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I belong to the downtown Lakeland Kiwanis Club. What used to be the club with the highest number of members of all clubs in the state of Florida. One that had no partisanship within the club. One that had debates for almost all elections locally. Has now turned into what appears to be a wing of the maga cult. You see the only debate we had was a debate for County Commission with a Republican, former Republican who has to be a write-in candidate because she changed her party affiliation and the Democrat.

Questions cannot be asked to the candidates. What you have to do is you have to write down a question and that question is sorted through by partisan people to decide what would be the best to ask and what not. It used to be a club where when a public official came you were allowed to ask questions. But Grady Judd comes and I think this club has just become a Grady Judd Club because he comes so much. When Grady Judd comes you are not permitted to ask questions he is above that as a public servant and yet they continue to invite him. When we invite the honor roll students to come and celebrate their achievement we usually have Grady Judd as a speaker or someone from the sheriff's department. Showing elementary school kids all types of new weapons that are used to kill people. Militarized weapons. This too is a problem I see within the club.

But beyond that the had a debate for 3 County Commission candidates who were asked the partisan question which was asked how would you vote on amendment three and four and do you think they should be passed. I hope everyone has taken a civics class and realizes that the County Commission has nothing to do with State amendments. Remembering that polling shows more than 60% of the people are going to vote Yes on three and four the Republican and former Republican talked about how you should not vote on those amendments. How those amendments are bad. There was some misguided information from them that doesn't hold any water as to being truthful. But this is the one thing that got me and I think describes most of the Republican rule in our County.

Becky Troutman and Judi New both spoke about how they were on the planning board. They also spoke about how we were going to have to raise taxes because of all of the overbuilding that they authorized. That is still not the main point that I'm trying to get to when I speak about the Republicans in our County. What got me the most was when they were telling people not to vote for three and four. This is what you'll find in every Republican elected official in our County and I would probably say our state. You see they talked about their religion and their morals. They spoke about how they were going to govern with their religion and morals. Well you see the majority of the people in the state want those two amendments. Yet they would not pass a law forcing us to use a constitutional amendment because they don't govern for the majority of the citizens that they represent. Their true representation is their religion and their morals.

We need elected officials in our County who will be brave enough to stand up. Who talk about how trash service is not working in our County. How the privatization of trash service has created less services and more money as they increase our payments every year. We need to talk about allowing over building and not making developers pay for their development. Instead you and I as taxpayers have to pay for it. Right now we're paying for it through higher auto insurance because our roads are so over capacity and all in need of repair that our insurance rates of double.

Let's start electing people who represent the majority of the citizens. Not some religion! Not some twisted morals! Someone who is willing to legislate on kindness and empathy for the citizens they represent. Someone who is willing to say that the majority of my citizens want me to do this and even though I don't think it's a good idea it's not for me to decide. It's my responsibility to make sure I make the best out of what it is that they want me to put in the legislation.

We shouldn't have these constitutional amendments it's only because of the laziness of the Republican majority in Tallahassee who refuses to represent what the people truly want and need in this state. Not what they want because of moneyed interest wrapped in the blanket of religion and morals.

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"...kindness and empathy for the citizens they represent." This is the issue. The far right has no empathy, and in my opinion, no real morals. Only posturing.

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I've heard a number of MAGA voters claim Trump is not a fascist because he did not do any fascist things while President. We could debate this, especially Jan. 6, but the upcoming election is about what he might or will do.

Floridians have seen a blossoming fascist Governor who moves farther and farther right as he becomes more and more a lame duck. Trump will be no different.

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Voting all Blue. Fingers crossed for our country.

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Well said. It helps that we understand that these people have fear as their guiding star. They can’t stand up for fear of consequences delivered by their own “team”. They fear something being taken from them, usually some perceived power or status. And if it was seen as the libs taking it, what they fear even more is the punishment from “Daddy” for being weak. That primal fear of being judged as weak overrides every other aspect of humanity - decency, empathy, compassion, etc.

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Fascinating. When we escaped Milton (from Sarasota), we drove to Pungo, N.C. (near Virginia Beach, VA). That was culture shock. It was all Trump signs in just about every yard. We saw ONE Harris-Walz sign. In Florida, the start of the purple-blue haze we're now seeing is partly because of the utter ineptness of Christian Ziegler and the energy and smarts of Nikki Fried. I'd love to see Rick Scott defeated. I'm surrounded by BLUE neighbors and only four MAGA freaks on the next street. Just putting hopeful thoughts out to the Universe. The way this blog was written did blow me away. Exhale! Well done.

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