An Evolving Revolution!!
Meet Congressman Patrick Murphy from Florida. If Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton are not currently the three most interesting and important politicians in the U. S., I nominate Representative Murphy for those two accolades. He is 33-years-old and very rich, having inherited millions from his family's construction business. He left the Republican Party and became a Democrat in 2011 for the same reason many, including me, did; he said he was "disgusted" with the right-wing Tea Party's dominance of the Republican Party. He won his congressional seat in Florida's 18th District by upsetting Tea Party-darling Allen Ford, an African-American ultra-conservative. He replaced Tea Party-darling Ileana Ros-Lehtinen as the 18th District's representative in Congress. {Ros-Lehtinen switched to the 27th District and, as a Bush-and-Tea Party-darling she has been in the U. S. Congress since 1989}. And now Murphy is a Democrat that is favored to win the Senate seat forfeited by Bush-and-Tea Party-darling Marco Rubio who decided to forfeit his one-term in the Senate in exchange for his failed presidential bid. So young Mr. Murphy is seeking to replace two of Miami's most visceral anti-Castro Cuban-Americans -- following Ros-Lehtinen in the 18th congressional District and now bidding to take Rubio's Senate seat. Murphy, by the way, was born in Miami 33 years ago and is a University of Miami graduate, but not a Cuban-American.
Patrick Murphy's bid for one of Florida's two Senate seats is a BIG DEAL, and not just because he captured Ros-Lehtinen's old seat in the House of Representatives or because, as a Democrat, he is trying to capture Republican Marco Rubio's Senate seat. The Republican grasp of the U. S. Senate and Congress may end if Murphy wins the ongoing Florida race. And that's one reason why it is colossally important.
Polls show that these two Democratic Representatives -- Patrick Murphy on the left and Alan Grayson -- are currently edging out five Republican candidates in the race for that omnipotent Senate seat. Grayson is interesting too. He is 58-years-old and a Harvard-educated lawyer who has confirmed...admitted, actually...to a net worth exceeding $31 million. Like Murphy, he honorably hates the Tea Party, which Grayson equates to the "Ku Klux Klan." And, oh yes, in addition to being a multi-millionaire Harvard lawyer, Grayson was born and reared in the Bronx, New York -- a long way from Miami! Murphy, who has inherited up to $5 million, is Miami-born and University of Miami-educated. Both hate the Tea Party. Neither is a Cuban-American trying to capture the Senate seat currently occupied by Cuban-American, Cuban-hardliner, and Tea Party-darling Marco Rubio. MAY THE BETTER DEMOCRAT WIN, because the Republican & Tea Party stranglehold on the U. S. Congress {which made ex-Republicans out of Murphy, me, and millions of others} is a disgrace to the U. S. democracy, as is the Bush/Tea Party/Cuban-American stranglehold on Florida politics. {Florida has a whopping 29 electoral votes that can decide presidential elections, even putting a man, Bush in 2000, in the White House even though his opponent got the MOST NATIONAL VOTES!}.
Of the five Republicans running against the Democrats Murphy and Grayson, Ron DeSantis has the best chance of winning Florida's Senate seat that Marco Rubio is vacating. DeSantis has represented Florida's 6th District in the U. S. House of Representatives since 2013. He was born 37 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from Yale and then from Harvard Law School. Like Rubio, DeSantis is a Bush and Tea Party darling. Bush right-wing operatives like John Bolton are avid DeSantis supporters.
Ron DeSantis is a retired Lt. Commander in the U. S. Navy.
Rep. DeSantis is extremely conservative.
Of course, Fox News and all the television-radio conservative propagandists love Ron DeSantis and want him to capture Marco Rubio's Senate seat for the Republicans. He is also strongly supported by the Bush dynasty, the Tea Party, and AIPAC, the omnipotent Israeli lobby. Rep. DeSantis is also vehemently against President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. In other words, Rep. DeSantis is not much different than Rubio when it comes to right-wing, bought-and-paid-for politics, which also means that, as an establishment-dandy, DeSantis is perhaps even more dangerous than the still-ambitious Rubio, whose approval in Florida, his home state, is 42% and where non-politician Trump overwhelmed him.
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Carlos Beruff {photo courtesy of The Miami New Times} is a Cuban-American who was born in Miami 58 years ago. The building company he formed in 1984 has made him a very rich man. Back in February he announced his bid as a Republican to win the coveted Senate seat being vacated by fellow Miami-born Cuban-American Marco Rubio. A Quinnipiac poll shows that Beruff is a threat to emerge the winner.
Carlos Beruff is known in the Miami-Bradenton area as "the Cuban Donald Trump." They are both rich developers who had never run for public office prior to recognizing that Americans are totally fed-up with what they consider a rigged establishment in a bought-and-paid-for political system...so, hey!!...a non-politician that doesn't exude a bought-and-paid-for persona might win! Lo 'n behold, Beruff and Trump might be right. Beruff was at a Cuban bakery in Miami back on February 29th when he announced his bid to win Rubio's old Senate seat. Now he doesn't distance himself from the Trump phenomenon. On the Florida campaign trail, Mr. Beruff said, "I think Donald Trump has tapped into the dissatisfaction of the public."
Florida's extremely important Senate race reminds me of a recent quotation from Sarah Stephens, the democracy-loving Founder and Leader of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Ms. Stephens -- for the sake of democracy, America and the region -- is perhaps America's most important advocate for a sane and decent Cuban policy, which she clearly considers insane and indecent because of decades-old laws easily pushed through a dysfunctional, bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress. Ms. Stephens, undoubtedly, is keeping a quizative eye on that Senatorial race in Florida, and she is surely not unhappy with Rubio's exit but is probably wary of another Cuban-American, Beruff, getting it or another Tea-Party darling, DeSantis, getting it. As she gazes at Florida and at a U. S. Congress with an approval rating in the single digits, Ms. Stephens recently wrote: "Leaving America's Cuban policy in the hands of the U. S. Congress is like a child with a hammer who thinks everything is a nail." If you study that quote, I think you will realize why President Obama has listened very closely to Sarah Stephens as he tries to attach a degree of sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy. In other words, putting either DeSantis or Beruff in the U. S. Senate from Florida would be like giving them a hammer and telling them Cuba is a nail!!
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