Freedom of speech in Florida, with respect and appreciation to Norman Rockwell. (Illustration: AI for Silverberg4Florida/ChatGPT)
April 13, 2026 by David Silverberg, candidate for Florida Senate, District 28
Most people don’t know this but until now America had a secret superpower.
That superpower was the relationship of its federal, state and local governments.
They were like the three legs of a stool, each one contributing to the strength of the whole. Each one could provide support for the others and fill in if gaps appeared.
This was especially true when it came to disasters and nowhere more so than in Florida.
If a local government couldn’t cope with a disaster—like a hurricane—then the state government could step in. If the state government needed assistance, it could count on the federal government. Each form of government, by being autonomous and making its own decisions, by functioning in a democratic fashion according to law, and by cooperating together, created a remarkably strong whole that served the needs of all the people, especially in emergencies or under duress.
Until now.
Unfortunately, the stool has been broken. At the federal level Donald Trump bullies and threatens all other governments in his quest for complete domination and dictatorial power.
In Florida a governor seeking to rule in the Trump mold, an ambitious, ideologically-driven attorney general, a rapacious chief financial officer and an extremist legislature are waging war on “home rule,” the ability of town, city and county governments to make their own decisions.
Overruling home rule is usually called “preemption,” in the sense that state government preempts local government powers and takes decisionmaking out of their hands.
I call it “Big Tallahassee”—and it’s been going on far too long.
If elected state Senator from the 28th District, the area including Collier and Hendry counties and the Lee County area east of Route 75, I intend to do everything I can to protect, strengthen and respect local governments, not just in my district, but in all of Florida.
We just had an example of Big Tallahassee bullying right here in the 28th District; the state took away the City of Naples’ power over the airport within its city limits. The city will no longer name the commissioners on the airport’s board. Instead, they’ll be elected by the surrounding county.
This was proposed in House Bill 4005 by Florida House Rep. Adam Botana (R-80-Estero), whose district doesn’t include the City of Naples. He had no relationship to the airport. He just decided to strip the Naples city council of its authority and the rest of the Republican legislature and the governor went along with it. Naples’ desires were simply ignored and overridden.
(Botana is being challenged this year by Meg Titcomb, whose website, VoteMegTitcomb.com, will soon be operational.)
Other examples of Big Tallahassee overreach are passage and enactment of bills preempting local governments from planning land use changes after disasters (Senate Bill (SB) 180, 2025), stopping local governments from trying to reduce harmful environmental emissions (Committee Substitute (CS) /House Bill (HB) 1217, 2026), prohibiting local governments from using non-gasoline power tools (SB 290, 2026), or from seeking diversity in hiring decisions (CS/CS/SB 1134, 2026).
Big Tallahassee even stopped local governments from mandating heat breaks for workers (CS/CS/HB 433, 2024)—and that’s really saying something in Florida’s sunbaked fields. I swear, Big Tallahassee would have denied water to Jesus on the way to Calvary.
I’m not the only one saying this. On Sunday, April 12, in the Naples Daily News, in an op-ed titled “Naples is losing its constitutional right to local control,” authors Gregory Fowler and Stacy Vermylen pointed out that, “Taken together, these actions point to a clear shift. Home rule is no longer functioning as a broad constitutional right. It is becoming a shrinking space in which cities can act only where the state ban has not yet intervened.”
Even legislation with relatively benign intent, like the Live Local Act, which was introduced and shepherded to passage by Sen. Kathleen Passidomo in 2023, has preemptive provisions—prompting the Sarasota County Commission to challenge it in court.
So far, these preemptions have had three overall purposes. The first is to end home rule and strip local governments of the power to make land use decisions, like determining their own zoning and preserving the natural environment.
The reason for this is simple and obvious: developers, their legislative puppets (and in many cases legislators who are also land speculators, realtors and developers themselves) don’t want any interference as they pursue profits by paving over Florida. They truly don’t care what we local residents want, think or need.
A second purpose is to prevent any effort to prepare for the effects of climate change. Big Tallahassee, following Donald Trump’s dictates, denies that climate change exists. But it’s not enough that they themselves deny it, they want to force everyone else to deny it and ignore it—and this particularly means crippling local governments that are more alert, aware and awake to the dangers climate change presents.
Nowhere is this truer than in Collier County, part of the 28th Senate District I’m running to represent. With its over 20 miles of shoreline along the Gulf of Mexico, Collier County’s beaches are ailing and eroding, after being battered by repeated hurricanes, sea level rise and salt water intrusion.
But if Collier County ever tried to change its zoning or planning in order to cope with this, it would be stopped by Big Tallahassee.
The third reason for preemption is to aid Donald Trump’s efforts to turn back the clock to fossil fuel use and stop any kind of renewable energy. Trump is insisting on fossil fuels, fossil wars, fossil pollution and fossil costs—no doubt to pour fossil cash into his own pockets.
Big Tallahassee is completely on board with this. What else are we to make of a law that prohibits local governments from requiring use of electric leaf blowers or any other non-gasoline landscaping equipment to tend its lawns? Big Tallahassee is seeking a new Florida fossil age and it’s trying to send all of us the way of the dinosaurs.
It’s time we were no longer led by dinosaurs with fossilized thinking.
If elected to the Florida Senate I intend to do everything I can to preserve, protect and defend the integrity and autonomy of our local governments.
I can’t say I’ll be able to stop all preemption but I can certainly say that I’ll be on the look out for it. I’ll fight it any way and any time that I see it. I want the people of Florida to have a say in how they’re governed; that’s just Democracy 101.
When it comes to the City of Naples, I will certainly explore ways to rescind HB 4005.
The next assault on home rule will come in a special session of the legislature that is likely to be held in the coming weeks. In that session Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cohorts will attempt to end property taxes.
They’re painting this effort as an anti-tax way to improve affordability for Floridians. But that’s because they don’t dare criticize the real reason Floridians are in an affordability crisis—Donald Trump’s wars, tariffs and mismanagement of the economy.
So don’t buy their bull: it’s a trap and a con—and another assault on home rule and Florida’s local governments.
If property taxes are eliminated, local governments will be starved for revenue along with the policemen, firemen and school teachers they employ. Local services—think of your water supplies and sewerage, repairs to roads and bridges, even things like marriage and business licenses—will be crippled. Public schools, already under assault by Big Tallahassee, will be further damaged.
What is more, ending property taxes will only mean that everyday Floridians will ultimately pay more, adding to their affordability woes. The revenue lost by ending property taxes will need to be made up somehow. That will likely be in the form of sales taxes. Those taxes will hit everyday Floridians hard, while billionaires with huge mansions taking up large tracts of property will get off Scott-free and avoid paying their fair share to support the services and facilities that make their lavish lifestyles possible.
Ending property taxes is a bad idea hatched by Big Tallahassee to crush home rule and local governments. Floridians should fight it and I certainly intend to do so.
America’s strength has always been in its local governments where people have the most say. We shouldn’t let Big Tallahassee bully and order our towns around. If elected, I can’t promise a perfect outcome—but I can certainly promise a vigorous effort.
Florida should be run by and for Floridians; not developers, not speculators, not dinosaurs—and certainly not for the convenience and profit of Big Tallahassee.
I hope you agree and you’ll join me in this fight. Please volunteer and donate and in November vote for David Silverberg for state Senate from District 28.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, speaks with Mayor Teresa Heitmann of Naples, Florida, and City Manager Gary Young on the city’s damaged historic pier on Aug. 29. (Photo:DHS/Tia Dufour)
Sept. 29, 2025 by David Silverberg
Who would have thought that sleepy, obscure Southwest Florida, including Collier County and the City of Naples, would move to the forefront of national attention under the second administration of President Donald Trump?
First, there was the establishment of the Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp in far eastern Collier County. Implemented by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Alligator Alcatraz has drawn national scrutiny, condemnation, lawsuits and opposition. As intended, it has been a model for a whole gulag archipelago of anti-migrant concentration camps rising throughout the nation. Its fate is uncertain.
But now there’s a new focus: the City of Naples pier, which was destroyed in 2022’s Hurricane Ian.
New developments in the restoration of the Naples pier also serve to highlight the story of the Fort Myers Beach pier—and how each one is being treated illuminates larger trends in America today and the way government now operates.
Kristi Noem and the Naples pier
The current state of the Naples pier, seen over the shoulder of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during her visit to Naples on Aug. 29. (Photo: Kristi Noem/Instagram)
For those unfamiliar with it, the City of Naples is an incorporated municipality of roughly 20,000 people. It sits on the Gulf of Mexico at the southwestern tip of Florida and is primarily a tourist and leisure destination. Always a winter haven for the wealthy, its attractiveness to the millionaire—and billionaire—class has grown in recent years.
Among its attractions, Naples has an iconic pier that extends into the Gulf. Originally used for the offloading of supplies when Naples was founded and developed starting in the 1880s, it subsequently became a tourist attraction, a place above the beach to stroll and fish.
The Naples pier in 2020. (Photo: Author)
The pier has been destroyed by hurricanes several times, most recently by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
After Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Naples on Aug. 29, she immediately ordered $12 million in federal funds for its rebuilding, granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that she heads.
It emerges that the grant was the result of city lobbying and the intervention of a major Naples-based Noem donor.
The article was published last Friday, Sept. 26, by the non-profit investigative journalism newsroom, ProPublica, which, as it states, “investigates abuses of power.” ProPublica is known for its meticulous journalism. The article is based on emails and records obtained through public records requests, as well as interviews by its three authors: Pulitzer Prize winner Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski.
The article details how Naples Mayor Theresa Heitmann, frustrated by delays in getting the pier addressed, contacted Naples cardiologist Dr. Sinan Gursoy, who had been a $25,000 donor to Noem when she was governor of South Dakota.
At Gursoy’s urging, “Noem flew to Naples on a government plane to tour the pier herself. She then stayed for the weekend and got dinner with the donor, local cardiologist Sinan Gursoy, at the French restaurant Bleu Provence,” according to the article. Noem stayed the weekend at the Naples Bay Resort & Marina.
She toured the wrecked pier with Heitmann and City Manager Gary Young.
Afterwards she posted on Instagram: “The iconic Naples Pier was destroyed in 2022, and the city is still waiting on answers from FEMA. They couldn’t even get permission to remove the old pier. I saw this failure first-hand today with Mayor Heitmann and Gary Young, and now the project is back on track.
“Americans deserve better than years of red tape and failed disaster responses. Under @POTUS Trump, this incompetency ends.”
It is important to note that the article does not allege any illegalities or criminal activity by any party.
However, it states: “Noem’s actions in Naples suggest the injection of political favoritism into an agency tasked with saving lives and rebuilding communities wiped out by disaster. It also heightens concerns about the discretion Noem has given herself by personally handling all six-figure expenses at the agency, consolidating her power over who wins and loses in the pursuit of federal relief dollars, experts said.”
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told ProPublica that the pier decision “has nothing to do with politics,” since Noem has visited the sites of other disasters. “Your criticizing the Secretary’s visit to the Pier is bizarre as she works to fix this issue for more than 1 million visitors that used to visit the pier,” she said.
A visualization of the restored Naples pier. (Rendering: City of Naples)
The Fort Myers Beach pier
The Fort Myers Beach pier before and after Hurricane Ian. (Photos: WINK News/Matt Devitt)
Noem’s treatment of Naples can be contrasted with the experience of Fort Myers Beach, just 20 miles northward, whose tourist pier was also wrecked in Hurricane Ian.
Fort Myers Beach, like Naples, is a tourist-oriented, incorporated town on the Gulf of Mexico, although appealing to much smaller and less wealthy population than Naples, both in permanent residents and visitors. Its population is about 5,300 people.
This is the town where Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and it did horrendous damage, virtually scraping buildings from their foundations all along the sea front and well inland.
The damage included its tourist pier. (Most towns along this stretch of coastline have piers because in their early days they were supplied entirely by boat.)
Like Naples, Fort Myers Beach officials are also trying to rebuild their pier.
Also, like Naples, Fort Myers Beach officials applied for FEMA funding. They were granted funding but only for the pier’s original structure. However, the city wants to expand and lengthen the pier, adding 415 feet so that it extends 1,000 feet into the water. They also want to widen it by four feet so it spans 12 feet.
This is expected to cost the city $17.1 million and the new parts won’t be covered by FEMA. To make up the shortfall, on Sept. 16, the Lee County Commissioners voted to seek $7 million from the Gulf Consortium, which manages compensation for the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. That money is provided under the RESTORE (Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies) Act of 2012, administered under Florida’s State Expenditure Plan.
“The project is proceeding as planned and designed,” Lee County spokesperson Betsy Clayton told the Fort Myers Beach Observer and Bulletin. “The plan all along was to use FEMA and Tourist Development Tax [funds].”
However, if BP funds are approved, “this would reduce the need for Tourist Development Taxes,” Clayton told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Fort Myers Beach and Lee County officials can only sit and wait to hear.
The restored Fort Myers Beach pier as conceived.(Rendering: Fort Myers Beach)
Commentary: Winners and losers
While Fort Myers Beach officials can lobby for their hoped-for BP funds to move the application process along, it seems doubtful that they can arrange a lunch with Kristi Noem and get the full funding over a weekend, as the far richer City of Naples did.
The incident also highlights why allegations of favoritism and political interference are—or should be—a sensitive issue and why inequitable distribution of government funding can be so disruptive.
What is more, both piers are very small disasters for FEMA and Noem amidst a very large array of natural events. As of Saturday, Sept. 27, FEMA was handling 58 major disasters and seven emergency declarations all around the United States and territories.
Complaints about slow responses and bureaucracy have always plagued FEMA.
However, this is nothing new. After every disaster people demand that aid arrive instantly, which, other than help from immediate neighbors, it never does. Government at all levels takes time to work, even when a response is urgent. As for its bureaucratic and procedural slowness, FEMA is bound by laws and regulations and has always had to ensure that money is properly accounted for, monitored and distributed.
But there are new reasons for FEMA delays and bottlenecks, chiefly the result of Trump and Noem’s own actions. FEMA has been battered by layoffs and staff dismissals, cuts to funding and Trump’s repeated attacks on it to the point of calling for its disestablishment.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA was reformed and streamlined, with two Floridians taking a leading role: R. David Paulison, a former Miami fire chief, and Craig Fugate, who had been Florida’s chief emergency manager. Under their administration and that of other DHS secretaries, FEMA was reworked to provide more timely responses and be completely evenhanded and apolitical in its actions and funding. It also made a major effort to prevent future disasters through preparedness, mitigation and increased resilience.
In the first Trump administration there were fears that Trump was politicizing responses, withholding aid to Democratic states like California and reducing preventive measures that responded to climate change challenges. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for a future administration, proposed that much more of the fiscal burden for disaster recovery fall on the states. (See “Project 2025 remake of FEMA would hit communities hard after disasters.”)
Once in office Trump has maintained the drumbeat of criticism and repeatedly threatened to eliminate FEMA as an agency. The agency’s layoffs and dismissals have hampered its functioning and ability to respond to disasters.
Noem from the beginning has been an aggressive operative for the Trump agenda, implementing cuts to the FEMA workforce, verbally attacking the agency, as in her Instagram post, and echoing Trump’s lies.
As the ProPublica article pointed out, she has also insisted on personally approving all FEMA expenditures over $100,000, making her personally responsible for them—and since $100,000 is a very small expenditure in government operations, it means she has to be personally involved in every small and petty purchase.
This requirement vastly slows down the process of approving any sort of aid or expenditures—unless a community can short-circuit the entire system by going straight to the Secretary as Naples did. Other communities awaiting assistance and with far greater damage have been left hanging, also hoping for the kind of aid that was previously processed through established, rationally conceived procedures.
It needs to be emphasized, as previously, that there are no allegations of illegality or criminality here and certainly not on the part of Naples City officials. They were confronted with frustrating delays and a lack of response from FEMA. They chose to take action, as should be expected of city officials.
According to the ProPublica article, Mayor Heitmann tried a variety of different avenues to address the issue. The City already employed some expensive Washington consultants to guide the process but this was unproductive. She wrote directly to FEMA, attempted to enlist Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Naples resident, and finally decided to go directly to Noem through Gursoy, who had introduced Heitmann to Noem at a private party when Noem was governor.
When she contacted Gursoy, he agreed to “get on it.”
It has to be said: It was a good idea that produced results.
Interestingly, nowhere did Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) appear to play a role in any of this even though his district encompasses both towns with their piers and he would logically be the first official to contact in pursuing the city’s interests in Washington.
If there is fault to be had it lies with Noem. In pre-Trump days, a secretary of Homeland Security when faced with this kind of request would have declined it. Perhaps he or she would have responded: “Thank you for this kind invitation. Due to the many requests and needs from deserving communities across the country, I have to respectfully decline. However, I will forward your request to the proper offices in FEMA.”
But that kind of rectitude and propriety is a thing of the past.
The bigger issues
Beyond problems created for FEMA aid and distribution caused by Trump, Noem and the Department of Government Efficiency when it was operating, Noem’s personal intervention in the Naples pier project illustrates much broader issues of governance, personalization and inequality among communities.
The United States has been unique in creating “a nation of laws, not men,” as President John Adams put it. Constitutionally, its institutions are intended to function according to law and objective facts, not the personal preferences of any one person.
That is not the case with Donald Trump who is openly and blatantly making governance about himself, whether that applies to prosecuting his perceived enemies, or levying tariffs, or silencing those who satirize him.
As Trump has driven toward a more authoritarian, dictatorial form of government that centers entirely on his personal decisions and predilections, his personalization of government operations is leaching down into lower levels of decisionmaking.
This is glaringly evident in the case of the Naples pier. Noem may say that she’s heroically cutting red tape and taking action—and she may actually think it—but it also sends a signal to all other distressed communities around the country that the way to get disaster aid is not to follow the law and procedure but to somehow reach her personally, with paid travel and a nice dinner (at the least). It announces that emergency management decisionmaking now officially depends on her whims and personal preferences. It also announces that the American people and their communities cannot depend on a government that previously responded to their distress as one of its primary duties.
There has always been an element of personality and lobbying in government operations, whether in the legislative or executive branches. It’s what created the vast lobbying industry that exists today at all levels of government. But lobbying and advocacy was always peripheral to the government’s essential decisionmaking. Now, with Trump’s personalization and weaponization of government, it’s central to it.
In 1655 King Louis XIV of France is reputed to have said, “L’État, c’est moi!”—“I am the state.” It has gone down in history as the ultimate expression of personal power. The American revolution was an explicit rebellion against that philosophy. The state was the Constitution, an expression of “We the people”—all Americans.
As Trump drives toward becoming the embodiment of the American state, situations like Noem’s favoring Naples, or for that matter Tom Homan, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) taking cash for favors and then escaping any kind of law enforcement, are becoming more common.
The Naples pier is just one small example of the increasing personalization of government in America today. It’s also the embodiment of increasing stratification between affluent, well-connected communities and more obscure, modest and poorer communities in getting attention paid to their needs by a government originally formed to be of them, by them and for them.
So, while the focus in this instance may be on two closely-placed towns and their structures of planks and concrete jutting out into the waters of Florida, the gulf between them is actually broader, vaster, more profound—and, unfortunately, growing.
In 1991 President George HW Bush takes the salute of Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf and his generals at the Victory Parade in Washington, DC, celebrating the end of the First Iraq War. (Photo: National Archives/Dan Valdez)
June 10, 2025 by David Silverberg
This coming Saturday, June 14, Flag Day, is a day that may either go down as glorious in American history—or live in infamy. The sun may rise over a democracy and set over a dictatorship.
On that day President Donald Trump is scheduled to review a massive military parade in the nation’s capital celebrating his 79th birthday—and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Army. Enormous numbers of military vehicles, personnel and lethal weaponry are being shipped into the District of Columbia, ostensibly for the parade.
“No Kings!” counter demonstrations are scheduled throughout the country and in Washington, DC.
While there has been shooting so far it has remained non-lethal. However, Trump has ordered 700 active duty Marines to California, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is suing the federal government for nationalizing and deploying 2,000 state National Guardsmen—and, potentially, 2,000 more—without his permission.
The situation is changing hourly and passions are rising fueled by extreme rhetoric on Trump’s part, with X postings that threaten violence (“If they spit, we will hit”) denigrate and insult Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and threats to have Newsom arrested.
The militarization of Washington
Amidst the heated atmosphere and the sense of crisis, an enormous amount of military hardware is pouring into Washington, ostensibly for the parade.
Military equipment heading into Washington, DC, as photographed by various observers and shared on social media. (Images: Multiple sources)
In May the US Army announced the specific numbers for the weaponry entering the US capital. These include 28 70-ton M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker combat vehicles and Paladin artillery systems, totaling 150 vehicles in all. Some 6,700 soldiers, sailors and aviators will be part of the event, which is expected to be attended by as many as 200,000 spectators. Legacy vehicles like World War II-era Sherman tanks and jeeps will participate. US military personnel in period costumes will accompany 34 horses, two mules and a dog. Steel plates are being laid in the streets to accommodate the weight of the vehicles.
Overhead, current aircraft as well as World War II-era aircraft will fly by along with helicopters of different eras. To accommodate this, flights into Washington Reagan Airport have been suspended.
The event is expected to cost between $45 million and $92 million.
There’s no clear date for when all this hardware will return to base, if at all.
Analysis: To what purpose?
In any other time, under any previous president, in a time of unity and consensus, the American people could believe the stated purposes for this deployment of weaponry and personnel: to celebrate the 250th anniversary of a respected and honored institution like the United States Army.
But in a time of crisis, division and especially with an authoritarian, twice-impeached president who is a convicted felon, who incited a previous violent assault on the legislative branch of government and tried to overturn an election, who lies incessantly and has refused to commit to upholding the US Constitution as his oath of office requires, such assurances cannot be taken at face value.
All those military vehicles in Washington and their firepower can easily be turned to purposes other than parading. (And one vehicle carried a graffito saying “Hang Fauci & Bill Gates,” according to The Washington Post.)
Between the Los Angeles protests and deployments, the extreme rhetoric by the president and the sense of crisis that he is deliberately stoking, the moment is strongly reminiscent of Feb. 27, 1933 when a fire broke out in the German Reichstag building. Adolf Hitler, who had taken office as German chancellor precisely four weeks earlier, and his Nazi party blamed the fire on Communists. In that atmosphere of crisis German President Paul von Hindenburg issued an emergency decree suspending civil liberties. A few weeks later, the Reichstag was convinced to pass an “Enabling Act” that suspended checks and balances and gave Hitler dictatorial power for four years. In fact, it was the end of German democracy and the start of the Nazi dictatorship and Hitler’s unrestricted rule.
Between Trump’s rhetoric, the vocal protests, and the anti-democratic provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the current moment bears discomforting similarities to the past and to every other dictator who has seized power amidst a manufactured crisis.
In Southwest Florida
The logo of the June 14th “No Kings” demonstration in Naples, Fla. (Art: FREE Indivisible)
There isn’t much that people on the ground in a place like Southwest Florida can do to directly intervene in events in Washington or Los Angeles.
If there is an attempt at a coup d’etat the American people can only rely on the military personnel who serve and protect them to refuse any illegal orders and uphold their oaths of enlistment to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
However, the “No Kings” demonstrations across the country can at least show that the vast majority of Americans are not complicit in any assaults on their democracy and democratic institutions. They can make known that they object to authoritarian actions by this president and his enablers.
In Naples, Fla., these demonstrations have shown that there is a large population of supporters of democracy throughout a region otherwise known for its extreme support of Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement. With each demonstration it becomes clear that the population of concerned and outspoken citizens is large and growing.
It’s a dangerous time and it’s not going to get any more peaceful any time soon. At the very least people can raise their voices and refuse to be complicit—especially on this day.
On a personal note:
The most menacing time that I ever saw armed troops in the streets of Washington, DC, was on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001.
The terrorist attacks had occurred that morning.
At the time I was managing editor of The Hill, a weekly newspaper covering Congress and had stayed at my post in a building near the White House, working to get out the next day’s newspaper, which was likely to be the most important one we ever published.
By the late afternoon I had done all I could to finish the newspaper and I left the offices to drive down to our printing plant in Springfield, Va., where the paper would be printed and our staff was gathering. My car was parked in the garage of the Ronald Reagan Building.
The city had been ordered evacuated. Armed police stood at the intersections of streets surrounding the White House, whose perimeter had been expanded several blocks outward and restricted with yellow police tape. The only people on the streets—and there were very few of them—were wearing credentials showing that they were either government staffers, members of the press or were serving in some official capacity.
As I stood on the corner of 14th Street and F Street waiting to cross the road, a convoy of Humvees full of armed and camouflaged soldiers wearing red berets came driving down 14th Street. Even though they didn’t have to, they stopped at a traffic light and were bathed in the warm, golden glow of the lowering sun.
I’d traveled a great deal around the world as a defense reporter and seen militarized capitals. That had never been the case in Washington, DC, which was proud to be an open, free and civil city.
American military parades in the capital had largely been eschewed except for extremely rare occasions like the Iraq War Victory Parade in 1991. On ceremonial occasions like Inauguration Days the military was represented by symbolic contingents of soldiers and never by masses of heavy equipment.
Indeed, when it was suggested to general and later president Dwight Eisenhower that the United States hold military parades like the Soviet Union did in Moscow he is reported by historian Michael Beschloss to have responded: “Absolutely not. We are the pre-eminent power on Earth. For us to try and imitate what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak.”
Standing on that street corner on 9/11 and seeing that convoy of soldiers bearing arms in the nation’s capital brought home to me in a way like nothing else that things had changed in America and likely permanently. Of all the sadnesses I felt that day, this was a sadness like nothing else I experienced.
But at least those soldiers were deploying to protect and defend America and Americans.
Let’s all hope that the military parade in Washington, DC on June 14 celebrates the birth of the US Army and salves the ego of the President of the United States—and does nothing more than that.
The April 5 “Hands Off” protest in Naples, Fla., as broadcast on the Rachel Maddow show. (Image: MSNBC)
April 11, 2025 by David Silverberg
The last time America had a king it successfully rebelled against him and created a new nation.
Now America has a monarch. His title isn’t “king” but he is a monarch nonetheless.
It bears remembering that the term “monarch” doesn’t necessarily mean “king.” It just means “mono,” Greek for “one,” and “arch,” Greek for “power” or “authority.” One power.
The main point is that we are on a path away from a nation of laws, as founding patriot and second President John Adams envisioned, to a nation of men, or in this case, one man, who is, of course, Donald Trump.
On Saturday, April 5, Americans across the country demonstrated against this trend in what was an astonishing show of dissent and resistance.
In otherwise conservative, Trumpist Southwest Florida, hundreds of people participated in demonstrations in Cape Coral and Fort Myers.
In Naples the turnout was so great that it got the attention of television host Rachel Maddow.
“In deep red Naples, Florida, organizers there said they had 7,000 people turn out in Naples, Florida,” she said with wonder in her voice. “Yeah, that’s good weather so, I know, but that’s also a county that went for Trump by 33 points in November and they had 7,000 people turn out on Saturday?”
While 7,000 seems a bit of an overcount (this author estimated 2,000, still a huge turnout by Naples standards) it was nonetheless an impressive show of independence, opposition and—yes—patriotism.
She observed that while Washington, DC had a massive protest, the “Hands Off” protests were nationwide and that was a key element of their impact and strength.
“…Holding disparate protests all over the country, not only one big protest in one place, means that people can do this again and again and again,” she said. “I mean, you look at really effective protest movements against rising authoritarianism in countries like Poland where the population essentially rose up and took their democracy back through frequent mass protests.”
She continued: “One of the things that you realize about mass, peaceful protest movements fighting against authoritarian takeover is that they have to stay peaceful and they have to be relentless. They have to frequently, frequently, frequently protest, again and again and again.”
In keeping up the momentum, supporters of democracy and the Constitution in Naples, Florida will have yet another opportunity to express their dissent and opinion on Saturday, April 19, once again at the Collier County Courthouse, this time at 10:30 am.
The protest is part of the 50501 movement to hold 50 protests in 50 states with one purpose and it is being organized by a new chapter of FREE Indivisible SWFL (Freedom, Rights, Equality, Enforcement).
The call for an April 19 protest in Naples, Fla. (Art: FREE Indivisible)
Resisting Trumpist authoritarianism
The movement to protect democracy has now become a protest movement because the formal mechanisms of government are being used by Trump and his regime to devolve the country from a democracy to a dictatorship.
When it comes to national decisionmaking, the national calculations are no longer based on policy but on personality. The country’s direction is no longer determined on the way constitutional institutions will respond according to circumstance, law and their missions but on the moods, urges and whims of the monarch on any particular day.
In contrast to the structure established by the founders in the United States Constitution, there are no longer effectively co-equal branches of government. The executive branch is being purged of all but the most subservient loyalists and the legislative branch has been subjugated except for only its most hollow, pro-forma functions.
Currently Trump and his regime are working to bring the judicial branch to heel, attacking not only the courts but the entire legal establishment, which includes the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the federal regulatory agencies and the even the nation’s private law firms, many of which are submitting. When confronted with an adverse ruling it is either ignoring or evading the court.
On April 10 the Republican-dominated US House of Representatives passed the No Rogue Rulings Act (House Resolution (HR) 1526). It aims to restrict the ability of federal district judges to issue national injunctions.
Introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-48-Calif.), the bill passed the House by a party line vote of 219 to 213. (All of Southwest Florida’s representatives voted for the bill: Reps. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.). The only Republican voting against it was Rep. Michael Turner (R-10-Ohio), representing the Dayton area).
If passed by the Senate and signed into law, HR 1526 would effectively end the ability of the courts to put any checks on unconstitutional Trump actions. It would neuter the judicial branch.
As chilling as it is, the attack on the judiciary is just one element of a takeover that is broad and intended to be thorough. The next Trump targets are increasingly at the state, county and local levels.
This was already demonstrated in Southwest Florida where localities were forced to participate in the 287(g) Program whether they wanted to or not. The program allows local law enforcement to train and work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directorate of the Department of Homeland Security to take immigration enforcement actions that are otherwise reserved to the federal government.
Even though each municipality and county had to individually vote to approve participation in 287(g), the governor and state attorney general threatened legal action and sanctions if they did not. This was what happened in Fort Myers, which was effectively coerced into approval after initial refusal.
One might ask: if only a “yes” vote was acceptable, why have a vote at all?
A vote is supposed to be a free and uncoerced expression of will, whether that vote is cast secretly by an individual in a voting booth or publicly by a city council member or a county commissioner in chambers.
The kind of legal limbo that the Fort Myers City Council found itself in last month, where a vote was required but only the “right” vote was deemed permissible, is being weaponized throughout American society. Law firms can take up causes the president opposes but they will be subject to extrajudicial sanctions if they do. The media can theoretically independently pursue the truth but will be punished with lack of access or worse if their reporting displeases the president.
Only one institution still reflects independent judgment and autonomy: the stock market. It represents the decisions of millions of investors pursuing their individual interests and it’s not designed to flatter the monarch, or bend to his delusions, or participate in his manias. It can be manipulated and quite clearly was over the past week, but it isn’t designed to bend a knee to anyone. Last week its participants clearly declared that Trump’s tariffs were economically ruinous and they continued declaring so until he reversed course and paused most of the tariffs for 90 days.
What can I do?
In these circumstances, the only thing that grassroots citizens can do is take to the streets and raise their voices.
As Maddow noted, these kinds of protests have stopped the slide to dictatorship in other countries.
Ironically, in this Americans can learn from Ukraine, whose democracy the United States has been defending up until now. In 2013 Ukrainians persistently and relentlessly protested their president Viktor Yanukovych’s increasing authoritarianism, corruption, defiance of parliament and subservience to Russia.
After months of protest, which grew increasingly violent on both sides, the protesters triumphed. In February 2014 Yanukovych fled and a new government was instituted.
Democratic institutions, the practice of democracy and constitutionalism is much deeper rooted in the United States than it was in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014. At the same time that seeming permanence has lulled Americans into overlooking the deep, fundamental threats to their democracy and Constitution represented by Trump and his regime.
On April 19, Americans have another chance to return their country to its democratic roots and the rule of law.
And that applies in Naples and Southwest Florida no less than anywhere else, including Washington, DC.
The lights of London outside Parliament. (Photo: British Museum)
April 3, 2025 by David Silverberg
As dusk fell and the darkness gathered on August 3, 1914, Edward Grey, Britain’s foreign secretary, was standing at the window of his office with John Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette. On the mall below them men with torches were lighting the gas-fueled street lamps.
Germany had just declared war on France. Austria-Hungary had already declared war on Serbia. Germany had declared war on Russia. The next day Britain would declare war on Germany.
Grey turned to his friend. “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” he said.
We know that conflict today as the First World War.
Today the lamps are going out in America. They’re deliberately being quenched. The resulting darkness is very strong and overwhelming.
At this moment, the great question is what each of us can do to keep the light alive.
Here in Southwest Florida there is one small gesture that can serve as a start. On Saturday, April 5, Americans around the country are going to demand that the regime of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk keep their hands off those things that Americans hold dear: the Constitution, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, a wide variety of other issues and simply a decent, normal, life and society.
In Naples, this protest will take place at the Collier County Courthouse, 3315 Tamiami Trail, Naples, at 2 pm. It was organized and publicized by HandsOff.com, a coalition of pro-democracy, progressive groups.
Places where Hands Off protests are planned. The entire interactive map, which provides specific locations, can be accessed here. (Map: Axios)
The protest was organized long before Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday, April 2 and the stock market crash that followed. But those events and the prospect of economic catastrophe have made the Hands Off event even more urgent.
It is clear that people are alarmed, distressed and deeply concerned by what is going on, especially now that Trump’s incompetence and recklessness is reaching deep into their pocketbooks, businesses and lives.
But it also helps to take a broader, historical look at what is being threatened.
A century and its lessons
The year 1914 inaugurated a century of upheaval and slaughter that included World War I, the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism, the surge of Communism, World War II, and the Cold War. With it came the industrialized death of millions of people on battlefields, in gas chambers and in civil upheavals, revolutions and conflicts of all sorts. It saw the birth and use of the atomic bomb and creation of the terms “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”
But at least when the century came to an end some lessons had been learned: hyper-nationalism was dangerous and destructive; totalitarian authoritarianism was evil; borders couldn’t be changed by brute force; ethnic hatred and scapegoating was unacceptable; rational discussion and negotiation was better than shooting and bloodshed; all people are created equal and have inalienable rights; democracy for all its flaws was the highest form of government.
There were particular lessons for the United States: isolationism didn’t work; free trade made everyone more prosperous; America was not only the beacon of human freedom, it was the leader of the free world; common concerns addressed through government action could make people safer, healthier, wealthier and benefit all.
May 8, 2025 will mark exactly 80 years since the fall of Nazi Germany.
It is hideously ironic that as we approach that anniversary, the United States is in the grip of an authoritarian president who knows absolutely nothing of the history that brought this country to this moment—and if he knows it, he’s ignoring it or worse, deliberately defiling it.
As this is written, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 1,600 points. This is happening because the previous day, April 2, Trump imposed tariffs on virtually all the other trading nations of the world, disrupting America’s business bonds with all its trading partners.
It was already apparent that Trump knew nothing of America’s past experience with tariffs. He is now deliberately ignoring—or desecrating—every lesson learned from the Great Depression.
Added to this ignorance and irresponsibility are his violations of all the other lessons of the 20th century; his threats to expand American borders by force; his ethnic hatred and racial prejudice and his mass roundups and deportations of people without due process; his tolerance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attempt to conquer the sovereign, independent, democratic state of Ukraine; and his bullying, domineering approach to all international relations.
On top of that is his domestic war against the federal government, his domination of the legislative branch of government, his threats against the media and private law firms, his indifference to law and due process, his attempt to control the judicial branch, and his weaponization of every coercive power of government that was previously restrained by law.
What is being attacked and in danger of being overturned is every single lesson of diplomacy, good governance and international peace and prosperity that was learned with blood and suffering over the previous century.
During the 20th century American presidents made great contributions to the peace of the world based on the American experience. Woodrow Wilson proposed the 14 points that offered some basis for negotiating a post-World War I peace and helped lead a war-weary world beyond old imperialistic empires. Instead of the old secret horse trading and backroom deals among great powers he called for “open covenants openly arrived at” and brought sunlight into international relations. Franklin Roosevelt led the fight against Fascism and built the foundation for the United Nations and a lasting peace where discussion, negotiation and mediation settled disputes. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhour helped rebuild Europe, sent humanitarian aid around the world and kept Stalinist Communism at bay.
All of these positive, humanitarian and democratic achievements are now being attacked by Trump and Musk. Their indifference to the greater good of the United States and their ignorance of the past and its lessons is simply staggering.
In their wanton destruction they’re seeking to return America to a time of racism, isolationism and insularity, with the added disgraces of authoritarianism, lawlessness and deep corruption. They’re on a path to set back the world as a whole to an era of imperialism, conspiracy and aggression.
Gradually, people are waking up to the depth of the danger they represent. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has just spent 25 hours and 5 minutes on the floor of the United States Senate to warn of these dangers.
Perhaps the protests scheduled for this Saturday will be a small step toward expressing dissent and resistance.
There’s no doubt that Trump and Musk and their minions are spreading a darkness that’s dangerous, diabolical, and destructive. But no matter how many lamps they darken, they should never be permitted to extinguish the greatest lamp of all because, as this platform has always maintained, while democracy dies in darkness…
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.
Rep. Byron Donalds and wife Erika promote “A Trump Classical Christmas” in a video posted Nov. 19. (Image: Twitter)
Dec. 6, 2022 by David Silverberg
Former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump stealthily slipped into and out of Naples, Fla., Sunday night, Dec. 4.
“The event went off as planned and both President Trump and Melania attended and spoke,” Erika Donalds confirmed in response to questions from The Paradise Progressive.
The event’s location was kept secret to all but ticket holders and was closed to the press and public. The number of attendees has not been released.
The Trumps were in town to raise funds for “school choice” and to benefit Hurricane Ian victims. The event was mounted by the Classical Education Network, a private and charter school scholarship program in partnership with the Optima Foundation, an organization headed by Erika that helps set up and run private and charter schools.
The amount of funds raised has not been released. Tickets ranged from $30,000 for a family of four to $10,000 for individuals.
The event was heavily promoted by Erika and her husband Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) in the days leading up to it.
(Editor’s note: Because both Donalds were involved, this article will use first names on second reference rather than its usual practice of using just last names.)
“We’re just honored to have the former president and the former first lady join us so make sure you get your tickets and join us,” Byron said in a promotional video on Nov. 19.
Call for suspension
The event came a day after Trump called for suspension of the US Constitution.
On Saturday, Dec. 3, Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform: “So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
As of this writing, Byron had not commented on Trump’s call for suspension of the Constitution.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-10-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Associated Press he “vehemently” disagreed with and “absolutely” condemned the remarks, saying they should be a factor as Republicans decide who should lead their party in 2024.
“There is a political process that has to go forward before anybody is a frontrunner or anybody is even the candidate for the party,” he said. “I believe that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-At Large-Wy.) tweeted “No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.”
“With the former President calling to throw aside the constitution, not a single conservative can legitimately support him, and not a single supporter can be called a conservative,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-6-Ill.) tweeted. “This is insane. Trump hates the constitution.”
Yesterday, Monday, Dec. 5, The Paradise Progressive reached out to Byron’s office for comment on Trump’s statement. Although the query was acknowledged, there was no answer.
Correction: This story corrects an earlier version based on an erroneous source.Updated Dec. 1 with precise location and new detail.
Christina “Christy” McLaughlin, 27, a two-time Republican congressional candidate and conservative activist, was arrested Friday, Nov. 25, and charged with driving under the inluence of alcohol (DUI) and damage to property, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO).
Christy McLaughlin (Photo: CCSO)
After refusing an alcohol test, McLaughlin bonded out of custody, according to CCSO.
The crash occurred at Immokalee Rd., and Lakeland Ave.
On Sunday, Nov. 27, at 2:51 pm, Mclaughlin posted on Facebook: “To my friends, I am fine.”
In 2020, McLaughlin ran for Congress in the 19th Congressional District, the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island. She was defeated in the primary election.
In 2022 she sought the Republican nomination for Congress in the 23rd Congressional District in the Miami area, which includes the towns of Weston, Davie, Pembroke Pines, and Aventura. She was defeated by Joe Budd on Aug. 23 in a nine person race. (Budd was defeated in the general election by Democrat Jared Moskowitz.)
McLaughlin has been an advocate for extreme conservative causes. She hosted an event in Naples on Dec. 3, 2020 at which Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys group, was an unannounced speaker.
Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and Republican congressional candidate Christy McLaughlin (center) pose at The Mercato in Naples, Fla., on Dec. 3, 2020. (Photo: Facebook)
She also organized a Naples welcome party for conservative activist and operative Roger Stone on Jan. 3, 2021 that featured a heavy Proud Boys presence.
Christy McLaughlin welcomes Roger Stone to Naples on Jan. 3, 2021. (Photo: Facebook.)
A Naples resident looks out over the pier after Hurricane Donna in 1960. (Photo: Collier Museum)
Oct 12, 2022 by David Silverberg
Even weeks after Hurricane Ian stormed ashore in Lee County it’s still shocking to see the debris and destruction all along the Paradise Coast. New victims are being found and new stories of survival are coming to light.
But as stunning and disorienting and overwhelming as the storm’s impact continues to be, it’s not too soon to begin thinking about building back—better.
A disaster is awful but it’s also an opportunity. With a blank slate and a clear field, post-disaster periods can also be a time for grand plans and sweeping visions.
That may seem illusory as people just find places to live, food to eat and get back basic utilities like electricity and water. But it would be a mistake to overlook the chance to reinvent, reform and uplift communities that seem at the moment to have lost everything.
The rebuilding process can be tricky, though. The inclination of people is to try to rebuild exactly what went before and to do it as quickly as possible. There is always a clash between those who want to restore and those who want to renew and getting to one or the other of those destinations can be a winding and uncertain road.
Southwest Florida is hardly the first place to face such a dilemma.
Past examples
To reach back in time and space to an example long ago and far away, this is what happened in London after the Great Fire of 1666. This immense conflagration leveled much of the ancient city, including its crowded medieval streets and tenements. In its wake, planners and architects like Chistopher Wren envisioned a new, clean and fresh London rebuilt in the latest style and according to rational principles.
However, property owners and landlords wanted to rebuild their buildings on their holdings as quickly as possible and as closely to the previous plans as they could.
What resulted was a jumble of claims and counter-claims that was so chaotic and complex that Londoners created a special court to sort through them all. It took many years to resolve them. Meanwhile, what was rebuilt was a hodge-podge of the old and the new. Christopher Wren never got his sweeping new city but he was able to design and oversee the construction of a new St. Paul’s Cathedral, the one that stands today.
Closer to home in time and location, in 1960 Hurricane Donna swept into Naples, Florida and wiped out what was largely an undistinguished and utilitarian downtown. Naples rebuilt but its retail center, Fifth Avenue, declined in the face of suburban mall competition. In 1992 local merchants brought in Miami architect and urban planner Andres Duany to take a holistic view of the town.
“The key to reviving Fifth Avenue is not solely to make it work competently from the point of view of retail,” Duany told the city council, businesspeople and community leaders in 1993. “…Fifth Avenue must be made into a community space, a civic space, a place where neighbors can come to know each other.”
Duany’s detailed planning and vision not only revived Naples’ downtown, it made it a tourist destination and created a consistent, themed urban landscape that supported vibrant retail businesses and restaurants.
This year Naples took its own hit from Hurricane Ian, with storm surge flooding Fifth Avenue. Some stores and restaurants remain closed and some will no doubt not reopen. But it’s also likely that it will revive and attract new businesses—and that revival will build on the planned concept already in place.
Another town that sought to build back better after a disaster was Greensburg, Kansas. On May 4, 2007 an E-5 tornado swept into the small town of 1,400 people, killing 12 and virtually wiping it off the landscape.
The town’s council, meeting in a parking lot, decided that when they rebuilt they would do it in as energy-efficient and environmentally friendly a way possible.
When Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) visited a few days later and learned of the plans, she told them “‘It sounds like you’re going to build it green,’” then-city manager Steve Hewitt recalled to The Washington Post in a 2020 article. “Then we walked out to a press conference and Governor Sebelius said we were going to put the green in Greensburg. We were already talking about it, but she helped brand it and gave energy to what we were trying to do.”
It should be noted that Greensburg was not the home of tree-hugging hippies. It was a conservative Republican town. But city leaders could see a reality beyond political orthodoxy.
As of 2020, according to the Post, “…Greensburg draws 100 percent of its electricity from a wind farm, making it one of a handful of cities in the United States to be powered solely by renewable energy. It now has an energy-efficient school, a medical center, city hall, library and commons, museum and other buildings that save more than $200,000 a year in fuel and electricity costs, according to one federal estimate. The city saves thousands of gallons of water with low-flow toilets and drought-resistance landscaping and, in the evening, its streets glow from LED lighting.”
Greensburg has had its challenges (among others, at one point a wind turbine collapsed in a field). Its green rebuilding was not a panacea and did not result in an economic boom. But it put the town on the world map as a visionary municipality and made it stand out among all the other places on the plains. It also attracted $120 million in disaster relief funds from Kansas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Agriculture Department. To this day it remains an American touchstone in disaster recovery and rebuilding.
A coastal Renaissance?
It may seem premature to note this but towns like Sanibel, Matlacha and most of all, Fort Myers Beach now have similar opportunities to plan their rebuilding along rational, visionary lines.
As Greensburg chose to build back better emphasizing energy efficiency and environmentalism, the towns of the Paradise Coast now have an opportunity to be world leaders in climate resilience and protection, rebuilding to take into account climate change and sea level rise—and anticipating its effects.
They have the potential to update their water management practices and systems and have an unparalleled resource in Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School.
Like Greensburg, they can also rebuild in an environmentally and energy-efficient way.
Like Naples, the rebuilt towns can be made more esthetically pleasing and pedestrian-friendly, perhaps with waterside boardwalks or promenades and a re-built Times Square in Fort Myers Beach, where “neighbors can come to know each other,” as Duany put it.
To rebuild in this fashion would attract federal support and funding that is sorely needed now. Unfortunately, before Hurricane Ian, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) line-item vetoed $1 million for Times Square renovation in Fort Myers Beach. Perhaps that state money can be restored and increased for rebuilding.
The alternative is to allow a haphazard scramble. In this case, the likely scenario is that developers and speculators swoop in and buy up distressed beach properties from desperate owners for pennies on the dollar. Building commences in a chaotic, uncoordinated way and the result is an unsightly and inefficient mish-mash of commercial and residential buildings.
Better rebuilding will take a lot of discipline, cooperation and coordination. Naples’ 1994 revival was done by the city council, business owners and residents all working together guided by a common vision. To successfully rebuild Hurricane Ian’s communities will take similar unity.
But the time to start doing this is now. The potential rewards justify the effort. If people are willing to be cooperative and patient, Hurricane Ian may be the precursor to a Paradise Coast renaissance—but only if Southwest Floridians are willing to build back better together.
Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and current Republican congressional candidate Christy McLaughlin (center) pose at The Mercato in Naples, Fla., on Dec. 3, 2020. Surrounding them are other Proud Boys including Christopher Worrell (back row, to the right of McLaughlin). (Photo: Facebook)
June 15, 2022 by David Silverberg
—Updated June 17 with Tarrio’s Seed to Table speech and photo and newly revealed congressional occupation plans.Also explanation of t-shirt in photo caption.
The Proud Boys have gotten a lot of publicity and are getting more right now as the January 6th insurrection conspiracy comes to light. They’ve been active in Southwest Florida for some time. But how much political influence do they currently have and what is their potential future impact on the region?
Events like the hearings of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, an indictment of the organization’s leader for seditious conspiracy and the prosecution of East Naples resident, Christopher Worrell, are putting the organization in the spotlight.
The Proud Boys were literally at the forefront of the Jan. 6 insurrection and attack on the US Capitol, according to the Committee. The Committee’s first hearing on Thursday, June 9, revealed that it was members of the Proud Boys who deliberately and according to a pre-set plan, first breached Capitol Police barriers, leading to the general assault on the Capitol Building.
The hearing also revealed that the Proud Boys and the similarly extreme Oath Keepers organization coordinated their efforts on Jan. 6 to deliberately stop the peaceful transfer of power. The leaders of both organizations, Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, met in a parking garage to discuss their plans.
Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes meet in a Washington, DC parking garage to coordinate plans prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Image: January 6th Committee (J6C))
Rhodes was arrested on Jan. 13, 2021 and charged with seditious conspiracy. His trial is scheduled for this September, tentatively the 19th or 26th. On June 6, Tarrio was also charged with seditious conspiracy.
Court filings have also revealed the existence of a detailed plan given to Tarrio, called “1776 Returns,” for Proud Boys to occupy congressional office buildings and the Supreme Court to stop the election certification.
In the past Proud Boys recruitment and activity found some favorable response in Southwest Florida. Even at recent events like a pro-choice march in Fort Myers on May 14, Proud Boys were present.
A Proud Boys primer
The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, one of the founders of VICE News. McInnes decided on the name based on the song, “Proud of Your Boy” from the 2011 Disney musical Aladdin. He despised the song and its sentiment as Aladdin tries to win his mother’s approval but couldn’t stop playing or thinking about it.
McInnes did not stay at the helm of the organization for long, leaving in 2017 in large part because he was advised by his lawyers that his quitting might help Proud Boys indicted in a street brawl. By that time the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had characterized the organization as “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism.”
Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native, was made leader in 2018. Although another Proud Boy, Kyle Chapman, claimed to be president in 2020, his presidency never seems to have been recognized by the organization.
The Proud Boys gained media attention for their extremism, racism and propensity for violence and apparent endorsement of President Donald Trump’s policies and positions. By the time of the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, 2020, they had achieved national prominence.
Debate moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would urge white supremacist groups that inflamed violence at nationwide protests to “stand down.”
“Give me a name,” said Trump and the first name supplied by candidate Joe Biden was Proud Boys.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem,” Trump said.
The mention on national television catapulted the Proud Boys to the forefront of media attention and Tarrio said it prompted a tripling of memberships.
Enter Naples and Southwest Florida
After the election, Tarrio was in Naples on Dec. 3, 2020 to address a fundraising dinner for the Republican candidates in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. The dinner was at The Counter in the Mercato in Naples and was organized by Christine “Christy” McLaughlin, a Republican candidate for Congress who was defeated in the party primary that August (and is now running for the Republican nomination in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District).
Although John DiLemme, founder of the Conservative Business Journal, was the featured speaker, Tarrio was the unannounced speaker. Pre-event publicity for the gathering never mentioned that Tarrio or the Proud Boys would be present.
Wearing a t-shirt that stated: “Kyle Rittenhouse did nothing wrong,” Tarrio spoke to the gathering for about five minutes.
Enrique Tarrio addresses an audience in Naples on Dec. 3, 2020. (Photo: Facebook)
Tarrio’s speech did not call for violence and simply explained the public aspect of the Proud Boys philosophy and went some way toward explaining their appeal, which makes it worth reprinting in its entirety:
“There is something good that has come out of the contested—in air quotes, contested—election.
“There was obvious voter fraud. They’ve practically stolen this election. But we’re not going to let them. We’re not going to go quietly.
“But there is something good that has come out of this contested—to use air quotes, contested—election and it’s shown us what’s important.
“Something beautiful that has happened…But before that, it’s so frustrating when we’re putting together events for the past four years. It takes me months of planning, months of marketing to get 500 conservatives out on the street when they could put together four to five thousand people at a moment’s notice. But the beauty of this contested election is that we’ve been able to put thousands of angry Americans on the streets. (Applause) And why are they angry?
“Because how far the Left has gone. Put together in DC with over 750,000 people on the street, we made some noise. And we’re going to do it again on December 12th. And where they mess up, where the Democrats mess up, is not that they’re attacking the President, they’re attacking the people. They’re attacking our constitutional values and that is something that we are passionate about.
“Proud Boys is just a regular group of guys. There’s nothing special about regular men. But there is something when those men have, this passion and this love for this country. Because we don’t get in the front lines because …it really pains me that it takes something like this to unite us. But they’re probably the bravest men that I’ve ever met in my life.
“One thing that we can’t forget is that we can never let evil take root. We can never give up and we can never give up on the president.
“We’re together here, today and we should continue to do this and we should continue to take the inspiration that we’ve been given to continue going out on the streets, not maintain this from the couch. We cannot maintain this from our phones. It’s unrealistic. We need to make noise, we need to be …If you can make it, if you can get to DC on Dec. 12th I ask you guys, I beg you to please come out. Because there’s so much to fight for. There’s so much work to do.
“I’ve been an activist for about 18 years and I never, I never thought that I would ever see an election as electric as 2016, or as important as 2016. But here we are in 2020 and boy, was I wrong.
“1776 will commence again. We need, we need as many people as active as possible and it’s beautiful that we’re here today at a bar because this country was started—a lot of people forget—this country was started at a tavern called the Green Dragon Tavern by a regular group of people who drew a blueprint of what our country is today.
“Our forefathers didn’t envision all this view, this is not what they wanted, this is all just a plus. All they wanted was to create a country where they could practice their religion freely, be free from tyranny and a place to raise their kids with their own values and not be bothered. And I’m thankful for that, thankful for that every day. Those ideas are under attack right now.
“So one thing that people tell me is what does it take to be a Proud Boy? So in the past I would give them the West Side, I’d tell them where to go but I think this has become more than an organization, this has become a movement.
“When does standing up for your country become something wrong? So we, right now, regardless of anything, I want you guys to repeat after me. I’m going to induct you guys right now.
“I’m a western chauvinist. And I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. We’re all Proud Boys. Thank you so much.”
(At the time The Paradise Progressive reached out to the management of The Counter, Kahala Management in Scottsdale, Ariz., to determine whether it was aware of Tarrio’s attendance and had any involvement in it. No answer has ever been received.)
Following the speech and the campaign event, Tarrio and McLaughlin posed for a group photograph (seen above). There are six Proud Boys in the photo, with Tarrio and McLaughlin in the center. Three of the Proud Boys are making a “white power” gesture with their hands. (The pinky, ring finger and middle finger up to signify a “w” and the thumb and forefinger meeting to signify a “p” in what used to be the “OK” gesture.)
In the back row on the right was Proud Boy Christopher “Chris” Worrell (more about him later).
An unidentified man, Tarrio and Worrell converse at the Dec. 3, 2020 event in Naples. (Photo: FBI)
The following night, Dec. 4, Tarrio addressed a crowd at Seed to Table, the market owned by outspoken conservative Alfie Oakes, and a frequent venue for far-right personalities.
Enrique Tarrio at Seed to Table. (Image: Anonymous)
Tarrio was introduced by McLaughlin, who said she had met him and the Proud Boys during the Million MAGA March on Nov. 15, 2020 when, she said, the Proud Boys had protected marchers from Antifa, the anti-fascist movement.
In this speech Tarrio revealed some personal history when he said that relatives of his in Cuba had been killed during the Cuban revolution by Communist guerrillas on the orders of Che Guevara when they refused to allow their farm to be used as forward position. Tarrio accused Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY) and President Joe Biden of concealing their socialist and Marxist intentions as Guevara did in Cuba.
“In order to save the West we must replicate the minds of those who have its best interests at heart,” he said. “We must inspire more. We must inspire more people to follow us, inspire more people to lead us, inspire more people to do the things that are necessary to save this country. To make America great again.”
This speech was also more explicitly pro-Trump than in his Mercato appearance. In a foreshadowing of what would come, he said the Proud Boys were not going to allow the theft of the election.
“The most important thing we can do is stand by him,” Tarrio said of Trump. “So when he said ‘stand back and stand by,’ we didn’t take it as ‘stand by at the ready,’ we took it as ‘stand by me’ and we have. We’ve stood by the president since day one.”
Welcoming Roger Stone
Proud Boys were next in evidence locally on Jan. 3, 2021 when Roger Stone was welcomed to Naples in an event organized by McLaughlin.
Roger Stone is a far right activist and political operative whose political involvement goes back to the 1970s. He was an ardent supporter of Trump’s candidacy.
In 2018 Stone approached the Proud Boys for personal security and announced in a Facebook video: “Hi, I’m Roger Stone. I’m a Western chauvinist. I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world,” making him a “first-degree” member, according to some Proud Boys, although he subsequently announced he was not a member.
Stone was arrested by the FBI in January 2019 on seven counts connected with the investigation of Russian election interference by Robert Mueller. He was convicted in November. His 40-month sentence was commuted by Trump in July 2020 and he was fully pardoned on Dec. 23, 2020
Stone had lived in Florida since 2014, first in Miami, then in Fort Lauderdale but he traveled across the state, first in August 2020 after his commutation and then on Jan. 3, 2021 when, post-pardon, he was welcomed with a street corner rally organized by McLaughlin that took place at the corner of Rt. 41 and Pine Ridge Rd.
Roger Stone and the Proud Boys in Naples on Jan. 3, 2021. Worrell is to Stone’s right, making the “white power” sign. (Photo: Twitter)
One of the purposes of Stone’s visit was to encourage a demonstration at the Naples home of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to demand he oppose the certification of “fraudulent electors” who would certify Joe Biden’s election as president on Jan. 6.
Christy McLaughlin on a ladder welcomes Roger Stone to Naples on Jan. 3, 2021. Note the Proud Boys flag to her left. (Photo: Facebook)
Another purpose of the Stone event was to exhort people to attend the big “Stop the Steal” rally scheduled for Jan. 6 in Washington, DC. As Trump so notoriously told his followers: “Be there. Will be wild!”
Chris Worrell
Proud Boy Chris Worrell, 53, a resident of East Naples, may have been in the back row when he attended the Tarrio speech in Naples but he was very much on the front line of the rioters when they attacked the Capitol.
As revealed by the Jan. 6 Committee, about 200 to 300 Proud Boys left the rally on the Ellipse before Trump spoke to march to the Capitol, where, as they had planned, they breached the first police barriers at the Peace Circle, opening the way for the general assault.
In the newly released video from the Committee, Worrell plays a prominent role at the Capitol grounds. As police equip themselves in a staging area, Worrell, in a heavily equipped combat vest, screams at them: “Don’t make us go against you!” and “These are our streets!”
On Jan. 6 in Washington, DC, Christopher Worrell tells police “These are our streets!” (Image: J6C)On Jan. 6 in Washington, DC, Christopher Worrell tells police : “Don’t make us go against you!” (Image: J6C)
Worrell’s alleged involvement in the riot was extensively documented in a 2021 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warrant for his arrest on charges of illegally entering a government building, impeding and interfering with government business, carrying “a deadly or dangerous weapon” (chemical spray) while committing acts of violence, for “willfully and knowingly utter loud, threatening, or abusive language” in the Capitol building to disrupt or impede congressional business and using or carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon in the Capitol.
Chris Worrell allegedly uses a chemical spray against police during the Capitol riot. (Photo: FBI)
On June 1, a new, superseding indictment was filed against Worrell by a grand jury in Washington, DC. It added charges of obstructing, impeding and interfering with a law enforcement officer in the conduct of his duties, using the spray against government officials, and added charges against another rioter, Daniel Scott.
Worrell’s lawyer, Alex Stavrou, the third to handle the case, told the Naples Daily News that “The video showing Mr. Worrell is an untruth and incomplete edit purposely done for the purposes of spreading misstatements and falsehoods and trying to control public opinion about Mr. Worrell and others who were at January 6 so as to portray them in a false light.” He added: “He has not been charged with sedition, nor is there any expectation he will.”
Worrell was arrested by the FBI on March 12, 2021 and was initially jailed in Washington, DC, in part due to threats he issued on Facebook against potential witnesses against him. However, he pleaded that his medical conditions, including an alleged case of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, major dental problems and a broken hand he said was improperly treated while in federal custody, merited his release. After some dispute he was placed under house arrest in Naples under a variety of restrictions.
On April 26, he appeared before the Collier County Commission at one of its regular meetings to ask commissioners’ assistance.
“Good morning, Commissioners,” he began. “I am Christopher Worrell, Political Prisoner 377183.”
Christopher Worrell addresses the Collier County Board of Commissioners. (Image: CCBC)
Worrell emotionally recounted the arrest: “They deployed flash-bang grenades, parked a SWAT tank at the front of my entrance to my door, and held my wife at gunpoint for hours and I wasn’t even home,” he said.
Several times he choked up and wept.
“Due to my blatant civil rights violations I am now not just fighting for my rights and the rights of others, I am fighting for my life,” he said.
When he finished, Commissioner Rick LoCastro, District 1, applauded and said he would meet with Worrell and direct him to the proper officials, since his was a federal indictment beyond the scope of the county commission’s authority.
Worrell is scheduled to be arraigned on the superseding indictment charges on Friday, June 17.
Analysis: Past their peak?
In Southwest Florida, the most recent public appearance of Proud Boys as a group came on May 14 when several Proud Boys came to counter a pro-choice Bans Off Our Bodies demonstration in Fort Myers.
Proud Boys counter-protest at a pro-choice demonstration in Fort Myers, Fla., on May 14, 2022. The acronym FAFO on the t-shirt stands for “fuck around and find out.” (Photo: Alathea Shapiro)
That spasm of protest notwithstanding, overall, it appears that the Proud Boys movement and organization may have peaked and be in decline—for the moment.
A Proud Boy at Patriot Fest in Naples, Fla., on March 19, 2022. (Photo: Author)
It appeared most formidable after its founding in 2016 when it was a shock troop on the leading edge of President Donald Trump’s cult of personality. The fact that it was mentioned by name during a presidential debate and essentially endorsed by Trump himself established its place in the media firmament. There seemed no limit or restraint on its activities—or the threat it presented.
But the group no longer has the sanction and support of a president of the United States. Its top five members have been indicted for seditious conspiracy. The Jan. 6 Committee is exposing its leading—literally—role in the Capitol attack and other activities, violence and even sedition. In Canada it has been designated a terrorist group.
Despite its claims of racial inclusion its members keep putting up those “white power” hand signs, revealing their racism.
A Proud Boy gives the “white power” sign at a counter-demonstration in Fort Myers, Fla., May 14, 2022. (Photo: Alathea Shapiro)
In general, the Proud Boys now appear to be outside the cultural zeitgeist and their positions and attitudes seem outmoded and obsolete.
They’re even being mocked on late-night comedy shows. (Stephen Colbert: “I gotta tell you: seeing those guys arrested makes this boy proud,” he said in a monologue on June 8. As for a Proud Boys rule limiting masturbation to once a month, “that’s going to make those 20 years in prison seem pretty long. But I do understand why they’re so angry.”)
To be an overt Proud Boy now is to invite public mockery, law enforcement monitoring and potential arrest rather than inspiring the fear and respect they crave—both nationally and locally.
In a local context, the weeping, self-pitying performance of Christopher Worrell before the Collier County Commission hardly exemplified the masculinity and strength the Proud Boys attempt to project. (And it is worth noting that Worrell’s desire for clemency based on his health concerns hardly extended to his concern for the health or well-being of the police he allegedly attacked on Jan. 6.)
Nor were the current Proud Boys who appeared in Fort Myers on May 14 exactly the most impressive specimens of the species.
What usually happens to extreme ideological movements during periods of decline or eclipse is that they fracture and factionalize. In its short history, the Proud Boys went through multiple chairmen and even its founder has disavowed it. Now this very small group will likely engage in blame and recrimination and fragment around competing extremist would-be leaders as it faces new challenges.
Could it revive? Certainly. But that revival appears far off. If Trump runs for president in 2024 Proud Boys could mobilize again. They may even revivify if there’s a conservative wave at the polls this year. Even then, though, establishment politicians are unlikely to identify with them the way Trump did in 2020. The media will be merciless in exposing and condemning them. They’ve become an electoral liability rather than an asset.
If anything, the Proud Boys resemble the Nazis who were disgraced and demoralized after their failed 1923 putsch. Though the subsequent Nazi movement built the undisciplined, street-brawling Brown Shirts organization in the years afterwards, they became inconvenient and even threatening to Adolf Hitler’s leadership. As a result, they were eliminated in the purge that became known as the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
Such is often the fate of violent, extremist, fringe organizations. Once they’re no longer useful they’re discarded by the people who use them for their own ends. Further, if past is any prologue, no one discards those who proved loyal in the past but are inconvenient in the present more than Donald Trump.
Perhaps the truest verdict on the Proud Boys is best contained in the biblical proverb: “Pride goeth before a fall.”
The Paradise Progressive 