The Political Triad in Florida Part 2

Identifying the Players: An FNR Editorial

In Part 1 of the “Political Triad” we discussed RINOs and the Florida Republican Establishment. 

But there’s a Third Player–a player who may be the biggest problem of all. This player is embedded in the Party and difficult to pinpoint. 

Whether you consider them accomplices or apologists, these people protect the Establishment and provide cover for RINOs.  

We call them Enablers.

Enablers defend GOP legislators whose votes violate the Republican Platform. They justify Republicans taking money from Democrat donors. They are the folks who try to use their influence to urge Republican voters to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” They prop up unpopular incumbent RINOs as “the best shot we have at keeping this seat from a democrat.” 

When they get push back, they go on the attack, calling America First Republicans “secret Democrats hellbent on destroying the Republican Party” or “insurrectionists who just don’t understand politics.”

Who Are These People? 

We find them leading chartered Republican Clubs, occupying Board or Chair positions at the County Republican Executive Committees and most recently, even showing up in the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida—despite its claim to be the “conscience of the Republican Party” with its purpose to hold the Republican Party of Florida and elected Republicans accountable throughout the state.  

Establishment Enablers are our biggest concern because they empower the status quo–but they are the most dangerous, because they are in positions of influence, but they don’t use their influence to purge the Party from the RINOs and Establishment hacks who have sold us out. Instead, they use their influence to plan events that get us comfortable with or even become enthusiastic about politicians who are silencing and suppressioning the America first movement. They anesthetize their audience to overlook the problems in the party. 

Our elected Establishment Republicans and RINOs should be terrified of standing before their constituents to give an account. Instead, the constituents are told to respect and honor the politicians. 

If we continue in the direction we’re headed with the current leadership in the Republican Party, we will lose our country while enablers encourage us to do “business as usual.”

Read that again: LOSE OUR COUNTRY. 

Florida RECs, County Clubs, and Organization Leaders

Politicians compromise out of ambition for power, fame and fortune. And the same affliction affecting elected politicians also affects volunteer county leaders. Ambition, lust for power — vanity—begins to control them. They compromise in an effort to ingratiate themselves to the very people they should be holding accountable. Then, when they are questioned about their loyalty, values, and motivation, they respond with obfuscation, deflection, and distraction. And when America First Republicans disagree with them, Enablers are the first to call us “agitators, insurrectionists, secret Democrats.”  

THIS! FROM INSIDE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

A Word on our local County Republican Executive Committees

Nowhere do you see more gaslighting of America First Republicans than in the county-level GOP leadership. Disclaimer: this is not true of ALL Florida counties, but certainly within MOST Florida counties.

What does it look like when GOP Clubs and RECs enable the STATUS QUO Establishment Republicans to retain control of seats:

1. They refuse to differentiate and endorse conservative candidates in the Republican Primary

2. They coerce members to remain silent about a Status Quo Establishment Republican candidate in the Primary

3. They have no real strategy to “Get Out the Vote” during the August Republican primary and they certainly don’t educate Committee Members on why the primary is so important. (This Primary is where the real battle is over the heart and soul of the Party. This is where GOP Primary voters can choose an “America First” Republican candidate or a STATUS QUO Establishment Republican - more about this below).

4. They silence people who ask legitimate questions about an incumbent’s voting record.

5. They label disagreement as dissent, exerting social pressure to “go along to get along.” (When it’s the “going along” that got us here.)

Here’s a simple example: One club (a Republican Club started by a former Tea Party leader) invited Congressman Vern Buchanan to give a speech where Buchanan claimed to be against illegal immigration, vaccine mandates, and more. Buchanan had just funded all of these policies he claimed to be against when he voted in support of the omnibus bill. 

Did the organizer of the event question Buchanan on this? Of course not. He enabled this dishonesty to continue so that every Republican in that audience left believing Vern Buchanan is a “good” Republican, when in truth, Buchanan regularly votes against the Republican Party Platform—and refuses to speak out against the issues that concern them, such as the 2020 elections, the January 6 Committee hearings, the invasion at the border, and more.

Who’s worse here? The RINO in office or the Enabler helping him cover his tracks to retain his seat while he violates the voters’ trust and the Republican Party Platform? 

Let’s not sugar coat it ….. these Enablers are guilty 

These Republican Enablers are doing more harm to America, our children’s futures and our Party than we can even calculate. 

This past August Republican Primary, most Republican leaders endorsed Wilton Simpson, even though Simpson took money from Democrat billionaire donors who push for GUN CONTROL. The idea that Democrat donors are using our Florida Republican politicians to enact their gun control agenda is nothing short of Machievellian. And it’s  no secret. 

Simpson isn’t alone. There are countless articles about Florida Republicans taking money from Democrats - use Google to find them. But instead of our club and committee leaders using their political capital and influence to call these charlatans to the table … they invited them to speak as honored guests!

The Enablers are the biggest defenders of compromised politicians when they could have been . . . should have been . . . the people we turned to in trust. 

But now we know: most of these county and club leaders cannot be trusted.

Here’s another example: last year, a Republican school board member was invited to a TEA Party Club to speak. In less than a year of taking office, the school board member had broken most of her campaign promises, including promising to oust the Superintendent who had been found to have credible Ethics violations by a Florida State review board. 

The GOP crowd, normally very polite and welcoming, became a little loud when the school board member attempted to explain why she was now voting with School Board Democrats. “After I got elected, I attended an in-house training which stressed how important UNITY is on the board,” she said.

The crowd was genuinely shocked by her response and began grumbling. Instead of letting these Republican Party members in attendance express their dissatisfaction with their elected official for voting with Democrats, the host shushed the members to be silent. 

This would have been the PERFECT opportunity to give this wayward Republican negative feedback. But no! Instead, the Party members were treated like little children and shushed, as if they were wrong, and the Establishment Republican was shielded by the club leadership.

Later that year, the same elected school board member was asked to come speak at a Republican Liberty Caucus meeting and despite all the times this member voted with the Democrats on the board, she was still treated as though she represented Republican principles by the RINO enabler. 

What is wrong with these Florida County Club and Organizations’ Leaders?

The same affliction affecting elected politicians–ambition, lust for power, vanity—seem to affect volunteer county leaders. Through obfuscation and distraction, these enablers shirk their duty to remain loyal to principles over people as they struggle to ingratiate themselves to the very people they should be holding accountable.

County GOP Club and Committee leaders should be the most alert and ready to hold elected Republicans accountable so they can lead the membership to hold elected Republicans accountable! This is how we use the collective power of the county GOP to its fullest extent. Instead, these clubs and committees turn into social gatherings rather than communities sharing truth and information that would empower them to hold politicians accountable and keep them defending our basic liberties.   

If America First Republicans had control over all the Florida County GOPs, we could clean up the Party. 

But it will never happen if the Enablers continue to embolden the  Republican Establishment. At this point, the Republican Establishment keeps them quiet and complacent by terrifying them that to “speak against the Party,” would turn America Blue. What the Enablers fail to realize is their complacency is turning America Blue as RINOs and Establishment Republicans made back-room deals to pass Left-leaning legislation. Enablers are supporting Republicans who vote like Democrats, who take funds from Democrats, and who refuse to take a stand on political and cultural issues that violate our platform. What’s more dangerous … a Democrat who votes openly against America’s interest or Republicans who hide it? 

How do we grow the Republican Party into the Grand Old Party of Liberty she used to be? We stop voting for politicians who are selling us snake oil–and we call out their Defenders, their Allies–their Enablers, who demand our allegiance to those who have violated our trust.

It’s high time we publicly call out these Enablers and hold them accountable. And we do that by being informed about our politicians’ voting records and not backing down to the social pressure when they use the Leftist tactic of trying to cancel us. We must grow the voice of Liberty so it drowns out every voice telling us to submit to the status quo, accept compromised politicians, and attend clubs and committees that have become little more than popularity events for political groupies. 

Lady Liberty is on her knees. Rise up, Patriots.

“Liberty is a constant battle between the government, who would limit it; people, who would concede it; and patriots, who would defend it.” ―Samuel R. Young Jr.