Standing with Publix and the Second Amendment tomorrow and in the future
Parkland survivor David Hogg — currently one of the nation’s most outspoken, anti-gun advocates — is making headlines yet again. He’s unsuccessfully called for boycotts of Fox News host Laura Ingram and then BlackRock and Vanguard but why let those failures keep him down if at first and second times you don’t succeed Hogg clearly believe you should try again. This time he’s calling for the boycott and a “die in” of Publix supermarkets tomorrow (Friday, May 25, 2018), because the central-Florida based grocer supported Rep. Adam Putnam, an NRA-endorsed candidate, in the state’s gubernatorial election. His tweet says he’s going to be crashing his local stores but invites others to join at other locations. Meaning even here in Alabama we may see an activists or two (however unlikely) in our stores. .@Publix is a #NRASellOut In Parkland we will have a die in the Friday (the 25th) before memorial day weekend. Starting at 4pm for 12 min inside our 2 Publix stores. Just go an lie down starting at 4. Feel free to die in with us at as many other @Publix as possible. — David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 23, 2018 While I wholeheartedly disagree with both Hogg’s message and his tactics (hello, encouraging people to go lay down in grocery stores is absurd) I do applaud the fact that he’s engaged. I’ve said it before that my support of constitutional rights, in this case the First Amendment doesn’t just apply to those I agree with. I’m all for protecting the rights of those I disagree with if only the other side felt the same. That said, Hogg’s right to assembly, in this case, is up to Publix what happens once they’re there. I for one and hoping they don’t idly stand by while people make a scene in their stores and disrupt the lives of those simply going about their daily business trying to feed themselves and their families. Even the leftist (or are they progressive?) organization, ACLU will tell you that when protesting on private property the property owners have the right to tell you to leave. I see this as a as call to arms (figuratively speaking of course – Disclaimerfor those who would say I’m encouraging otherwise) to those of us who support Second Amendment rights and Publix’s right to support the candidates of their choice, to show up at our local Publix tomorrow and spend our money in opposition to the sideshow that Hogg is trying to create. What Hogg (or more accurately the gun control lobby and agenda pushers whispering in his ear) is focusing on is Publix’s political donations. What he misses is how much Publix does for the communities around its stores. Not just in Florida where they are based, but in every state, including Alabama where they have locations. I’ve researched Publix and its charitable giving. The company gives a TON of money to the Yellowhammer State and to entities that support our local communities. Here are just a few highlights of their Alabama-based charitable giving in just the last year: $500,000 in Alabama to help alleviate hunger as part of a wider, $5 million donation Four Alabama Habitat for Humanity affiliates supported to build houses and foster hope as part of a $5 million donation $569,100 to the Central United Way of Alabama Join me tomorrow in shopping at one of Publix’s 68 Alabama stores in a public show of support to thank them for all that they do in our neighborhoods. We cannot let our voices be drowned out by the voices who fail to to offer true and real solutions to the tragic shootings happening in our schools, but instead are painting good companies like Publix as bad guys.
Jac VerSteeg: Political fratricide model fails Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio was convinced the Fratricide Model of politics was his ticket to the top. Now, after one brilliant win and one spectacular loss, the Florida senator claims to have renounced the model. He will not, he says, run for governor in 2018. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam need not fear a Rubio challenge. We won’t have Marco Rubio to kick around anymore? Political fratricide worked for Rubio in 2010 when he broke in line to oppose and defeat Gov. Charlie Crist for a U.S. Senate seat. He was helped along by that year’s Tea Party revolt and the fact that newly Independent Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek split the no-to-Rubio vote. Just as angry as the 2010 Tea Party faithful but with a new idol, Florida GOP primary voters this month delivered the final blow to Rubio’s second attempt at exploiting the Fratricide Model. They gave Donald Trump a victory in every county except Rubio’s Miami-Dade refuge. What effect did Rubio’s fratricidal challenge to his mentor (and his better) Jeb Bush have on the contest? What if Rubio had shown respect, bided his time and supported Bush? No way to know, but Florida might have been the firewall for Bush and the anti-Trumpers that it so dismally failed to be for Rubio. I do not think that every intra-party challenge can be characterized as an example of the Fratricide Model. It’s appropriate for rivals in the same party to let voters decide between them. But when one of the challengers has not earned the right to vie for an office and, further, damages the party or the office he seeks, that is political fratricide. And that is what Rubio has done. He knocked off Crist – once a Republican rising star – and proceeded to disdain the Senate seat he won. As a result, the seat easily could go to a Democrat this November. Then, of course, Rubio challenged Jeb. After helping to undermine the clear choice of the GOP establishment, Rubio proceeded to run a horrible campaign. The overall effect boosted Trump’s prospects and hurt the Republican Party. What will Rubio do next? He claimed, upon returning to work in the Senate – if someone so often a no-show can be said to “return to work” – that, in addition to eschewing a gubernatorial bid, he would not be anybody’s veep. You never know what to make of a politician’s claim that he won’t seek this or that office. How many times did now-House Speaker Paul Ryan claim that he would not accept the post? (By the way, Ryan also insists he won’t allow himself to be nominated at a fractured GOP convention this summer. Right.) For Rubio, who has been assailed for overweening ambition, what better strategy than to affect a new humility and express no ambition whatsoever for political office? Is it really believable that if, by some miracle, he emerges as a vice presidential candidate – perhaps for Ryan at a brokered convention – Rubio would turn down the chance? It is more believable that Rubio does not plan to run for governor in 2018. Not because he doesn’t lust after political office, but because he was so badly burned this year by the Fratricide Model. Even Rubio should be able to see that he is less qualified and less deserving than the premier GOP candidate for the job, Putnam. Putnam served in the Florida Legislature and then went on to serve in Congress for 10 years. Unlike Rubio, Putnam actually performed his job diligently and rose to be the third-highest ranking Republican in the U.S. House. Then, rather than stay in a secure seat in federal office, Putnam chose to return to state politics and has been elected and re-elected as Ag commissioner. It is worth emphasizing that Putnam’s chosen trajectory brought him voluntarily back to Florida. Rubio’s chosen path was to attempt to move into the White House. Only a failure to reach that goal could bring him the “consolation prize” of a gubernatorial campaign. And even if he were elected governor, he would just treat it as a stepping stone back onto the national stage. Could Rubio beat Putnam? Considering his drubbing on the Ides of March, the likely answer is no. His decision not to run for governor easily could be a case of sour grapes rather than an example of his newfound humility. Since Rubio decided to give up his Senate seat, it is hard to see any political path that puts him back on that stage. His best option? Hope that anybody but Trump wins and that Rubio could find a spot in a Ted Cruz or John Kasich administration and bide his time. But does anyone think that if Rubio saw a chance to return to political prominence he would hesitate to seize it even if it meant running over one of his Republican brethren? Oh, brother. *** Jac Wilder VerSteeg is a columnist for The South Florida Sun Sentinel, former deputy editorial page editor for The Palm Beach Post and former editor of Context Florida.
Marco, it’s the length of your coffin that matters
One of my favorite short stories is Tolstoy’s classic, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?“ In it, Tolstoy introduces us to Pahom, an ordinary Russian with extraordinary ambitions who wants to own vastly more land. Satan arranges for Pahom to meet a landowning rural family, the Bashkirs, who make the striving Pahom a remarkable offer: Pahom can walk across their vast holdings with a shovel and mark the territory he wishes to own, and if he makes it back to the starting point by sunset to complete the circle, he will own everything within the boundary he marked. Pahom begins the task buoyed by his boundless greed, and by late afternoon he finds himself far from the starting point. So, he runs to the starting point to beat the setting sun, but he arrives exhausted and breathless and dies on the spot where he began. Later, Pahom is buried in a grave six feet long, and we learn at last how much land a man needs. Marco Rubio seems obsessed with size of Donald Trump’s hands, but like Tolstoy’s Pahom, Florida’s junior Senator could better spend his time pondering the wages of blind ambition. For two years, Rubio has harbored a gross miscalculation; that is, that there is no downside for him running for president. His belief was that even if he lost the primary or general election, he will have exposed the Rubio brand to donors, voters, and the media on a national stage, and that exposure alone is worth the risk of losing. But, here he is wrong, for to be exposed as a treacherous callow loser is a powerfully negative thing, and to fail to win your own state amplifies the effect even more. By the time Rubio arrives at sundown at the place where he started, he risks not only losing this race but all future races. Why do I say treacherous and callow? Treacherous, because Rubio has that lean and hungry look that drives him to turn without compunction on those who fostered his career. For almost a decade Jeb Bush was instrumental in creating a Golden Era for Republicans in Florida in which conservative programs and ideas could quickly take root and grow. Bush catalyzed nothing short of a revolution in state government where all the big pieces – education, healthcare, criminal justice, tax policy, social services — were re-imagined and branded with a conservative, forward-thinking Republican stamp. Rubio was one of the many beneficiaries of the success of these programs that allowed him to receive accolades for, frankly, victories not of his making. One would think that given this boost from Bush and the personal interest Bush took in advancing Rubio’s credibility and career, Rubio might have paused before deciding to challenge his ostensible friend and political godfather. Rubio never hesitated. He went for the kill. Callow, because Rubio is too naïve and immature to realize that there is a high price to be paid for treachery and failure. Although Bush is now out of the race, Bush’s powerful friends and supporters are not out of Florida. One of the most remarkable but least discussed aspects of this cycle has been how little support Rubio has received from the colleagues who worked with him shoulder to shoulder in the Florida legislature. It is profoundly revealing and would be to a normal person a cause for intense self-examination. (Alas, Rubio is not a normal person.) In fact, it shows that for decades to come it will be the Bush crowd, and not the Rubio gang, that will be making the business and political decisions that guide the economy and political power structure of the Sunshine State. Many of them have remarked to me that they will never forgive Marco for his heedless ambition. And, Rubio is likely to soon learn the price of high-profile failure in his home state of Florida. Bush had the smarts to get out why the getting was good, but Rubio seems determined to ride out this race until he has proven to everyone’s satisfaction that he can be defeated in Florida by the short-fingered vulgarian, Donald Trump. In the process, he has lowered himself to Trump’s level with penis jokes and spray-tan putdowns; the sort of sophomoric and un-presidential banter that that will remain in the minds of voters long after Rubio has skipped off the public stage in his high-heel boots. As a side note, I assume nobody is more pleased with Rubio’s suspension of reality than Adam Putnam who one day might have to post up against Rubio in a gubernatorial primary. If Rubio loses in Florida on March 15th, Putnam is given a powerful narrative to discount Rubio as a gubernatorial candidate going into the next election cycle. If Rubio were smart, humble, or merely had the instinct for self-preservation found in the average rodent he would get out of the race before the virtually inevitable failure he faces on his home turf in 13 days. He is behind Trump in every Florida poll (wildly in some cases), and in the deeply conservative Panhandle he is behind both Trump and Cruz. Unless lightning strikes, Rubi is going to lose, and he’s going to lose big. And the losing doesn’t end after that ignominious failure. It’s only beginning at that point. Unless he starts playing it smart, despite his remorseless striving Rubio’s political career will get at a very young age what most of us hope to delay for many decades: six feet of dirt and no more.
