President’s Message

Many of you will have already voted in the Primary before you read this and I expect we will have chosen good Democratic candidates for federal, state and local office. We know we have at least one good candidate already elected to the Sarasota School Board. But while the Primary election is important, the General election in November this year is crucial, nowhere more so than in Florida.

The economic recession (unemployment) and the national debt are the major issues for national elections. Both of these have been caused primarily by Republican policies. The recession occurred while Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House, and was due to their deregulatory policies. Most of our accumulated national debt was created under Reagan and the two Bush Presidents, largely due to massive tax cuts and the unjustified and unnecessary Iraq war. Republican polices have led to a historic accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few at the top, and that in itself has contributed to the recession as well as making economic recovery harder to achieve. Unlike money in the hands of middle or lower income persons, most of the billions flowing to the very wealthy does not get spent, and may not even get invested in the U.S.

It is true that the Obama administration is generating large additional deficits, but these are directed at helping economic recovery, not at favoring the wealthy. The Democratic efforts to revive the economy are being deliberately sabotaged by the Republicans in Congress in order to gain political advantage. They want economic recovery to fail because they believe that will enhance their chances in November. There is no way to explain Republicans’ policy of unanimous votes against any and all Democratic proposals except as a politically inspired tactic.

In spite of these cynical tactics, Democrats have managed to pass several major pieces of legislation, including Health Insurance reform, Financial reform, Fiscal Stimulus, extended unemployment benefits, and, most recently, $26 billion of aid for states to help with education and Medicaid programs. These programs would have been stronger had it not been for the monolithic opposition by Republicans.

As President Obama said recently, Republican strategy is to count on voter amnesia. People tend to blame the administration in power for all problems and to forget or ignore how these problems originated. Republicans have been extremely effective at taking advantage of this and at fostering the misconception that Obama’s policies, not Republican derelictions, are responsible for our problems.

Even many Democrats have been misled into accepting the Republicans’ perversion of the facts. Other Democrats are disappointed that Obama has not met their expectations. If the result is that Democratic voters stay home in November, we will see a greatly weakened Democratic majority in Congress or conceivably even a Republican majority. Either of these will be taken by the Republicans as a validation of their objectives, tax reduction, cuts in social programs, hard line on immigration, social issues, foreign policy, etc. That is why it is critically important for us to work at getting out the Democratic vote.

For Democrats in Florida, the statewide elections and the ballot referendums are of overwhelming significance this year. It is a foregone conclusion that with the current gerrymandered election districts, the Republicans will continue to control the state legislature for the next two years. We can hope to make some inroads, with excellent candidates like Nancy Feehan to take on do-nothing, offshore drilling supporters like Doug Holder, but the game is heavily rigged in favor of the opposition. However, the statewide offices, governor, attorney general, CFO and agriculture commissioner are not affected by gerrymandering. With significantly more  Democrats than Republicans statewide, we have an excellent chance of winning some of these seats, if Democrats turn out to vote. Likewise for passage of the Fair Districts referendum.

If we elect Alex Sink as governor, she can exert some control on the legislature. Otherwise, we know that we will see a repeat of the awful legislative initiatives on education and abortion that were vetoed last time by Governor Charlie Crist. And we can expect more terrible legislation, including offshore drilling. If the Fair Districts initiative does not pass, the Republicans’ stranglehold on Florida will be locked in place and essentially, they no longer need to care about the wishes of the people. The special interests with the money will reign supreme.

On the other hand, if the Fair Districts initiative passes, Democrats have a good chance of gaining a majority in Florida in 2012 or thereafter. And that possibility will make Republicans more responsive to the people even in the interim period, especially if the governor is a Democrat.

To conclude, if we do not succeed in electing a Democratic governor and in passing the Fair Districts initiative, it will be a black, black day for Democrats in Florida and we will have only ourselves to blame. There are three keys to a Democratic victory on these as well as other important ballot items, and those are turnout, turnout and turnout.

 

Henry Bright