Why the Florida Democratic Party Fails

I read a Tampa Bay Times article in the Miami Herald today, July 5th, 2016, about the fading Democratic Party  It always amazes me that our skilled and knowledgeable democratic Florida strategists just don’t get it, even over the course of years of negative trending, when we should be growing.

Florida has one political party, for better or worse with a branded identity. That’s the Republican Party. They make sure that the electorate knows what they stand for. I learned long ago that people want to know what their beliefs and even their values should be. Why do you think that Trump is trending as he is with a now solid, but hopefully small, base? Thanks to him, bigotry is out in the open and unafraid to speak up. Trump opened the door by enunciating the fears and frustrations; the anger and jingoistic frustrations of a population. Even Marco Rubio couldn’t beat that in his own home state.

For almost 20 years, the Florida Democratic Party has avoided touting the principles and values of a Democrat. We have had leadership that has basically said that Democratic candidates should do all of the individualized party promotion. Our candidates, particularly for statewide office, go up against candidates who enunciate the principles and identity of their conservative movement and we lose, not just every time, but increasingly, from election cycle to election cycle.

We rely on the mass of self identified Democrats for our elections and seem to think that voter registration drives alone will tilt the scales. We don’t effectively go after independent voters who are unable to find a satisfactory political identity. They go to “unaffiliated” in droves. We don’t go after identified Republicans who just don’t understand that they are voting against their own best interests. How do you think that Rick Scott got elected? Consider also that the population of voting age individuals has grown  by almost 2 million from 2008 to the present, but our number of voters, according to that article, has increased by only 800,000. Why register if you don’t identify with the Republicans and don’t know the other choice?

If the Democratic Party of Florida does not begin to promote our Democratic principles and identity through a smart media campaign, this party will never enjoy the strength and political power that is so richly suited to the growing demographics of Florida. It’s time to stop the complacency and self-delusions.

Big Mistake: Don't Fire Rahm Emanuel

I grew up in Chicago and I know Chicago politics. The original Mayor Richard J. Daley couldn’t control the police. Blaming a strong mayor and demanding his resignation, just when the police union is vulnerable is a fundamental political strategy error. Mayor Emanuel’s resignation would be followed by a weakened political structure until there could be elections and Emanuel would necessarily be replaced by a weaker Mayor. The time needed to accomplish this deficient political shift would create dead time and an opportunity for the police union to regroup, including assertion of the rank and file as an election force able to manipulate a successful mayoral candidate. And there is the real problem: the power of the police union and their rank and file officers wagging the dog.

I can think of no political action dumber than forcing Rahm Emanuel to resign, just when he has the forces behind him for meaningful reform of the police command structure and a measure of control over the police union and their rank and file.

B'nai B'rith Where Are You

Where is B’nai B’rith when ethnic hatred is rearing its ugly
head and we have a presidential candidate campaigning using an Adolph Hitler
playbook strategy to promote his campaign of hate and fear. It is not Jews…this
time. It is Muslims who are the target. But how is that different? We can no
longer say it can’t happen here. It is about to unless all of the
anti-defamation organizations of whatever religion, race or ethnicity stand and
denounce what is happening right here in our own America. Can we wait until the
“incidents” of Muslim hate become a krystalnicht? Or should we wait until civil
liberties are suspended and communities are relocated for the security of the
nation. Already, the voices of hate and fear want to exclude suffering refugees
because of who they are. How does that differ from when it was Jewish refugees
being denied?

Where is B’nai B’rith?

I have not heard your voice. The voice of my people

Republican Shame

So let me see if I get this? The Republican Party, now so very unified, has passed legislation in the Senate to deprive millions of Americans of access to medical care due to poverty, limited income or pre-existing conditions by shutting down Obamacare. The same legislation would deprive millions of American women access to essential medical care by shutting down Planned Parenthood as punishment for the 3% of their services that go to abortion. All of this for ideological reasons.

At the same time, the Republican Party has asserted that there will be no consideration of gun law legislation in the wake of mass shootings of innocent people, most recently in San Bernardino. They blame mass shootings on the mentally ill, a disenfranchised and helpless population and on domestic Muslims. We never know which Muslims. There are certainly good Muslim citizens in this country, but how can we tell which ones? the Republican Party will make sure that suffering Muslim Syrian refugees cannot find sanctuary in this great country.

Clearly, the language of the Second Amendment is simple and clear enough that those touting the right to bear arms also know that the same right bears the limitation of regulation for "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...". Clearly, it was never intended that everybody getting a gun can have one without responsibility and accountability. The resistance to gun law regulation has nothing to do with the Constitution. It is ideological.

Again and again, the Republican Party solution seems to be to marginalize vulnerable people in our society by doubt and fear. The very same tactics that Hitler used to attain power. Shame on them and everyone who chooses to support this kind of thinking.

And we wonder how ISIS can attract recruits to their ideological movement from among the marginalized Muslim populations around the world? Is there a difference in their political strategies?

By the way, all of the comments about the Republic Party above are in today's newspaper. I would find it shameful to support that political party in any way given just those three planks of today's political agenda.

Speaker Boehner's invitation violates his oath of office

John Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu was a prepared and a deliberate move to undermine the Presidency. Only the President is Constitutionally charged with the conduct of foreign policy with the advise and consent of Congress. Not the other way around. Speaker Boehner has violated his oath of office. Netanyahu is prepared and agreed to abet Speaker Boehner to disrespect the Presidency of this country.

President Obama and the State Department ought to advise Prime Minister Netanyahu that he is not welcome in the United States under these circumstances and there ought to be a threat to recall our ambassador and to expel Israel's ambassador if Netanyahu insists upon this path. Then there needs to be talks to heal the damage that has been done here by the Speaker and the interference with the protocols and policies of the United States by Israel’s Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Netanyahu faces elections. It may be that he expects that this power play with Boehner and against President Obama will win him stature and votes at home. Strengthening Prime Minister Netanyahu can only be prevented if his move results in embarrassment and consequences for Israel.

Was Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a deserter?

There is no doubt. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released from Taliban captivity after five years as a hero. Within days he was branded a deserter by members of his own military unit from his last assigned base in Afghanistan. The debate is no longer one of should we have negotiated with the enemy for the release of one of our own. It has become a debate over whether we ought to have left one of our own there as a deserter.

Forgotten is that desertion is a felony criminal offense subject to legal charges and, in this as a military offense, a military trial. There are two things to bear in mind about this Bergdahl controversy. the first is that this is not about Bergdahl. It is about American principles, values and ethics. The second is that This young man, right or wrong, will be destroyed by the controversy. Condemned by politicians and media, both hungry for attention with little concern for fair justice.

Just as a matter of argument, Bergdahl may have gone off base for any number of reasons. He is reported to have described the situation on his base by characterizing his unit as a bunch of undisciplined backstabbers before his last walk off base. That leaves us with a possibility that Sgt. Bergdahl left his base because he could not tolerate the behavior of his unit. It is unlikely that he left the base on some sort of leave. It is pretty clear that he did go AWOL, and apparently not for the first time. But did he intend to be captured by the Taliban? That might be construed as desertion. If he intended to return to base after some time to himself, that would just be AWOL.

There is no report that Sgt. Bergdahl allowed himself to be used for propaganda. He was known to the military as the Taliban's sole American captive. If soldiers were lost trying to recover Sgt. Bergdahl in the early days of his captivity, could that have been due to their lack of training, discipline or competence as soldiers? Bergdahl was certainly, from all reports, "different" from the men in his unit. Five years later, a few of his comrades in arms brought shame to their unit by greeting Sgt. Bergdahl's release with condemnation of him as a deserter. That condemnation lends truth to the negative characterization of Bergdahl's unit and perhaps some credibility to Bergdahl's strange behavior.

Fort Lauderdale - City Without a Heart

What makes Fort Lauderdale a city that anyone would want to live in or be a part? This is a city with political leadership that over and over again proves itself offended by the needs of its most needy. Fort Lauderdale has a way to deal with those who may be described as “the least of us”; those with few resources and little political power.  There was the shame of Fort Lauderdale’s “Tent City” that lasted for five years in the 1990’s offering no services and parking lot like spaces on bare asphalt for the homeless. That blight ended in 1998 by a city imposed shutdown. Broward County had opened a homeless shelter*.

The City Commission remains a morally challenged elected institution. There was the recent solution to the homelessness problem by passing an ordinance that would allow the city to confiscate private property from homeless people. The new ordinance also enables the city to arrest its own homeless citizens to get them off the streets. No the city will not provide social or vocational services, a shelter or a nutrition program. The solution to homelessness in Fort Lauderdale is to drive these impoverished people out.

It  does not end there. The City Commission is engaged in a continuing battle to keep the Henderson Mental Health Center from building a facility in the City. They are engaged in the same effort to drive off BARC, the addictions recovery program operated by Broward County. It would be the same for the Sexual Assault Recovery Center if it were not being used as leverage to prevent BARC from the same large property to place their new recovery center. These facilities are all proposed for properties that are properly zoned and that are not in residential areas. There is minimal neighborhood opposition for any of these worthy projects. There is just the heartless City Commission that does not want to see services for the most needy among us to be served in their city.