron Donalds would run unopposed on my watch,” she said in an interview with The Paradise Progressive. “I will tell you, in all sincerity, that I believe that a victory is improbable—but far from impossible.”

With that in mind, Lerner is collecting signatures to put herself on the ballot. She has until April 26 to turn in 5,491 signatures. Alternatively, she can pay a $10,440 fee to register as a candidate.

Her petition drive is well under way.

Ambition and vulnerability

Donalds, 45, has made a name for himself for the past four years as a very ambitious, very extreme Make America Great Again (MAGA) Trumper who is now hoping for a slot as former president Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

And that makes him vulnerable, in Lerner’s view.

“Byron Donalds is not well-liked,” she said. “He’s not done the job. He’s not brought resources to the majority of his constituents; he’s more interested in building his career than he is in serving and doing the job. I think it’s horrible.”

Indeed, in recent weeks, as the prospect of a Trump vice presidential pick has loomed, a stampede has been under way among Republican politicians to prove themselves ever more fanatical, ever more loyal and ever more fawning to gain his favor.

Donalds has been no slouch in this department, sending out reams of X messages (formerly tweets) and fundraising solicitations using ever more extreme rhetoric. Among many other appearances, he appeared on the mainstream NBC program Meet the Press on Feb. 25 to justify Trump remarks that many people found insulting to the black community.

But in his rush to curry Trump’s favor, Donalds has overlooked the district’s needs and issues and neglected to advance any legislation he introduced in Congress. It’s a pattern that has held throughout his two terms in office.

By contrast, Lerner, 64, has experience representing a district—and a Republican one at that.

From south to north

It was a journey to get to that point. She was raised in Cape Coral, where she graduated from Caloosa Middle School and Cypress Lake High School in Fort Myers. In an act of personal climate change, she then travelled to New Hampshire where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (summa cum laude) from Southern New Hampshire University.

In Chester, NH, she was elected Town Chair of the town’s Democrats and was active in local politics, which were even more heavily Republican than in Southwest Florida. She found a Democratic Party consisting of six people meeting in a public library and keeping the Party treasury in a shoebox. She built the local organization and increased attendance at meetings.

When a position opened up for state representative for District 4 she ran in a special election, won and then won the seat in a regular election. It was a milestone—she was only the second Democrat in 120 years to represent the district.

“I was able to represent the entire district, not just the special interests,” she said proudly.

She gained some legislative chops from the experience, co-sponsoring a landmark bill protecting children from underage marriage, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

After stints in a variety of jobs, including nine years as a substitute mathematics teacher in middle and high school, she moved back to Southwest Florida in 2019 to be with family and work as a realtor.

She also remained politically active, becoming chair of the Lee County Democratic Party.

In that capacity she began seeking people willing to run for the congressional seat but hit a surprising roadblock.

“It was my job to recruit candidates and I beat the bushes for a year and a half,” she recalled. “Most of the people I reached out to were attorneys. Most were concerned about their practices but not for the reasons you would think. They were concerned because the judges are all MAGA judges now and they’re concerned that their clients might not get fair trials. To a person that was the concern.”

What was more, they were concerned for the safety of their families. By contrast, “I don’t have children in the school system to be harassed and threatened,” Lerner noted. Her three adult children are pursuing their own careers.

Given that she was not going to allow Donalds to run unopposed, on Jan. 20 she announced her own candidacy.

But she was driven by more than just the need to oppose Donalds; there were important principles at stake.

“I’ve never been arrested or convicted of any crime,” she said, in pointed contrast to Donalds. “I believe in the rule of law. And I believe that we are more than the R or the D that is stamped on our foreheads, I believe that we are Americans first, and this divisiveness is weakening our country. Division is weakness, unity is strength and the world is watching as our house bickers relentlessly—about everything.”

She continued: “I will not refer to fellow Americans as vermin. Even those I disagree with, I am not going to call traitors.”

That said, her travels and interactions with voters have revealed some glaring deficiencies in Donalds’ representation of the district.

“The support of the voters has been overwhelming,” she recalled of the reactions to her own candidacy. “When I tell people I’m running against Byron Donalds the first response is always ‘someone needs to!’ I’m surprised at how many people who are not Democrats feel that way.”

She continued, “He envisions himself as the next governor of Florida. He’s not. We’re a stepping stone for him in his illustrious career. I think the people of Southwest Florida deserve more than to be a stepping stone. I think they deserve more than to be stepped upon.”

That was especially apparent in Donalds’ response to Hurricane Ian in 2022.

“That was when it became apparent that he does not understand the job,” she said. “When you’re a member of Congress, you do not need to be the one standing there handing out water for a photo op. You need to be in DC getting us the resources that we need. We needed gasoline, we needed propane, we needed communications, we needed that Ian disaster declaration that finally came through. Why weren’t they writing that the day after the storm? Why weren’t they looking to get us the resources that we needed?”

She recalled one woman on Fort Myers Beach who told her that Donalds appeared on her doorstep, apologized that she had been victimized by the storm, posed for a photograph to be published and then disappeared. Moreover, “That’s a common theme I hear from people.”

The experience has made her angry. “It’s the job of the representative to be the liaison between the district and the federal government” she emphasized. “Your number one priority is your district—it’s got to be the people in your district.”

Fighting for fundamentals

When it comes to issues, Lerner starts with fundamentals: a belief in putting the needs of people over that of personal ambition, acting independently for the sake of the district and upholding the rule of law and the Constitution.

She believes in personal autonomy in healthcare decisions, including the right to abortion. She’s a fierce defender of the right to vote and to give everyone eligible the opportunity to vote. Defense of the fundamental rights of freedom of worship, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are cornerstones of her campaign.

She calls herself a woman of faith and is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which she says drives her social and political impulse to do good, although she emphasizes that “I’m not here to shove any doctrine down anybody’s throat.”

There’s no doubt that she faces a long, hard struggle if she’s going to unseat Donalds.

Not only is the district 65 percent Republican based on voter registration, in the last quarter of 2023 the Federal Election Commission reported the Donalds campaign as having $2.3 million in receipts compared to just under $17,000 for Lerner. Donalds’ backers include political action committees representing big sugar, big oil and big finance, among many other industries.

Still, driven by her conscience, the needs of the district and the support of voters with whom she has talked, Lerner is undeterred.

She said that one of her strengths is the ability and determination to look ahead. “I think things through beyond what most people will,” she said. “I take things to their logical extreme, looking for unintended consequences, trying to understand origins. I think it’s important to think beyond the surface, to look beyond what’s easy because at the end of the day nothing is ever easy and if you go with what’s easy you don’t always get the best result.”

And there’s one other thing she brings to the table—what she calls her superpower. It has helped her throughout her life and brought her success in previous political battles.

And what might that be?

“My superpower,” she said with steely intensity, “is being underestimated.”

Liberty lives in light

Reducing rancor and fighting fluoridation: Two sides of Collier County, Florida

*The crowd gathered at the “Reduce the Rancor” event at the Naples United Church of Christ. (Photo: Author)*

Feb. 19, 2024 by David Silverberg

On Feb. 7 over 700 people gathered for a “Reduce the Rancor” forum at the Naples United church of Christ, to calmly, rationally discuss handling political differences and bridge them in respectful, civil ways.

A week later, on Feb. 13, the Collier County Board of Commissioners, following three hours of public comment, chose to take a step backward in time, ignore scientific evidence, and end fluoridation of Collier County’s water. Fluoride had been added to Collier County’s drinking water since 1985 in an effort to reduce teeth cavities and improve overall dental health, in keeping with recommendations from a wide variety of organizations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association among many others.

The two events may seem unrelated; one a polite conversation by the county’s leading citizens, the other a formal, governmental function considering a chemical process. However, each displayed the differences playing out in this county and in the country as a whole between rationality and emotion, expertise and suspicion.

There was another difference: the forum provided a common ground for a theoretical discussion of behavior; the Board made a decision that will actually affect people’s health.

The forum

*Panelists at the “Reduce the Rancor” event. From left to right: Andy Solis, Francis Rooney, Mike Love, Nick Penniman, Dick Gephardt and Sharon Harris-Ewin. (Photo: June Fletcher)*

The “Reduce the Rancor” forum was sponsored by Greater Naples Leadership, a non-profit organization promoting civic engagement and training, the League of Women Voters, the Naples Airport Authority and the church.

While political partisans have rallies to fire up crowds and mobilize the faithful, the “Reduce the Rancor” forum was a kind of rally for people who want to restore some sort of calm and civility to public dialogue.

It featured six speakers, all accomplished local residents, from all political sides. Andrew “Andy” Solis, a Republican, was a former Collier County commissioner from District 2. Francis Rooney, also a Republican, represented the 19th Congressional District from 2017 to 2021, after a term as US ambassador to the Holy See. Richard “Dick” Gephardt, a Naples resident, was twice a Democratic candidate for president and served 28 years in the House of Representatives. A media perspective was provided by Nick Penniman, retired publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and lead director of NewsGuard, a company that evaluates accuracy in media, and Tim Love, a veteran advertising executive and author of Discovering Truth, a book on media accuracy. Rev. Sharon Harris-Ewing, a leader of the Interfaith Alliance of Southwest Florida, rounded out the presentations by focusing on values beyond just politics.

“Civil discourse requires some specific shared values,” she noted, observing that some of the values and skills that enable that discourse comes from faith and “an open mind and an open heart,” as well as humility and respect for others, a sentiment that was echoed by other panelists.

The forum was moderated by Mike Kiniry, the producer of the “Gulf Coast Life” program from WGCU-FM. But it was introduced by its organizer, Gunther Winkler, president of Greater Naples Leadership and a native of Austria.

In introducing the program Winkler recalled growing up in a war-shattered Austria, where people wondered how their misfortune had come about. “It was divisiveness,” he said, recounting the violent Nazi takeover of the country. Today, he said, he is seeing the same demand for picking sides and calls for violence that occurred then. However, today “we have the power to reverse this”—hence, his work in creating the forum.

The speakers attempted to get at the causes of the political rancor being experienced in Collier County and in the country generally. It was blamed on the political climate, social media, a mainstream media playing up the extremes and on the personalization of politics.

Only one panelist, Rooney, took aim squarely at an individual as the cause of rancor in the public square. Asked who was chiefly responsible for the current discord and told that he did not need to mention names, he said: “You know who, and it starts with a T”—a striking statement given that Rooney in his first term was an adamant and outspoken defender of Trump.

“There are individuals who fire this thing up and the biggest one of all, I think, is Donald Trump,” he said. “He exerts a magnetic influence over an awful lot of Republicans—not the ones like me who are financing Nikki Haley, by the way.”

Solis, who served District 2 from 2016 to 2023, during the worst of the COVID pandemic, faced sometimes bitter and vituperative attacks for trying to protect Collier County residents from the worst of the disease.

He blamed personalization of issues and the use of threats and insults against elected officials as a prime cause of the national mood of rancor and distrust.

During his time in office, he said, “at least once a week I’d have to say, ‘You know, insulting someone that you’re trying to get to see things your way is an interesting strategy because it’s not working.’ As soon as something becomes personal it takes it out of a discussion about the issues and makes it a personal thing and that gets in the way of having a good discussion about what the issues really are.”

The full, 2-hour, 19-minute discussion can be seen here.

The Board of Commissioners

*Beth Sherman at the Collier County Board of Commissioners meeting on Feb. 13. (Image: CCBC)*

One of the people who has done that accusing in the past was Collier County anti-vaccine activist Beth Sherman. In 2021, during discussion of an anti-federal ordinance, she angrily accused Solis of supporting mandatory vaccinations, a charge he vehemently denied. At the time she also denounced COVID vaccinations in general, the Naples Community Hospital for denying patients hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and called the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection a false-flag operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She then demanded commissioners pass the ordinance or resign.

That was a bitter and contentious discussion, full of passion and accusations, the very thing that the people at the “Reduce the Rancor” forum were trying to mitigate.

But this time, when Sherman stood before the Board of Commissioners again on Feb. 13 as they considered removing fluoride from Collier County’s water, she didn’t have to make threats or accusations. The Board was firmly in anti-fluoride hands and everyone knew it.

She just read her argument that fluoride deleteriously affected people’s brains, thyroid and bones and infringed on a citizen’s right to opt out of treatments. Fluoridization, she said, also violated a Collier County ordinance passed in April that, among other measures, prohibits implementing directives from the World Health Organization, which favors fluoridization. Among other charges, she alleged that the US Department of Defense was censoring information on the deleterious effects of fluoride.

At the meeting civility and order were sternly enforced by Commissioner Chris Hall (R-District 2), the chair, who warned participants against displays of emotion or outbursts, in stark contrast to previous proceedings. Commissioner Rick LoCastro (R-District 1) was absent following a warrant for his arrest on battery charges against his girlfriend, a medical emergency and a subsequent arrest, incarceration and bonding. He joined the proceedings remotely.

But while the demeanor of the commissioners and the speakers was restrained and polite and there was no vitriol or personal attacks, the substance of the testimony reflected the same passions, fear and even paranoia that governed the opposition to COVID vaccinations.

This was given most dramatic expression by Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III, the farmer, grocer and political activist who fought vaccine mandates during the pandemic. He and his Citizens Awake Now Political Action Committee endorsed and funded two of the commissioners, Hall and Dan Kowal (R-District 4).

(The full, verbatim, text of Oakes’ speech follows this article.)

It was Kowal who introduced the motion to end fluoridation, arguing that it was a health treatment being administered without recipients’ consent. It violated the April 2023 ordinance, he said, there was no legal requirement that it be maintained and the county would save about $200,000 per year by ending it.

While there were some defenders of fluoridation, the vast majority of speakers, already alerted and mobilized for the discussion, opposed it. Commissioner Burt Saunders (R-District 3) expressed skepticism but ultimately chose to support it and in the end the Board voted unanimously to end fluoridation.

A video of the entire roughly 3 hour session of the Board of Commissioners can be seen here. Discussion of fluoridation goes from mark 1:10 to the final vote at 3:52.

Analysis: Rancor and reason

The “Reduce the Rancor” forum with its surprisingly high turnout demonstrated that there is a large constituency in Collier County for the rule of reason. It was a kind of rally for people who want to restore some sort of calm and civility to public dialogue.

The fluoridation vote, though, demonstrated that these are not the people in charge of the county’s government right now. While the discussion before the Board was civil, the logic underlying the opposition showed evidence of the kind of anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-government, suspicious conspiracy theorizing that characterized the anti-vaccine movement during the COVID pandemic.

Once the anti-fluoridation motion passed, dentists and oral hygienists in the county began expressing their opposition, mostly in letters to the editor of the Naples Daily News but by then, of course, it was too late.

Collier County has now taken two votes against mainstream public health measures. This comes at a time when COVID is resurging. According to data from the Florida Department of Health, there have been more than 98,000 cases of COVID-19 in the state since the start of the year. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a JN.1 variant causing 92 percent of cases across the country.

While this is not the deadly and novel COVID virus that struck the world in 2020 it nonetheless shows that public health risks remain. Whether they will be met with a measured, rational, scientific response in Collier County remains to be seen in light of votes taken by the Board of Commissioners to weaken public health measures.

So perhaps the common lesson of the “Reduce the Rancor” forum and the Board of Commissioners vote is this: It is fine to support civil dialogue and reasoned, logical disagreement but unless there’s a willingness to act on behalf of reason, unreason will triumph—and then no amount of openness, or dialogue and respect, will make any difference at all.

___________________

*Alfie Oakes addresses the Collier County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 13. (Image: CCBC)*

The speech by farmer and political activist Alfie Oakes to the Collier County Board of Commissioners merits quotation in full.

This is a verbatim transcript of his remarks. Additions for clarity are marked in brackets [ ] and incomplete thoughts are marked with ellipses (…). Otherwise, it is unedited.

“So, thank you for hearing me today. As you know this is somewhat personal to me, my father that passed away back in 2013, a couple years before his passing was up here fighting with the commission to get the fluoride out of the water. It was something he was very passionate about. I had the privilege of my father, while he never made a lot of money, he drove a 300-dollar car, when I was at the age of 11 and he spent 900 dollars for a reverse osmosis system for our house because that was more important to him than the car that he drove but he didn’t want to damage mostly us kids but the whole family with the fluoride when he found out that the only way to get fluoride out of the water was with reverse osmosis. So, he was way ahead of the curve on a lot of things and I have, except for one time, when I was in like third or fourth grade there was a fluoride supplement that they made us take it and my father found out about it and lost his mind. That’s the only time that these teeth have ever seen fluoride. They don’t look like they have too many cavities, do they?

“So, I’d also like to talk about…we find out a lot about who is on the right side of things by…who, what I call our enemies are and when I see something that’s reported or that’s encouraged by the World Health Organization or by [Adm.] Rachel Levine [US Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services] and even the World Economic Forum and promotes this fluoride and you have to ask yourself ‘Why?’

“I was lucky enough to attend an event over in Mexico this past summer and it was the first time that I’d ever heard – and I heard this gentleman say it again today – the first time I ever heard that fluoride actually calcifies the pineal gland, it’s that element that calcifies your pineal gland.

“So, I’ve been lucky in that my pineal gland hasn’t been calcified. Maybe it’s why I have eternal energy. I get up at four o’clock in the morning and go until 10 o’clock at night. I have…the pineal gland is represented in ancient history as the third eye, our connection into our spirituality. It’s also what I consider a driving force. When I hear that the IQ has been lowered of all these reports of these kids that are taking tested, their IQs are directly proportional to how much fluoride that’s in the water, it’s stunning but when I think about that in a logical sense it makes sense because I don’t believe that, like some of these doctors here, who, their vessel is filled with knowledge from the university, I think that real learning comes from the lighting of a fire and the lighting of the fire is that pineal gland. That’s our fire that connects us to our spirituality, it gives us drive.

“I got a high school education. I’ve done pretty well because I got the fire burning. And, and this is intentional – if you don’t think this is intentional, to dumb us down, to keep control of the people in this country, then I don’t think that you’re paying attention.

“The fluoride…unfortunately, I’m going to take a few minutes – because there’s a hundred different things said that I was going to bring up today but the fluoride is not the only problem. So, as we know, that the fluoride that they’re putting in the water is not naturally occurring fluoride. It’s man-made substance, it’s toxic to us. When they found out how well that worked to poison us and dumb us down back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, in 1977 they just decided they were going to put folic acid in the bread. Folic acid in all the bread, 99.9 percent of all the bread in this country has folic acid in it. It’s, again, another man-made substance. It’s poisoning us. And, you know, I don’t think…thank God we’re not putting the folic acid in the water or we’re getting that out but I might be back here asking everyone to put poison labels on all bread in Collier County that has folic acid in it because it’s just another sham from the same people that are trying to bring us down.

“And, you know, the difference between right now and when my Dad was here 13, 14 years ago whenever it was, fighting against the fluoride is, we don’t trust the white coats any more. They got up here and put on the same show. I just listened to them, they – you say not to say the same things over again? – almost every one of their talking points from the university are exactly the same talking points and they’ve been using it over and over again, it’s the same thing when I sat here with my father 14 years ago that they used. As a matter of fact, the gentleman got up, Johnny Johnson [President of the American Fluoridation Society and a former pediatric dentist], he goes around the whole state doing this, I don’t know whether he’s paid or not. It doesn’t matter to me but you have to wonder what is driving it. What’s the driving force? Why are they trying to do this? Why are they trying to put a neuro-toxin in our water that’s poisoning us?

“You know, I never had to take a shower where my skin was absorbing, a hot shower where it opens up your pores and have a neuro-toxin pour into your skin. Thank God I wasn’t! But everybody else in this county has been subjected to it and it’s certainly time that we, like Mark Twain said, it’s hard sometimes to realize when you’ve been duped, it’s hard to admit it but I think we need to, you know, time for us to be responsible. We have a great group of commissioners up here so that I think is going to make the right decision. I’ve never felt more blessed to live in this great county, Collier County. Thank you.”

Mr. Oakes’ remarks can be seen in the Board of Commissioners video from mark 3:12 to 3:17.

Liberty lives in light

Saunders calls for Collier County to consider fundamental change of government structure

*Collier County Commissioner Burt Saunders. (Image: CCBC)*

Feb. 13, 2024 by David Silverberg

Collier County Commissioner Burt Saunders (R-District 3) is calling on the county to study whether to fundamentally change its governing structure.

Saunders is calling for the Board of Commissioners to discuss his proposal at its next meeting on Feb. 27.

The question is whether the county should continue as a “single member district” government, with each commissioner representing a specific geographic area, or go to a “county-wide” government, with commissioners being elected by county residents as a whole.

“I believe that utilizing county-wide elections of county commissioners will result in better decision-making by the commission,” Saunders wrote in an e-mail to constituents today. “With county-wide elections, commissioners will be forced to consider the impacts of their decisions on the entire county, not just the district in which the commissioner resides.”

Saunders stated in his message that he will ask for the question to be scheduled on a date certain so that the public can comment.

“The request is simply for the Commission to create a study committee to report back to the County Commission its findings concerning the positives and negatives of each form of governance permitted in Florida,” he wrote.

However, if the issue is studied and the Board agrees, it could face a referendum this year. The language must be presented to the Supervisor of Elections by Aug. 20 so that it can be included in the Nov. 5 general election ballot. It would then take effect in the 2026 election.

“Ultimately, it is the wishes of our citizens that determines how the county should be governed,” he wrote.

Saunders is making the proposal at a time when the Board’s Chair, Commissioner Rick LoCastro (R-District 1) is facing criminal charges. Last Wednesday, Feb. 7, he was charged with domestic battery following an October altercation with his girlfriend. Following what was characterized as a medical emergency, he was arrested, booked, incarcerated and released on bond. His lawyer has stated LoCastro is innocent and will fight the charges.

History and background

According to Saunders, the last time Collier County’s government was evaluated was over 35 years ago, when it had a much lower population and was less of an international tourist destination. The changes since then warrant a re-examination, he stated.

All of Florida’s 67 counties have five districts.

Collier County is in the minority (one of 20 counties) with a single-member structure. It has had that structure since 1988.

Most Florida counties (40) have county-wide commissioners. This is the default mode in the state.

Seven counties have a mixed structure, with five resident commissioners and two at-large commissioners.

Each structure has its strengths and weaknesses.

Single-member districts can “result in decisions being made that are not necessarily in the best interests of the entire county,” wrote Saunders. “If a District Commissioner objects to a project, the other 4 commissioners have no ‘political’ push back since they are only selected from their individual districts.” On the other hand, single-member districts make it easier to elect minority members.

On the other hand, “With county-wide elections, commissioners will be forced to consider the impacts of their decisions on the entire county, not just the district in which the commissioner resides.”

Proponents of mixed districts “claim that it allows some commissioners to bring a countywide view on matters brought before the board while also allowing more district-based commissioners to advocate for specific areas of the County.”

If a study committee is formed, as Saunders is proposing, “This committee would evaluate the basic types of county governance and the pros and cons of each for consideration by the Commission.”

Below is the Executive Summary of Saunders’ proposal in full

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Request that the Board consider scheduling a referendum on returning to at-large commission districts, wherein each Commissioner would reside in one of the five Commission Districts but would be elected in a County-wide vote.

OBJECTIVE: That the Board evaluate the pros and cons of returning to at-large Commission Districts, and consider creating a study committee for this evaluation.

CONSIDERATIONS:
Overview of County Commission Districts in Florida

In Florida all counties are divided into five Commission districts. There are three basic types of county governance in Florida:

(1) At-large districts (40 counties), in which each District has a resident Commissioner, with all five Commissioners elected in a county-wide election. This is the default mode of County government in Florida.

(2) Single member districts (20 counties), in which each District has a resident Commissioner, and is elected on a District basis. Since 1988 this has been the model used by Collier County.

(3) A mixed district (7 counties) consisting of a combination of five single members (elected on a District by District basis) and two at-large commissioners (elected on a County wide basis). Proponents of the mixed system claim that it allows some commissioners to bring a countywide view on matters brought before the board while also allowing more district-based commissioners to advocate for specific areas of the County.

Returning to county-wide commission elections requires a voter approved referendum which could be conducted during the general election in November, 2024. The deadline to schedule such a referendum is August 20, 2024, at which time ballot language must be presented to the Supervisor of Elections. If approved, the changes would take effect in the 2026 election.

History of the Creation of the Single Member Districts in Collier County

For much of Collier County’s history the County operated under the at-large district system. On December 1, 1987, the Collier County Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution calling for a referendum election to be held on March 8, 1988, to submit the following question to the electors of Collier County: “Shall the five members of the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, be elected to office from single-member districts by electors residing in each of those districts only?”   By a vote of 14,521 in favor (Yes) to a 13,745 vote against (No), the single-member county commission district referendum passed. Obviously, Collier County has dramatically changed since the 1988 vote, with a county population approaching 500,000. There are now 255,099 registered voters in the County. It is time to re-evaluate the structure of county government and to let our citizens determine what is the best type of county governance for the future.

Chapter 124.011(10), Florida Statutes, allows Collier County to return to being an at-large district by going back through the same referendum/proposition process as occurred in 1988.

The request is to create a study committee to evaluate the pros and cons of returning to county-wide commission elections. This committee could be formed very quickly, with each commissioner appointing the members, or this could be assigned to an existing committee, such as the Productivity Committee, for a thorough and timely review. This committee would evaluate the basic types of county governance and the pros and cons of each for consideration by the Commission.

There is an argument that at-large systems can have an adverse impact by making it more difficult for minority residents to elect a minority representative to the commission. Though that is certainly a valid and important consideration, many other factors should also be addressed as well in evaluating what is best for all Collier County residents.

FISCAL IMPACT:   None at this time.

GROWTH MANAGEMENT IMPACT:  None.

LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: This item has been reviewed by the County Attorney, creates no legal issues at this time and requires majority vote for Board action.

RECOMMENDATION: That the Board appoint a study committee to report back to the County Commission as to the pros and cons of scheduling a binding referendum of all registered Collier County voters on the issue of utilizing county-wide elections of County Commissioners, beginning with the 2026 election cycle.

Liberty lives in light

Staring into the nightmare: What would life be like under a Trump dictatorship?

An examination of the nature of dictatorships, democracy and possible futures, nationally and locally

*Soldiers line the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during protests in June 2020. (Photo: Martha Raddatz via Twitter)*

Feb. 4, 2024 by David Silverberg

As he has so many times in the past, Donald Trump is facing utter ruin.

This week is expected to be especially brutal. He’s facing a potentially devastating fine in his New York fraud case. He could be denied immunity from prosecution in another case. The US Supreme Court could agree with the Colorado Supreme Court and keep him off the ballot for violating the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment and make him ineligible for election. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for this coming Thursday, Feb. 8.

But Trump has faced seeming doom before. In August 2016 Time magazine declared his campaign in a complete meltdown. His Access Hollywood remarks seemed to put him outside the realm of redemption. His defeat seemed almost inevitable—and then he came back and won.

*Time magazine covers from Aug. 22 and Oct. 24, 2016. (Image: Time)*

So as dark as the moment may seem for Donald Trump—both in the public view and likely by his own reckoning—it does not mean he is down and out. If the word “resilient” seems too praiseful, perhaps his sheer stubbornness, his endurance born of pure rage and ego is a better description of his ability to survive odds against him.

But if he does weather these storms and goes on to win the Republican nomination as he seems on course to do, it is worthwhile to ask: What would America be like if he went on to win? More particularly, what would life for Americans be like?

It’s worth asking the question because it puts the stakes of this election into perspective.

It can be said with confidence that the results of a Trump accession to power—whether electoral or through other means—would not result in a presidency. It would result in a dictatorship.

If past is any prologue, an American dictatorship would mean the end of individual “inalienable” rights, the end of democracy, the end of the Constitution, the end of a free press, the end of independent courts, the end of elections, the end of representative government, the end of security for individual persons and property.

Does all this sound too alarmist? Overblown? Unlikely?

It may be alarmist but the alarm is merited—and history provides a guide.

In the daily life of Americans a Trump dictatorship would mean a media diet of all-Trump all the time. It would mean an attempt to stamp out any objective reality and its replacement with a world conjured by the mind of Donald Trump; a combination of delusion, wishful thinking and pure lying that has been called “Trumpality.”

It would be a world based on this one man’s whims and caprices, where rationality and law would be discarded in favor of his appetites and urges, whether those were for power, wealth or sex, and where he would have absolute immunity from any restraint or consequence for any action, no matter how murderous or extreme.

It would mean an effort to stamp out individual will and independent thought outside the bubble of Trump-thought.

And it’s worth remembering that past loyalty is no guarantee of future reward. No expression of allegiance, of fealty, of complete subservience would ever be enough. Trump has turned on people who were otherwise slavishly loyal when it suited him or when suspicion crept into his mind.

The same would apply to cities, counties and states and their officials and representatives. Would Southwest Florida be spared? Certainly not. No matter how Trumpist and Make America Great Again (MAGA) it already is, it would be under the Trump heel just as much as any other place in the country.

What is more, this dictatorship and its oppression would not be driven just by Trump. It would be propelled by an army of enablers and sycophants pursuing their own ambitions. They would be competing to push the most radical, extreme measures and their measures would be ever more intrusive and petty. As it is, the fervor of his followers has grown with every obstacle he encounters. He has become their version of virility, their model of behavior, someone to be worshipped, not just supported; in short, their god.

Women would especially feel the heavy hand of a Trump dictatorship. His contempt for women is exhaustively documented and even led to an $83.3 million civil judgment against him. Not only would women’s right to abortion be terminated everywhere, their right to participate in society, even their right to vote, would be in jeopardy as all other rights in the Constitution were threatened.

As Trump and his worshippers demonstrated on Jan. 6, 2021, he and they are willing to go outside the law and use violence to get their way. They may not even wait for the verdict of the 2024 election before they attempt to impose their will. And in states like Texas and Florida—and in places like Collier County and Marco Island, Fla.—there are moves to break away from the “commanding hand” of federal law and the Constitution and leave its protections and lawful restraints behind.

Can all this dread be justified? Do all these warnings have any merit?

A look at history, the nature of dictatorships and Trump’s own past behaviors and statements provide ample cause, not just for concern, but for a vision of a dark, dreadful future that would follow a Trump victory.

But it also needs to be emphasized: This is not the way things must be, just the way they could be. And every voting citizen has it within his or her power to determine how things will be.

The nature of dictatorships

*Adolf Hitler addresses the German Reichstag. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)*

Dictators don’t lack for support. All past dictators have provided benefits to some element of the population they ruled. They were put in place by people who wanted that dictator in power, often enthusiastically. Those who opposed and dissented were crushed, killed or repressed.

Dictatorships are also governed by an internal logic of power, which can provide some indication of their future actions.

Americans have seen other dictatorships abroad but have never experienced one on their own soil. They have not been ruled by an authoritarian power since they overthrew the rule of King George III in the American Revolution. They have not had one imposed by military coup. They have certainly never chosen to be governed by a dictator who came to power in a free election.

So today there is little experience or appreciation in America of what a dictatorship means and how it manifests itself in everyday life.

Because this would be Trump’s second effort to hold power, it would be different from the chaotic and amateurish first administration. Now there are elaborate MAGA plans in place to overhaul the government to concentrate executive authority. The kinds of guardrails and institutional checks that hindered Trump’s worst instincts last time would likely be swept away.

An example of the direction that dictatorships take occurred on April 26, 1942. It’s not a date emblazoned in anyone’s memory but it should live in infamy.

It was significant because on that day Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany, asked for and was granted more power than any other human being has ever wielded.

In a very long, rambling speech to the Germany Reichstag, Hitler reviewed the world situation. But toward the end he got to the point.

The only thing that was important was victory, he said. “Nobody at this stage can insist on his vested rights and all must know that today there are only duties to be fulfilled.” (Emphasis ours.)

All the rights that Germans had enjoyed under constitutional parliamentary government—and there were quite a few—were now irrelevant, he was saying. Those rights had been abused and weakened ever since he took power in 1933 but now he was asking that they be formally swept away altogether.

“Therefore, I ask all the German Reichstag the definite assurance that I possess the legal authority to see to it that every individual performs his duty and that I may condemn such cases which in my opinion do not fulfill their duties to be imprisoned or to be deprived of their office and position no matter who they be or what rights they may have acquired and especially because there are only very few exceptions among millions of decent people.”

In other words, Hitler was asking—and was granted—the sole, unchecked, unrestrained power of life and death over every German and every human being under German control. No one any longer had any inherent, “vested” rights, including the right to live.

He and he alone would decide their fate. What was the basis for making his judgments? As he said: “my opinion.” If he thought someone needed to be out of the way he now had the legal authority to eliminate that individual in any way he saw fit.

It was as great and absolute an authority as any single individual has ever held—and it was the logical outcome of the Nazi dictatorship.

This is the ultimate end goal of all dictatorships and it would be the logical end point of a Trump dictatorship.

In contrast, in the American Declaration of Independence, the Founders stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

The idea that people have “inalienable” rights is the cornerstone, the absolute, fundamental bedrock of the United States. In fact, American rights are so fundamental they’re embodied in a Bill of Rights that was immediately amended to the US Constitution.

Democracies respect and protect human rights. Dictatorships crush them. A Trump dictatorship—like any dictatorship—would attempt to crush those fundamental rights.

Why? Because the animating principle of a dictatorship is the will of the dictator and subservience to that will, not the will and rights of the people. People’s inalienable rights get in the way of dictatorial rule, so dictators can’t abide them.

Trump’s whole life and his past administration was an effort to bend the American people and the world to his will and his will alone.

This was tellingly revealed on June 1, 2020 in a telephone call Trump held with the nation’s governors in the midst of the George Floyd protests.

“You have to dominate,” he told the governors. “If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate.”

American presidents don’t “dominate.” They lead, govern, preside, inspire, convince, sometimes cajole. The language of domination had not been used in American political discourse before. It’s not democratic language, especially from a president working under a system of checks and balances and serving the people. It’s the language of a tyrant.

It’s also worth remembering that total domination by one person means total submission by all others.

To date, that has not been the American way.

So it’s worth remembering just what rights Americans currently have that will be put in jeopardy by a Trump dictatorship.

The end of freedom

Right now Americans are free people. They can think what they like, say what they want, and protest if they feel the need. They can assemble without hindrance and petition government for a redress of grievances. If dissatisfied with a decision or policy they can appeal it through the courts.

All those rights, which people simply assume they have now, would be gone in a Trump dictatorship.

In dictatorships free thinking is prohibited. People are expected to think the way the dictator wants them to think and any deviation is punished. No expression of any other viewpoint is allowed.

Nowhere on earth is this more rigidly enforced than in North Korea, a country for which Trump has expressed admiration. “I may be wrong, but I believe that Chairman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country, and only the United States, with me as president, can make that vision come true,” he said in 2019.

Nor has Trump respected freedom of assembly and the right to protest and petition government. On the same day he called for domination, Trump had non-violent demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd forcefully cleared from Lafayette Square outside the White House so that he could be photographed holding a Bible outside St. John’s Episcopal Church. The incident was widely condemned as a violation of the First Amendment. It would only be a foretaste if he got in power again.

The end of press freedom

Trump has been at war with the media from the time he descended the escalator in Trump Tower to declare his candidacy on June 16, 2015.

Most recently, on Jan. 16, he called for suspending the broadcast licenses of CNN and NBC because they cut away from his victory speech in Iowa.

Right now that kind of retaliation against the media for coverage he doesn’t like is purely rhetorical and theoretical. But in a Trump dictatorship it would be imposed with the power of the state.

One of the fundamental causes of the American Revolution was British repression of the American press. It’s one reason that freedom of the press was written into the First Amendment.

As his Jan. 16 remarks make clear, under a Trump dictatorship there would be no freedom of the press—for anyone, including media that’s now considered sympathetic to Trump. It would all be under his control. There would no longer be coverage of an objective truth; the only “truth” would be the “truth” that Trump allowed. To see what that would be like, one has only to read his Truth Social postings.

Reporters, editors, broadcasters—anyone involved in professionally communicating with the public and especially journalists covering the presidential campaign—have to be aware that anything they do to advance the candidacy of Donald Trump will ultimately result in their repression, possible imprisonment and loss of freedom if he wins.

The first Trump administration is close enough in time that people can remember what life was like while he was President; there was a constant, non-stop stream of news about Trump. If it wasn’t his latest tweet, it was his latest outrage, his latest gaffe, his latest pronouncement. He dominated the airwaves, the news pages, the Internet, the morning breakfast table.

Even in exile he was constantly in the news.

Now, imagine him in power again and dominating the media using state authority. The media would no longer provide coverage; it would only uncritically propagate whatever he wanted delivered. It would be all Trump all the time. He would literally be like Big Brother, a constant, inescapable, overwhelming presence. There would no longer be news, there wouldn’t even be conversation any more, there would only be Trump. He would even insert himself into peoples’ dreams.

The reason for government

Since human beings have inalienable rights, states the Declaration of Independence, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

A dictatorship doesn’t exist to secure people’s rights nor do people consent to provide its “just powers.” It has no “just” powers, only power. A dictatorship exists solely to assert and implement the will of the dictator.

In the United States, the people’s consent to be governed is expressed through elections where they make their will known. For democracy to function, all parties have to accept the will of the majority as expressed through the election results.

Donald Trump most spectacularly rejected the election results of 2020 expressing the will of the majority of the American people that Joseph Biden be their president. He lied about the legitimacy of the election, he tried to use every stratagem he could to overturn the results (for which he is facing trial in Georgia), he explored the idea of using the military to seize voting machines and cancel the ballots, he attempted to have fake electors invalidate the results, and when all that failed, he incited a mob to stop the certification of his opponent and even murder Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump’s refusal to accede to the will of the people was made clear in a conversation that Jenna Ellis, one of Trump’s lawyers, recalled to Georgia prosecutors.

A few weeks after the 2020 election, she said that Dan Scavino, one of Trump’s advisors, told her that “under no circumstances will the boss be leaving,” in reference to Trump. “We’ll just stay in power.”

She replied, “Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you know that.”

Scavino responded, “We don’t care.”

Trump was ultimately forced to leave office. However, if he is elected in 2024 it is unlikely that he will ever voluntarily leave office again no matter what the election results—even if there are any elections again during his lifetime.

Truly, it will be the end of American democracy, as Biden has pointed out.

His people and his movement

*A Trump-incited mob attacks the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Tyler Merbler)*

Dictators don’t come to power in a vacuum; it takes an army of enablers, enforcers and encouragers to put them in power and keep them there.

If Donald Trump proved anything to the world it was the unfortunate truth that there is no bottom to the barrel he can scrape for willing sycophants, miscreants and grifters to do his will.

If elected, Trump will bring back all the incompetents and parasites who served him in the first term as well as an even more mendacious and malicious cast of new characters. Indeed, applications are already being taken.

He will likely pardon all the criminals who have been justly imprisoned since January 6th and put them in charge of the nation’s business.

Former general and Englewood, Fla., resident Michael Flynn is one example. After losing his position as national security advisor and being convicted of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Flynn was pardoned and participated in the infamous Dec. 18, 2020 Oval Office meeting where he argued for seizing voting machines, declaring martial law and overturning the election results.

Once a dictatorship is established it develops a momentum of its own. Those who put the dictator in place have a vested interest in keeping him in power. A dictatorship builds a machine of repression that keeps chugging just to keep itself in existence.

There is a story from Africa that in 2008 when 83-year-old President Robert Mugabe, a dictator by all measures, lost the parliamentary and presidential elections in his native Zimbabwe—an election he expected to reliably keep him in power—he was ready to leave.

An army general sat him down and told him: “It’s not your decision.” Mugabe had to stay in power even if he was tired and ready to retire, said the general, because all the forces vested in his dictatorship needed him in place and could not allow him to leave. So Mugabe and his allies overrode the elected will of the Zimbabwean people using violence and fraud and his disastrous presidency continued for nine more years—only then was he was overthrown by the army.

It’s the same with all dictatorships. They need to be self-perpetuating. As Winston Churchill once put it: “Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount.”

Even if the charismatic figure is no longer at the helm, autocratic governments don’t automatically revert to democracy. Instead there’s a scramble at the top to replace the old dictator with a new dictator and since disputes in a dictatorship aren’t settled with elections, it opens the nation up to political strife, palace intrigue and even civil war.

Feeling the evil

So how would citizens feel a Trump dictatorship in their everyday lives, in Southwest Florida and everywhere else?

Aside from an all-Trump-all-the-time media, they wouldn’t be able to speak freely, think freely or feel protected by law.

It would be like living in an abusive relationship with a deranged, mercurial and unpredictable spouse, someone given to sudden rages, temper tantrums, and violence but with absolute power over your life.

You would have to self-censor, worry who was listening when you spoke, suspect that you were committing some unintended sin, and fear authorities who would not be there to protect you but to protect him—from you. Like so many people oppressed in so many places around the world you would have to build a secret life just to stay sane and determine reality and you would never know who could be trusted.

In 2020 the American people emerged after four years of an abusive relationship with their president. However, they had the comfort of having been protected by a Constitution and Bill of Rights, institutional checks and balances, a Congress that impeached him twice, and a tradition of democracy. Most of all they were protected by patriots in government who courageously worked hard to do what was right.

But Trump, his MAGA mob and the eviscerated Republican Party are determined to do away with all that in a second administration. If it comes to pass there will be no guardrails, no protections, no restraint, certainly no checks or balances and “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” as Trump stated in 2022.

That means there would be no recourse to courts or the legal system in the event of disputes or grievances or simply to seek justice. With the judicial branch neutered, corrupted or perverted, as it always is in a dictatorship, there would be no remedy, appeal, or relief for everyday people.

Moreover, with the state revolving around a single personality there wouldn’t be any way to rationally consider a decision, whether in government or personal life.

Why? Because in a law-ordered society, behavior is built on rational rules and logical laws. A person can base his or her decisionmaking on reasoned considerations and expect society to respond with equally rational reactions. Of course, there are people who violate laws but then they face rationally formulated penalties and they know it. (As the saying goes: “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”)

But in a personality-based society, rewards and punishments are based on the whim and capriciousness of the dictator and no one can reasonably anticipate his responses.

There was an interesting example of this in Congress last October when Rep. Tom Emmer (R-6-Minn.) looked like he was going to get the Speaker’s gavel in the House of Representatives.

Although Emmer had not previously supported Trump, Trump told the world that Emmer had changed because Emmer had told Trump he was his “biggest fan.” Then, when Emmer, seeking support for his speakership, posted a video of Trump saying that, Trump was infuriated. He thought it sounded like they were too close. He instantly turned on Emmer, worked the phones, disparaged him as “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and a “Globalist RINO” (Republican In Name Only) and Emmer’s candidacy immediately sank.

It was a perfect illustration of a tyrant turning on a follower for irrational reasons. There was no way Emmer could have known in advance that posting his video would offend Trump. No sensible calculation could have warned him or induced caution on his part. No thinking being could have anticipated Trump’s purely emotional response.

Emmer only suffered a blow to his ambitions. In a full-on dictatorship people suffer far greater punishments for far smaller offenses.

Nor is there any protection for those who believe themselves to be loyal. Indeed, the closer a person is to a dictator, the more precarious the person’s position and the more drastic the punishment at the dictator’s whim. As the careers and reputations littering the road to and from Trump’s White House attest, no one has proven this to be true more than Trump.

So all those Republican politicians who think they’ve made their careers and solidified their positions by endorsing Trump or who think they can publicly pander to the MAGA base while expecting he won’t win, or are actively working to make this man president, should think again.

In Southwest Florida that means its congressional delegation of Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) and lately and belatedly Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.), all of whom have bent the knee or are aggressively promoting his candidacy. They will be as vulnerable and defenseless against Trump’s wrath as any other citizen if he wins and takes office again, perhaps even more than most. Furthermore, they will have the special onus of knowing that their endorsement helped put him in position to destroy them if he chooses.

A better way

*The Statue of Liberty. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)*

These are only a few of the potential consequences of a Trump victory in 2024.

This essay doesn’t even go into the probable effects on the civil service, the economy, which would be thrown into chaos, the likely roundup of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, the institutionalized racism and the catastrophic effects on America’s place in the world. (As The Washington Post’s Max Boot pointed out, a Trump victory “could be the end of the Pax Americana. We would then enter a chaotic post-American world where rogue states committed aggression with impunity, democracies cowered and trade ties frayed. Sea lanes turning into shooting galleries would become the norm, not the exception, with the US economy paying the price.”)

Some people have been awake to the threat of a Trump dictatorship from the moment in 2022 when he declared his candidacy again. More and more traditional Republicans who voted for him in 2016 are publicly repudiating him now. A parade of his past officials, the people who worked most closely with him and know him best, have come forward to warn of the danger he presents.

And Biden has clearly and explicitly explained the choice before the American people.

“Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past. It’s what he’s promising for the future. He’s being straightforward. He’s not hiding the ball,” he said in a speech on the third anniversary of January 6th.

Despite this, Trump retains his grip on the Republican Party. Republican elected officials at all levels are falling into line behind him. Locally, the Florida Republican Party as a whole is expected to take a formal vote to endorse Trump at a meeting in Wesley Chapel, a town near Tampa, this coming Saturday, Feb. 10.

Nationally, Trump retains the power to block badly needed legislation like border and immigration reform and aid to Ukraine and Israel. He is already imposing his will on right-wing media.

There’s no guarantee that the overt threat to the Constitution and American democracy will wait until Election Day to play out. Some kind of action could occur sooner, especially if his candidacy is invalidated in court.

But for everyday, law-abiding citizens the defense lies in the ballot and if all goes as planned the balloting will be completed on Nov. 5, 2024.

Americans, including conservative Southwest Floridians, have to understand and fully appreciate that this election is not “normal.” This is not politics as usual. This is history, it is epochal and the alternatives are stark: this is a choice between freedom or tyranny, darkness or light, good or evil, democracy or dictatorship.

It is not enough to simply vote. Americans who want to preserve their democracy need to get active in every possible legal, civilly-responsible way to achieve the outcome that keeps darkness at bay.

Right now Americans have the power and freedom to choose their own destiny. They can work and vote to keep their power and freedom or give it all to a would-be despot.

As Biden put it in his January 6th speech: “This is the first national election since the January 6th insurrection placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy. We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is: Who are we? That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?”

On one thing and one thing alone, those who would defend democracy should heed Donald Trump’s words.

On Jan. 6, 2021 he said in his speech on the Ellipse: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

He’s right. Unless Americans fight Trump like hell for their country and their democracy this year they’ll lose it all.

Game on.

Liberty lives in light

New study shows costs to SWFL of toxic water but congressional bills to help remain neglected

*A sign warns of red tide at the entrance to Delnor-Wiggins State Park in Naples during the 2018 Big Bloom. (Photo: Author)*

Jan. 22, 2024 by David Silverberg

While a new study puts a price tag on the cost of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Southwest Florida, two bills meant to help protect the region’s clean water are languishing in the US House of Representatives, ignored and forgotten by the member of Congress who sponsored them: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.).

One bill is the Harmful Algal Bloom Essential Forecasting Act (House Resolution (HR) 325). It would ensure that federal agencies monitor potentially HABs even if there’s a government shutdown. The other is the Combat Harmful Algal Blooms Act (HR 1008), which would make a slight change to existing legislation so that HABs are treated like other natural disasters and victims receive federal benefits.

The importance of the legislation was highlighted by the release last Tuesday, Jan. 16, of a new report, Impacts of Water Quality on the Southwest Florida Economy, a 177-page study sponsored by the local environmental organizations Captains for Clean Water, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation.

The value of water

Last year the organizations commissioned the outside consulting firm Greene Economics LLC, Ridgefield, Wash., to do an extensive and thorough analysis of the precise value of clean water to Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties.

The study found that the value of clean water is massive: it provides $18 billion in value to the coastal economy of the three counties.

The study found that of all the threats to that water like hurricanes, saltwater intrusion, and wastewater pollution, the most costly and dangerous were HABs like red tide and blue-green algae. A major HAB has the potential to cost Southwest Florida $5.2 billion in coastal economic losses, $17.8 billion in property value losses, and $460 million in commercial and recreational fishing losses. It might take out 43,000 jobs in the coastal economy, according to the study.

In 2018 an extensive and persistent HAB (what The Paradise Progressive dubbed “the Big Bloom”) of both red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and blue-green algae in the Caloosahatchee River and along the interior shoreline, tormented Southwest Florida.

The Big Bloom led to a variety of measures meant to cope with future blooms. Then-Rep. Francis Rooney, who represented the 19th Congressional District, the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island, from 2017 to 2021, brought together all the federal agencies and local governments dealing with HABs to fashion a coordinated response.

As a result of that conference, held on May 7, 2019, Rooney drafted the two bills and introduced them in 2019. (For a fuller discussion of the Big Bloom and the politics of HABs, see the May 26, 2021 article, “Water warning: The politics of red tide, algae and lessons from the Big Bloom.”)

During Rooney’s tenure, the bills never made it out of committee.

When Rooney’s successor, Byron Donalds, took office in 2021, the Harmful Algal Bloom Essential Forecasting Act was the first bill he introduced, on March 17 of that year. The Combat Harmful Algal Blooms Act followed on the 24th.

However, like all other legislation he has introduced, Donalds did nothing to advance his own bills. The bills did not move past the introductory phase in the 117th Congress.

Following his re-election in 2022, Donalds reintroduced the bills in the 118th Congress. However, as before, Donalds did nothing to advance them and to date they have not even received subcommittee consideration, the first step toward passage.

Instead, Donalds has concentrated his efforts on out of state political campaigning for former President Donald Trump, attacking the current administration and pursuing his own political ambitions. According to the official congressional database, Congress.gov, Donalds has introduced 63 bills in the current Congress and advanced none of them.

Analysis: The importance of clean water

Water is essential to human existence in the otherwise swampy and hostile tropical environment of Southwest Florida—but not just any water. It must be clean water, consumable by humans, beneficial to animals and nourishing to plants.

Legislation cannot stop HABs but these two pieces of legislation are at least steps that will help Southwest Florida monitor potential blooms and then, when they occur, help businesses and individuals get the same kind of relief and support they would receive in the event of a disaster like a hurricane.

HR 325, the Harmful Algal Bloom Essential Forecasting Act, is especially important given the continuing threat of government shutdowns. Once a rare and very damaging occurrence due to partisan brinksmanship, the US federal government now faces a shutdown every other month as Make America Great Again (MAGA) representatives refuse to vote for essential appropriations.

Ironically, Donalds, a member of the extreme MAGA House Freedom Caucus, has consistently voted for shutdowns by vocally opposing critical appropriations. Of all the members of Congress he should be actively pushing this measure to protect Southwest Florida from the consequences of his own votes.

What is more, it’s not just Southwest Florida that faces the damages of HABs; they’re occurring around the country—indeed, the world—with increasing frequency and intensity given the increase in pollution and changes in climate.

The need to deal with them transcends political party or region. In the United States this is attested to by the fact that HR 325’s only co-sponsor in this Congress, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, (D-7-Mich.), is from Michigan, another state dealing with persistent HABs. Slotkin’s district is centered in the city of Lansing and Lake Lansing has suffered from HABs.

Slotkin is a co-sponsor of another bill, the Protecting Local Communities from Harmful Algal Blooms Act (HR 132) that does the same thing as HR 1008. This bill, introduced by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-16-Fla.) on Jan. 9, 2023, has six cosponsors; one other Republican, Rep. Mike Kelly, (R-16-Pa.), and five Democrats, three of them Floridians: Reps. Darren Soto, (D-9-Fla.), Kathy Castor (D-14-Fla.) and Frederica Wilson (D-24-Fla.). (The other Democratic co-sponsor is Rep. Hillary Scholten, (D-3-Mich.)).

Interestingly enough, Donalds is not a HR 132 co-sponsor. (The Paradise Progressive reached out to Donalds’ office by e-mail with a question and a request for comment on his bills but received no reply or acknowledgment as of post time.)

Commentary: Paying attention at home

Legislation that helps Florida cope with HABs is vital to the state and region. The Impact report makes clear the specific dollar cost of these events to the region’s economy, industry, quality of life and jobs.

Passage of these measures would benefit the region, at least ensuring that people get some advance warning of developing HABs despite even a government shutdown. If a HAB occurs, people would be entitled to the same government benefits they would get if struck by a hurricane.

But for Southwest Florida to get the aid of this legislation these bills have to be nurtured, advanced and developed by the congressman who introduced them. They have to be pushed through the subcommittee and committee process and then presented to the entire House. That takes work, attention, effort and, most of all, concern for the district and its people.

So far that hasn’t been shown by Donalds on these matters.

Perhaps it’s time for Donalds to worry a little less about New Hampshire, Hunter Biden and Donald Trump and a little bit more about Lee and Collier counties and show that he can actually do the job he was elected to do.

Liberty lives in light