The Ybor City Stogie

Friday, November 19, 2021

Support the mission of The Andrew Joseph Foundation

Support the mission of The Andrew Joseph Foundation. I know many have expressed not feeling comfortable with the Facebook giving process. If this is you please feel free to donate via our website:

andrewjosephfoundation.com

Silent Disco on Davis Islands

Da Soul Kitchen - WMNF

Waddup fam. The chefs are throwing down in Da Kitchen once again. Stop by 88.5 WMNF as we serve up some Curtis Mayfield, En Vogue, Missy Elliott, and that new Maxwell. Come in, get filled up right, and turn up! HERE

Boulevard Diner, The Cuban Club and Flor de Tampa Cigars

Open letter to the Florida Democratic Party

You are not helpless. This has been evidenced consistently by your jealous and vicious guarding of your own comfortable seats, the weighted party vote, and your ability to thwart growth among your own ranks in a state which has perennially close elections. But to the casual observer it would seem that you want to be. At least, you will be if you allow the Republican party to gerrymander this state's legislative districts for another ten years without so much as a whimper. How it's possible that a political party ended up in your situation in the first place isn't a mystery. The mystery is how you will convince anyone moving forward that you are worth their time, effort, money, sacrifices, and votes if you continue down the current path. For political leaders to blithely accept this kind of overt corruption and disenfranchisement is to invite the very worst kinds of perdition upon civilized society itself. The forces of human nature have proven this without fail throughout history.

The statewide lack of a coordinated and powerful response to the gerrymandering happening right now is shocking to behold. The right to have their vote counted is sacred to every American, yet you have spent more time discussing the lack of democracy in Cuba, than the destruction of it here. It's not as though we don't have capable and credible leaders sitting in powerful positions with access to mass media, resources to mobilize large peaceful demonstrations, and knowledge of the issue to counter the lies with. What is missing is action. The fecklessness that exists in place of committed action is accompanied by a rationalization: we are already screwed, so might as well let it continue and work on other things. But who convinced you of that?

We know that a searing corruption is widespread and runs deep into the synapses of Florida's politics. It is apparent in the millions without health care, the massive fish kills and toxic algae blooms, the drug overdoses and gun violence, the traffic jams and tolls, the human trafficking and extortion, the governor's willingness to sacrifice Floridians' lives to COVID, the attacks on our public schools, and the fact that Florida leads the nation in violent insurrectionists arrested for attempting to overthrow the Constitution of The United States.

It is evident when a party with almost the exact same number of voters as it's opposition allows that opposition to rig voting districts in a way that 50% of the votes in our close elections gives them two thirds of the legislative seats. Do you like being marginalized? You hold the reins to a membership that encompasses more than 5 million Floridians, yet you refuse to mobilize this incredible power against a fundamental threat and deliberate attack against our most basic right to be represented in our own government. That refusal happens despite the moral imperative, and despite popular support for equal representation extending far beyond party lines. That is the definition of dereliction, and it is undeniable malfeasance.

Every single elected representative of the Democratic Party should be talking about THIS issue every single day as though it is an existential threat to your own existence. A loud, sustained, and reverberating condemnation is the only justifiable response to this theft of our rights happening in broad daylight. If the party is not willing or not able to fight on THIS issue, there is no point to having a political party except to fill some pockets and enable an illusion that laws or democracy even exist. Yet the irony of this is that those pockets will be emptied and that illusion will vanish the instant laws and democracy do cease to exist.

The time to demand change is now. You won't get another try.

-Matt Fleming

Precinct Committeeman, Brevard D.E.C.

Former Candidate for County Commission, 2018

Small Business Owner

B.B.A International Business