Tommy Tuberville welcomes Nikki Haley to 2024 presidential race
On Monday, former South Carolina Governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has already announced his endorsement of former President Donald Trump, welcomed Haley’s entrance into the 2024 presidential race. Tuberville told reporters that she would be a “great candidate.” Tuberville favors a large GOP primary field and said that he has recently spoken with Trump and told the former President that he hopes “they all get in.” “He needs the challenge as well as anybody,” Tuberville said. “They need to work for it. They need to fight for it.” In the 2020 election, President Trump endorsed Tuberville in his Republican primary battle for U.S. Senate with former Trump Attorney General Sen. Jeff Sessions. Tuberville had spent forty years as a teacher and coach – including stints as head football coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech, and Cincinnati – prior to that 2020 first run for public office. At this point, the only announced GOP candidates for the Republican nomination for 2024 are Haley and Trump, but that is expected to change quickly. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are widely believed to be seriously looking at entering the race. According to the Hill, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are also possible presidential candidates. GOP Senators who oppose a third Trump presidential run fear that a crowded GOP primary field makes it easier for Trump to emerge as the eventual GOP nominee. “Look, we were all concerned with the fact that we had 15 or 16 or 17 individuals vying for attention in the last one,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (South Dakota) told the Hill referring to the 2016 election. “We really don’t want to see that happen again. We just don’t.” U.S. Sen. Katie Britt was endorsed by Trump in her 2022 GOP primary battle with then-Congressman Mo Brooks and war veteran and defense contractor Mike Durant. Britt, however, cannot make an endorsement in the Presidential primary because she is serving on the national Republican steering committee. Trump faced a crowded field in 2016 that included U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey Graham, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Virginia Gov. Mike Gilmore, former New York Gov. George Pataki, then Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Dr. Ben Carson. Trump won the 2016 Alabama Republican Primary despite the crowded field. Trump went on to win the Republican nomination and then beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the general election. Trump was unseated by former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020. Biden appears to be virtually unopposed at this point for the 2024 Democratic nomination for President. The 2024 Alabama Republican Primary is only 55 weeks away on March 5. DeSantis will speak to the Alabama Republican Party in Birmingham on March 9. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Parker Snider: Florida shows school choice doesn’t destroy public education
“This is the day that will go down in the annals of Florida history as the day we abandoned the public schools and the day that we abandoned, more importantly, our children.” -Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (March 25, 1999) In 1999, opponents predicted the worst when the Florida legislature first considered a meaningful school choice program. Governor Jeb Bush’s plan to offer vouchers to students in failing schools would “kill public education,” according to Leon Russell, then the chairman of the Florida Chapter of the NAACP. Howard Simon, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, likewise wrote that the program “subsidiz[ed] abandonment of the public schools and abandonment of efforts to improve the public schools.” Public education was going to be destroyed. To school choice opponents, it was that simple. This was the end. Florida did not heed their warning. Since the original program offering school choice to students in failing public schools passed in 1999, the state has made school choice more widely available over and over again. Today, many students can choose between their zoned public school, a private school paid for by a state-funded scholarship, or one of the state’s 650+ charter schools. Additionally, many students are able to transfer to a public school outside of their district or, if they desire, enroll in the Florida Virtual School. School choice has grown so much in Florida, in fact, that over 400,000 students are enrolled in schools of choice in the Sunshine State. Simply put, school choice has exploded in Florida. The public school system, if we are to believe school choice opponents, must have been obliterated. If the first school choice program in 1999 was going to kill public education, these further expansions must have done even worse. The problem for school choice opponents (and the good news for everyone else) is that public education in Florida has thrived in the presence of school choice. In 1999, Florida was testing just barely above Alabama on the NAEP, a national standardized test of a state’s public schools. Both states were well below average. Over the last twenty years, however, as Florida has increased school choice opportunities repeatedly, the state has progressed. Now Florida is no longer below average but well above it, scoring at the top of the charts in multiple subjects according to the NAEP. In fact, Florida ranks first, first, third, and eighth on the four core tests of the NAEP, once adjusted for demographics. Meanwhile, Alabama is dead last or close to last in each of these areas. It’s not just the NAEP that suggests things are going well in Florida’s public education system. The College Board announced last year that Florida ranks second in the nation for the number of students that successfully pass its college-level Advanced Placement exams. Furthermore, according to the Florida Department of Education, Florida’s graduation rate is up from 52% in 1999 to 86% today. All of this adds up to a recent ranking placing Florida as third in the nation for K-12 achievement, according to EdWeek. Alabama, on the other hand, ranks 46th. It’s hard to say Florida’s children have been “abandoned” with these numbers. And it’s impossible to argue with a straight face that school choice has “killed” public education in the state. In fact, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2020 demonstrated that the presence of school choice in Florida actually helped public schools perform better. That’s not to say that all of Florida’s advancements in education have been because of school choice–certainly, other measures, such as increased accountability and transparency, have contributed to Florida’s standing as an exemplary state in education. What is undeniable, however, is that school choice did not destroy public education. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped school choice opponents here in Alabama from using these same tired lines and predicting the same dire future. They won’t tell you how competition in other states has made public schools better. No, they’ll just say we’re abandoning our state’s children. Florida tells us that they couldn’t be more wrong. Parker Snider is the Director of Social Policy for the Alabama Policy Institute.
Senate leader, presidential candidate Bob Dole dies at 98
Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veterans, died Sunday. He was 98. His wife, Elizabeth Dole, said in an announcement posted on social media that he died in his sleep. Dole announced in February 2021 that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. During his 36-year career on Capitol Hill, Dole became one of the most influential legislators and party leaders in the Senate, combining a talent for compromise with a caustic wit, which he often turned on himself but didn’t hesitate to turn on others, too. He shaped tax policy, foreign policy, farm and nutrition programs, and rights for the disabled, enshrining protections against discrimination in employment, education, and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Today’s accessible government offices and national parks, sidewalk ramps, and the sign-language interpreters at official local events are just some of the more visible hallmarks of his legacy and that of the fellow lawmakers he rounded up for that sweeping civil rights legislation 30 years ago. Dole devoted his later years to the cause of wounded veterans, their fallen comrades at Arlington National Cemetery, and remembrance of the fading generation of World War II vets. Thousands of old soldiers massed on the National Mall in 2004 for what Dole, speaking at the dedication of the World War II Memorial there, called “our final reunion.” He’d been a driving force in its creation. “Our ranks have dwindled,” he said then. “Yet if we gather in the twilight, it is brightened by the knowledge that we have kept faith with our comrades.” Long gone from Kansas, Dole made his life in the capital, at the center of power and then in its shadow upon his retirement, living all the while at the storied Watergate complex. When he left politics and joined a law firm staffed by prominent Democrats, he joked that he brought his dog to work so he would have another Republican to talk to. He tried three times to become president. The last was in 1996 when he won the Republican nomination only to see President Bill Clinton reelected. He sought his party’s presidential nomination in 1980 and 1988 and was the 1976 GOP vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket with President Gerald Ford. Through all of that, he carried the mark of war. Charging a German position in northern Italy in 1945, Dole was hit by a shell fragment that crushed two vertebrae and paralyzed his arms and legs. The young Army platoon leader spent three years recovering in a hospital and never regained use of his right hand. To avoid embarrassing those trying to shake his right hand, Dole always clutched a pen in it and reached out with his left. Dole could be merciless with his rivals, whether Democrat or Republican. When George H.W. Bush defeated him in the 1988 New Hampshire Republican primary, Dole snapped: “Stop lying about my record.” If that pales next to the scorching insults in today’s political arena, it was shocking at the time. But when Bush died in December 2018, old rivalries were forgotten as Dole appeared before Bush’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda. As an aide lifted him from his wheelchair, Dole slowly steadied himself and saluted his one-time nemesis with his left hand, his chin quivering. In a vice presidential debate two decades earlier with Walter Mondale, Dole had famously and audaciously branded all of America’s wars that century “Democrat wars.” Mondale shot back that Dole had just “richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man.” Dole at first denied saying what he had just said on that very public stage, then backed down and eventually acknowledged he’d gone too far. “I was supposed to go for the jugular,” he said, “and I did — my own.” For all of his bare-knuckle ways, he was a deep believer in the Senate as an institution and commanded respect and even affection from many Democrats. Just days after Dole announced his dire cancer diagnosis, President Joe Biden visited him at his home to wish him well. The White House said the two were close friends from their days in the Senate. Biden recalled in a statement Sunday that one of his first meetings outside the White House after being sworn-in as president was with the Doles at their Washington home. “Like all true friendships, regardless of how much time has passed, we picked up right where we left off, as though it were only yesterday that we were sharing a laugh in the Senate dining room or debating the great issues of the day, often against each other, on the Senate floor,” Biden said. “I saw in his eyes the same light, bravery, and determination I’ve seen so many times before.” Biden ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at the White House and all public buildings and grounds until sunset Thursday. Dole won a seat in Congress in 1960, representing a western Kansas House district. He moved up to the Senate eight years later when Republican incumbent Frank Carlson retired. There, he antagonized his Senate colleagues with fiercely partisan and sarcastic rhetoric, delivered at the behest of President Richard Nixon. The Kansan was rewarded for his loyalty with the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 1971 before Nixon’s presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal. He served as a committee chairman, majority leader, and minority leader in the Senate during the 1980s and ’90s. Altogether, he was the Republicans’ leader in the Senate for nearly 11½ years, a record until Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell broke it in 2018. It was during this period that he earned a reputation as a shrewd, pragmatic legislator, tireless in fashioning compromises. After Republicans won Senate control, Dole became chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee and won acclaim from deficit hawks and others for his handling of a 1982 tax
Joe Biden pivots focus to Donald Trump amid coronavirus concerns
The new coronavirus has upended the presidential campaign at a crucial moment.
Jeb Bush, Mark Cuban: Donald Trump dragging down GOP, billionaires
President Donald Trump‘s performance in the White House will make it harder for Republicans — and billionaires — in the coming elections, two of his most prominent critics said Saturday. Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush lashed out at the Republican president during separate remarks at a summer festival in New York City’s Central Park. Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, said he may challenge Trump in 2020. “If he lasts four years, I’ll be there to kick his (butt),” Cuban declared as the young New York crowd roared. “We’ll see. I’m not making any proclamations yet.” Cuban also warned that Trump “might ruin the path” for another billionaire outsider to run for president in the future. “He’s not setting the best example,” Cuban said. After six months in office, Trump and his party have failed to enact any major legislation. His poll numbers are near historic lows and an investigation into Russian interference in the last election is focusing on his closest aides and family members. Energized Democrats hope they can capitalize on the GOP’s political struggles in next year’s midterm elections when the House majority is at stake. Bush, a regular target of Trump’s personal attacks during the 2016 Republican primary election, said he would not run for president again. He also tried to distance his party from the new president, noting that Trump was registered as a Democrat in recent years. “He’s not really affiliated with the party, just to be clear. He’s Trump,” Bush said, speaking less than a mile from Trump Tower. Bush also lamented the rise of celebrity politicians — Cuban, among them — as he pondered the future of the GOP. “We may have really talented people that are really good on TV being our leaders for a while until we sort things out,” Bush said, noting that Cuban was on Saturday’s speaking program. “Ideas and policy really matter. It’s not just about personality.” He said Republicans have “a huge opportunity” with control of the White House and both chambers in Congress. Should the GOP squander that, he said, Republicans may struggle in 2018 and 2020. Despite the criticism, Bush said he’s rooting for Trump to succeed. “I find him deeply troubling in a lot of ways. But I pray for him every night. And I pray for our country every night,” Bush said. “I care about my grandkids.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Sally Bradshaw’s bolt from GOP a sign of Donald Trump’s impact on party
Less than four years ago, the Republican Party tapped a few respected party officials to help the GOP find its way forward. This week, one of them says she’s leaving the party — driven out by Donald Trump. While not a household name, Sally Bradshaw‘s decision to leave the GOP rocked those who make politics their profession. The longtime aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was one of the five senior Republican strategists tasked with identifying the party’s shortcomings and recommending ways it could win the White House after its losing 2012 presidential campaign. Now, she says, she’ll vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton if the race in her home state of Florida appears close come Election Day. “Sally is representative of an important segment of our party, and that is college-educated women, where Donald Trump is losing by disastrous margins,” said Ari Fleischer, who worked with Bradshaw on the GOP project and was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush. “Trump has moved in exactly the opposite direction from our recommendations on how to make the party more inclusive.” Fleischer still supports Trump over Clinton. But Bradshaw is among a group of top Republican operatives, messengers, national committee members and donors who continue to decry Trump’s tactics, highlighting almost daily — with three months until Election Day — the rifts created by the billionaire and his takeover of the party. This past weekend, the billionaire industrialist Charles Koch (coke) told hundreds of donors that make up his political network that Trump does not embrace, nor will he fight for, free market principles. That’s one reason Koch‘s network, which has the deepest pockets in conservative politics, is ignoring the presidential contest this year and focusing its fundraising wealth on races for Congress. Donors and elected officials gathering at a Koch event in Colorado said they accepted the Koch brothers’ decision, even if it hurts the GOP’s White House chances. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, among the high-profile Republicans on hand, refused to endorse Trump and referenced now defunct political parties, such as the Whigs, when asked about the health of the modern-day GOP. “The party is not really what matters. It’s the principles,” Bevin told The Associated Press. Another of those in attendance, House Speaker Paul Ryan, didn’t even mention his party’s presidential nominee during his speech to the group. Yet he referenced an election he called “personality contest” devoid of specific goals or principles. Liberals and those on the political left are hardly fully united around Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, whose convention was interrupted on occasion by supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But after beating Sanders in the primaries, Clinton took steps to win over Sanders and his supporters — including agreeing to changes to the party’s platform. Trump has shown little such inclination, pushing ahead instead with the approach and policy proposals that proved successful in the GOP primary. Among the key recommendations of the post-2014 report that Bradshaw helped write was for the party to be more inclusive to racial and ethnic minorities, specifically Latino voters. One of Trump’s defining policies is his call to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and forcibly deport the millions of people — many of whom are Hispanic — living in the country illegally. Bradshaw told The Associated Press her decision to change her voter registration in her home state of Florida was “a personal decision,” with the tipping point being Trump’s criticism of the Muslim mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004. In an email to CNN, Bradshaw wrote that the GOP was “at a crossroads and have nominated a total narcissist — a misogynist — a bigot.” Her decision to leave the party isn’t “a good sign, given the role she’s played at the national level with the RNC and the high esteem in which she’s held,” said Virginia Republican Chris Jankowski, among the nation’s leading GOP legislative campaign strategists. Another member of the panel that examined Mitt Romney‘s 2012 loss is Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member from Mississippi. In a message to the AP, he joined the many Republicans who called on Trump to apologize to the family of the late Capt. Humayun Khan, a suggestion the billionaire has rejected to date. Like Fleischer, he does not plan to follow Bradshaw out of the party, but insisted that Trump must work harder to unify it. “If we are to gain anything by this, Donald Trump must show he wants to unite Americans so he can win in November and the best way to do this would be to apologize,” Barbour said. “There’s no excuse, particularly for his comments about Mrs. Khan.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Report: Sally Bradshaw says she may vote for Hillary Clinton
A prominent Jeb Bush aide has said she might vote for Hillary Clinton come November. Sally Bradshaw told CNN on Monday that she has left the Republican Party to become an independent. Bradshaw, a close adviser to Bush, also said if the presidential race in Florida is close, she will vote for Clinton come Election Day. “This election cycle is a test,” she told CNN. “As much as I don’t want another four years of (President Barack) Obama‘s policies, I can’t look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump. I can’t tell them to love their neighbor and treat others the way they wanted to be treated, and then vote for Donald Trump. I won’t do it.” Bradshaw is a longtime Bush family supporter, working first on George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign. She remained close with the family, and has served Jeb Bush in several capacities over the years, including a significant role in his 2016 presidential bid. Her comments come as Trump criticizes a family of a Muslim soldier killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Bradshaw told CNN that Trump’s remarks were despicable. Bradshaw told CNN she had been considering switching parties for a while, but Trump’s recent comments solidified her decision. She said she had worked hard to make the party “a place where all would feel welcome,” but Trump has taken the GOP in a different direction. While she told CNN she wasn’t sure who she would vote for in November, she said if the race in Florida is close she “will vote for Hillary Clinton.” She said she disagrees with her on several issues, but the country is at a crossroads and “this is a time when country has to take priority over political parties.”
8 Reasons Rick Scott is the perfect veep for Donald Trump
Rick Scott is basically as awful as Donald Trump in so many ways. But before Floridians start petitioning Trump to introduce Scott to a presidential election turnout and an embarrassing loss before Scott runs for U.S. Senate in 2018, read all eight reasons. 8) Cons. Scott didn’t build his $300-some million fortune with a fraudulent university, but he did help build a company that defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by way more, paying a record $1.7 billion fine. 7) Muslims. Scott was offending Muslims and Hispanics long before Trump descended down the escalator at Trump Tower. Scott put some of his first campaign dollars into fear mongering about Muslims in “Obama’s Mosque” near Ground Zero in 2010. Also, mic cut. 6) Hispanics. Similar to Trump, and despite all evidence, Hispanics love Scott, according to…only Rick Scott. Scott claims he “won” the Hispanic vote in 2014, despite actually losing it by 20 percent. 5) Little Marco. While Trump’s insults are infamous, Scott is doing his part in Florida. He backed Trump over Rubio (and Jeb!) and is now working against Rubio in his US Senate race, supporting mini-Trump Carlos Beruff, best known for unapologetically calling President Obama an “animal.” 4) Smarts. Trump could own Anderson Cooper‘s “RedicuList” segment, but Scott once got on it for insulting “everybody’s intelligence” trying to defend himself for using on-duty cops at campaign events. 3) Votes. Trump needs turnout to be as depressed as Jeb! after South Carolina. Scott has been hard at work, rolling back civil rights reforms that allowed nonviolent, ex-felons to vote. 2) Money. Scott won in 2014 by outspending his opponent on TV by $33,000,000. Romney lost Florida by less than 1 percent in 2012, but only outspent Obama by $17 million. An extra $16,000,000 million might have bought 29 electoral votes. 1) Florida. Trump can’t win without Florida, and Rick Scott knows how to win here. ___ Kevin Cate owns CATECOMM, a public relations, digital, and advertising firm based in Florida.
Tom Jackson: Hit that reset button already, Marco Rubio
Well past the point that it became abundantly — and, in some circles, painfully — obvious that Marco Rubio should have applied himself to the job he convinced Floridians he wanted in 2010, a fresh question has arisen: Should Rubio declare himself a candidate for re-election? The answer is: Duh. Of course, he should. This is the biggest no-brainer since Captain America rejected United Nations sanctions. It’s hard to believe he’s even hemming, let alone hawing. Listen, everyone gets that Rubio has been that “young man in a hurry” for nearly 20 years, especially those on whose hands he stepped reaching for the next rung. And he almost couldn’t be blamed for seeking the presidency, considering how establishment conservatives rhapsodized about his wonkmanship, his reform policies and his political skills. And maybe, if he’d been quicker with his wits on that New Hampshire stage, maybe the 3-2-1 strategy laid out by his strategists would have prevailed. I mean, suppose Rubio had prefaced his infamous robotic repetitions with a deft qualifier, such as, “Yes, I’m repeating myself, and I will continue to repeat myself because it doesn’t matter how you pose the question, the answer remains the same. What’s true is true: Barack Obama knows exactly what he’s doing.” This is not beyond imagining, no matter how programmed Rubio’s critics think he is. Indeed, those who know him well, and those who covered him closely during the primary, know he is perfectly capable of riffing off-script without sacrificing expertise. But that was then, and this is now, more than two months after the stinging defeat in Florida that ended — for the moment, anyway — his White House dream. And just now, Republicans defending lots of purple-state seats need to field their best team if they have any hope of maintaining their majority in the U.S. Senate. With all due respect to the political talent wrangling to become the GOP nominee — with one tin-eared exception — that team looks better if Rubio is on the roster. The idea might be growing on him, too. Tuesday afternoon, an email landed bearing Rubio’s signature and the subject line “Time to stand together.” It reads, in part, “Our liberal opponents have already launched countless attacks against many of my Republican colleagues. We must protect our Republican Senate majority. “Defeating these Democrats will only be possible if conservatives like us stand together to defend our Republican Senate.” “Stand together.” At the risk of reading way, way, way too much into a fundraising email, this hints that Mr. I’ll-Be-A-Private-Citizen is signaling a fresh course. He ought to be, anyway. With the clarity of retrospect, Rubio shouldn’t have leapt into the awful Republican scrum in the first place. Never mind that he was, with the exception of one memorable debate, clearly the best-informed candidate in the pack. I lost track of the times he fact-checked Donald Trump in real time. (An aside: The fact Rubio says he’s willing to speak nicely about Trump at the Republican National Convention is a problem for supporters who took his eviscerations of the presumptive nominee to heart, but it’s also, unfortunately, a calculated penance. We’ll be listening closely for what he does and, more important, doesn’t say.) Alas, this was not the year for facts, articulated policies or — as Jeb Bush came to appreciate and rue — deeply researched and painstakingly detailed plans to fix what ails America. This, instead, is the year a substantial chunk of voters think the presidency is a reality show. After all, how hard can it be? Barack Obama makes nuke deals with Iran, slows the retreat of glaciers, amends his namesake health plan at will and still squeezes in an afternoon 18 at Fort Belvoir Golf Club. What’s a first-term senator encountering an unanticipated detour to do? Reroute, already. Hit the reset button. Immediately. Not just because it’s what’s in Rubio’s best political interests, but because the other GOP candidates need time before the June 24 filing deadline to make alternate plans. Again, re-election to the Senate also is Rubio’s best path forward. He’s not likely to be elected Florida’s governor anytime soon; Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, the most-Florida politician ever, is practically Rick Scott’s heir apparent. And former state House Speaker Will Weatherford, every bit as talented, is almost certain to maneuver himself into future consideration. Besides, being a senator is a cool job, in and of itself. And if Rubio wins again, then buckles down to the work while avoiding past missteps (the Gang of Eight immigration scheme leaps to mind), ratcheting up his constituent service and resisting the lure of another presidential run in 2020, then by 2024 or 2028 at the outside, he’d be in his 50s, experienced, wiser and a little gray at the temples; the game would again be afoot. Indeed, perhaps by then he’ll have served in a Republican administration: Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It could happen. And there are worse launching pads. Hit that button already, Sen. Rubio. It’s the right thing all-around. ___ Recovering sports columnist and former Tampa Tribune columnist Tom Jackson argues on behalf of thoughtful conservative principles as our best path forward. Fan of the Beach Boys, pulled-pork barbecue and days misspent at golf, Tom lives in New Tampa with his wife, two children and two yappy middle-aged dogs.
Dear Jeb Bush: What are you going to do about Donald Trump?
Dear Governor Jeb Bush: At one time, while you were still running for president, you were asked an interesting question: “If you could go back in time, and ‘take out’ Hitler, would you?” You answered, as most of us would, with a resounding “Yes.” It’s 2016, and I’ll spare you any comparisons between the Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump, and Adolf Hitler. I won’t conflate Trump’s brand of authoritarianism with National Socialism (Nazism), fascism, or any other identifiable political ideology. I won’t read aloud passages from “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” as my husband, chillingly, has begun to do. And, unlike Trump himself, I certainly won’t advocate violence against anyone. But I will draw your attention to the recent election in Austria, where a candidate peddling false nostalgia in a rapidly changing world was “very narrowly defeated.” Washington Post columnist Carl Bildt invokes the writings of political philosopher Karl Popper, warning that the “strain of civilization that can occur when change is seen as too rapid, and the lure of a return to the tribe makes itself felt.” And I’d be remiss as a citizen if I didn’t ask you — and the other leaders of the party formerly known as Republican — what are you going to do about Donald Trump? I know, Governor Bush, you saw the same neon light that I did, splitting the night, flashing its warning. Thankfully, you were not silent. You have announced you will boycott the Republican National Convention this summer in July. So why have you gone silent again now? Trump’s authoritarianism is dangerous. It’s an interaction between a charismatic figure who simplifies politics and policies in a deliciously irresistible way, and followers who care less about policy and more about what Trump represents. Trump exudes nostalgia for the old order: the white, male, hierarchical order; the order in which being rich bestows instant authority, and an extra measure of citizenship; the order in which Dad’s word was law and was never questioned at home; where might ultimately made right — and the mighty didn’t apologize for it; where white men were safe and secure and free to pursue their work unfettered by those who didn’t belong. Those pesky others are excluded from this particular brand of nostalgia, because nostalgia, by definition, is a Big Lie. It conveniently leaves out the bad stuff: women being beaten in their own homes; black people hung from trees. At Trump rallies, the Ones-Who-Don’t-Belong are chased out violently. With Trump’s approval: “I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.” “In the good old days, this doesn’t happen, because they used to treat them very, very rough.” “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.” “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would ya? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them.” Here is a man who clearly understands the tremendous power he has over his followers: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” He is a nightmare come true for America, a Philip Roth novel horrifyingly brought to life. Trump has created an in-group based on the worst imaginable unifiers: racism, sexism, xenophobia, and religious bigotry. Worse, he’s given these views legitimacy by using “economic dissatisfaction” as a pretext for mob rule. Who is going to counter that, if not you, Governor Bush? You know better. Your family knows better. As a member of the opposite political party, I nevertheless once had hope in your dad’s moderation; his kinder, gentler ambitions, even when — in a near-Trumpian manner — he expressed his love for your children as “the little brown ones.” I forgave him. I believe you have, as well. Be clear. I’ve been a vocal critic of Bush-brand education reform since its inception. And I thank God for the liberty to write my opinions about those policies. That’s why I’m pleading with you now to do whatever you can to preserve the fundamental values of this nation, even if it means shelving your presidential ambitions. Create a third party. Run a top-of-the-ticket slate and show this nation what conservatism really is — and is not. Let the down-ballot Republicans stay where they are and support who they will. Now is the time for you to slaughter the Southern strategy chickens that have come home to roost. It’s time to rip out the GOP’s harvest of thorns and sow anew. Will you expose this neon god for the dangerous fraud that he is? Or, with apologies to Paul Simon, are we just echoes in the wells of silence? ___ Julie Delegal, a University of Florida alumna, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Donald Trump reaches the magic number to clinch nomination
Donald Trump reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president Thursday, completing an unlikely rise that has upended the political landscape and set the stage for a bitter fall campaign. Trump was put over the top in The Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the national convention in July. Among them is Oklahoma GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard. “I think he has touched a part of our electorate that doesn’t like where our country is,” Pollard said. “I have no problem supporting Mr. Trump.” It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake in five state primaries on June 7, Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention in Cleveland. Trump, a political neophyte who for years delivered caustic commentary on the state of the nation from the sidelines but had never run for office, fought off 16 other Republican contenders in an often ugly primary race. Many on the right have been slow to warm to Trump, wary of his conservative bona fides. Others worry about his crass personality and the lewd comments he’s made about women. But millions of grass-roots activists, many of them outsiders to the political process, have embraced Trump as a plain-speaking populist who is not afraid to offend. Steve House, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and an unbound delegate who confirmed his support of Trump to the AP, said he likes the billionaire’s background as a businessman. “Leadership is leadership,” House said. “If he can surround himself with the political talent, I think he will be fine.” Trump’s pivotal moment comes amid a new sign of internal problems. Hours before clinching the nomination, he announced the abrupt departure of political director Rick Wiley, who was in the midst of leading the campaign’s push to hire staff in key battleground states. In a statement, Trump’s campaign said Wiley had been hired only on a short-term basis until the candidate’s organization “was running full steam.” His hiring about six weeks ago was seen as a sign that party veterans were embracing Trump’s campaign. A person familiar with Wiley’s ouster said the operative clashed with others in Trump’s operation and didn’t want to put longtime Trump allies in key jobs. The person insisted on anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the internal campaign dynamics. Some delegates who confirmed their decisions to back Trump were tepid at best, saying they are supporting him out of a sense of obligation because he won their state’s primary. Cameron Linton of Pittsburgh said he will back Trump on the first ballot since he won the presidential primary vote in Linton’s congressional district. “If there’s a second ballot I won’t vote for Donald Trump,” Linton said. “He’s ridiculous. There’s no other way to say it.” Trump’s path to the Republican presidential nomination began with an escalator ride. Trump and his wife, Melania, descended an escalator into the basement lobby of the Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, for an announcement many observers had said would never come: The celebrity real estate developer had flirted with running for office in the past. His speech then set the tone for the candidate’s ability to dominate the headlines with provocative statements, insults and hyperbole. He called Mexicans “rapists,” promised to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and proposed banning most Muslims from the U.S. for an indeterminate time. He criticized women for their looks. And he unleashed an uncanny marketing ability in which he deduced his critics’ weak points and distilled them to nicknames that stuck. “Little Marco” Rubio, “Weak” Jeb Bush and “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz, among others, all were forced into reacting to Trump. They fell one-by-one — leaving Trump the sole survivor of a riotous Republican primary. His rallies became magnets for free publicity. Onstage, he dispensed populism that drew thousands of supporters, many wearing his trademark “Make America Great Again” hats and chanting, “Build the wall!” The events drew protests too— with demonstrators sometimes forcibly ejected from the proceedings. One rally in Chicago was canceled after thousands of demonstrators surrounded the venue and the Secret Service could no longer vouch for the candidate’s safety. When voting started, Trump was not so fast out of the gate. He lost the Iowa caucuses in February, falling behind Cruz and barely edging Rubio for second. He recovered in New Hampshire. From there he and Cruz fiercely engaged, with Trump winning some and losing some but one way or another dominating the rest of the primary season — in votes or at least in attention — and ultimately in delegates. Republican leaders declared themselves appalled by Trump’s rise. Conservatives called the onetime Democrat a fraud. But many slowly, warily, began meeting with Trump and his staff. And he began winning endorsements from a few members of Congress. As with other aspects of his campaign, Trump upended the traditional role of money in the race. He incurred relatively low campaign costs — just $57 million through the end of April. He covered most of it with at least $43 million of his own money loaned to the campaign. He spent less than $21 million on paid television and radio commercials. That’s about one-quarter of what Jeb Bush and his allies spent on TV. Trump entered a new phase of his campaign Tuesday night by holding his first major campaign fundraiser: a $25,000-per-ticket dinner in Los Angeles. Trump, 69, the son of a New York City real estate magnate, had risen to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, overseeing major real estate deals, watching his financial fortunes rise, then fall, hosting “The Apprentice” TV show and authoring more than a dozen books. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Darryl Paulson: It’s now or never for #NeverTrump
The opposition to Donald Trump has been constant from the start of the 2016 presidential campaign. However, it has been unfocused and essentially leaderless. Many Trump opponents believed he would not enter the race. When he entered, they believed he had no chance of winning. Now that Trump has won the nomination, they believe he can be stopped by an independent or third party campaign. As early as December 2015, before the first caucus or primary, Mike Fernandez, a Coral Gables, Florida health care executive and financial backer of Jeb Bush, took out full-page ads in the Miami Herald and other newspapers stating that he would support Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Fernandez described Trump as a narcissistic ”Bullyionaire” with a hunger to be adored. Fernandez was critical of fellow Republicans “blinded by the demagoguery” of Trump. In January 2016, National Review devoted an issue to conservative writers who made the case that Trump was not a conservative, and his nomination would do long-term damage to conservatism and the Republican Party. The issue contributed to the formation of the #NeverTrump movement, but it failed to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination. With Trump having secured the nomination, many Republicans now look at the race as a binary choice: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Most Republicans, unlike Mike Fernandez, see Trump as the preferred option. Foster Friess, a Wyoming financier and supporter of Republican candidates and causes, said Trump was not his first choice, but “he’s better than Hillary.” During the presidential primaries, even Jeb Bush stated that “Anybody is better than Hilary.” Some of Trump’s strongest critics have now jumped aboard the bandwagon. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who called Trump a “cancer” on the GOP who would lead the party to “Perdition,” has now offered to help Trump win the election. Oh, by the way, he would also be interested in being Trump’s Vice President. Many Republicans believe it is now a question of party loyalty. As Republican strategist Ford O’Connell observes, “political parties are not meant to be ideological vessels, but competing enterprises whose job is to win elections.” Rick Wilson, one of the most vehement anti-Trumpers, described the party loyalty argument as nothing more than “the DC establishment rolling over and becoming the Vichy Republicans we all know they would.” The last hope of the #NeverTrump movement is recruiting an independent or third-party candidate to provide an alternative to Trump and Clinton. RNC Chair Reince Priebus calls such efforts a “suicide mission.” Supporters argue that an independent candidate would not only give discontented voters a choice, but they believe such a candidate could win. At the very least, such a candidate could siphon off enough electoral votes to throw the election into the House, where the Republican majority could select someone other than Trump or Clinton. Supporters of an independent option argue that recent polls show 58 percent of voters are not happy with their choices, and 55 percent say they support an independent candidate. Historically, the idea of an independent candidate is more appealing than the reality. Teddy Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party is widely regarded the most effective third-party movement. Roosevelt actually came in second and swamped incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft. Roosevelt received 27.4 percent of the vote and 88 electoral votes to only 23.2 percent and 8 electoral votes for Taft. In 1948, Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina won only 2.4 percent of the national vote but, because it was concentrated in a few Deep South states where Truman’s name did not appear on the ballot, Thurmond captured the electoral votes of four states. Twenty years later, Governor George Wallace replicated much of Thurmond’s success in winning 13.5 percent of the vote and 46 electoral votes in five southern states. In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot and his Reform Party won almost one out of five votes, but failed to capture a single state. At one point, Perot led both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton but, as Election Day approached, many of his supporters returned to support their traditional party. To run as an independent or third-party candidate, there is one important requirement: you need a candidate. So far, the #NeverTrump movement has not found a willing person to oppose Trump. Among the possible candidates are Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Romney has name recognition and money, and would likely qualify for the debates. Romney was opposed by many conservatives in his 2012 race which would once again be a problem. In addition, Romney’s enthusiastic acceptance of Trump’s endorsement in that campaign would be another concern. Marine Corps General James Mattis seriously considered running before backing out. Mattis would have commanded support as a military figure and a political outsider. But, Mattis is not an Eisenhower and is an unknown commodity. Marco Rubio‘s name is being tossed about as a possible candidate. Rubio is young, charismatic and has appealed to woman and minority voters. The downside is that Rubio won only in Puerto Rico, Minnesota and the District of Columbia, and badly lost his home state of Florida to Trump. In addition, Rubio signed the pledge to support the Republican nominee “and I intend to keep it.” Ben Sasse, a first-term Republican Senator from Nebraska, has been a leader in the #NeverTrump movement. Sasse is only in his second year as a senator, which will raise questions about his experience. He also is unknown outside of Nebraska. Finally, former House member and Senator Tom Colburn has expressed interest in running and is highly respected by conservatives for his attempts to cut federal spending. Colburn has stated that Trump “needs to be stopped,” but recently said he would not be the candidate. One of the maxims of politics is that it takes something to beat nothing. So far, nothing looks like he has the race all wrapped up. ___ Darryl Paulson is Professor Emeritus of Government at USF St. Petersburg.
