Democrats Raise Sarasotans Taxes; Deny Self-defense Rights

By Joe Gruters

One thing is now perfectly clear for all to see: Partisan politics are alive and kicking in Sarasota government.

Within a few days, the Sarasota City Commission voted to raise taxes in a weak economy and then to urge the Florida Legislature to repeal the Stand Your Ground law. Those were both 3-2 votes and they were along party lines.

But wait, you say, you thought city elections were nonpartisan? Think again. That’s a ruse by the minority party in our county to try to win elections. You simply cannot get rid of partisanship simply by obfuscating party affiliation with a different label.

Worldviews matter. And the parties roughly represent those world views.

But Democrats want to obscure those worldviews by making county elections “nonpartisan” for one reason: There are 122,000 registered Republicans in Sarasota County and only 89,000 registered Democrats.

So first, the city commission voted 3-2 to increase taxes by 8.5% even though property values are shooting up and putting more money in the city’s coffers without the tax rate increase. The combination will mean a much higher tax bill for city residents.

The three Democrats on the commission said the city was so cash-strapped that it had no choice but to raise taxes on struggling families in the Obama economy, even while increasing property values were already going to raise tax bills.

And yet they found $500,000 for their homeless program — more than one-third of the money the tax rate increase is expected to raise.

And people say there is not a left-right divide on city issues? That’s just not honest.

And then, the same three Democrats were the majority vote to urge the Legislature to repeal Stand Your Ground.

Of course, this comes after George Zimmerman was unanimously acquitted by a jury in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin — a trial in which Stand Your Ground played no role. The trial verdict was merely a whipped-up ruse with which to further erode the rights of law-abiding citizens and tip the scales to the criminals and thugs.

Democrat Commissioner Suzanne Atwell tried to back-peddle after the vote and the public outcry, saying her vote was to have a “conversation about a highly charged issue.” She told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, “I just want to start a conversation.”

Right, because no one had been talking about Stand Your Ground until the city commission brought it up. How disingenuous, and weak.

Newly-elected Democrat Commissioner Susan Chapman also walked it back a bit, saying her vote was to “revisit” the issue.

But here’s the language: “The City Commission requests that the State Legislature repeal the Stand Your Ground statute and establish a more civil approach to governance than afforded under the current statute.”

They voted to have the Legislature repeal the law, not revisit a conversation.

So for the record, the Democrats who voted to raise your taxes and deny your self-defense rights were:

• Vice Mayor Willie Shaw, Willie.Shaw@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Suzanne Atwell, Suzanne.Atwell@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Susan Chapman, Susan.Chapman@sarasotagov.com

The Republicans who supported lower taxes on hard-working Sarasotans and to maintain self-defense rights were:

• Mayor Shannon Snyder, Shannon.Snyder@sarasotagov.com

• Commissioner Paul Caragiulo, Paul.Caragiulo@sarasotagov.com

Let them know how you feel about their votes. And never forget that our core principles are represented in the Republican Party, and attempts eliminate that is an attempt to eliminate our core principles from triumphing.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.

Advertisement

Divisive and Dividing, But Not Conquering!

By Joe Gruters

It is distressing to see the disingenuousness of the Democrat Party leadership nationally and in Florida. Stoking the fires of racial division has been a favorite past time for liberals and Democrat for years. But the way they have mainstreamed this divisiveness is setting up the nation for continual backwards movement in race relations.

Alas, and too unknown, this really has been the Democrat Party standard for nearly 200 years. Republicans need to be armed and respond for the good of the country.

As a brief history lesson, the Republican Party was born to represent the anti-slavery sentiments before the Civil War. It was the abolitionist party. The Democrat Party was the slavery party and has fought equitable race relations ever since. Segregation in the South was perpetuated and defended completely by Democrats.

It was a Republican president that sent in the National Guard to enforce integration in Arkansas. It was Republicans who pushed for the Civil Rights legislation of the 1950s and 60s and voted for it in far greater percentages than Democrats. It was Democrats who created affirmative action, quotas and set-asides all based on race.

Republicans have always held the vision that blacks should be just like all other Americans, free to rise and fall on their own efforts, integrated into the great melting pot that has been America — at least until Democrats began Balkanizing it by melatonin and special interests. Democrats want blacks to remember they are blacks and they are being held down by the white man — not the Democrat white man, of course — and that they need help from white Democrats. Forever. Just enough handouts to keep them coming back, but never free.

The great lie is that Democrats are painted as fighting for African-Americans when every program and speech they give serves to keep American blacks down and poor and reliant on the magnanimous hand of government. Detroit, ruled by Democrats for half a century, is probably the best example of this.

It becomes easy to understand why blacks who have escaped the keep-them-down Democrat mentality have come to calling it the “Democrat Plantation.” Democrats make blacks beholden to them and ask for unswerving loyalty in return. But more and more high-profile blacks are seeing the lie and turning to the party of freedom, such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson; Professor Thomas Sowell; Professor Shelby Steele; Professor Walter Williams; Herman Cain; Condoleeza Rice and Ward Connerly, to name a few.

It’s been well pointed out, but it is so factually, blatantly true: If the Democrats and their race hucksters were really interested in young black men, they would be working overtime to diminish the black on black crime that is epidemic in our major cities, and completely re-hauling the utter failure of inner-city schooling.

But they do nothing except push the same, intellectually bankrupt ideas that have fed the crime wave. Basically, they only care if there is a racial component. And black on black doesn’t have one.

With statistics slapping them in the face, the division now has pivoted to eliminating Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. This has one purpose —to keep the racial division whipped up. Because it certainly is not to benefit blacks in Florida as, again, the facts are not aligned with their actions.

Black Floridians have made about a third of the state’s total “Stand Your Ground” claims in homicide cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida’s population. The majority of those claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites, according to a Daily Caller analysis of a database maintained by the Tampa Bay Times. Further, the majority of victims in Florida “Stand Your Ground” cases have been white. Clearly, factually, blacks have benefitted more form the Stand Your Ground law than whites.

So do Democrats really want to help blacks? The facts say “no.” But they do want to continue fanning racial divisiveness.

Republicans offer a clear alternative on this critical issue. It needs to be articulated by all of us.

Thanks for being informed and engaged.