Trails in the Sand by Peter Traceit, The Street Detective
The streets are talking, remembering and wondering. A decade ago, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were the dominant Democratic counties and with the combined populations, support from these three counties could almost ensure a win for any state seat.
But something interesting happened in 2016. Miami-Dade Blue began to gravitate toward Red and now it is more of a Purple county that is struggling to maintain its Blue Hue. Palm Beach, especially the more affluent areas akin to Mara Lago, are also adding some Red flavor to the Blue punch. Broward county maintained it Groovy Blue status in 2016, but six years later, something feels funky.
While the 2022 primary votes are not calculated, it just feels like there is a Red Wave in the air. Might it be that Democrats are losing their way?
It is true. The manner in which Republicans have played dirty has over-whelmed Dems all over the country. The ol’ “kill ‘em with kindness” and “we go high when they go low” just don’t work with politicians who do not have a thread of moral fiber woven in their system. When politicians’ foremost concerns are a fight for money, power and position… and in that order, the old “turn the other cheek” gets old. There just ain’t enough cheeks to flip around.
Lately, it would appear that some Dems have taken a different approach of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. More than ever, Peter Traceit is watching in dismay as Dem politicians are making decisions for themselves, based on the Big Three (money, power and position) and not for the people they serve.
This was evident when five Broward native politicians gave up political seats (abandon their post)to run for the District 20 US Senate Seat left open by the Honorable Alcee Hastings who transitioned on April 6, 2021 after 28 years of service.
Broward County’s Bobby Dubose, House Representative; Dale Holness, County Commissioner; Barbara Sharief, County Commissioner; Perry Thurston, State Representative and West Palm Peach’s Omari Hardy, State Representative, all vacated their influential seats in an effort to clench Hasting’s US Senate seat. Voters voiced concern that in a general election with all of these folk on the ballot in different seats, they each would be the first choice. Yet, in this case, narrowing it to a singular choice amongst all of them in the special election to replace Hastings was too much to decipher.
A newcomer, Sheila Cherfilus McCormick, beat out all of them to become the US Senator to replace Hastings. This was a tragedy in that it left 5 seats of influence void.
What I am witnessing first hand is politicians forgetting who they serve and how they should serve. Politicians are getting in and out of bed with shady people and using dirty hands to shake deals. They will fornicate with a known enemy to conquer a new foe. For many, there is no moral line anymore. There is only money, power and position.
It all rang true this past week when I looked around at the School Board meeting and noticed who was NOT in attendance to advocate for intelligent, Black brothers and sisters who were unjustly demoted. It rang clear as a bell as I confirmed and re-confirmed that some of the destruction of these Black administrators has been at the hands of people who look like them. They have social media posts that spout support of people who look like them and encourage Black women who feel disrespected to stand up eight times after being knocked down seven times. The only problem is that they are being knocked down by people who look like them.
This used to be the other guy, so we thought… but this sort of filthy politics has made its way to the other party and it is disenfranchising the voting constituents.
Fighting and making deals for the Big Three- money, power and position – is the pervasive game of them all. A vote for the Blue is as good as a vote for the Red. Some voters are telling me that for the first time in their voting eligible history, they are voting with their feet. God help us all if something doesn’t change and change soon for the better. Peter Traceit says: the streets got to vote.
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