The 2024 Collier County, Fla., “I Voted” sticker designed by Alayna Gruber, 7th Grade, East Naples Middle School. (Artwork: CCSoE)
Nov. 4, 2024 by David Silverberg
Today, Monday, Nov. 4, the eve of Election Day, the outcome of the 2024 general election has probably already been determined.
Nationally, 46 percent of the voters who cast their ballots in 2020 have already cast their ballots this time, according to a tally being kept by the Associated Press and The Washington Post.
In Florida, that’s 66 percent of the voters who voted in 2020.
In Southwest Florida, as of this morning, 65.4 percent of voters in Collier County, 65.8 percent in Lee County and 64.89 percent in Charlotte County had already voted.
Tomorrow will be the last day of voting. More importantly, it will be the day the votes are counted.
The Paradise Progressive made its endorsements on Sept. 30, just before mail-in and in-person voting began.
But a decent respect for the opinions of humanity and the historical record merits reaffirming the endorsements for federal office as well as adding some additional observations.
So, just to be clear, The Paradise Progressive endorses Vice President Kamala Harris for president, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for the United States Senate and Kari Lerner for US Congress from Florida’s 19th Congressional District.
Alert readers might notice that all these candidates are women. Some people have also observed that if she wins, Harris will be the first female president of the United States.
In this case gender is irrelevant. It should not be the deciding factor in making a decision.
Vastly more important are the questions: Which candidate is the most fit, competent, and qualified to hold the office being sought? Who will govern best in an executive position? Who will best represent constituents in a representative, legislative position? Who will serve the nation as a whole and protect, preserve and defend the Constitution?
In this regard there is no contest.
Election of the fittest
Vice President Kamala Harris (Photo: White House)
Harris is not only qualified, she has in effect served a presidential apprenticeship over the past four years. So she not only has credentials as a prosecutor, state attorney general and senator, she has also been involved in presidential-level decisionmaking. She knows the issues and the institution but most of all, she knows how to govern and can put that knowledge to work from the moment she is sworn into office.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Photo: Author)
Mucarsel-Powell understands the requirements and responsibilities of being a representative of the people, having served in the US House of Representatives. But equally important for a United States senator, she has international experience, not only in her personal life but also professionally. In 2022 she was an advisor for the Summit of the Americas, a periodic gathering of North and South American leaders to discuss common concerns. Her Ecuadorian origins and her immigrant experience as well as her familiarity with immigration policy issues give her critical insight into Florida and its diverse population and will make her a very effective senator for all Floridians.
Kari Lerner (Photo: Campaign)
Lerner, running for Congress, also has experience representing constituents to a higher body and successfully introducing and moving legislation. She served in the New Hampshire state legislature where she succeeded in introducing a landmark bill protecting children from underage marriage. She shepherded it through the body where it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. She will know how to navigate the House of Representatives and be able to effectively represent the people of Southwest Florida and their interests.
Not only do these women have the experience and credentials for the positions they are seeking, they also have the temperament.
Donald Trump (Art: DonkeyHotey)
It is supremely ironic that in a presidential race that Donald Trump has made about issues of masculinity and femininity, it is the female candidate who has proven herself calm, rational and disciplined—traditionally seen as male virtues—while the male candidate has proven himself emotional, excitable and even hysterical, characteristics traditionally attributed to women.
Harris has a governing personality. Trump does not. Both have histories that back this up.
But this isn’t just the case at the top of the ticket.
Sen. Rick Scott (Art: Donkeyhotey)
In the race for Florida’s junior Senate seat, incumbent Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has proven himself a master of ineptitude. He has repeatedly sabotaged his own preferred courses of action, with real impacts on Florida. His personal insults and attacks on President Joe Biden when Biden came to Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ian to offer aid certainly did not help the state. To add injury to insult, Scott voted against appropriations that the state desperately needed. Misjudging his level of support in the Senate, Scott unsuccessfully tried to overthrow his own party leader, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He put forward a plan to sunset Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on which a large proportion of his state’s population depends. He and the governor cannot abide each other. On top of this is his absolute denial of climate change, which is ravaging the state he purports to serve.
Scott has repeatedly proven that he does not have the temperament or judgment to be an effective representative of Florida and Florida has suffered for it.
Mucarsel-Powell is clearly the better choice for senator.
When it comes to Congress, Lerner’s appeal to voters has been rational, sensible and reasoned. She has pledged to focus on the district and its needs and done so in a calm, deliberate way.
Rep. Byron Donalds as caricatured by Steve Brodner of The Washington Post. (Art: WP)
By contrast, incumbent Rep. Byron Donalds serves only two people: Donald Trump and himself. Initially pursuing a potential vice presidential slot, he tried aping Trump’s crude insults, outrageous lies and bizarre delusions in a variety of media platforms and interviews. Even after he was rejected in favor of Sen. James David “JD” Vance (R-Ohio), Donalds kept up the drumbeat.
That drumbeat became ever more agitated, unhinged and delusional as the year progressed.
But beyond his complete subservience to Donald Trump, his ideological blindness, his indebtedness to ideological and corporate political action committees, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his COVID denial, his initial failure to secure earmarks that would benefit his district, his unrealistic and time-consuming pursuit of higher offices, his neglect of his district in the wake of disastrous hurricanes, his unbending opposition to appropriations for the good of his district, the people of Florida and the welfare of the United States, there is the stark reality of his legislative ineffectiveness. Other than throwing bills into the hopper Donalds has achieved virtually nothing for his district and its people during his time in office.
Nor should anyone expect him to change in any way if he wins another term. Indeed, the greater likelihood is that he will immediately start pursuing the governorship, which the current occupant must vacate in 2026.
In contrast, Lerner has pledged to focus on the district and the needs of its people as well as the legislative means that will achieve those ends. She can be taken at her word.
A final word on Amendment 4
Of all the measures on the ballot in Florida this election, none approaches the impact and momentousness of Amendment 4, which guarantees a woman’s right to choose abortion if she and her healthcare provider consider it necessary.
All the arguments for and against Amendment 4 will not be repeated here; no doubt they’re too well known to readers.
But it’s worth making the point that when Roe v. Wade was overturned, it deprived women of a right they had previously been granted. In a country built on the idea that people have “inalienable rights” it was not only an emotional shock but a constitutional one and a very threatening precedent.
The great danger here is that when one right is repealed all others are jeopardized. In Florida it is one reason why overturning the six-week abortion ban by passing Amendment 4 is so urgent. Losing one right means others, including those in the original Bill of Rights, are in jeopardy—and in a Trump dictatorship they are likely to be abolished at the tyrant’s whim.
Democracy on the line
More than any individual candidate or amendment or measure, it is democracy itself that is on the line in this election. This is abundantly clear to the majority of the electorate and it has been noted often in these pages. A Trump victory will mean defeat for America, its values, its people, its rights, its Constitution, its place in the world and, most of all, its democracy.
It has taken 248 years of struggle, sacrifice and commitment to reach this point. Incredibly, survival of all that effort will come down to the results of the vote as counted on Tuesday and in the days following. America could become something extremely different, darker and dysfunctional or go on to new chapters in greatness.
Here’s hoping that democracy wins.
May we all go into the future with clear consciences, knowing we did whatever we could to ensure, as Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Liberty lives in light
© 2024 by David Silverberg
A 2023 Collier County voting poster by 9th grader Yolanda Juarez Cruz of Lely High School. (Art: CCSoE)