Last night, Nov. 5, at 36 minutes before midnight, the United States House of Representatives passed President Joe Biden’s infrastructure investment plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, by a vote of 228 to 206.
House Resolution 3684 will pump $1.2 trillion into the US economy over the next ten years to improve and repair roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
(A look at provisions specifically benefiting Southwest Florida will appear in a subsequent post.)
Biden called the vote “a monumental step forward as a nation.” In a statement he said the bill would create jobs, improve the movement of goods to market, make high speed Internet available and affordable to more Americans and address climate change issues, among many other benefits.
“Generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st Century,” he said.
All of Southwest Florida’s congressmen, Reps. Byron Donald (R-19-Fla.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), voted against the bill.
Donalds had been a particularly vociferous and active opponent of the bill, in keeping with the Republican doctrine of absolute opposition to any Biden initiatives.
“Last night, I voted NO on the Democrats’ inFAKEstructure bill that will increase our debt and only dedicate less than 25% of the massive 1.75 TRILLION to America’s real infrastructure needs,” he posted on Facebook. “As witnessed last Tuesday, Democrat policies aren’t popular, especially in my district.”
She continued: “House Republicans voted against economic growth, good-paying union jobs and fixing the broken infrastructure that weakens our economy, hurts families, and causes added costs and delays for American businesses.”
The ultimate vote was bipartisan with six Democrats voting against the bill and 13 Republicans voting for it.
When it comes to elections, winners tend to generalize while losers tend to specify.
That’s what’s happening as a result of the Virginia election where Republican Glenn Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe by 51 to 48 percent.
But does what happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia necessarily translate into a precursor for the State of Florida?
Republicans, nationally and locally, are generalizing the vote as a referendum on President Joe Biden and portraying it as a harbinger of the 2022 election.
“…I do think this wave is building. I think it was strong last night. But I think it’s going to keep building all the way into 2022,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in an interview on the program Fox & Friends yesterday.
“I think people are rebelling against what the Democratic Party stands for nowadays,” he said. “The never-ending mandates and restrictions because of COVID, using our school systems for leftist indoctrination rather than high-quality education, and then the Biden regime’s failures from Afghanistan to the southern border, gas prices, inflation, supply chain.”
Local Republican Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), who initially tweeted a mocking message to the Democratic National Committee that he subsequently deleted, later settled on a blander pronouncement: “Virginians sent a clear message to Democrats: Parents belong in the classroom, stop teaching division, enough with the radical spending, & no more mandates!”
There’s no sugarcoating this defeat for Democrats nationally: It was a big, unexpected blow and it hurt.
As the Republicans generalized its implications, so Democrats tried to focus on the specific reasons McAuliffe lost.
During a candidate debate in which Youngkin questioned McAuliffe’s veto of legislation banning “sexually explicit” content in school curriculum (Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved) “out of McAuliffe’s mouth tumbled these words: ‘I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they can teach.’
“And that’s what done it,” writes Michael Tomasky in The New Republic. “A day later, those words became an attack ad, and McAuliffe was forced to play defense from that moment on.”
DeSantis on a roll
As DeSantis pointed out, the Youngkin victory is a good omen for him.
DeSantis is undeniably in a strong position as he conducts his primary race for gubernatorial re-election and his—at this point—secondary race for president in 2024.
So strong is DeSantis’ position, given his $60 million war chest and subservient legislature that the news platform Politico Florida headlined an October 31 article: “Florida Democrats anxious as DeSantis seems unbeatable.”
That Democrats are anxious is indisputable; that DeSantis is “unbeatable” is overstating the case.
In fact, Democrats do have some resources and determination, as the article pointed out.
“The election’s not happening tomorrow, there is still time for the tide to turn,” state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-47-Orlando) told Gary Fineout, the article’s author. “But obviously it needs to be an all-hands-on-deck situation right now.”
Manny Diaz, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, took issue with the article’s premise. “We’re in Florida. We lost the last governor’s race by 30,000 votes against the same character,” he said. “In politics, a year is an eternity. There’s nothing that leads me to believe DeSantis is unbeatable.” He also noted that it’s “unbelievable we’re having a conversation a year out” about a DeSantis victory.
Against DeSantis’ advantages are his liabilities: strenuous, determined efforts to block all forms of COVID protections; attacks on local school boards that have tried to protect schoolchildren, and the resulting COVID death toll in Florida—currently at 59,670, according to The New York Times, despite all the governor’s attempts to conceal or obscure state statistics.
Also, it’s being widely noted that a key to Youngkin’s success was his keeping Donald Trump at arm’s length, something noted in another Lincoln Project video, “Ungrateful.”
Another observer who emphasized Youngkin’s distance from Trump was Rep. Liz Cheney (R-at large-Wy.), who tweeted: “Congratulations to @GlennYoungkin for a great victory last night. Winning back suburban moms and independent voters, he demonstrated Republican values and competence, not conspiracy theories and lies, win elections.”
Ironically, DeSantis’ slavish Trumpism may prove a disadvantage next year. His difficulty may come from—of all people—his idol and mentor, Donald Trump. Trump is a jealous god and DeSantis’ popularity among the Republican faithful is already bringing down the divine wrath. He seems to feel a need to cut him down in his youth before he can really mount a challenge to Trump’s own nomination bid.
The anti-Trump Lincoln Project noted this in one of its cutting videos, called “Sad!”
Other than Trump’s jealousy of DeSantis, there’s little to no daylight between the maestro and the apprentice. Floridians would be getting a committed Trumper if they re-elect DeSantis in 2022, although that would certainly give some Floridians joy.
Weirdly, DeSantis may face a primary challenge on the right from Roger Stone, the convicted and then Trump-pardoned political trickster and activist who told Dave Elias of NBC2 in Fort Myers that he might run in order to conduct an audit of the 2020 election in Florida. He could be a surrogate for Trump himself in the 2022 Florida race.
But the final arbiter of the 2022 election may not be human at all: COVID is still active and deadly even though the numbers are declining, thanks to widespread vaccinations. DeSantis is on record and running as an anti-mandate, anti-precaution candidate.
If, however, DeSantis and the anti-vaxxers block vaccination mandates for schoolchildren and there is an outbreak that kills large numbers of them, Florida parents might—just might—put the blame at the feet of DeSantis and anti-vaxx Republicans. It is a horrible outcome but one being invited by the anti-vaxxers’ gamble.
Finding a strategy
Still, expecting victory based on an opponent’s stumbles is not a strategy.
The problem for Democrats in Florida and nationally is that they are a political party competing with a cult.
A cult, when it’s strong, has some decided advantages: it has a single leader, its followers obey unthinkingly, and it has a clear, simple message based on a few unmistakable tenets.
This is the state of the Republican Party today. Even with Trump somewhat sidelined, the Republican Party is still a cult of personality, worshipping Trump and his clear, simple message of, in his words, “hatred, prejudice and rage.”
Nowhere is this truer than in Florida, where the man resides and the governor is his closest acolyte.
In comparison to this Democrats, as is more characteristic of a political party, are diverse, contentious and sometimes chaotic. While they entertain a wide spectrum of ideas there’s no one personality imposing intellectual uniformity. Sometimes that can be a disadvantage at the voting booth.
Actually, the Democratic Party does have some clear tenets: inclusion for all, concern for humanity, determination to forge a better future and commitment to democracy. But while the Democratic Party stays within the law and argues policies, Trumpist Republicans pursue power at all costs. There is no hypocrisy too great, no mental gymnastic too convoluted, no legal barrier too high to impede this raw pursuit of power. And if elections don’t go their way they’re willing to overturn them through violence and then condone it, as the January 6th insurrection demonstrated.
Trumpist Republicans also have the advantage in that theirs is an emotional movement, riding on hatred, prejudice and rage but also fear and outrage, much of it generated by pandemic restrictions but finding expression against their long-time targets of Biden, Democrats and governing institutions like school boards.
This is neither new nor surprising. After every disaster there is a search for human scapegoats, sometimes very strange ones. For example, after the Johnstown Flood of 1889, survivors scapegoated Hungarian immigrants; after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 city residents’ wrath fell on a tiny Japanese community; after the great 1927 Mississippi flood there was a horrendous wave of lynchings and murders of Black people in the affected southern states. It is as though people, having suffered at the hands of nature, must find human victims.
We are now coming through the disaster of the pandemic, which, though receding, is still with us. After four years of Donald Trump’s routinely lying, scapegoating and deflecting blame as a standard operating procedure, his cult is now primed to channel all its pandemic frustrations against Biden and the government working so hard to defeat the disease. The resulting program is clear: hatred of Biden and opposition to all restrictions, rules or Democratic ideas.
As of right now, the political landscape is decidedly headed in the Republican direction, boosted by the victory in Virginia and the close call in New Jersey.
For Democrats who stay within the bounds of law and the Constitution the solution will always be the same: more and better organizing, more energetic campaigning, greater voter registration, sharper messaging, more programs and policies that benefit people and an appeal to reason and good sense.
There is also this to remember: a victory is sweet but a defeat sharpens the mind and energizes the effort.
As Thomas Paine put it in the darkest days of the American Revolution after a string of Continental defeats: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Alfie Oakes: Teachers should be “taken down” by “force”
A March 10, 2021 meeting of the Collier County School Board is disrupted by anti-mask protesters. (Image: Fox4 News)
Oct. 26, 2021 by David Silverberg
Tensions surrounding school board decisions, masking and curriculum, already at a high pitch, are likely to become even more pronounced in the weeks ahead as new child COVID vaccines become available and are mandated for school use.
The possibility of violence and past intimidation and harassment of school officials has prompted federal law enforcement intervention, leading to state and local pushback.
Southwest Florida is already in the grip of these stresses and challenges. Passions have run high at local school board meetings over the past year, with disruptions, disorderly conduct and protests.
To date there has not been any school-related violence in Southwest Florida. However, there has been at least one local, politically-motivated overt call to use “force” against teachers.
On Aug. 16 Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III, an extreme right-wing grower and grocer, posted on Facebook: “These corrupt teachers unions are the enemy of our country and our citizens! We need to take them down by force!! ALL enemies foreign and domestic !!! Time for a revolution!”
On Aug. 20 Oakes told a conservative gathering in Naples that he had a sufficient number of guns to arm all his 3,200 employees. While no illegal actions have been publicly apparent to date, his call to “take [teachers] down by force” could inspire other school opponents to use violence.
The simmering summer
After a summer of rising tension and threats directed at elected school board members, along with a spike in the COVID-19 Delta variant, on Sept. 29, Viola Garcia, president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), and Chip Slaven, its interim executive director, sent a five-page letter to President Joe Biden, detailing the danger.
“America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat. The National School Boards Association (NSBA) respectfully asks for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation,” it stated.
“Local school board members want to hear from their communities on important issues and that must be at the forefront of good school board governance and promotion of free speech,” it continued. “However, there also must be safeguards in place to protect public schools and dedicated education leaders as they do their jobs.”
The letter provided extensive examples of harassment and threats in its body and footnotes.
On Oct. 4 Attorney General Merrick Garland responded with a public memorandum.
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” he wrote. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.” (The full text of the memo is at the end of this article.)
Based on the danger to teachers and school board members, Garland ordered agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and US attorneys to begin meeting with law enforcement agencies at all levels to discuss strategies for dealing with the danger. “These sessions will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response by law enforcement,” he stated.
Garland’s memorandum was interpreted by Republicans, grass roots conservatives and the right-wing media as an assault on parents’ rights and free speech, potentially labeling parents “domestic terrorists.”
This was the line of attack opened by Republican members of Congress when Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee this past Thursday, Oct. 21. The hearing’s official topic was the investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection but it examined a broad range of subjects.
Garland defended his memo.
“Parents have been complaining about the education of their children and about school boards since there were such things as school boards and public education,” he told the lawmakers. “This is totally protected by the First Amendment. True threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment. Those are the things we are worried about here. Those are the only things we are worried about here. We are not investigating peaceful protests or parent involvement in school board meetings. There is no precedent for doing that and we would never do that. We are only concerned about violence and threats of violence against school administrators, teachers, staff.”
Republicans on the panel, however, used the opportunity to unleash their grievances and attack the memo. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-4-Ohio), the ranking member on the panel, delivered a vociferous opening statement accusing Garland and the FBI of selectively targeting parents, while ignoring Republican priorities like violent crime and border security.
Garland, said Jordan, had opened “a snitch line on parents, started five days after a left wing political organization asked for it. If that’s not political, I don’t know what is.”
(Southwest Florida Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), who sits on the panel, used his question to ask Garland if the Department of Justice was pursuing environmental protesters at the Department of the Interior with the same vigor as the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Garland said he was unfamiliar with the incident Steube was mentioning.)
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared that the state would not cooperate with the FBI.
“We’re not going to be cooperating with any types of federal investigations into parents,” he said at a press conference in Titusville last Wednesday, Oct. 20. “And we’ll do whatever we can to thwart such investigations.” He accused Garland and President Joe Biden of pulling a political stunt to “intimidate parents” and “squelch dissent” and called a memo a “slap in the face” to Florida and other local law enforcement officers.
“They don’t need to have their hand held by federal agents over basic law enforcement,” he said. “At the state level, we will be not facilitating or participating in any of the things that were outlined in that memo, because it’s just not appropriate to do that.”
Trouble in paradise
In an essay published on Oct. 20 in The Washington Post: “I’m a Florida school board member. This is how protesters come after me,” Brevard County school board member Jennifer Jenkins related how protesters opposing school curriculum demonstrated at her house, how a state representative gave out her private cell phone number and encouraged harassing phone calls, and how her lawn was vandalized, among other forms of threats.
She wrote: “I ran for the school board last year because I was concerned about issues such as teacher pay, student equity and, oh yeah, the coronavirus. As a progressive in a red county, I expected to be a target of conservatives; I did not expect to be called a Nazi and a pedophile and to be subjected to months of threats, harassment and intimidation.”
On the west coast of Florida, specifically in Lee and Collier counties, there has not been the same level of threat against school boards, teachers or staff. Nonetheless, in the spring, school board meetings were the scene of intense debate and at times disruption.
Issues included mask mandates, curriculum, school textbooks and especially the teaching of critical race theory, an educational concept that emphasizes the importance of racial relations in American history.
In March the Collier County school board chambers had to be cleared when anti-mask parents insisted on removing their masks in defiance of board rules.
In June, the Collier County school board was again the scene of disruptions as the board discussed school textbook purchases and anti-curriculum attendees disrupted proceedings.
Alfie Oakes harangues the Collier County School Board before being escorted out by a security officer. (Image: WINK News)
During that meeting on June 7 Alfie Oakes was escorted out of the chambers after he refused to respect the rules governing discussion while accusing the board of planning to purchase $6 million worth of what he called “books and materials that are laden with critical race theory and other strictly liberal viewpoints.”
The pandemic and the issues of masking in school led to protests and demonstrations in the spring. However, with the COVID Delta variant outbreak in the summer and especially as schools prepared to open in August, passions reached a new pitch.
In August there were shoving incidents outside the Lee County School Board headquarters before a meeting to discuss a school mask mandate. Although the Lee County Board imposed a 30-day mandate for September, a mid-month court ruling forced the school system to provide exemptions.
It was also in August, in the midst of the Delta spike, that Alfie Oakes issued his call for the use of “force” against teachers.
In October the Lee County school board discussed an armed guardian program, training armed teachers and school security officers to prevent school shootings from any source.
Commentary: From angry August to nasty November
School-related tensions are likely to rise substantially in the coming weeks when COVID vaccines are fully approved and distributed for children from ages 5 to 12.
Schools have mandated a variety of vaccines for decades but given the level of resistance and politicization surrounding the COVID vaccine, quite an eruption can be expected when schools try to require the latest protection.
School board members, teachers and staff will need extensive physical protection and they should start preparing now—even if they don’t impose mandates.
In this context, Attorney General Garland’s memo directing federal, state and local coordination and strategizing is a reasonable, lawful, and sensible effort to protect elected school board officials and staff from attacks of all kinds. As Garland himself stated, and as the memo itself states, it is only directed against unlawful threats. It does not infringe on parents’ rights, of free speech or anything else, and it does not designate them as “domestic terrorists.”
In fact, Garland would be remiss if he did not take such actions.
Of course, Florida, led by an ambitious and determinedly Trumpist governor has already established itself as an outlier. DeSantis has shown himself driven to fight all COVID protections of all sorts, at all levels and for all ages. He picked a pliant Surgeon General in Joseph Ladapo, who simply provides any and all justifications DeSantis requires for his desired electoral results. His administration has concealed the real statistics for COVID, especially the Delta variant, to minimize the toll his policies have taken on Floridians.
At the grassroots level the anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-science, anti-curriculum—in fact, anti-learning—movement seems aimed more at imposing its own version of the indoctrination it claims to decry than the education it purports to uphold. It is aided and abetted in this by the right-wing media outrage machine, which is twisting any science-based, or law enforcement measure into an assault on parental authority and individual freedom.
In a broader sense what the anti-learning, anti-protection activists seem intent on doing is creating a parallel universe in classrooms where COVID either doesn’t exist or can be ignored, where American history is literally whitewashed and where comfortable delusions—like the Big Lie—can be taught as fact and take hold for generations to come.
If it succeeds, Southwest Florida will not be spared its results any more than other corner of the country.
In the days ahead, those who do love democracy, learning and wish to protect the lives of schoolchildren will have to show themselves more committed, more mobilized and more dedicated than those who seek to put their lives and learning at risk.
Stephen Bannon (Caricature: Donkey Hotey via Wikimedia Commons)
Oct. 21, 2021 by David Silverberg
The US House of Representatives voted today, by 229 to 202, to hold Stephen Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena requiring him to testify about his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and attack on the US Capitol.
All of Southwest Florida’s congressional representatives—Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.)—voted against the resolution, thereby allowing Bannon to flout the law.
Bannon was former President Donald Trump’s chief strategist and senior advisor for 210 days from January 20 to August 18, 2017. Prior to and on Jan. 6, 2021 he is believed to have played a key role in orchestrating the riot, insurrection and attempted coup. He was subpoenaed to testify by the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol but refused to obey the subpoena. Now that he has been found in contempt he may be prosecuted by attorneys from the Department of Justice.
“While [former White House Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows and [former chief of staff to the then-acting Secretary of Defense Kash] Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President. The Select Committee fully expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for both documents and deposition testimony,” stated the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-2-Miss.), and vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-at large-Wy.), on Oct. 8.
“Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” they stated.
As of this writing none of Southwest Florida’s congressmen had issued statements or explanations for their votes, although they actively tweeted on unrelated matters. They joined 199 of their Republican colleagues in voting against House Resolution 730. Nine Republicans voted for the resolution including Cheney. The House Republican leadership urged all Republican members to oppose the resolution.
The charges against Bannon were contained in House Report 117-152 from the Select Committee, which stated in its operative paragraphs:
Resolved, That Stephen K. Bannon shall be found to be in
contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional
subpoena.
Resolved, That pursuant to 2 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 192 and 194,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall certify the
report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th
Attack on the United States Capitol, detailing the refusal of
Stephen K. Bannon to produce documents or appear for a
deposition before the Select Committee to Investigate the
January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol as directed by
subpoena, to the United States Attorney for the District of
Columbia, to the end that Mr. Bannon be proceeded against in
the manner and form provided by law.
Resolved, That the Speaker of the House shall otherwise
take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena.
SWFL congressmen on insurrection day
At the time of the insurrection all of Southwest Florida’s congressmen were shaken and appalled by the violence and threats to themselves and the institution.
“On my fourth day as a United States Congressman, I followed Capitol staff into a safe room with a gas mask in hand rather than representing my constituents,” recounted Donalds in a statement issued at 10:09 pm the night of the insurrection, after the rioters had been evicted from the building. He called the rioters “lawless vigilantes” and denounced their actions as “thuggery.”
During the worst moments of the protest Donalds condemned the violence: “Americans have the right to peacefully protest & demand their government works for them—that doesn’t mean we resort to violence. Rule of law must stand during our nation’s brightest & darkest hours & that includes right now. We are better than this. There is no place for anarchy,” he tweeted at 2:49 pm in the midst of the attack.
“I witnessed our law enforcement officers being injured, gassed from their own tear gas and afraid for their lives as they attempted to hold the line,” recalled Steube in his own statement. “I and three other Members were barricaded in a room surrounded by demonstrators until the hallway was clear for us to get out.” At 5:39 pm he decried the actions and called them “completely unacceptable.”
On Jan. 6 Diaz-Balart issued a statement in both English and Spanish at 5:23 pm saying that the violence undermined the nation’s values and principles and lawbreakers should face the full consequences of their actions.
The House report and resolution now goes to the Department of Justice for prosecution.
Gen. Colin Powell briefs the media during the First Gulf War. (Photo: AP)
Oct. 19, 2021 by David Silverberg
In 1991 during the First Gulf War, I had the good fortune as a reporter to be covering the Pentagon when Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a briefing on the state of the war.
No military in the world can function without presentation charts. Powell brought a bunch to show the media how coalition air forces were eroding Saddam Hussein’s command, control and communications capabilities in the prelude to ground operations. The charts had long, rising and abruptly falling lines displaying the decline in Iraqi forces’ ability to send and receive signals.
A reporter asked an obvious question: How could Powell be so sure this was true? And by extension, how could our audiences be sure that what he was saying was true?
Powell, a big, broad-shouldered man, smiled. “Trust me,” he said.
And people did. Powell had a reputation as a straight-talking, truth-telling guy. He could be trusted. As the nation’s top military man there was much he had to conceal and he might not provide the entire truth but what he did say could be taken to the bank.
Then, and later, the media, the nation’s leadership and the American people trusted him.
Powell died yesterday, Oct. 18, 2021. Tributes are pouring in. Much is being made of the fact that he was the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State.
But when he was in office, when he prosecuted an astonishingly victorious war, his racial background was irrelevant—as it should be. Much more important today, in an age of distrust, deception and divisiveness, it’s worth remembering him as someone who is so rare in our time: someone who could be trusted.
It was because of this credibility that in 2003 President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney pressured Powell, then Secretary of State, to bless their effort to go to war against Saddam Hussein again. Despite flimsy evidence of weapons of mass destruction, a lack of provocations and his own deep skepticism of the intelligence, Powell did what he felt was his duty and followed his commanders’ orders. He presented the United Nations with the American justification for a war of choice. It was a decision he regretted the rest of his life and will always be judged a flaw on an otherwise sterling record of service, dedication and duty.
This was an aberration—and a big one. But in looking back over his life and career, it’s much more enlightening and uplifting to remember his thoughtfulness, his honesty and his honor. Powell was a true patriot; not the loud, vulgar, ostentatious kind or the kind who exploits appearances for personal gain but the kind who gets up and goes to work every day to make the country a better place and advances its best and highest ideals and values in every way he or she can.
Powell also exemplified something else. When he was thinking of running for president in 1996 he said that he wanted to appeal to what he called “the sensible center” of American political life. He eschewed extremism and divisiveness or fanaticism.
At that time there was a “sensible center,” a common ground of discussion and common sense where conversation and reason reigned. Powell’s passing at the age of 84 highlights just how much the sensible center that once governed the national dialogue—and the national course of action—has been deliberately undercut and assaulted. The kind of hatred, prejudice and rage that has taken its place is no improvement and is leading to disaster in every possible way.
We need to return to the sensible centrism he embodied.
The evaluation of Colin Powell has begun. Biographies will be written. Far too much focus is being placed on his race. His flaws and errors will be revealed.
But I’ll always remember him as a man of impeccable service and true patriotism, tall and commanding, his uniform immaculate and his decorations sparkling under hot lights, his charts behind him, smiling knowingly and saying “trust me.”
I did. We could. And restoration of his kind of honesty should be his greatest legacy.
The demonstration at the outset of the event. (All photos: Author)
Oct. 2, 2021 by David Silverberg
On a day of national demonstrations in favor of the right of women to choose abortion, Naples, Fla., was treated to an unusually raucous and contentious rally by pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates.
There were no arrests, although individuals, particularly anti-abortionists, while staying non-violent, became aggressive at times. Demonstrators shouted dueling chants and anti-abortionists attempted to drown out scheduled pro-choice speakers.
The demonstration took place in front of the Collier County courthouse in the county government center at Airport Pulling Rd. and Route 41 and then moved to the sidewalk along Airport Pulling Rd.
At the scheduled start of the demonstration at 10 am, there were about 100 pro-choice demonstrators and 22 anti-abortion demonstrators present. Although the numbers swelled during the next two hours, the ratio of abortion opponents to supporters remained about the same. At its height perhaps a total of 300 to 400 people were in the crowd.
There was no separation between the demonstrators and police made no effort to keep them apart. According to one Collier County sheriff’s deputy, in the public space police were not authorized to keep the competing parties apart or intervene unless a crime was actively committed. Nor was a permit required for the “Mobilize and Defend Our Reproductive Rights” rally, so there was no need to enforce a permit’s requirements.
Pro and anti-choice demonstrators mix together as the rally proceeds.An anti-abortionist weighs into the crowd to harangue demonstrators.Collier County Sheriff’s deputies look on while the action unfolds.Collier County teacher Corrie Vega recounts her experiences of sexual assault and harassment despite anti-abortion chants and heckling.Rev. Tony Fisher of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Naples makes his speech despite anti-abortion heckling.Pro-choice demonstrators line Airport Pulling Road after the rally on the Courthouse steps.
The effort by farmer and grocer Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III to press Gov. Ron DeSantis to audit and overturn the results of the 2020 election in Florida is drawing fire from another extreme conservative activist, Christy McLaughlin.
In a Sept. 16 letter to DeSantis Oakes requested two hours in person with the governor to present his evidence of 2020 election fraud in Florida. He believes the election was invalid even though the governor held it up as a model election and Republicans swept the full slate of candidates. In an appearance on the Alex Jones online “InfoWars” show, Oakes offered the governor a $100,000 campaign contribution if he would hold the meeting.
That specific a quid pro quo in return for that specific a sum as an individual contribution has raised questions about its legality and whether it could constitute a bribe.
That was the argument made by Christy McLaughlin, a former Republican congressional primary candidate and far right political activist based in Ave Maria.
Christy McLaughlin on her video. (Photo: Facebook)
“Florida had the best run election in the country in 2020, and the best run election our state as ever had in history all thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis,” said McLaughlin.
“Anyone that tries to undermine our Governor is against the Republican Party, against our state, and against people’s freedom. Offering a $100,000 donation to DeSantis so long as he ‘entertains’ the idea of auditing Florida’s 2020 election undermines Governor DeSantis and puts his reelection at risk. Alfie Oakes has created a distraction that only promotes his interests and hurts Governor DeSantis,” she said.
McLaughlin argued that if DeSantis doesn’t audit the election then Oakes is rallying his supporters against the governor; if he does audit the election he can be accused of accepting a bribe and damaging his re-election chances.
“Republicans in Collier County have become numb to Oakes’ hyperboles such as saying he would rather inject his children with heroine than give them the vaccine, obviously he would never do that to his children, however, when he is essentially attacking the Governor by putting him in this impossible decision, he is hurting the Republican Party and the State of Florida. Though this may be political theater for Oakes, his actions have some serious consequences.”
The only reasons to audit an election are to initiate reforms for the future or overturn an election, argued McLaughlin.
“Florida delivered a win for President Trump, and we had a majority of conservatives win local, state and Federal elections in our state. Why would anyone be seeking to overturn that?” she asked. Given the job DeSantis has done, “we need to support him, not challenge him and question his leadership. Most importantly people shouldn’t try to buy a Governor’s compliance with a $100,000 donation. I have Florida’s interests in mind, and I back true patriots like Governor Ron DeSantis.”
Oakes responded with a 1,272-word reply to the post delivered by lawyer Jim Boatman.
“I am very saddened by the juvenile and extremely uneducated remarks made by Christy McLaughlin,” stated the reply.
Oakes immediately questioned McLaughlin’s motivations and launched personal attacks against her.
“1. Could Christy have been paid by establishment Republicans or Democrats in an effort to conceal the massive voter fraud effort in our State and Country?” he asked.
“2. Could she be planning on running for some political office just trying to draw attention to herself? I did hear through the grapevine that she just failed the Florida bar for the second time, if this is so, is it possible she’s just in a really bad mood and is lashing out in frustration of the fact that she can’t get a job as an attorney and is now focusing on a political career?
“3. Or is it just an immature attempt for attention with little or NO thought at all?”
Oakes related that he’d been sitting through Republican executive committee meetings “where she acted in a very emotional immature and combative manner toward her fellow executive board members.” Oakes said he had never encountered such “irrational non-productive behavior” in an employee and would never hire her.
Regarding her allegation that the donation might constitute a bribe, he stated: “Yes Christy you caught me ….with your stellar instincts that every 25 year old possesses…I’m going to offer a bribe on public radio and TV to the governor to thereby get him and myself thrown in jail ..no words to describe this level of ignorance….The reality is I offered to donate $100,000 to any PAC gov. Ron DeSantis chooses as a token of my appreciation for attending a meeting with me to explain my election fraud findings and thank him for everything he has done for our state.”
He took umbrage at her statement that he would never inject his children with heroin. On the contrary, “I swear with my life, my fortune and my sacred honor that I would [emphasis ours] shoot heroin into my children’s arms without hesitation if given a choice between heroin and this experimental RNA altering vaccine (at least I know what heroin is).”
He also argued that DeSantis must audit the 2020 election in Florida: “in fact if he does NOT dig into this election fraud he will most certainly lose to Charlie Christ or even worse Nikki Fried.” Oakes stated that he had spent “hundreds of hours” on Florida election fraud and found possibly 900,000 stolen votes, penetration of all 67 Florida counties and Chinese hacking of Florida computer systems.
“Christy alleges with certainty that she is aware that Gov. Ron DeSantis is aware of the voter fraud in Florida” he wrote. “Well I guess Christie you must be much closer to gov. Ron DeSantis than his own chief of staff. In speaking with Adrian Lucas (chief of staff to the governor) yesterday he thanked me for the admirable work that I have been doing to prove election fraud in Florida and could not wait for the governor to see the findings we have uncovered,” [sic, as posted].
He denied being motivated by any financial gain and disputed that Collier County Republicans had become numb to his hyperboles “when in fact I have hundreds of people every day thanking me for articulating exactly what they are thinking and taking the bold position to stand strong for them.”
Oakes concluded: “I am praying for your wisdom Christy…”
The US House of Representatives today approved a bill to fund the government until December 3 by a vote of 254 to 175.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) joined 33 other Republicans to vote for the bill, the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act.
Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) voted against the bill. Had the bill failed, the government would have shut down at midnight.
For Southwest Florida, passage of the bill means that federal parks, facilities and offices will remain open and operating, including the US Coast Guard and the Social Security Administration.
The bill, House Resolution 5305, also known as a Continuing Resolution, concurred with a Senate bill and now goes to President Joe Biden for signature.
Mimi Lamb remembers the moment the idea came to her.
“There was a young lady who was looking for a service person in one of the Democratic chat groups,” she recalls. The woman was seeking a reliable handyperson whom she could allow into her home who was also a Democrat.
But in an overwhelmingly conservative area where many businesses are vocally and conspicuously defying COVID precautions and opposing vaccinations, her quest wasn’t just a political statement; she was also looking for someone who could be trusted to keep her safe by following anti-COVID guidelines and practices.
“I said, ‘That’s it!’” Lamb related. Inspiration had struck. On Facebook Lamb started a poll of people who were similarly looking for Democratic vendors. She learned that people were especially seeking dependable physicians, healthcare providers and beauty salons where customers could be assured of friendly service, sympathetic views and hygienic practices.
So a week and a half ago, on Sunday, Sept. 19, Lamb launched the Facebook group Democrat Owned Businesses of Southwest Florida. A private group, as of this writing it has 59 members and 30 who have applied to join.
A political journey
Mimi Lamb
Beverly Lamb, known to her five grandchildren and the rest of the world as Mimi, has followed a political journey taken by many people who feel the need to find a new political home. “It’s been a journey of discovery of what works, what matters to me,” she said of her exploration of the political spectrum.
Originally from Pennsylvania, she started her political life as a Republican. However, she voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.
But voting for Clinton didn’t make her a Democrat and she disagreed with aspects of the Clinton presidency. “It’s like you don’t get enough of what you want for Christmas,” she says of her initial apostasy and then disillusionment.
She became an independent.
At the same time her political journey was accompanied by a physical move from Pennsylvania to Florida, initially to Orlando and then Miami. Her son-in-law was in the military and so she followed him and one of her two daughters on their different assignments, moving steadily southward before arriving in Fort Myers in 2004.
She switched her party affiliation to Democratic in 2014. But then, in 2016, “Trump lit a fire under me,” she says. She became not just a Democrat but a committed activist.
“I just got really involved as a Democrat,” she related to The Paradise Progressive. During the 2020 election campaign, “We were seeing all these Trump signs and flags but no one was marching on the other side. People were too afraid.”
Teaming up with another local activist whom she met online, she began organizing people to hold pro-Democratic signs and wave flags on Fort Myers street corners.
“We started marching and got other people to march,” she said. Initially they attracted around 15 people but with each event that grew until they were joined by 40 or 50 people.
“The first time, we faced a lot of threats and had to get police protection,” she says. Angry opponents told her: “We know who you are and know where you live.”
But she persisted.
After the election, she initially became involved in Facebook when she wanted to post pictures of her grandchildren. But as she explored the platform she became aware of people seeking assistance.
“Every other week I’d see someone asking for help,” she related. “They’d need a handyman or someone to put down sod but they’d say, ‘I don’t know who to ask for.’”
Political affiliations could usually be determined for big corporations and companies. But that wasn’t the case with small businesses, independent contractors and local service providers.
What was more, she became aware of a Republican Facebook group called Boycott Democrat Businesses. As of this writing it has only 37 members and its location is unclear. It sees Democratic businesses as enemies and was created the day Joe Biden was declared the election winner, Nov. 7, 2020.
Staying positive
A self-employed independent contractor who specializes in marketing educational software, Lamb is still professionally active and works remotely. Her new Facebook project is more than a hobby but less than a full-time occupation.
She reached out to a group supporting Democratic businesses operating in the Orlando area for ideas but has not yet heard back.
She emphasizes that the local Democrat Owned Businesses Facebook group is not against anyone.
The Democrat Business logo.
“This should be a positive environment where we can support each other, not stress each other out,” she states in the “About” section.
“This is a place for Democrats to find local businesses led and operated by Democrats. Acceptable posts: Businesses promoting their products or services, Customers searching for referrals, general public recommending a Democratic- owned business.”
It warns that negative posts will be removed: no business bashing, political ranting or political posturing is allowed.
At this time the group does not list any businesses—and that’s deliberate.
“I recognize there is some risk in sharing info about Dem-led businesses,” it states. “We live in a very ‘red’ area of the state. That is likely why there has not been a group like this for our area until now. And that is why this page is private. We will make every reasonable effort to protect Dem-led businesses here and admins caution you not to share that information publicly.”
It continues: “I recommend you invite any Dem-led businesses you patronize to join our group so they can make that decision [to go public] for themselves, and ask their permission first before sharing them with the group.”
Right now, Lamb is scrupulously vetting applicants who want to join the group. Anyone wishing to join must fill out a questionnaire and be approved. It takes time. “Please be patient with admin activities while I get this up and running, as I work a full-time job and may not always be able to respond immediately,” she states.
Writing from a personal perspective, Lamb writes on the page: “I am a businesswoman myself; I’ve owned or operated several companies in the past, and I always strove to serve everyone with the same grace and dignity. I expect any Dem-led business who joins our group will want to do the same.”
Right now, Lamb is cautiously finding her way forward, experimenting with what works and what does not and adapting the group to the needs of Southwest Florida.
“I would really like for this to be a very positive and safe place,” she told The Paradise Progressive. “If it becomes uncomfortable, I won’t do it.”
Do you think you can draw better political maps than the state legislators in Tallahassee?
Now you can get your chance.
A new website, Florida Redistricting, launched Monday, Sept. 20, gives anyone who cares to use it the opportunity to recommend re-jiggering the state’s political boundaries based on 2020 Census data.
It’s a remarkable experiment in citizen participation and a striking change from past redistricting done in dark, smoke-filled rooms out of public sight.
Of course, while citizens can make plenty of suggestions it will be the legislature that finally decides how the maps will be drawn.
Still, for a state that has increasingly pulled the curtain on its vaunted principles of sunshine in government, it is an exceptional departure from the past. It brings a bit of light to a process that is unglamorous but essential—and determines the partisan balance of power for the decade to come.
The process
Redistricting actually consists of two processes: redistricting (redrawing district lines) and reapportionment (redistributing congressional seats among the states).
Next year Florida gets one new seat in Congress based on its increase in population since 2010. That new district is expected to be in the high-growth area of Orlando or somewhere along the I-4 corridor.
The original cartoon that gave rise to the term “gerrymander.“
Traditionally, redistricting is colloquially known as the process whereby politicians choose their voters, so voters will likely choose them at election time. It has been manipulated since the beginning of the American republic—and even before, in colonial times. In 1812 it gave rise to the term “gerrymander” after Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry so manipulated the state’s district maps to his political advantage that what emerged was a salamander-like creature immortalized in a newspaper cartoon.
Republicans have been past masters of drawing lines to favor their party. This was highlighted in January 2020, after the death of Republican redistricting consultant Thomas Hofeller. His daughter Stephanie made public the contents of four external hard drives and 18 thumb drives from her father’s office, revealing his detailed gerrymandering work. While he was based in North Carolina, he had clients all over the country and participated in Florida’s redistricting.
In 2010 two constitutional amendments, 5 and 6, were on the ballot in Florida. Amendment 5 covered legislative districts, amendment 6 covered congressional districts and both were known as the Fair Districts Amendments.
Both amendments required that: “districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.”
In the 2010 election both amendments passed with 63 percent of the vote, despite vehement opposition from the state’s Republican lawmakers. (Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) joined a lawsuit to block their implementation, which failed.)
Despite the amendments, Florida’s 2010 maps were drawn by consultants and political operatives who maneuvered behind the scenes to push Republican dominance. The lines were so elaborately gerrymandered when the maps were revealed that fair districts supporters sued to overturn them.
A “group of Republican political consultants did in fact conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process,” ruled Judge Terry Lewis of the 2nd Judicial Circuit in 2014. “They made a mockery of the Legislature’s proclaimed transparent and open process of redistricting” and “went to great lengths to conceal from the public their plan,” and “managed to taint the redistricting process and the resulting map with improper partisan intent.”
It took five years of litigation to finally end the disputes, during which two elections took place.
This year state Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-27-Estero), who heads the state Senate’s reapportionment committee, is promising that the process will be open, fair and transparent and meet both the spirit and letter of Florida’s Fair Districts Amendments.
“We are taking steps to safeguard against the kind of shadow process that occurred in the last cycle,” Rodrigues said during the first meeting of his committee on Monday, Sept. 20. “We will protect our process against the ‘astroturfing’ that occurred in the past, where partisan political operatives from both parties wrote scripts and recruited speakers to advocate for certain plans or district configurations to create a false impression of a widespread grassroots movement.”
He added: “Fortunately, we now have the insight into both the judiciary’s expanded scope of review, and how courts have interpreted and applied the constitutional standards related to redistricting. I intend for this committee to conduct the process in a manner that is consistent with case law that developed during the last decade that is beyond reproach and free from any hint of unconstitutional intent.”
How they break down
According to the 2020 Census, Florida gained 2,736,877 people over the last ten years and now has a population of 21,538,187.
In Southwest Florida, Lee County gained 142,068 residents, reaching a population of 760,822. Collier County gained 54,232 people to reach a total population of 375,752. Charlotte County gained 26,869 people to reach a total of 186,847.
The redistricting effort will try to bring the new districts into line with ideal population levels while meeting Fair Districting criteria. Since all of Southwest Florida gained population above the ideal, most—but not all—its districts are considered “overpopulated.”
Once in, users can fiddle with the maps to their heart’s content and send recommendations to the legislature.
It’s a remarkable innovation in participatory democracy. Time, however, is of the essence. The legislative redistricting session convenes on Jan. 11 of next year and it must complete its work by the time it adjourns on March 11. Without a doubt, it will be a contentious session.
After that, there will presumably be newly-drawn districts. By June 11, candidates will qualify to run for office. Then the party primaries will take place on Aug. 23 and the general election on Nov. 8.
Can this experiment in popular participation actually result in fairly drawn, politically neutral boundaries?
Obviously, it remains to be seen. In 2010 the Fair Districting Amendments passed overwhelmingly but the maps that came out were gerrymandered anyway. Florida always seems to have a way of ignoring or circumventing its most popular constitutional amendments.
Coming out of the gate, though, Rodrigues’ intentions seem good if his words are taken at face value.
If this experiment works Florida could become a national model of fair districting. This time, if citizens are alert, engaged and determined, maybe—just maybe—Florida for once might abide by its own constitution and put to rest the gerrymander, or, in this case, the Republigator.
The Paradise Progressive 