As a former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, I can share with you that the national Democratic Party is not advancing its cause with its current tactics and messaging.
Democrats seem to choose the wrong side of the debate whenever President Donald Trump announces a new policy initiative, a symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Consider, for example, the president’s recent unilateral actions against narco-terrorists who use high-speed boats and partially submersible submarines to deliver illegal drugs to our country.
Whether it’s fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, or other dangerous drugs, for the first time the United States is using its formidable military power to limit drug traffickers’ access on the open seas.
Combined with the president’s actions on our southern and northern borders, we are squeezing the profits of drug cartels.
This deterrence is something that average Americans appreciate, even if they don’t like the methods being used.
It is theoretically correct for Democrats to call these acts extrajudicial killings, but it is still not a winnable argument.
Parents are more concerned with minimizing drugs on the streets than they are with what the ultimate outcome will be for drug traffickers.
Sure, left-wing lawyers and activists enjoy killing to excite their own base, but they can’t sway independents or Republican voters to the Democratic side.
The United States has tried to support anti-drug efforts in places like Colombia and Peru, but drug profits and corruption always win.
What else can America do to stop drug traffickers?
Will they be arrested, brought to America, and tried, as Democrats suggest?
That means jail/prison costs, food and board, government-paid federal public defenders, years of appeals, etc.
Taxpayers don’t want to shoulder that financial burden for non-American violent criminals who send drugs to them.
Similarly, President Trump is sending the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and other states to combat surging crime and arrest illegal immigrants.
As the mainstream media constantly reminds us, crime rates in Washington, D.C., are declining and provide statistics to back it up.
However, the American people do not support this because of the series of crimes that have unfortunately befallen our people, workers, and visitors, including car robberies, political assassinations, and brutal assaults, to name just a few.
Before the military arrived, no one felt safe at night in the nation’s capital.
Thousands of illegal immigrants have been rounded up, including TdA and MS13 gang members, murderers, rapists, sex traffickers, and human traffickers.
No one is complaining except the Democrats and their accomplices in the mainstream media.
Now, with the National Guard assisting local police and more people than ever venturing outdoors, the story has disappeared from the front pages.
The president’s next target is Chicago, which is a crime capital every weekend.
No city has a worse reputation for shooting children and innocent people than the Windy City.
Yes, I can count on my hands and feet and even the number of innocent people who have been victims of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s crimes. This notorious administrator is, unbelievably, worse than former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
The latest poll of Chicagoans shows his popularity at just 26%.
Meanwhile, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat who has advocated for safer neighborhoods, called on President Trump to send troops to the city to help fight crime.
These Democrats will be reelected because they put the people’s best interests above politics, and the average citizen expects and demands safety above all else.
Federal troops will be brought to New Orleans, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco once a Democratic lawsuit challenging such aid makes its way through the appeals courts and to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Democratic Party’s legal issues, which have been repeatedly warned that times are changing, have become the dying party’s last bulwark.
And to their credit, they have consistently won against federal district judges.
However, regardless of which side loses the appeal in each case, these victories are only temporary.
Eventually, cases and events will be referred to SCOTUS, which would likely preserve the president’s authority to suppress crimes against federal facilities and round up illegal aliens with the help of the National Guard.
I can almost hear the Democratic Party’s cry of protest.
But for baby boomers like me, we remember when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice, thereby starting the Warren Court in 1953.
For nearly a generation, the Warren Court has made significant and, in some cases, meaningful and important contributions to common law and American rights.
But we also witnessed a liberal court that went too far to the left and began the process of forgetting the meaning of the words of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Lawfare, invented by Democrats to prevent Trump from becoming president, is now the new coin of the future in this field.
For the Democratic Party, which values TDS above all else, it means that no matter what President Trump does, no matter what position the Democratic Party advocates, it has to be opposed.
Last weekend’s No Kings protests were a clear example of the far left’s continued stranglehold on the Democratic Party.
The 7 million demonstrators, some paid and some violent, represent a tiny fraction of Democratic voters, many of whom resemble the hippies of the 1960s, my generation.
It is misleading to suggest that independent or Republican voters will suddenly have an epiphany and radically change their minds as a result of these protests. This is because no king would condone such protests, and no king would be as transparent as President Trump.
His cabinet meetings are a feast for political buffs.
Trump consistently communicates what he thinks and acts on what he thinks, though not always in a linear manner. So while many Americans appreciate his honesty, that’s not always the case with his methods.
Like it or not, we have to admit that no president has ever been so candid with the American people, and this is a sea change from the Biden administration.
Still, most Americans want common sense to reign in government in order to live their lives to the fullest.
And that common sense includes fighting crime, deporting illegal aliens, and keeping drugs off our streets so that native-born Americans and legal immigrants can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Bernie Bishop III is a native Floridian. He is the former CEO of Associated Industries of Florida (AIF), known as the voice of Florida business. He is currently the CEO of Bernie Bishop Consulting, a strategic public relations firm based in Tallahassee. He can be reached at barney@barneybishop.com.
