The Delray Democrat

"If You Don't Vote, You Don't Count"

 

The Delray Democrat is the official journal of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach. 

Visit our website and become a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach by clicking here.

All Previous Vote-By-Mail Ballot Requests Expired on 12/31/22. Re-Enroll to Vote By Mail Here. It Takes Only One Minute!

 

February-March 2024

Here Comes the Sun

Michael K. Cantwell

For nearly two years, the corporate media was obsessed with the record inflation that resulted from a perfect storm beyond President Biden’s control. They parroted economists who almost gleefully argued that inflation could only be cured by causing a recession.

Click here to continue.

“There You Go Again”

Michael K. Cantwell

With the economy generating nothing but good news, get ready for Republicans to begin yowling about the deficit. But they are the real budget busters. Next to blowing up the economy, it’s what they do best.

Click here to continue.

Why Public Defense Matters . . . for Everyone

Daniel Eisenger

The majority of Americans will likely never need a Public Defender. Their family and friends may never need a Public Defender.

Click here to continue.

Who’s Worse, Robert Hur or The New York Times?

Michael K. Cantwell

There’s no doubt that Robert Hur’s gratuitous and false swipes at President Biden’s memory was the work of a toad, or that The New York Times probably did more damage to Biden’s reelection than the entire rightwing disinformation network by obsessively and meretriciously covering what should have been dismissed as the work of a hack.

Click here to continue.

 

Selling the Crypto-Fascists the Rope

Michael K. Cantwell

Lenin never actually said, “the capitalists will sell us the rope we hang them with.” It’s likely a paraphrase of a longer statement that concluded, “To put it in other words, [the capitalists] will work on the preparation of their own suicide.”

Click here to continue.

Ron’s No. 1 – In Inflation, That Is

Michael K. Cantwell

 

It’s bad form to further ridicule someone who’s just been humiliated, but it’s worth making an exceptions for a man who “ has always loved embarrassing and humiliating people,” as one of Ron DeSantis’s teammates on the Yale baseball squad remembered him in a New Yorker article.

Click here to continue.

The Democratic Club of Delray Beach Is Going to All People's Day!

Char Lane

The Club will have a booth to offer Democratic information to voters, to register voters, and to instruct voters on how to enroll or reenroll in the Vote-by-Mail program.  We'll have a cornhole game for players to qualify to spin our Prize Wheel that will offer many great prizes. 

Click here to continue.

 

Woodward and Bernstein at FAU Remind Us of Journalism’s Importance

June S. Neal

I didn’t expect to feel so emotional. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were sitting in front of me, crossed-legged, offering juicy anecdotes about Watergate and jeremiads about the 2024 presidential campaign.

Click here to continue.

 

 

A Free Press Is Vital

June S. Neal

Congratulations to your editorial boards’ well-argued opposition to House Bill 757 (“Florida anti-free speech bill would chill robust debate,” March 6).

Click here to continue.

 

 

Beating Rick Scott

Michael K. Cantwell

Beating Scott won’t be easy. He has three advantages – he’s White, he’s male, and he’s rich. In fact, he’s the richest man in the U.S. Senate, and he’s not shy about buying his elections.

Click here to continue.

Thank Joe Biden

No President has done more with less.

Click here to see.

2024 Membership

Char Lane

It’s March 2024 and the Primaries are in August and November’s General Election is only eight months away.  It’s time for some serious work to elect Democrats to save our democracy.

Click here to continue.

 

 

January 2024

Chill

Michael K. Cantwell

I’m talking about the coming election, not the weather. Biden may not win in the landslide he deserves, but he’ll win – whether or not Trump is on the ballot.

Republican hostility to women and love affair with autocrats will propel turnout, as it did in 2022, when polls wrongly predicted a red tsunami. Equally important, however, Biden will win on the economy.  Click here to continue.

Talking Inflation

Michael K. Cantwell

The spike in inflation between June 2021 and June 2023 caused a good deal of pain, but for Republicans it was a godsend. It was the only economic indicator they could attack. All others were performing at historically unmatched levels . . . and continue to do so. Click here to continue.

Fun Facts

Michael K. Cantwell

If you blinked, you missed this. On December 8, 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that “The University of Michigan’s consumer-confidence index surged from 61.3 to 69.4, surpassing economists’ expectations of a 62.4 reading.” Click here to continue.

Walking the Line

Michael K. Cantwell

Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times’s invaluable columnist, recently reported that “Joe Biden became the first sitting American president to walk a picket line.” Click here to continue.

Meeting Recap

Click here to read the latest.

2024 Membership

Char Lane

Can you believe 2023 is almost over and the General Election is less than a year away? 

It’s time to renew your DCDB membership for 2024.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

November 2023

It’s 2016 All Over Again

Michael K. Cantwell

The So-Called Liberal Media is making a horserace out of what should be a slam-dunk by obsessing on inflation and Biden’s age while ignoring what has been a historic presidency.

Biden has done far more than help the country recover from the economic and moral train wreck that was the Trump presidency. He is the first president in four decades to effectively challenge Reagan’s malignant trickle-down economics. He’s accomplished more with less than any of his predecessors. Click here to continue.

Peace Proposal for Israel and the Palestinians

Respectfully Submitted by Rabbi Barry Silver

For the Palestinians in the West Bank, Israel will announce its support for the immediate creation of a free and independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and will stop all further settlements there, once the West Bank Palestinians acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in Israel with its capital in Jerusalem. Click here to continue.

Abortion Access Petition Campaign Update:

We Are at a Critical Point but We Can Succeed!

Arlene Ustin

Once again Florida’s fascistic legislators and Governor are seeking to restrict women’s rights. This time it’s in terms of women’s healthcare, specifically, banning abortion access! With inflation dropping and a government shutdown pending, it’s the perfect time to drag out the deficit bogeyman. Click here to continue.

What They’re Saying About Trump

“Trump’s antics bring to mind the prediction of Sinclair Lewis in “It Can’t Happen Here” that if fascism cane to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling ‘The Star Spangled Banner.’” Click here to continue.

With Democracy Hanging in the Balance, Two Davids Desert But One Surprises

Michael K. Cantwell

Recently three respected members of the So-Called Liberal Media addressed the question of whether Biden is the Democrats’ best candidate in 2024. Click here to read.

Letters By Our Members

So you think Joe Biden is too old to be president again? . . . June S. Neal, Orlando Sentinel

The media’s coverage of President Biden is the principal reason the latest poll shows him behind Donald Trump in five of six critical states. Michael K. Cantwell, The New York Times. Click here to continue.

Thank You, Joe Biden

The American Rescue Plan Act; The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act; The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act; The PACT Act; The Inflation Reduction Act; The CHIPS Act. Click here to continue.

 

2024 Membership

Char Lane

Can you believe 2023 is almost over and the General Election is less than a year away? 

It’s time to renew your DCDB membership for 2024.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 October 2023 

“If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem”

Michael K. Cantwell

Psalm 137 is set during the Babylonian exile, following the deportation of the ancient Israelites to Babylon in the wake of Nebuchadnezzar II’s levelling of Jerusalem and destruction of the first temple. Its most well-known verses impose on the reader a duty of remembrance and have been repeated through the millennia of the Jewish diaspora before the founding of Israel. Click here to continue. 

Florida’s Waters: A Vital Asset Facing Grave Threats

Sen. Lori Berman

Florida's pristine waters have been an unparalleled attraction, magnetizing millions of tourists with our breathtaking beaches, winding rivers, and mystical springs. These treasures not only enchant visitors but also bolster our state's tourism sector, contributing significantly to an industry that exceeds $101 billion. Click here to continue.

Enter the Deficit Bogeyman

Michael K. Cantwell

With inflation dropping and a government shutdown pending, it’s the perfect time to drag out the deficit bogeyman. Right on schedule, The New York Times (gleefully?) reported on October 20, 2023, that “U.S. Deficit, Pegged at $1.7 Trillion, Effectively Doubled in 2023.” This will be repeated ad nauseam as we hurtle toward a default even though the article omits some critical information. Click here to continue.

Letters By Our Members

Consistency Is a Virtue, but Not When You’re Always Wrong, by David Kulick

‘Safe Place’ Designation Has Historical Precedent, by June S. Neal

Biden Impeachment Inquiry? Bring It On, by Michael K. Cantwell

Click here herNo. 63 - October 2023/Individual Articles/Letters from our Members.pdfe to continue.

Where Have All the Black Voters Gone?

Amelia Rose, Ph.D

In 2020, when it appeared that Biden would lose the election, Blacks braved the rain, the cold, Covid-19 and long lines to put him in the White House. Looking ahead to 2024, it remains to be seen if they will help to keep him there.  Click here to read.

Malice

Michael K. Cantwell

These people aren’t stupid. Well, maybe Marjorie Taylor Green is, as one commentator called her after she disgraced herself at the State of the Union, “a serious contender for the stupidest person in the room,” but even Donald Trump understands that a climate catastrophe is looming, and that their actions are exponentially increasing the likelihood that their grandchildren if not their children will inherit a virtually uninhabitable planet. Click here to read.

Say a Little Prayer for Don

Michael K. Cantwell

I jest, but while some people worry what will happen if Trump is on the ballot, I worry what will happen if he’s not. Click here to continue.

 

The Democratic Contract with Florida

David Kulick

Democrats in Tallahassee are as marginalized today as Republicans were in Washington before Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America helped them flip Congress. If we hope to flip the Florida Legislature in 2024, we must explain what Democrats will do, if given the majority. Here are some suggestions. Click here to continue.

 

Deals with the Devil

Michael K. Cantwell

"Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," said retired Israeli official Avner Cohen. When it emerged in the 1980s, Hamas was seen as a counterweight to the PLO and its dominant factor, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Click here to continue. 

 

Worth Quoting

Amira Hass, an Israeli journalist who spent many years reporting from Gaza, “Gaza embodies the central contradiction of the state of Israel – democracy for some, dispossession for others; it is our exposed nerve.’ Israelis don’t say ‘go to hell’, they say ‘go to Gaza.” Quoted by Adam Shatz on the war in Gaza, Vengeful Pathologies, London Review of Books. Click here to continue.  

 

A Century of Republican Incompetence and Racism Versus Democratic Competence and Inclusion

Michael K. Cantwell

Click here to read.

2023 Membership

Membership in the Democratic Club of Delray Beach is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Click here to join.

 

 September 2023

Biden Has Gen Z’s Back and They Have His

Michael K. Cantwell

Perhaps the best response to the pompous pronouncement by David Ignatius that President Biden should not run again in 2024 was the one by a “Poster To Be Named Later”: “I think David Ignatius is TOO OLD TO BE WRITING THIS COLUMN!!!” Click here to continue. 

Republicans Worry They’ll Be Blamed for Shutting Down the Government

Michael K. Cantwell

As we approach the 2024 presidential election, the So-Called Liberal Media has apparently forgotten all it learned from having unwittingly helped to elect Donald Trump in 2016. Click here to continue.

Letters By Our Members

Consistency Is a Virtue, but Not When You’re Always Wrong, by David Kulick

‘Safe Place’ Designation Has Historical Precedent, by June S. Neal

Biden Impeachment Inquiry? Bring It On, by Michael K. Cantwell

Click here to continue.

Are We Headed Toward Privatizing Florida’s Public Education?

June Sandra Neal 

You have to give it to him. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ scheme to weaken our public schools in favor of increased private, religious and home schooling has worked. Click here to continue.

A Century of Republican Incompetence and Racism Versus Democratic Competence and Inclusion

Michael K. Cantwell

Click here to read.

More Letters By Our Members

Keep Trump (the Gift that keeps Giving) on the Ballot, by Michael K. Cantwell

Weaponizing Government, by Michael K. Cantwell

Click here to continue.

 

 

“Oh, You Can’t Scare Me, I’m Sticking with the Union”

Michael K. Cantwell

When Woody Guthrie wrote Union Maid in June 1940, more than 30% of American workers belonged to unions. The right to unionize was won only after a century of bloody battles in which workers were beaten by Pinkertons and thugs hired by factory owners. Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Membership in the Democratic Club of Delray Beach is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Click here to join.

 

August 2023

Is It Fascism Yet? Part 2

Michael K. Cantwell

Is It Fascism Yet? Part One looked at America’s two most recent brushes with fascism, during the failed administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Unlike Bush and Trump, Ron DeSantis is smart, brutally focused, and ruthlessly ambitious. If DeSantis becomes president, there may be a different ending—for both our experiment in democracy and a sustainable life on our planet. Click here to continue. 

Are We Headed Toward Privatizing Florida’s Public Education?

June Sandra Neal 

Given Governor DeSantis’ elimination of income restrictions for school voucher applicants, this just may be Florida’s trajectory. Now, even wealthy families can get the state to pay for all or part of their children’s private schooling. What was once a strategy to help poor children exit failing  public schools is now a dark Republican scheme designed to destroy public education while supporting private, religious and home schools (PRH)—on the taxpayers’ dime. Click here to continue.

Got Inflation?

Michael K. Cantwell

Florida does. In fact, we’re No. 1!  Florida boasts the metropolitan areas with the greatest increases in year-over-year inflation. Click here to continue. 

Florida Schools: The New Beaver Cleaver Laws ’s Public Education?

June Sandra Neal

Yes indeed, Florida’s schools are now governed by a package of laws that Beaver Cleaver would find familiar, thanks to Governor DeSantis and the Republican legislative lemmings. Click here to continue.

Trump Bragged About Manufacturing Jobs, Biden Is Delivering

Michael K. Cantwell

Trump bragged that he’d add manufacturing jobs, but 170,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared on his watch. By contrast, Biden promised to create one million manufacturing jobs, and midway through his third year, there are 793,000 more manufacturing jobs than when he took office. Click here to continue.

A Looming Disaster

Jeffrey Kash

Children swept away, five people dead, when more than four inches of rain fell in two hours causing a flash flood to inundate a road in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Click here to continue.

 

 

Bidenomics

Michael K. Cantwell

Here’s how Gregg Coodley of Portland, Oregon responded to a New York Times op-ed that asked, “Have you met anyone truly excited about Joe Biden running for re-election?”: “I am wildly enthusiastic about President Biden, who is the best president in my lifetime.” Click here to continue.

Letters

Letters to the Editor are an excellent way to influence NPAs and give comfort and information to Democrats. Here are the latest. Click here continue.

Thank a Democrat/Thank Joe Biden
A list of all the programs for which Americans would be grateful to Democrats and Joe Biden, if only they knew. It's our job to remind them. Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach and haven’t yet renewed, please do so. If you’re not a member of the Club, please consider joining. Click here to continue.

 

July 2023

Is It Fascism Yet?

Michael K. Cantwell

I first encountered the provocative question in the title on a handwritten sign carried by an elderly woman at an anti–Iraq War rally in DC in September 2002. With the rise of single-party rule in Florida, led by book-banners, nativists, racists, and crypto-fascists, it’s a question worth examining in the context of the events of the last 20 years. Click here to continue.  

President Biden Stands Strong Against

Russia’s Threat to World Peace

Conor R. Moore.

In a move that would make one of our greatest presidents, Harry S. Truman, proud, the United States has sent more than $75 billion to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.. Click here to continue.  

 

Juneteenth 2023

Juneteenth

Michael K. Cantwell

The editorial reprinted below was published prior to passage of the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.” Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is symbolically huge but does nothing to protect Black America from Republican voter suppression laws. Click here to continue.

Juneteenth and the Unrealized Promise of

“Absolute Equality”

The Editorial Board

President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. Enslaved Texans would not learn of their liberation for nearly two and a half years. Click here to continue.  

 

June 2023

Biden Bucks Are Powering Florida Forward

State Sen. Lori Berman

We often hear Governor DeSantis bragging about Florida’s robust budget. For years, he’s toured the state announcing funding for new infrastructure and water projects, first responder bonuses, raises in teacher salaries, and other necessary investments . . . But how many of these investments are attributable to President Biden and the federal government, rather than the Florida Legislature? Click here to continue.  

DeSantis Legislates His Vision of Florida: White, Native, and Christian

June Sandra Neal

Republicans hypocritically rail against any interference with businesses…except when it irks the NRA. Click here to continue.  

Biden Smacks Another Home Run

Michael K. Cantwell

Nothing better illustrates Joe Biden’s experience than his handling of the so-called debt crisis. Click here to continue.

 

 

Biden’s Not Just “Better than the Alternative”

He’s Better than Most of His Predecessors

Michael K. Cantwell

When Joe Biden says, “Don’t Compare Me to the Almighty, Compare Me to the Alternative,” he is selling himself short, as does much of America. Click here to continue.

Letters by Our Members

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was right to call Gov. Ron DeSantis a “small, pathetic man.” Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

Membership is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events . . . Become a member of the DCDB by completing and mailing the below application or going to https://www.demclubofdelray.org/membership

 

 

May 2023

Hypocrites, Blackmailers, and Political Terrorists

Michael K. Cantwell

There are three things to know about the debt ceiling “crisis”:

(1) every penny of the $31.4 trillion of debt we will exceed on June 5 was authorized by prior Congresses in legislation signed by prior presidents; raising the debt ceiling is thus not a subject for negotiation but rather a question of whether Republicans will welch on our country’s debts;

(2) before Newt Gingrich became Speaker in 1995, the ceiling was raised more than 100 times, always without attendant drama; and

(3) since then, it has morphed into a crisis every time a Democrat occupied the Oval Office and never when a Republican was president.

Click here to continue.  

Get Behind Biden and Kindly STFU

Michael K. Cantwell

A recent poll reported that only 25% of Democrats want Joe Biden to run for reelection. Nearly half (44%) would have preferred a different nominee and the remainder had no preference.            

This means that 75% of the Democrats polled either don’t want or don’t know if they want Biden to run. That’s damaging and idiotic.

Click here to continue.  

Republicans Can’t Create Jobs but They Sure Can Create Debt

The debt chart is based on data provided by the U.S. Treasury, and the jobs charts are based on data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The links are active. MKC. Click here for the charts.

 

 

Look at His Record, Not His Age

Jack Goldstein

I hear people talk about Biden’s age and ignore his enormous accomplishments as president. He has brought civility, experience, and respect to the executive branch, and once again is the United States looked upon with respect and admiration by the free world. Ignore President Biden’s age and focus on his achievements and goals for the future. Click here to continue.

 

Biden’s Economic Engine that Could

Notwithstanding ten interest rate increases over 14 months, the economy is still producing jobs. This is no doubt a source of irritation to Republicans, who are plotting to cause a worldwide recession by refusing to raise the debt ceiling (even though they created the bulk of the debt). MKC. Click here for the charts.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

 Membership is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Meetings are at 7 PM on the third Thursday of each month at the Palm Beach County Democratic Party office, located in the Congress Office Park, 220 Congress Park Drive, Suite 140, in Delray Beach.  Our meetings are hybrid so you can also join via zoom.  Click here to continue.,

 

 

 

April 2023

DeSantis Plays, Florida Pays

Michael K. Cantwell and Char Lane

Governor DeSantis does like his clichés. In his ongoing attempt to punish Disney for exercising its First Amendment rights, he’s warned “there’s a new sheriff in town” and promised “you ain’t seen nothing yet” and, most recently, insisted that he’d win, “come hell or high water.” Click here to continue.

Re-Enroll in Vote by Mail

By Phone: (561) 656-6208.

Online: https://palmbeach.electionsfl.org/vrservices/mbrs#  

By Email: votebymail@votepalmbeach.gov

By Fax: (561) 656-6230

Click here for more.  

 

Trump the Grifter, DeSantis the Opportunist

June Sandra Neal

Given Donald Trump’s precarious legal status headlining this issue, many Republicans are looking at Governor Ron DeSantis as the better choice for their party’s presidential nomination. After all, he’s more disciplined, appears more controlled, and he can complete a sentence. Click here to continue.

 

Worth Reading

Senator Bobby Powell, Labeling Problems “Woke” a Whole Lot Easier Than Fixing Them, Palm Beach Post: “Unfortunately, Florida’s governor has long-since checked out from the problems that keep my constituents up at night, eyeing instead how to take out Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, Gov. DeSantis dreams up ways to keep himself in the national news while storm-battered Floridians watch the mold grow along with the cost of their policy renewals.” Click here to continue.  

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Michele Gitu

DEI is under siege and being attacked all around the state of Florida.  Misinformation is a leading factor, as is frequently the case when new terminology enters our common speech. Click here to continue

 

The Case for Voting By Mail

Janet Zweiback

Campaigning and voting for Senator Barack Hussein Obama for President was a thrill for me and I couldn’t wait to be in the voting booth.  Shortly after midnight on November 2, 2008, I was taken to the hospital for emergency, lifesaving surgery. As nurses were rushing me to the OR, I feebly said that I had to vote in two days. Click here to continue.

We Don’t Vote, We Lose

Michael K. Cantwell

I have often ridiculed White working-class Republicans for voting against their economic interests. But what about Democrats who vote against their economic interests by “not voting”? Click here to continue.

 

Worth Quoting

“Whenever you happen to be in Florida, focus on your actual job: Running a massive state government where people are dying every day of drug overdoses and mass shootings that you barely acknowledge. Where school boards across the state are grimly awaiting the final price tag of the economically reckless voucher bill you just signed. Where insurance rates are skyrocketing and damage claims from back-to-back hurricanes are being summarily denied. Where, every day, we’re discovering more cracks your machinations have inflicted on the fundamental integrity of Florida’s own government.” Orlando Sentinel

Click here for more.  

 

 

April 2023 Breaking

DeDoofus Punked by Disney

Michael K. Cantwell

Like Icarus, Ron DeSantis flies too close to the sun. He runs Florida like his personal fiefdom, lashing out at anyone who criticizes him. Picking a fight with Disney may be his Waterloo, however. Click here to continue.  

Donald, Get Ready, There’s a Trial A Comin’

Michael K. Cantwell

“If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.” Hamlet

It is now, Donald, but it is also to come. Alvin Bragg is the first but will not be the last. Fani Willis and Jack Smith are waiting in the wings. Click here to continue.

 

March 2023

The Democratic Contract with Florida

David Kulick

Democrats in Tallahassee are as marginalized today as Republicans were in Washington before Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America helped them flip Congress. If we hope to flip the Florida Legislature in 2024, we must explain what Democrats will do, if given the majority. Click here to continue.

The Validity of the U.S. Debt “Shall Not Be Questioned”

Michael K. Cantwell

Under the scary headline Debt Default Would Cripple U.S. Economy, The New York Times reported that Moody’s Analytics had estimated the immediate impact of the first government default in American history would be the loss of one million jobs and a recession. Click here to continue.

Let’s Go Make History

Steve Franklin

Most people think “reality” is a handful of people trying to survive on a tropical island.  The rest of us know that reality, for millions of people, is trying to survive on lower-than-poverty wages in an increasingly expensive world. Click here to continue.

The New Political Geography: 

It’s Whole Foods Against Cracker Barrel!

June Sandra Neal

Way back in 2011, political analyst Dave Wasserman coined this cute metaphor for America’s growing red v. blue political migration.  He and others tracked the point gap between Democratic and Republican candidates starting with President Obama’s 2008 election onward and found Whole Foods and Cracker Barrel establishments to be significant markers in political clustering. Click here to continue.

 

Democrats Poised to Take Control of Wisconsin Supreme Court

Michael K. Cantwell

Conservatives have controlled the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 2008. That may change on April 4, when voters chose between Daniel Kelly, a  MAGA Republican and former justice who lost a reelection bid in 2020, and Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal County Court judge. Click here to continue.  

 

What We’re Reading

Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull, The False Promise of ChatGPT, The New York Times “The human mind is not, like ChatGPT and its ilk, a lumbering statistical engine for pattern matching, gorging on hundreds of terabytes of data and extrapolating the most likely conversational response or most probable answer to a scientific question . . .” Click here to continue. 

 

Worth Repeating

“The real criminals in this society are not all of the people who populate the prisons across the state, but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people.” Angela Davis.

“Public relief is a sacred debt. Society owes maintenance to unfortunate citizens.” Paragraph 21 of the 1793 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen — the ultimate statement of the ideals of the French Revolution.

Click here to continue.

 

2023 Membership

Char Lane

It’s 2023 and time to renew your DCDB membership if you’ve not already done so or join us if you’re not already a member.  Membership is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Click here to continue.

 

February 2023

Who’s Afraid of Roberto Clemente?

Michael K. Cantwell

Base runners trying to go from first to third or score from second on a single to right field had good reason to fear Roberto Clemente’s rifle arm. Pitchers had good reason to fear his powerful bat whenever Roberto was at the plate. Even a half-century after Roberto died on a mission of mercy, Ron DeSantis and his minions fear him, although their reasons are self-serving and wicked.  Click here to continue.

Messaging

Michael K. Cantwell

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Democrats suck at messaging. Our last good slogan was Obama’s “Yes, We Can.” Click here to continue.

Biden Agita

Michael K. Cantwell

Democrats are suffering from Biden Agita. Michelle Goldberg urges Biden not to run again, even though he has been “a great president.” Republicans started calling Biden senile in 2019, which is just too rich when three of the last four Republican presidents had difficulty constructing actual sentences. Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

It’s 2023 and time to renew your DCDB membership if you’ve not already done so or join us if you’re not already a member.  Membership is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

 

January 2023

It’s a Clown Show, but There’s Nothing Funny About It

Michael K. Cantwell

Immune to serial humiliations and grinning like a clown, Kevin McCarthy pounded the gavel that it took him 15 ballots and 5 days to secure. Showing that the universe can sometimes have a dark sense of humor, his “victory” occurred on the second anniversary of the attempted overthrow of the American government. Click here to continue.

Expand the Risk Protection Order to Save Lives

Florida Senator Lori Berman

Following the horrific Parkland massacre in 2018, the Florida Legislature passed common sense gun safety legislation. Included among the provisions was a procedure known as the Risk Protection Order, which allowed law enforcement to remove guns from individuals who were a danger to themselves or others. Click here to continue.

How Has Biden Responded to Republican Threats?

How Should He?

Michael K. Cantwell

What President Biden accomplished in his first two years is remarkable, given Democrats’ five-seat majority in the House and an evenly split Senate (with one senator in the pay of fossil fuels and another in the pay of Big Pharma and hedge funds). Click here to continue.

Makeover versus Takeover

Michele Gitu

You hear a lot of things if you take the time to move in different circles of humanity. This “Boomer,” being somewhat new to the political scene related to Democrats in Palm Beach County, has watched a serious drama play out from the Gillum race in 2018 to the wrestling match for power and control of the DEC meeting last month.  Click here to continue.

For the Record, the DCDB Censures Dave Kerner

Michael K. Cantwell

Last September, Dave Kerner betrayed both the voters who elected him and the Democratic Party by endorsing Ron DeSantis. Unlike like those of us who toil in the trenches for the Party, he was not bound by any loyalty oath because he is an elected official. Click here to continue.

Charts: Biden’s Record on Jobs Remains Unmatched

Michael K. Cantwell

Biden’s average monthly job increase is far and away the best ever. Unemployment is at a level last seen when Nixon was president. And the broader picture – looking at Biden and his seven predecessors – shows that unemployment falls when a Democrat is in the Oval Office and rises under Republican  administrations and that Democratic administrations have created more than three times as many jobs as Republicans . . . despite having been in office fewer months. Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

It’s 2023 and time to renew your DCDB membership if you’ve not already done so or join us if you’re not already a member.  Membership is on a calendar year basis and your dues help provide funding for operational projects, such as The Delray Democrat, our meetings, other working supplies and signage for our sign waving events. Click here to continue.

 

December 2022

DeSantis Moves to Quell Political Dissent

Florida Senator Lori Berman

Freedom of speech, the linchpin of any democracy, is under attack in Ron DeSantis’ Florida. The Governor’s Department of Management Services (DMS), which oversees the Capitol complex, has proposed new rules that would empower Capitol Police to remove individuals exercising their first amendment right.  Click here to continue.

Democratic Gardens; Republican Jungles

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s said that anything put in the ground in Florida grows. But gardens need to be cared for. Otherwise, as the Bard wrote, they go to seed, and “things rank and gross in nature” consume them utterly. Click here to continue.

The Republican “Not See” Party Threatens America

Rabbi Barry Silver

The Republican “Not See” Party threatens America as it pretends to “not see” that Trump’s “America First” slogan was first used by fascists and Nazi sympathizers such as Charles Lindbergh who sought to keep America out of WWII so Hitler could slaughter the Jews. Click here to continue.

Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies

Michael K. Cantwell

Long before Twitter, and years before the World Wide Web was launched, local bulletin boards and Usenet groups offered a platform from which people could anonymously demonize others from the safety of their own homes. Click here to continue.

The Greatest Speaker of the Modern Era

Michael K. Cantwell

As we welcome a new Democratic leadership team in the House, we should also give heartfelt thanks to Nancy Pelosi, the greatest speaker of the modern era. Click here to continue.

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Susan Berkowitz-Schwartz

Thích Nhất Hạnh was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher known as the "Father of Mindfulness" and was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism. Click here to continue.

2023 Membership

Char Lane

We are fast approaching the end of 2022 and it’s time to renew your DCDB membership for 2023. Click here to continue.

 

 

November 2022

How The DeSantis Saved Democracy

Jeff Kash

On the eighth day, God created a fighter and that fighter unwittingly saved democracy.

Only four years ago, 21.25 million people lived in Florida. Of those, 4,718,720 were registered to vote as Republicans. That year, DeSantis received 4,076,186 votes, narrowly beating his Democratic opponent. Click here to continue.

The Red Wave that Wasn’t . . . and the One That Was

Michael K. Cantwell

Democracy dodged a bullet for the third election in a row. Not since the 1962 midterms has a Democratic president done better in his first midterm. Click here to continue.

The Winds of War

Steve Fradkin

Ever stop to think about how the next American Revolutionary War will begin?  Forget Lexington and Concord.  Forget Bunker Hill.  No, this one will start differently. Click here to continue.

Protect Women’s Rights in Florida By Amending the Constitution

David Kulick

When the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, it gave Democrats a potent issue for the November midterms. Click here to continue.

Letters

We’re very proud to count among our members state senator Lori Berman. Here’s a letter she recently published in the Sun-Sentinel. Click here to continue.

Atonement

Michael K. Cantwell

Whenever I’m subjected to Ron DeSantis’s poisonous lies about Critical Race Theory, I’m reminded of a trip my wife and I took through Central Europe in 1984. Click here to continue.

A More Perfect Union

Michael K. Cantwell

The drafters of the United States Constitution would be sickened by the slogan, “Make America Great Again,” which sounds more like a translation of Deutschland Uber Alles than anything intended by the Founders whom Republicans so repeatedly and hypocritically invoke. Click here to continue.

“Clear and Present Danger”

Michael K. Cantwell

Testifying before the January 6 Committee, the highly respected, very conservative appellate judge J. Michael Luttig described Donald Trump and his allies as “a Clear and Present danger to American democracy.” Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

We are fast approaching the end of 2022 and it’s time to renew your DCDB membership for 2023. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

October 2022

The Once and Future Governor

Michael K. Cantwell

Most fundamental is that Crist, like Biden, is a decent, competent man running against an indecent, incompetent narcissist. The race between Crist and DeSantis is a race between a mensch and a miscreant. Click here to continue.

What’s It All About

Steve Fradkin

It’s not about ideology.  It’s not even about money.  It’s bigger than that.  More critical than the issues of the day, or even of the century. Click here to continue.

Hurricane Ian Brings the Day of Judgment to America

Rabbi Barry Silver

Mother Earth has brought Judgment Day to America as Hurricane Ian slams into our coast with a vengeance and warns of even greater catastrophes if we fail to atone for our environmental sins.  Click here to continue.

Atonement

Michael K. Cantwell

Whenever I’m subjected to Ron DeSantis’s poisonous lies about Critical Race Theory, I’m reminded of a trip my wife and I took through Central Europe in 1984. Click here to continue.

Why This Year is Different

Rob Resnick

For as long as I have studied law and politics, I have consistently believed that in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter who appointed a judge, at least a federal judge. Click here to continue.

What We’re Reading

Poor People Will Be Voting for Their Lives in the Midterms, Reverend William J. Barber and Tope Folarin, Newsweek: “With Congress failing to extend vital safety net programs created during the pandemic, poor and low-income people will be voting for their lives in this year's midterms.” Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

How the Founders Viewed the Constitution

“I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilised society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. Thomas Jefferson Letter to Henry Tompkinson

 

 

 

September 2022

Why the November Election Is Once Again “The Most Important Election of Your Life”

Michael K. Cantwell

The last three federal elections were billed as “the most important in our lifetime.” It is not crying wolf or hyperbole to apply the same label to the upcoming midterms. Click here to continue.

Godspeed Merrick Garland and DOJ

Rob Resnick

It is simply impossible to make up a better story. I hope the Trump team and Trump Congressional enablers keep talking. Click here to continue.

If Mikhail Gorbachev Had Had a Real Partner

Michael K. Cantwell

Shortly before Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, Richard Barnett (co-founder of the progressive think tank Institute for Policy Studies) debated Ronald Reagan’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, the execrable and unqualified Ernest Lefever. Click here to continue.

What to Tell the NPAs—Republicans Are the Real Extremists

Michael K. Cantwell

Republicans win elections by falsely labeling Democrats as extremists, but the true threat to our values, our democracy, and our planet is the Republican Party itself.  Click here to continue.

Charlie Crist Will Be Florida’s Joe Biden

Michael K. Cantwell

A year ago I suggested that Charlie Crist could be Florida’s Joe Biden. A month ago the claim would have been greeted with howls of laughter, and perhaps will be so greeted even today. It would be “the laughter of fools.” Click here to continue.

Letters

Writing to local papers is a way to influence NPAs and gives comfort and information to Democrats. Here are the latest. Click here to continue.

DeSantis As Nixon, Part 2

Michael K. Cantwell

Actions such as the removal of state attorney Andrew Warren is the latest indication that it’s a mistake to characterize Gov. DeSantis as merely a Donald Trump clone. He’s not just our “Pint-sized Trump in Tallahassee” or “Trump with a Brain” or “Trump with Table Manners.” Click here to continue.

From “Little Ronnie Reagan” to Little Ronnie DeSantis

Michael K. Cantwell

As much damage as Trump has done to American democracy and discourse, no president has been worse for American workers than Ronald Reagan. Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

August 2022

American Exceptionalism Is Dead. Republicans Killed It

Rob Resnick

American Exceptionalism has been around for generations. Conceptually it represents that the US is a beacon to the world for democracy and a shining example to the world of how to operate the complexities of a democratic republic. Click here to continue.

Democrats Deliver. Republicans Put Party Before People, Country, and Planet

Michael K. Cantwell

After Senate Democrats passed America’s largest-ever investment in combatting climate change, Paul Krugman asked, “Did Democrats Just Save Civilization?” Click here to continue.

 

Rather Than Adding More Justices to the United States Supreme Court, Some Justices Should be Impeached As Unfit.  Here’s Why

Rabbi Barry Silver

The Supreme Court justices selected by Donald Trump have shown themselves unfit for that exalted office by decisions that reject nearly 50 years of precedent on abortion, and the separation of church and state in America, that provide the mentally deranged with assault weapons and that permit the ravaging of our planet by stripping government agencies of the power to prevent excesses of greed and exploitation.  Click here to continue.

Republicans’ 50-Year Assault on Education, Teachers, and History

Michael K. Cantwell

As if speaking not just to his contemporaries but to our own time as well, Thomas Jefferson warned of the need for an educated populace if democracy was to endure:  “In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate, and improve.” Click here to continue.

 

Letters

Writing to local papers is a way to influence NPAs and gives comfort and information to Democrats. Here are the latest. Click here to continue.

Biden’s Big Economic Engine That Could . . . In Charts

Michael K. Cantwell

Click here to view.

See You In September

Michael K. Cantwell

To those of us of a certain age, it’s feeling like the summer of ’74. What had been unimaginable only months earlier, following the publication of Woodward and Bernstein’s first piece on Watergate, moved swiftly to a stunning conclusion – Richard Nixon waving goodbye from the helicopter that was poised to carry him into retirement and ignominy. Click here to view.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

 

July 2022

The Gigante Defense

Michael K. Cantwell

If you lived in New York during the latter decades of the last century, you’ll remember Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, the Mafia don who avoided prosecution for years by parading around Greenwich Village in a bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself. Click here to continue.

 

The Passing of Pat O’Hearne

Terrie Rizzo

It is with heavy hearts that the Palm Beach County Democratic Party mourns the loss of Pat O'Hearne, lifelong Democratic activist, PBC Precinct Committeewoman, Zone Leader Emerita for Zone 8 in East Delray Beach, and Democratic Party stalwart par excellence, who passed away on June 19 at age 84.  Click here to continue.

Based Upon Real Events

Jeffrey Kash

A mother and her infant child were at the father’s home when he threatened to kill her. The mother was 18 and the father 20 and he had been violent throughout their relationship. He punched her and then got his gun and beat her with it. Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

Lizzy and That Wizard Of Ours — A Modern Fairytale

Steve West

Once upon a time there was a shining white city on a hill. It was ruled over by a humbug Wizard whom, without any evidence, proclaimed himself the wisest, smartest, least prejudiced, overall greatest individual who ever lived. Click here to continue.

Letters

Writing to local papers is a way to influence NPAs and independents while giving aid, comfort and information to Democrats. Here are some letters published by our members and friends in the last month. Click here to continue.

This Is Only the Beginning

Rob Long

Two weeks ago, I was stripped of the office I’ve held for the last six years—the office I was reelected to in 2020 by over 326,000 Palm Beach County voters. And I wasn’t alone. Click here to continue.

The Republican Party and “Jewish Ideals”

Michael K. Cantwell

Did you see that Mike Pence claims that the “Republican Party has stood for the ideals that have been characteristic in the Jewish community”? For a moment, I thought I was reading The Onion or The Borowitz Report. Click here to continue.

The Shackling of Andrew Gillum

Michael K. Cantwell

Prior to being released on his own recognizance, Andrew Gillum was led into court with “his hands and legs shackled to a chain around his waist.” Click here to continue.

Amen

Michael K. Cantwell

“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” Henry James, quoted in Leon Edel, The Master. Click here for some other final words.

 

 

June 2022

Juneteenth and the Unrealized Promise of “Absolute Equality”

Editorial Board

President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. Enslaved Texans would not learn of their liberation for nearly two and a half years. Click here to continue.

 

Marco Rubio: Driven by Blind Ambition, He’s Violated

His Oath of Office

June Sandra Neal

Senator Marco Rubio took this oath on January 5, 2011. He has since abandoned his post more than he has served it and abdicated his responsibility to protect the American people against their cardinal domestic enemy: murder by firearms. Click here to continue.

These Buttons Never Went Out of Fashion

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s a testament to the depravity to which this country has succumbed since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are treated as elder statesmen and not war criminals. Click here to continue.

Birds Aren’t Real, and Other Conspiracies

David Kulick

I always considered myself a bit of a conspiracy buff. I don’t think Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. I don’t think James Earl Ray acted alone in killing Martin Luther King. Click here to continue.

Vote Out NRA Whores

Michael K. Cantwell

Marco Rubio is not the biggest NRA Whore in the United States Senate, but he’s the biggest one who is running for reelection. Click here to continue.

DeSantis As Nixon

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s easy to mock Ron DeSantis as a pint-sized Trump or Trump with table manners (Rebekah Jones might take issue with that characterization . . . more on that below). Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

What Is a Democrat?

Rob Resnick

As we look towards the 2022 midterms and beyond, the Democratic Party must campaign on its core values. Strong candidates will fit their respective districts and the priorities of their voters, but also must connect to national strategy based on these core values that unite Democrats across the nation. Click here to continue.

 

 

May 2022

There Is No Such Thing As “Not Voting”

Michael K. Cantwell

Every vote counts, but every vote not cast counts as well. That’s because there is no such thing as “not voting,” as David Foster Wallace explained: “you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.” Click here to continue.

A Dangerous and Slippery Slope

Jeffrey Kash

We should be very concerned that the reversal of Roe v. Wade is the beginning of a slippery slope turning back the calendar and eliminating many of our rights. Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

DeSantis Pushes for “Open Carry” Against Record Gun Violence: “From My Cold, Dead Hands”

June Sandra Neal

If we thought Governor DeSantis couldn’t be any more of a reckless ideologue . . . now he’s promised to make Florida a “no carry, no permit” state before the end of his term, with his so-called “constitutional carry.” Click here to continue

A Very Personal Note

June Sandra Neal

I chatted on the phone with Dawn Hochsprung in the evening of December 13, 2012 about a caterer for a wedding reception. Her daughter and my son were engaged to be married.  I never spoke to her again. Dawn was the beloved principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School. The next day, Dawn, five other educators and 20 first-graders were massacred by a crazed gunman who had access to his mother’s firearms.  Click here to continue.

Florida’s Ludicrous Gun “Against-Registration” Law

June Sandra Neal

In Florida, there is no legal requirement to register firearms. The legislature’s explanation for this stretches credulity: Click here to continue.

Icarus

Michael K. Cantwell

Remember the myth of Icarus? His father, Daedalus, fashioned wings that he affixed to their bodies, enabling the pair to flee from King. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

April 2022

Push Polls

Rob Resnick

With the 2022 Florida campaigns in full swing, the effort to steal or subvert the vote has begun in earnest. Click here to continue.

Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Racists

Michael K. Cantwell

America has always been a beacon to those fleeing poverty and persecution, as expressed in Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,” with its iconic but aspirational closing lines. Click here to continue.

Public Defenders Are Not Soft On Crime. They Are Strong On The Constitution

Jeffrey Kash

In my first class on my first day of law school, a classmate asked our criminal law professor “how can you defend a criminal?”. Her response was: “I don’t. I defend alleged criminals.” Click here to continue.

Is DeSantis Worse than Trump?

Michael K. Cantwell

I’m not sure whether Ron DeSantis is actually a racist, but I am certain that he is something worse. If he’s not a racist, that is, if he is just throwing red meat to the wingnuts, then he’s actually worse than a racist. Click here to continue.

 

Florida “Education” Department Claims Math Books Contain CRT

Michael K. Cantwell

That’s right. Florida’s “Education” Department has rejected math books that it claims contain Critical Race Theory but is refusing to provide any examples. How dumb do they think Floridians are? Click here to continue.

Do Not Pass Over the True Meaning of Passover

Rabbi Barry Silver

Many traditional Jews remove chametz (food forbidden on Passover) from their homes, but forget the

meaning of this ritual. Click here to continue.

What We’re Reading

Thomas Piketty Thinks America Is Primed for Wealth Redistribution, David Marchese, New York Times: “All wealth is collective by nature in the sense that it relies on the work of hundreds, thousands, millions of engineers, technicians, the accumulation of knowledge. Click here to continue.

Worth Noting

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. Click here to continue.

 

  

 

March 2022

Republicans Are the Real Extremists

Michael K. Cantwell

The Republican claim that Democrats are extremists who cannot be trusted is yet another in the endless litany of lies in the Republican arsenal. It is not only palpably false but stands truth on its head—for the Republicans are the real extremists who cannot be trusted to govern. Click here to continue.

Republican Pandering Hurts Students, Parents,

Taxpayers, and Education

Jeffrey Kash

It’s time to put Republicans on the defensive about their “Putting Parents First Adjustment”.  This “adjustment” is just another bit of pandering to the Republican “base.” Click here to continue

How Trump’s Criminal Network Set the Stage for

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine

June Sandra Neal

Vladimir Putin is solely responsible for the horror he has inflicted on Ukraine.  But Republicans are responsible for Donald Trump, who aided and abetted Putin for many years to help the dictator in his attempt to seize control of the democratic Ukrainian government. Click here to continue.

We Must Do More For Ukraine – But What?

Rob Resnick

I watched Putin’s build-up for weeks knowing it was inevitable that he would direct the invasion of Ukraine. There was simply no alternative based on Putin’s world view. Click here to continue

 

Ten Ways We Know the Bengals Won the Super Bowl

Rabbi Barry Silver

The Mainstream media continues to promote the lie that the Rams won the Super Bowl. Here are 10 reasons why the Bengals won the Super Bowl and should be declared the legitimate Super Bowl champions. Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you’re not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  If you’re already a member of the Club and haven’t yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

What We’re Reading

What Americans Really Think About ‘Critical Race Theory,’ Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times: “For Democrats, then, this is a culture war they can win. They just have to fight it.” Click here to continue.

Worth Noting

Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “We used to say, ‘Monday is a hard day. There is a war in the country. So every day is a Monday. Click here to continue.

June’s Outbox

Our June Neal has already notched two letters in local media this month. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 2022

From Each According to His Gullibility

Michael K. Cantwell

Most Americans reject the so-called communist creed: “from each according to his ability; to each according to his needs.” Many of us also reject, but are powerless to reform, the “crony capitalist creed” that defines our current economic system: “from each according to his gullibility; to each according to his greed.”  Click here to continue.

 

The Real Danger of January 6

Rob Resnick

On January 6, 2021, a large armed mob attacked the US Capitol and the police officers entrusted with its security. The amount of violence, the serious weaponry (including chemicals), communications, planning, and of course the motivation all clearly point to this as an insurrection, perhaps even an attempted coup. Click here to continue

2022 Membership

Char Lane

If you're not a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining. If you're already a member of the Club and haven't yet renewed, please renew for 2022. Click here to continue.

 

Never Trump. Never Republican

Michael K. Cantwell

According to the Republican National Committee, storming the U.S. Capitol, smashing windows, beating people with flagpoles and fire extinguishers and threatening the lives of public officials is “legitimate political discourse.” It is not. Click here to continue.

 

It’s the Republicans, Stupid

Rob Resnick

Voting Rights legislation is critically important, so much so that it likely should have been the first issue the new administration and Democratic Congress addressed. Click here to continue.

 

Was Marco’s Mama a Socialist?

Michael K. Cantwell

Socialism is defined as “collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” Nothing ever advocated by any Democrat fits that definition.  Click here to continue

 

 

January 2022

President Biden on the Attempted Overthrow of Our Democracy

Rob Resnick

President Biden gave an incredible speech that will likely be recognized throughout history for its critical importance. Click here to continue.

 

“It’s the Media, Stupid”

Michael K. Cantwell

“It’s the Economy, Stupid,” the meme coined in 1992 by James Carville, has had a solid run. It’s the reason Donald Trump lost in 2020, and today it is a drag on Democrats’ chances in the midterms. Click here to continue

Did the Dems Get the Media Game Wrong?  

June Sandra Neal

Forget the press as the defender of Truth, Justice and the American way. For Moonves, and other media leaders, Trump is good for business and damn the consequences. Click here to continue.

2022 Membership

Char Lane

Welcome 2022 and Happy New Year.  It’s time to renew your Club membership, and if you’re not yet a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining.  Click here to continue.

Big Lies and Greater Truths

Michael K. Cantwell

Donald Trump and the Republican Party do not depend upon a single Big Lie but rather a series of self-reinforcing, interlocking Big Lies. Click here to continue

 

We Can’t Win; We Must Win; We Will Win

Michael K. Cantwell

Our democracy and our planet were on the ballot in November 2020 . . . and they survived, barely. Biden won, Warnock and Ossoff won, and we weathered the worst attack on our democracy since the nation’s founding. Our democracy and our planet are back on the ballot this November, and this time the party of the Big Lies will be aided by 34 voter suppression laws enacted in 19 states, including Florida. Click here to continue

 

 

December 2021

Debunking the Republican Big Lie That Biden Has Been “Captured by ‘The Left’” Presidency

Michael K. Cantwell

If President Biden sounds more progressive than the centrist Democrat he’s been for decades, it’s because he’s been listening to what the American people say they need and trying to respond to those needs. To conclude that he has been “captured by the ‘Left’” (scare quotes) simply because those needs happen to align with policies advocated by progressives is to confuse correlation with causation. Click here to continue.

 

Have the Democrats Gone Too Far to the Left?

June Sandra Neal

Back in 2019, former president Obama was clearly worried that some of the Democratic presidential candidates were situating the Party too far left.  Speaking to the National Democratic Alliance, he was blunt.  “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.” Nor agree with “certain left-leaning Twitter feeds or the activist wing of our party,” referring to Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.  Click here to continue.

Eliminate the Filibuster for Legislation Affecting Constitutional Rights

Michael K. Cantwell

Republicans don’t like it when every citizen has an  opportunity to vote. It is called “democracy” but it is spelled “defeat” for Republicans. Click here to continue

The Supreme Court Gets Ready to Pile on “the Stench”

Michael K. Cantwell

At oral argument in the Mississippi abortion case, Justice Sotomayor asked whether the Supreme Court could “survive the stench” of being considered a political institution. Click here to continue.

 

Thank a Democrat

1964 Civil Rights Act; 1965 Voting Rights Act; Affordable Care Act; AmeriCorps; CDC; Family and Medical Leave Act; Food Stamp Act; Freedom of Information Act; GI Bill of Rights; Medicare and Medicaid; Minimum Wage Act; National Labor Relations Act; National Science Foundation Act; National Voter Registration Act; Social Security Act; Unemployment Compensation Act; Workers Compensation Act. Click here to continue

 

2022 Membership

Char Lane

It’s already December and we’re about to welcome 2022.  It’s time to renew your Club membership, and if you’re not yet a member of the Democratic Club of Delray Beach, please consider joining. Click here to continue

 

Volunteer to Help Us Turn Florida Blue in 2022

Char Lane

 We’ll be very busy next year as we work to elect a Democratic governor and Democrat senator. There are many ways that you can help us to achieve these goals. Please contact us if you’re interested. Click here to continue

What They Need

Michael K. Cantwell

Remember the Twilight Zone episode “What You Need,” in which a peddler (able to see into possible futures) gives people what they need before they even know they need it? Click here to continue

“Food for Powder” in the Culture Wars

Michael K. Cantwell

Omicron is here. Vaccination and masking are the most effective tools in the battle against COVID. Unvaccinated Americans are 5.8 times as likely to be infected and 14 times as likely to die as are vaccinated Americans. Click here to continue

 

 

 

 

November 2021

It’s Not a Failed Presidency. It’s a Failed Democracy . . . and a Failing Planet

Michael K. Cantwell

If you get your information from the corporate media, you’ll be surprised to learn that Joe Biden’s record in office has been one of singular achievements, notwithstanding recent setbacks. Click here to continue.

 

We Are Not Fighting to Save Our Democracy; We Are Struggling to Get it Back

Rob Resnick

To those who think we are fighting to maintain our democracy, think again. We lost it and are fighting to get it back. Click here to continue.

 

Trump Has Been Defeated, but Trumpism Is Alive and Ill

Rabbi Barry Silver

It’s been a while since I felt morally compelled to write about the disgraced loser ex-President who staged an unsuccessful coup against America, but while Trump has been defeated, the plague of Trumpism is alive and ill.  Click here to continue

Takeaway from Virginia

Michael K. Cantwell

The number one takeaway from Glenn Youngkin’s election as governor is that racism is alive and well in Virginia. Donald Trump threw away the dog whistles wielded by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and began using a bullhorn. Glenn Youngkin threw away the bullhorn and picked up the dog whistle, as Ron DeSantis is attempting to do in Florida. Click here to continue.

 

Worth Quoting

“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference,” FDR. Click here to continue

 

What We’re Reading

The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers, New York Times: “But the gasoline-powered leaf blower exists in a category of environmental hell all its own, spewing pollutants – carbon monoxide, smog-forming nitrous oxides, carcinogenic hydrocarbons – into the atmosphere at a literally breathtaking rate.” Click here to continue

 

 

October 2021

Are Republicans Deliberately Sabotaging the Economy?

Are Blue Dogs Deliberately Sabotaging Biden’s Agenda?

Michael K. Cantwell

These are rhetorical questions. Having crashed the economy, Republicans’ only path back to power is to undermine Democrats’ efforts to fix the mess they left behind. It works because Americans have short attention spans. Click here to continue.

 

Senate Afghanistan Hearing

Rob Resnick

On September 29, 2021, Secretary of Defense Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Milley, and CENTCOM Commander General McKenzie appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Click here to continue

Sue Thy Neighbor: Why All Americans Should be Very Afraid of Texas’ Anti-Abortion Law

June Sandra Neal

Since the advent of Trump’s neo-Fascist ideology in 2015, we’ve smelled menace in the air, a sense that our hard-won human rights and social justices, though still works in progress, could be eliminated.  Click here to continue.

 

How to Lose Florida Again

Michael K. Cantwell

When I moved from New York to Florida in 2014, I looked forward to having my vote make a difference for the first time in my life. Click here to continue.

 

Environmental Racism and Big Sugar

Michael K. Cantwell

Patrick Ferguson was our speaker at our September meeting night for a presentation on “Environmental Racism and Sugarcane Burning.” Click here to continue

 

 

September 2021

New Profiles in Courage Confirm The Time for Civil Disobedience Is Now

June Sandra Neal

Florida’s government’s failure to protect its citizens is evil. Fortunately, we are witnessing acts of civil disobedience that call out to the rest of us. Click here to continue.

 

“It Don’t Mean A Thing if We Don’t Win Tomorrow”

Michael K. Cantwell

It was the fourth game of the 2001 World Series. The Arizona Diamondbacks were ahead 3-1 in the ninth and led the series 2-1. Click here to continue

Two Takes on Texas

Michael K. Cantwell

What happened in Texas was not inevitable but it was predictable. It’s what happens when we allow “the perfect to be the enemy of the good.” Click here to continue.

 

It Is Class Warfare We’ve Been Losing for a Half-Century

Michael K. Cantwell

Complaints that multimillionaires and multinationals don’t pay their fair share of taxes are met with cries of “socialism” and “class warfare.” Of course the socialism is for the obscenely rich, who have been practicing and winning class warfare since 1970, as the chart below makes abundantly clear. Click here to continue.

 

How I Learned About Civil Disobedience.  A Personal Story

June Sandra Neal

We’re not going to save ourselves with traditional political weapons.  Or with people believing “it can’t happen here.” Click here to continue

 

Even in a Lineup of the Loathsome, Rick Scott Stands Out

Michael K. Cantwell

It is difficult to stand out in the pack of grifters, miscreants, toadies, vermin, traitors, and cowards that comprise the modern Republican Party, but Rick Scott manages to get noticed. Click here to continue.

Hypocrites, Miscreants, and Morons Unload on Biden

Michael K. Cantwell

When 241 Marines died in Beirut, the country rallied behind Reagan. When the lives of 2,977 people were tragically cut short on 9/11, the country rallied behind Bush. But when 13 Marines are killed in a terrorist attack as President Biden seeks to extricate the country from the quagmire that is Afghanistan, it’s difficult to find even Democrats willing to defend him. Click here to continue

 

Putting the “Disappointing” Job Reports into Perspective

Michael K. Cantwell

Republicans are in a frenzy and the corporate media in a dither over the fact that the August job numbers fell short of estimates. But only a fool or a paid professional liar would fail to notice that the 235,000 jobs reported in August are still significantly higher than Trump’s pre-pandemic monthly average (180,200 jobs) and infinitely greater than Trump’s numbers over his full term, during which nearly 3 million jobs were lost. Click here to continue.

 

 

 August 2021

We’re No. 1! Florida Leads the Nation

Michael K. Cantwell

Just a month ago, I expect Ron DeSantis was feeling the same way Donald Trump felt in January 2020, contemplating a second term. Click here to continue.

 

Cio-Cio San Cantwell

Michael K. Cantwell

Our beloved little butterfly is gone. In her too-brief 16 years and 57 days, Cio-Cio brought more light and love into the world than any creature we have ever met. Click here to continue

POGO — the Project on Government Oversight

David Kulick

Among the things I inherited from my mother were subscriptions. Many I already had, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, People For the American Way, FAIR, and the Washington Spectator. But others were things I usually read at her house, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and Americans United. But I picked up one that I don’t recall reading called POGO – the Project on Government Oversight, and that’s what I wanted to write about. Click here to continue.

 

Cio-Cio San Cantwell—A Tribute

Char Lane

Cio-Cio was a sixteen-year-old apricot poodle who believed and acted like she was a puppy, though she often seemed more human than dog.  She was an adorably obedient pup who was the queen of her castle and enchanted everyone.  She was friendly, smart and sweet, with a mind of her own and eyes that would melt your heart.  Click here to continue.

 

Negate a Negative to Get a Plus

Char Lane

A group of us from Delray and nearby got together Sunday evening to have dinner at and show support to the owner and employees of Ramen Lab Eatery after the owner, Louis Grayson, was subjected to a harangue of hateful racist comments on July 15.  Click here to continue

 

Bob Moses – Organizer, Educator, Polymath: “This Was a Man”

Michael K. Cantwell

Robert Parris “Bob” Moses was one of the greatest – and least well known – organizers of the Civil Rights Era, a man whose courage was legendary even in a movement studded with martyrs. Click here to continue.

American Exceptionalism Is Exceptionally Ignorant and Dangerous

Rabbi Barry Silver

I have always been inspired by the Sioux victory in Custer’s Last Stand, where the good guys for one brief moment defeated those who waged genocide against them.  Click here to continue

 

GOP Sabotages Jan 6 Investigation – Again

Rob Resnick

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi deals with the media fallout from her unprecedented rejection of Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s five picks for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Insurrection, voters must focus on McCarthy and the Republicans. Click here to continue.

 

 

July 2021

DeSantis’s Assault on History

Michael K. Cantwell

A protestor demanding that the Palm Beach County school board remove “White Advantage” from its Equity Statement insisted she wouldn’t allow anyone to “teach my child to be ashamed of his race.” Our grandstanding governor calls Critical Race Theory “the practice of ‘teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other.” Click here to continue.

 

If Manchin Is the Enemy, Wait Until You Get McConnell

Rob Resnick

Many Democrats, at least those in Congress, appear focused on West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Click here to continue They continuously challenge his stances on important issues and his desire to work across the aisle to build consensus or more broad-based support for legislation as well as his resistance to end the filibuster rule. Click here to continue

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Michael K. Cantwell

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office, the country was mired in the depths of the Great Depression, with 25% of the nation’s workers unemployed and millions of Americans homeless. In his inaugural address he spoke frankly of the challenges facing the country but insisted that they could be overcome: Click here to continue.

 

Our Grandstanding Governor

Michael K. Cantwell

Our grandstanding governor wants to spend our tax dollars to send police to Texas and Arizona to help two other grandstanding governors “protect our borders.” He has no idea how much this will cost and beyond his say-so there’s no evidence that this expense has anything to do with protecting Floridians. Click here to continue.

 

The Republicans Got Sick and Tired of Democracy, So They’re Trying to Kill It

June Sandra Neal

Democracy just wasn’t working for the Republicans.  There were increasing numbers of Black and Brown people (White majority forever!), a road to citizenship for immigrants (they can’t even speak English!), and tree-huggers squawking like Chicken Little about climate change (Hillary took our coal!).  And the greatest proof that the system stank:  the election of a Black president. Click here to continue

 

Biden’s First Foray – New Focus on National Security

Rob Resnick

In his first European visit, President Biden restored the US presence and traditional role with NATO, the G7, and our relationship with Putin’s Russia. He also established a strong US/EU plan for China and other challenges.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

June 2021

Juneteenth and the Unrealized Promise of “Absolute Equality”

Editorial Board

President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. Enslaved Texans would not learn of their liberation for nearly two and a half years. Click here to continue.

 

The Fraud of “Voter Fraud”; the Reality of Voter Suppression

Michael K. Cantwell

Recently, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was heard to complain, “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.” He’s twice wrong. Click here to continue

Weaponizing Ignorance

Rob Resnick

We seem to be in an era of pervasive ignorance sweeping the US; at least I hope this is unprecedented, suggesting it is temporary and fixable. School curricula throughout K-12 overwhelmingly fail to include sufficient education on American history and government. Click here to continue.

 

“I’m Not Calling Mr. DeSantis a Racist, I’m Simply Saying the Racists Believe He’s a Racist”

Michael K. Cantwell

Ron DeSantis launched his 2018 campaign against Andrew Gillum with a warning to voters not to “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. Click here to continue.

 

Rubio Should Resign

June Sandra Neal

Sen. Marco Rubio is a coward. He has abdicated his responsibility to the people of Florida and to the Constitution. He refused to convict Trump after he tried to blackmail the president of Ukraine. He backed down when Trump was impeached for inciting a crime against our country in the shameful Jan. 6 insurrection, although the whole country saw and heard the Liar-in-Chief do just that. Click here to continue

 

As Governor, Nikki Fried Says She’ll “Break the (Republicans’) Rigged System”

June Sandra Neal

Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wants to be Florida’s next governor and isn’t afraid to take on Ron DeSantis, who she describes as an “authoritarian dictator.” If elected, she’ll end two decades of disastrous Republican rule.  And she will make history as Florida’s first woman governor. Click here to continue.

 

Is Charlie Crist Our Joe Biden?

Michael K. Cantwell

Just as Ron DeSantis is a peanut-sized reflection of Donald Trump, the 2022 gubernatorial race is likely to mirror the 2020 presidential race. Click here to continue.

 

 

May 2021

This Is What a President Looks Like

Michael K. Cantwell

If you’ve attended a protest march anytime during the past few decades, you’re familiar with this powerful Call and Response: Show me what democracy looks like/This is what democracy looks like!” Click here to continue.

 

Mothers, Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to be Teachers

(or Lies My State Told Me)

Lou Lifson

Do you remember when the state of Florida was pitching The Lottery to us? The profits would go to “enhance” education, not take the place of monies budgeted for education. Click here to continue

DeSantis Threatens all Floridians

Rob Resnick

Governor DeSantis signed an executive order not only ending the COVID-19 health emergency in Florida, but went so far as prohibiting all county, city, and local governments from continuing or enacting ANY health and safety measures to protect their citizens. Click here to continue.

 

Voting and the DCDB

Char Lane

Our voting rights are being threatened by the predominantly white Republicans enacting state laws intended to curtail the rights of voters such as those in Georgia who turned out to elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the recent Senate election.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2021

Living While Black Is Dangerous to Your Health

June Sandra Neal

Racism hurts.  And its scalding pain tears at the psyche as well as the body.  The medical world has long known that.  Click here to continue.

 

White Privilege

Michael K. Cantwell

I was pulled over for speeding a few years ago on Lake Ida Road. My immediate concerns were how long I’d be delayed and how much it would cost me. That I might pay with my life never crossed my mind. Click here to continue

“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”

June Sandra Neal

That was the title of Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s 1997 pivotal book on adolescent racial identity. Click here to continue.

 

Time to Leave Afghanistan

Rob Resnick

Although not cause for celebration, I wholly concur with President Biden’s difficult decision to bring American forces home from Afghanistan after twenty years, ending America’s longest war. Click here to continue.

 

Bacon’s Rebellion and the Invention of Race in America

Michael K. Cantwell

“No one was white before he/she came to America,” James Baldwin pointedly observed.

As Michelle Alexander elaborated in The New Jim Crow, “In America, the idea of race emerged as a means of reconciling chattel slavery – as well as the extermination of American Indians – with the ideals of freedom preached by whites in the new colonies.” Click here to continue

 

 

 

March 2021

Good Government

Michael K. Cantwell

In the aftermath of the bloodiest battle of America’s first Civil War, the man  considered one of our two greatest presidents spoke with his characteristic eloquence of his hope that America would “have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The words are as timely, and precious, today as they were then. Click here to continue

The New Golden Calf

Rob Resnick

On February 26, 2021, the Conservative Political Action Conference  (CPAC) stooped to a new and blasphemous low. They unveiled a large golden statue of Donald Trump and paraded it through the halls so attendees could pay homage. Click here to continue.

 

How Florida Republicans Are Killing Floridians

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s not rocket science. Simple logic suggests that people lacking health insurance are more likely to die prematurely . . . and unnecessarily.  Click here to continue.

The Former Republican Party

Rob Resnick

On February 26, 2021, the Conservative Political Action Conference  (CPAC) stooped to a new and blasphemous low. They unveiled a large golden statue of Donald Trump and paraded it through the halls so attendees could pay homage. Click here to continue.

 

 

February 2021

Shelly Petrolia for Mayor, Mitch Katz for Seat 3

The Democratic Club of Delray Beach and the editorial board of The Delray Democrat endorse Shelly Petrolia for City Commission Seat 5 (Mayor) and Mitch Katz for Seat 3. Click here to continue.

What Has Mayor Shelly Petrolia Done Right? Plenty

Rob Resnick

A colleague was recently criticizing Mayor Petrolia’s leadership and “challenged” me to offer one thing she has done well. When it comes to the important challenges facing Delray Beach, Mayor Petrolia has been on the right side of all of them. Here is the list! Click here to continue.

 

Why I Could Never Vote for Tracy Caruso

David Kulick

My mother, Mariane Kulick, started this club around 20 years ago. The idea was to be a city club as opposed to an HOA-based club, although she also wanted to stay clear of local politics. The club was always progressive, standing for economic and social justice, and trying to make the world a better place for everyone, not just the wealthy. Click here to continue.

 

Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate, Only Love Can Do That

Rabbi Barry Silver

I begin this first article of the New Year with a quote from Congressman Alcee Hastings, who often begins a speech by intoning “If I offend anyone, I assure you it was purely intentional.” Click here to continue.

Covering the Post-Presidency of Donald Trump

Michael K. Cantwell

Donald Trump broke the mold for how a president should behave. Will he also break the mold for how a former president should behave? – that is, as someone who is rarely seen or heard and almost never critical of his or her successor.  The media has the power to prevent that from happening, and it’s only fair to demand that they exercise that power. Click here to continue.

From Cradle to College and Beyond: Village Academy on the

Art and Sara Jo Kobacker Campus

Compiled by Angela Burns

“Village, a vision of hope shining for the world to see; Village, a beacon of light guiding our community; Village, where dreams can grow into reality.” These words are the first lines of the chorus of the school song at Village Academy School. Click here to continue.

Disunity

Mario Cattano Henry

The Biden administration is calling for a return to unity and an end to the divisiveness that we have witnessed over the last four years. He is appealing for bipartisanship. The appeal runs counter to the interests and desires of powerful elements and individuals within the United States. To understand why the nation is so disunited we have to identify those who benefit from the division and will endeavor to maintain it.  Click here to continue.

 

January 2021

 Healing a Nation, from FDR to JRB

Michael K. Cantwell

On January 6, 2021, the traitors and crypto-fascists in the Republican Party, led by their Criminal-in-Chief, failed to overthrow our democracy. Joseph R. Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. Click here to continue.

When FDR Led a United States

Sandra Elaissen-Cantwell

Some of us can still remember the sound of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s voice during his Fireside Chats or when he addressed the nation to announce perilous actions across the globe that threatened this country’s existence, such as the surprise and vicious attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Click here to continue.

 

Henceforth: “Nine Pennies for Everyone!” And the People Were Happy!

June Sandra Neal

Yes, Florida’s minimum wage just went up from $8.56 an hour to $8.65.  Nine cents. Click here to continue.

 

Democracy Is Holding – Or is it…

Rob Resnick

The nation has known all along that Donald Trump disfavors democracy while displaying a clear preference for authoritarianism.  His supporters include extremists who share his more repugnant and un-American views, as well as traditional Republicans, supporting their party and its ideology while downplaying the danger Trump represents.  Click here to continue.

#SecondBillofRights

Michael K. Cantwell

He then proposed a Second Bill of Rights, explaining  that the original had guaranteed “life and liberty” but that failed to provide equality in “the pursuit of happiness.”   Click here to continue.

Just My Opinion

Char Lane

There will be critical local elections on March 9, 2021, and the ballot will feature three must-win Delray Beach Commission seats, including Seat #5 for Mayor.  The outcome of this election will most likely determine the future of Delray Beach, and whether it will remain the “Village by the Sea” or continue its transformation into a “City by the Sea.”  Click here to continue.

The Insurrection of 2021

Rob Resnick

Democracy prevailed in the early morning hours of January 7, 2021, when Congress rejected the false objections to the 2020 Election and formally approved the Electoral College vote. However, this ultimate act of our Constitutional Republic was predicated by an unprecedented attack on our country by a sitting President.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

December 2020

 

It’s Not Socialism, It’s Democracy

Michael K. Cantwell

Donald Trump won Florida easily because substantial numbers of voters believed the absurd accusation that Joe Biden is a socialist.  Republicans are hoping to maintain control of the Senate by spewing similar lies in Georgia, and we can expect Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio to spout the “S” word ad nauseam in 2022, regardless of their challengers. Click here to continue.

Don’t Underestimate the Danger of Trump’s Big Lie.

Hitler, Mussolini and Franco Told the Same One

June Sandra Neal

No one should underestimate the danger of Trump’s continued campaign to declare the 2020 election results invalid.  And we’d best not assume that, once Biden is in office, the detritus left by Trump will all be swept away.  Lies, especially Big Lies, told frequently enough by people in authority, can come to be accepted as truth, with disastrous results. Click here to continue.

 

Why Trump Must Be Prosecuted

David Kulick

I feel an unhealthy nostalgia for George W Bush, a congenial guy who lied us into a war that has had devastating consequences for the world. When Obama took office and said that we were looking forward not backwards, I was outraged that someone lying about the need to go to war and authorizing illegal torture was going to get away with it. Click here to continue.

 

A Christmas Grift for the Nation

Rob Resnick

The Trump campaign and many of his MAGA supporters continue to push the false and ridiculous narrative that by some mysterious conspiracy Democrats stole the election from him. Using the slogan, “Stop the Steal,” Trump has raised over $200 million dollars in the month since election day and he is still going.  Click here to continue.

Dear Mitch

Michael K. Cantwell

Okay, you win, but what about your legacy? Unlike George W. Bush, who said, “I don’t care, I’ll be dead,” I suspect that you do care what history will say once you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.  Click here to continue.

 

 

November 2020

 

Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan
Michael K. Cantwell

Yes, we averted an unmitigated disaster. It is doubtful that either our democracy or our planet would have survived another four years of Donald Trump. But can they survive another six years of Mitch McConnell, two of them as Majority Leader? .  . . . Click here to continue.

Obese Turtle v. Mexican Rapists, Fine Neo-Nazis, and Fat Ugly Woman
June Sandra Neal

After Trump’s temper tantrum about non-existent election fraud, Anderson Cooper, normally the most staid and decorous presence on CNN, let loose: “That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world. And we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over.”  . . . Click here to continue.

 

Random Thoughts

David Kulick

Some of you may have known my mother, Mariane Kulick. She and her partner Sam Lender founded the Democratic Club of Delray Beach many years ago, and she restarted it the day after Donald Trump was elected. Mom was not given to rash pronouncements or wild conspiracy theories so when she said that if Trump were re-elected we would never have another election, it was impossible to ignore. . . . . Click here to continue.

 

2020—Biden Wins but Dems Leave a Lot on the Table
Rob Resnick

Although there are still the formalities, it is clear Joe Biden has won the Presidency and victory over Donald Trump essential for the future of the country. .. . . Click here to continue.

“Off the Table”
Michael K. Cantwell

A series of national polls conducted between 2003 and 2009 showed support for a universal healthcare system ranging from 59% to 75%. Yet Sen. Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee charged with principal responsibility for drafting the Affordable Care Act, declared single-payer to be “off the table.” . . . Click here to continue.

Yer Mama's a Socialist
Michael K. Cantwell

H.L. Mencken famously wrote that “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” It’s not a lack of intelligence that led 70 million people to vote for Donald Trump, however. It’s lack of information, lack of education, and lack of a nose for a carnival barker . . . Click here to continue.

 

October 2020

 

No, He Didn’t, and No, He Can’t
Michael K. Cantwell

Trump claims he built a beautiful economy and says that he can do it again. No, he didn’t, and no, he can’t.  . . . Click here to continue.

Will This Be America’s Last Election?
June Sandra Neal

What if Biden and Trump both show up for confirmation on January 20, 2021? . . . Click here to continue.

 

SCOTUS 2020: Another Stolen Seat?

Rob Resnick

Within minutes of the announcement that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell quickly and callously announced they would try to seat her successor on the Court even though there were less than 50 days before the election.. . . Click here to continue.

 

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Michael K. Cantwell

Fear is the most powerful motivator. That’s why it is so widely employed in today’s world, by everyone from advertisers trying to sell you deodorants to politicians trying to frighten you into voting for them. . . . Click here to continue.

 

The Paris Agreement

David Kulick

A Trump supporter told me that the Paris Agreement was a crappy deal, partly because China wasn’t in it. Of course, China is in the Paris Agreement, but it’s necessary to explain the different interests in the Paris Agreement, particularly financial, and how those interests need to be met. . . . Click here to continue.

 

Palm Beach Postal Union Chief Urges Confidence in Mail-In Balloting

June Sandra Neal

Despite Trump’s attempts to cripple the US Postal Service, Kevin Young, President of the Palm Beach Postal Union Local 749, says area voters can have confidence in their mail delivery system. . . . Click here to continue

 

 

 

September 2020

 

The Fraud of "Voter Fraud"

Michael K. Cantwell

Is it any surprise Donald Trump both despises and fears the United States Postal Service? Its workforce is unionized, earns a living wage, and is disproportionately minority and female. What’s not to hate if you’re a racist, sexist plutocrat? . . . Click here to continue.

Meadows Says the American People Don’t Care. He May be Right
Rob Resnick

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was recently asked about the Republican Convention’s ethics violations and other issues surrounding Trump mixing official business and resources with his campaign. Meadows did not try to deny the obvious, but instead brazenly declared that Americans outside the Beltway simply didn’t care about these things . . . Click here to continue.

 

Avoiding a Repeat of 2016

Michael K. Cantwell

There are numerous reasons Donald Trump eked out an Electoral College win in 2016 but most relevant this year are the lies and fearmongering that duped some people into voting against their economic interests and others into not voting or voting for a third party candidate with no chance of winning. Here’s what to tell them . . . Click here to continue.

 

Remembering "Radical Jack"
Michael K. Cantwell

Jack Lieberman, a fixture of progressive politics in South Florida for five decades, died of COVID-19 on August 30, 2020. Dubbed “Radical Jack” and expelled from Florida State University in the late 1960s, he wore the mantle proudly and is remembered lovingly by the many whose lives he helped and changed . . . Click here to continue.

 

 

 

August 2020

 

John Lewis - A Man for All Seasons

June Sandra Neal

John Robert Lewis didn’t have “the look.”... Yet, when the moment called, he could rock the room with the soaring lyricism of a Baptist minister. Those who knew him said he emanated courage and righteousness as palpable as heat from a radiator. Click here to continue.

Honor Lewis’ Legacy by Allowing Returning Citizens to Vote

Nancy Chanin

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked Returning Citizens from voting, the nation lost a true and steadfast champion of democracy. . . . Click here to continue.

 

I Felt I Was Praying With My Feet

June Sandra Neal

One champion of human rights was omitted from the movie Selma, a man with a wild, white mane and beard in the front row, near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., looking more like a biblical prophet than a modern-day civil rights activist. Click here to continue.

 

Hillary Clinton, Andrew Gillum, and the Amendment 4 Lawsuit
Michael K. Cantwell

Donald Trump not only preserved the conservative majority on the Supreme Court; he also “flipped” three of the eleven federal Courts of Appeal during his first term. Click here to continue.

 

Chomsky Was Right

Michael K. Cantwell

Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Professor Noam Chomsky suggested that the Republican Party had become “the most dangerous organization in human history.” He immediately acknowledged “it’s an extremely outrageous statement” but added, “the question is whether it’s true.” Click here to continue.

Putin’s Bounty: Trump Proves (AGAIN!) He Is the Biggest Threat to US National Security
Rob Resnick

President Trump is complicit in the Russian bounty paid to the Taliban for killing Americans. Click here to continue.

 

July 2020

 

“We Hold These Truths”

Michael K. Cantwell

It is easy to read The Declaration of Independence with a jaundiced eye, contrasting the ringing declaration that “all men are created equal” with the reality that many of the men who signed the document (including its principal author Thomas Jefferson) were untroubled owning other men.. Click here to continue . . .

The United States Post Office – The Early Years

Char Lane

The United States Post Office. We grew up in the years of daily mail delivery and it’s always been an integral part of our lives . . . Click here to continue.

 

Trump’s Threats Against the Postal Service Are a True Danger to Democracy

June Sandra Neal

Old Ben Franklin was a man of many enterprises, including a publishing business . .  .  Click here to continue.

 

Post Office Banks Could Be a Win-Win

David Kulick

There has been a history of using Post Offices for banking services and perhaps the time is right to do it again . . . Click here to continue.

How to Destroy the United States Postal Service

Michael K. Cantwell

Why does the Republican Party want to destroy the United States Postal Service?  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

June 2020

“It Can’t Happen Here.” America’s Flirtations with Fascism

Michael K. Cantwell

Sinclair Lewis’s Depression-era novel It Can’t Happen Here imagined America’s descent into fascism after a populist demagogue is elected president on a platform of making America great again.  Sound familiar? . . . Click here to continue . . .

DeSantis Places Politics Over People

Nancy Chanin

With coronavirus cases surpassing 56,000, an unemployment rate of nearly 13 percent, and a recent report indicating that state tax collections plummeted nearly $900 million in April, one would hope that our governor would be laser-focused on ameliorating the situation and safeguarding taxpayer dollars . . . Click here to continue.

 

Un-Masking is Un-Remarkable

Rob Resnick

The latest Trump deception involves a bogus allegation about the “unmasking” of Lieutenant General (LTG) Michael Flynn.  Click here to continue.

 

“Amendment 4” Decision Opens Path To Voting for 1.4 Million Floridians

Michael K. Cantwell

While Donald Trump was spending his Memorial Day weekend on the golf course, Judge Robert L. Hinkle was hard at work preventing Florida Republicans from continuing to violate the U.S. Constitution. Click here to continue.

Social Media: “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges.”

June Sandra Neal

On May 29, Donald Trump took his ball and ran home because he didn’t like the ref’s call.  Click here to continue.

 

 

 May 2020

“We Must Sink or Swim Together”

Michael K. Cantwell

As America was mired in our First Great Depression, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc. . . . Click here to continue . . .

Register to Vote By Mail Now!

Even before the coronavirus pandemic the Florida Democratic Party encouraged all Democrats to vote by mail because it is convenient, it greatly increases turnout, and this year it is postage free in PBC . . . Click here to continue.

 

Trump Forces USMA Cadets to Return

Rob Resnick

President Trump recently announced that he will travel to West Point to deliver a commencement speech to the cadets.  . . . Click here to continue.

Seasonal Resident? Vote Here!

David Kulick

Voters living in a deep blue state, such as New York, can register to vote in Florida where your vote will help decide critical elections. Click here to continue.

 

You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Michael K. Cantwell

And you don’t need a psychiatrist to know that our President is not the “very stable genius” he both claims and longs to be . . .  Click here to continue.

What We’re Reading

Fintan O’Toole: Donald Trump has destroyed the country he promised to make great again: Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity. . .  Click here to continue.

Insurrection Is not a Constitutional Right

Rob Resnick

Recently government officials in states across the nation have faced angry protests demanding an end to the “stay at home” orders issued to protect the public’s health . . .  Click here to continue.

 

 

April 2020

 

The Republican Virus

Michael K. Cantwell

The Republican Virus is a metaphysical disease, one that attacks the mind and soul . . . Click here to continue . . .

COVID-19 Meets the US National Debt

Rob Resnick

As the U.S. deals with the COVID-19 crisis, the reality is a medical calamity wherein 150 million Americans may catch the virus with a real possibility of more than 2 million deaths . . .  Click here to continue.

 

Covid-19: The Painful Price of Ignoring Health Inequities

Andrew Resnick, Sandro Galea, and Karthik Sivashanker

Coronavirus disease (covid-19) provides a painful reminder of why inequities harm all of us. Equity is widely misunderstood as a zero-sum game . . . Click here to continue.

“You’re Doing a Heck of a Job, Donny”

Michael K. Cantwell

A Facebook friend recently shared a slick post (likely made in Macedonia) that read “All my Trump hating friends you can send your Trump checks to me since he is not your President.”  

Click here to continue.

 

The Skyhook Soars Again

David Kulick

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, for those who are relatively new to the world, was a star basketball player in the NBA from 1969 to 1989 . . .  Click here to continue.

 

 

 

March 2020

Where We Stand with Amendment 4

Dr. Mark Schneider

In 2019, the Florida Legislature passed SB7066 to “implement” Amendment 4. Click here to continue

Trump's Katrina

Michael K. Cantwell

Donald Trump has never taken responsibility for his own failures and has always taken credit for others’ achievements. Click here to continue

How Can Anyone Support Trump? There Is an Answer

June Sandra Neal

Three years ago, I sat in a sociology class at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem atop MT Scopus, fighting to stay awake. Click here to continue

The Survival of Democracy

Sandra Elaissen-Cantwell

Last month the Democratic Club of Delray Beach invited Mark Schneider to discuss democracy and its constituent ramifications in a talk entitled “Is the United States a Democracy? Should It Be?”  Click here to continue

 

Vote Blue, No Matter Who

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s some comfort that many of the people who said Donald Trump was unelectable are saying the same about Bernie Sanders. Click here to continue.

Vote Blue, No Matter Who

Andy Kulick

At this point, no one knows for sure what would happen in a Sanders vs. Trump or Biden vs. Trump election.  Click here to continue.

Corona Crash

David Kulick

Normally stock market crashes, like the one that occurred last week and might continue, leave me worried and unhappy since I’m retired and my 401k is what I hope to survive on. Click here to continue

 

 

 

 

February 2020

It’s Obama’s Economy, Stupid

Michael K. Cantwell

The month Barack Obama was inaugurated, January 2009, the economy lost more than 783,000 jobs, and America stood at the brink of a second Great Depression. Click here to continue

What We Learned from the Impeachment

Michael K. Cantwell

The impeachment shone a light on what is the most striking difference between Democrats and Republicans. Click here to continue

Rick Scott Must Go – 2024 Can’t Come Soon Enough

Rob Resnick

Even though Florida Senator Rick Scott is not up for reelection until 204, he inexplicably and unjustifiably released a campaign ad yesterday, and it is only January 2020. Click here to continue

Why did Trump Really Bomb the Iranian General?

June Sandra Neal

 Trump’s watery excuse for killing Iranian General Soleimani was as ridiculous as the black Sharpie circle he drew around Alabama ...  Click here to continue

Monsters

Michael K. Cantwell

In our November issue, we extolled the heroes fighting to protect the promise of Amendment 4 from Republicans hell-bent on preventing the “wrong people” from voting.  Click here to continue.

The Delray Election

Rob Resnick

Elections have consequences – all of them! Click here to continue

Spreading the Word

Steve Fradkin

Abuse of power…looming war in Iran…racism and hate…lies, lies and more lies…tax cuts for the rich…obstruction of justice…unaffordable healthcare…crippling reproductive rights… The list of reasons to defeat Trump goes on and on. Click here to continue.

 

 

 

January 2020

An Existential Election

Michael K. Cantwell

It’s a cliché to warn that an election is the most important in our lifetime. That doesn’t make it less true. Click here to continue

The Devil’s Enterprise at Christmas

Sandra Elaissen-Cantwell

The United States media are always at pains to tell us that Christmas is the time of year to think about the beauty of giving . . . Click here to continue

Lying Liars and the Lying Liars Lying for the Lying Liars

Rob Resnick

In 2 weeks of public, transparent, professional hearings, the House Intelligence Committee heard from almost 20 witnesses  . . .  Click here to continue

Leave Behind

David Kulick

I had my annual physical exam a little while ago, and part of that involves filling out a form about my mental health. Click here to continue

Can’t Tell the Difference Between Democrats and Republicans?

Michael K. Cantwell

For over a century, Democrats have fought for ordinary Americans.  Click here to continue.

Is the Economy That Good?

Steve Fradkin

The Trumpies are fond of telling us that the economy is booming.  But is it really? Click here to continue.

Pensacola was Preventable

Rob Resnick

There should never be occasion to question whether the enemy has infiltrated our ranks, yet this was exactly the horrific failure that led to the tragic shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.  Click here to continue

Imagine

Michael K. Cantwell

Imagine if every evening news program opened with one of the following: Climate change is occurring earlier and more rapidly than expected. Failure to act now, and act decisively, will lead to irreversible and catastrophic changes to the planet.  Click here to continue.

 

November  2019

Heroes

One year following the passage of Amendment 4, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (“FRRC”) statewide bus tour stopped in Palm Beach County and announced a partnership with local leaders that will permit returning citizens to register to vote even if they owe financial obligations. Click here to continue

Death of Baghdadi - Trump Turns Victory into Loss

President Trump authorized a successful raid that resulted in ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi exploding himself rather than be captured.  Click here to continue

Democrats Can Do (Much) More Than Chew Gum and Walk at the Same Time

It did not take long after the Democrats assumed the majority in the House of Representatives this January for Republicans to begin accusing them of wasting government resources attacking the President instead of governing. Click here to continue

Strange Bedfellows

It’s difficult to select just one oddity out of the insanity that is the Trump presidency. Click here to continue

The Anatomy of Trump Voters

My neighbor, a Chinese immigrant, came at me on our walkway.  Click here to continue

Greta Thunberg Challenges Us All

Below are excerpts from the comments of the remarkable 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaking to the United Nations. She is the conscience of a world that has no conscience. Click here to continue

 

 

October  2019

 

Trump’s Threat of Civil War May Be a

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

June Neal

We thought Trump couldn’t sink lower.  Click here to continue

How Can We Afford It!?

Michael K. Cantwell

“How Can We Afford It” is the constant, sickening drumbeat whenever Democrats pursue a progressive agenda designed to benefit most Americans. Click here to continue

Commander-in-Cheat

Robert Resnick

President Trump has often touted his administration for “rebuilding our military” but that is yet another lie. Click here to continue

“Why Is Everybody Always Picking on Me?”

Michael K. Cantwell

It goes without saying that Donald Trump’s tweets about coups and lowlifes and traitors and foreign conspiracies are just crazy talk. Click here to continue

Repeal the Second Amendment

David Kulick

Most countries have kids (and adults) playing violent video games, and all countries have people with mental health issues. Click here to continue

An Elephant in Donkey Attire

Bob Averack

Ron DeSantis is paying his tributes to the Mobster in Chief, the man who will soon be facing the rightful scarring of impeachment. Click here to continue

Looking Down the Barrel – the Peril of Gun Safety Compromise

Robert Resnick

Our country has been long overdue in passing essential gun safety legislation. Click here to continue

This Just In (from the November 1866 Issue of The Atlantic)

Michael K. Cantwell

In the first issue of the revised Delray Democrat, I compared Trump to some of his predecessors as follows: Click here to continue


August 2019

 

Florida Statute Claims to “Fix” Amendment 4 But Only Creates More Ambiguity

Nancy Chanin

In the last election, voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4. Click here to continue

 

Universal Health Care and Race

Sandra Elaissen-Cantwell

President Truman failed in his effort to pass universal healthcare for three reasons. Click here to continue

Moscow Mitch and the Miscreants

No, it’s not a retro punk band. Click here to continue

 

Millennials, Come Out

Not just to vote ... but to run for office. Click here to continue

Abuse of Immigrants Is Good Business

June Sandra Neal

I know. Numbers are boring. But stay with me. Click here to continue

There's No Such Thing as Not Voting

Michael Cantwell

Under what is essentially a two-party system, people who fail to cast a ballot are effectively voting against the candidate whose values they most closely share. Click here to continue

 

Income Share Chart

The income share going to the bottom 90 percent of Americans shrank between 1970 and 2017. Among the top 10%, the higher a person ranked the more one's slice of the economic pie grew. Click here to view chart

Florida Wants to Turn Local Police into Federal ICE Agents

June Sandra Neal

Under what is essentially a two-party system, people who fail to cast a ballot are effectively voting against the candidate whose values they most closely share. Click here to continue

 

The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Michael Cantwell

During the “Lochner Era,” which extended from the 1890s through the Great Depression, a bloc of fiercely conservative Supreme Court Justices ... Click here to continue

Republicans – Do What Is Right for the Country in 2020
Rob Resnick

Three years of President Trump has led to the worst division this country has ever seen. Click here to continue

 

 

July 2019

 

Democracy, Who Needs It?
Michael Cantwell
We do, of course, as do all Democrats and anyone who believes in government of, by, and for the people. Click here to contiue


Is It Education or Economic Inequality?

David Kulick

Republicans have always believed that government is bad and that it’s up to free enterprise capitalism to run everything and make a profit. Click here to continue

Our Racist-in-Chief

Sylvia Gruber

It's very difficult to respond with civility to the rants of the xenophobic misfit who occupies the White House five days a week. Click here to continue

Call to Action: Seeking a Candidate for the Delray Beach City Commission

Bob Averack

The late, great, Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill of Massachusetts, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives is closely associated with an old political proverb: “All politics is local.” Click here to continue

Republicans’ Reckless Indifference Is Killing Thousands of Floridians

Michael Cantwell

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that lack of health insurance increases your likelihood of dying prematurely and unnecessarily. Click here to continue

 

 

June 2019

 

 

Arming Teachers Promotes Gun Sales, Not Safer Schools

Robert Resnick

In large part as a response to the horrendous tragedy last year in Parkland, the Florida Legislature is plowing ahead with legislation not just allowing, but potentially mandating, teachers carrying guns in school. Click here to continue

Make America Great Again?

Michael Cantwell

Donald Trump has managed to Make America Hate Again. Click here to continue.

 

April-May 2019

 

Come Together, Right Now!

Among the many elements that created the perfect storm that blew Trump into the White House was his ability to sow division and depress voter turnout. Click here to continue.

It Is Class Warfare, and They’ve Won

Michael K. Cantwell
If you complain that the superrich aren’t paying their fair share, you’re accused of class warfare. Well, it is class warfare and it has been going on for decades now. Click here to continue

 

 

September-October 2018

 

 

Corporate Welfare

Sandra Elaissen-Cantwell

An email from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders asks the question, “How does it happen …that the wealthiest man in the history of the world, Jeff Bezos, is also one of the largest welfare recipients in America?” Click here to continue

Republicans Returning to the Trough

David Kulick

Republicans now want to change the way capital gains are taxed. Click here to continue.

Trump Is the Symptom, the Republican Party Is the Disease
Michael K. Cantwell

Just as a deep, localized skin infection erupts to form a boil, Donald Trump is a manifestation of the underlying disease that is the modern Republican Party. Click here to continue.

 

May-June 2018

What Is a Democrat

Robert Resnick

As we look towards the 2018 midterms and beyond, the Democratic Party must campaign on its core values. Click here to continue.

 

March-April 2018

 

America's Greatest Citizen

Michael K. Cantwell

Fifty years ago today, the man aptly called “America’s Greatest Citizen” and the “moral leader of our nation” was struck down by an assassin’s bullet. Click here to continue.

 

No One Is Coming for Your Guns, But Republicans Have Already Come for Your Health Care

Michael K. Cantwell

One can count on Republicans to be sympathetic and “prayerful” after yet another senseless slaughter made possible by our failure as a nation to reasonably regulate gun sales.  Click here to continue.

 

The Greatest Danger We Have Ever Faced

Mariane Kulick

Donald Trump is the greatest danger to our country that we have ever seen.  Click here to continue.


Time for Wayne LaPierre to Go

Robert Resnick

Long time National Rifle Association (NRA) leader Wayne LaPierre is an annual featured speaker. Click here to continue.

 

Lives vs. Toys: What the Gun Debate is Really About

Misha Nadel

Despite what the NRA would have you believe, the scope of gun-ownership that is protected under the Second Amendment is surprisingly narrow. Click here to continue.

 

Home Rule and Firearm Safety

Robert Weinroth, Boca Raton Council Member

Residents deserve to be heard by their local elected leaders who live in the same community with them and with whom they have easy access ... Click here to continue.

 

Republicans Declare War on the Middle Class

Michael K. Cantwell

Republicans are marketing the tax “reform” passed in December as a middle class tax cut.  Click here to continue.

Judge Mark Walker Steps Up to the Plate and Knocks Rick Scott Out of the Park

Michael K. Cantwell

When former felon Steven Warner appeared before the Florida Executive Clemency Board to plead to have his voting rights restored, he told Rick Scott, “I voted for you,”... Click here to continue.

 

 

 

January-February 2018

 

Nothing to Brag About   

Mariane Kulick

While Republicans are celebrating the passage of the tax bill much desired by their donors, the majority of Americans understand that there is nothing to celebrate. Click here to continue.

Republicans’ Favorite Fairy Tales

Michael K. Cantwell

When George W. Bush was exploding the deficit with tax cuts for the rich, Dick Cheney infamously claimed, “Deficits don’t matter,  Reagan proved that.” Click here to continue.

Democratic Leadership Needed on Advocating for a Sustainable Future

Hal Stern

On December 14 and 15, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Leadership Summit held its ninth annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale.  Click here to continue.

 

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Michael K. Cantwell

The Republican tax bill well illustrates the contempt in which they hold ordinary Americans.  Click here to continue.

 

Is It Time for a Maximum Wage Law?

David Kulick

Most of us support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which when adjusted for inflation is still below the original minimum wage law. Click here to continue.

 

Greed Kills

Michael K. Cantwell

Unfortunately, and all too often, greed kills the needy and leaves the greedy laughing all the way to the bank. Click here to continue.

 

Saying “Yes” to Second Chances and Democracy: Florida’s Voter Restoration Amendment

Jeffrey Coltman-Cormier

Voting is dangerous. The simple act of indicating one’s preference for any given candidate, political party, or choice in a referendum can reshape political landscapes. Click here to continue

 

 

November-December 2017

 

MESSAGE FROM JACKIE SINATRA, PRESIDENT DCDB

First, allow me to thank everyone who attended our first two program meetings, after a summer spent planning an informative and action-packed season for our club!  Click here to continue   

“Make America Broke Again"

Michael K. Cantwell

That’s the Republican mantra . . . and here they go again.  Click here to continue. 

A Psychologist’s View

Maxine Schackman

It’s been a mystery to me. The phenomenon of Donald Trump. Click here to continue.   

Floods, Fires and Hurricanes

Mariane Kulick

Climate change is no longer an abstract thing dreamed up by scientists, as the Republicans would have you believe. Click here to continue.   

Healthcare in Florida

Hal Stern

Over the last nine months, we have watched Congress repeatedly attack the healthcare safety net. Click here to continue.  

Building on Virginia

Mariane Kulick

All of us are, of course, overjoyed with the results of the Virginia election results and the wins in many parts of the country. Click here to continue.   

A Fall Cornucopia of Readings

Stephanie Braunstein

For those wanting something more than the television and internet “breaking news” versions of the state of our political affairs, this column will provide references to articles appearing in thought-provoking periodicals. Click here to continue.    

The Art of the Hypocrite

David Kulick

I have to admire the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Under a Democratic government, Republicans never stop screaming about the deficit, but now they put forward a tax plan that explodes the deficit by trillions of dollars and they don’t even have the decency to blush. Click here to continue.

“IF YOU DON’T VOTE, YOU DON’T COUNT”

Michael K. Cantwell

“If you don’t vote, you don’t count” was both the credo and the epitaph of Vernon Ferdinard Dahmer, Sr., president of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, NAACP, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on January 10, 1966. Click here to continue.

    

August-September 2017

 

MESSAGE FROM JACKIE SINATRA, PRESIDENT DCDB

The Delray Beach Democratic Club is back in high gear.  Click here to continue.

“People Get Ready, There’s a Train (Wreck) A Coming”

Michael K. Cantwell

While the media is focused on Trump’s multiple daily outrages against humanity, Betsy Devos is hard at work wrecking (as a prelude to ransacking) our public education system, Scott Pruitt is committing crimes against nature and the planet, and Mitch (McConnell) and the Miscreants are quietly working on yet another massive transfer of wealth from ordinary Americans to the already obscenely wealthy. Click here to continue.

On the Corners of Delray Beach

Shirley Johnson, City Commissioner and Deputy Vice-Mayor

This column will attempt to inform and educate anyone interested in the governance of the City of Delray Beach. Click here to continue.

Welcoming Cities’ Proposal for the City of Delray Beach

Arlene R. Ustin

On behalf of the PBC Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the League of Women Voters and several other organizations ... Click here to continue.

Mineral Riches Behind Trump’s Backtracking on Afghanistan?

Mariane Kulick

President Trump’s decision to continue, actually increase, the number of Americans fighting in Afghanistan, goes against everything he said in his campaign. Click here to continue.

Across the Street

Carol Gevirts

Our city’s ongoing commitment to education was a big factor in its receipt of  the prestigious All American City award (for the third time!).   Click here to continue.

Florida’s Voter Restoration Amendment

Michael K. Cantwell

Florida has the most punitive disenfranchisement policy in the nation. Click here to continue.

Whose Identity?  Whose Politics?

Stephanie Braunstein

Once again, it’s time to fight back against the trivialization of the left’s traditional concerns over race and gender issues.  Click here to continue.

Rights and Regulations

David Kulick

There have always been two views of America; the first is the lone explorer heading off into the wilderness, and the second is villagers helping neighbors raise their roofs. Click here to continue.

Climate Change and Our Lives

Mariane Kulick

Our president does not believe in climate change. Neither does the head of the Environmental Department he put in power. Click here to continue.

Butchers

Michael K. Cantwell

The New York Times recently reported on a lunch meeting for Republican Senators held at a Chick-Fil-A during which Colorado Senator Cory Gardner warned that the Senate’s failure to repeal the ACA was drastically affecting campaign fundraising.  Click here to continue.

 

 

May-June 2017

 

Carnage

Michael Cantwell

When Donald Trump blustered, “this carnage stops right here,” he was not only lying about conditions in America.  He was also announcing, “the carnage starts now.” And it has. Click here to continue.

Foxes in Charge of the Chicken Coop

Mariane Kulick

The lives of our children and our children’s children are now in the hands of a man who denies the scientific evidence regarding climate change, something widely understood in the science community.  Click here to continue.

A Slippery Slope

Sandra Elaissen

In the midst of a dangerous period of American history, the McCarthy Era, young people, both those in high school and those in college, learned from our history and civics teachers to recognize the attributes of a democratic republic. Click here to continue

The Truth Matters

Austin C. Yenne

Everybody lies. We all do. It’s in our nature. We can try to rationalize the lies, claiming that it’s not a “big” lie or its just a “small” lie. Click here to continue.

War Is A Racket

David Kulick

Let’s dispense with some myths. There is no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, and the US does not go to war for altruistic reasons. Click here to continue.

Shakespeare on Trump

Michael K. Cantwell

Ever wonder what Shakespeare, if he were alive, would have to say about Donald Trump? I do. In fact, I’d argue that Shakespeare is alive, and that he’s already said it.  Click here to continue

Hypocrisy

David Kulick 

I just love the hypocrisy of the right wing. Abortion, legal because of federal law, should be up to the states. Marijuana, illegal under federal law, should NOT be up to the states. Click here to continue.

Quotables

Public relief is a sacred debt. Society owes maintenance to unfortunate citizens.”  Paragraph 21 of the 1793 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen—the ultimate statement of the ideals of the French Revolution. Click here to continue

Michael K. Cantwell

Were there ever any doubt, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate accords makes it official: the Republican Party is not just the enemy of poor people, working people, the middle class, and racial and religious minorities, it is the enemy of the human race at large and a threat to all life on the planet. Click here to continue.

Irony

David Kulick

It's sort of ironic. For decades the racists have been saying that inner city black folks are lazy and that there are plenty of jobs, that the men leave the women and just want to do drugs.Click here to continue

 

February 2017

Wealth Distribution in America

David Kulick

Few words in America are more feared than “wealth distribution,” other than perhaps “wealth redistribution.” 

 CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

 

Why Third Parties Never Work in America

Alan Milner

 No third party movement has ever bumped one of the two major parties out of the running in a presidential election...

but third parties can wreak havoc under the Electoral College system. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

Let's Get Started

Michael Cantwell

Democrats are accustomed to cleaning up Republican disasters. We should be, we’ve been doing it since the Great Depression. But now we are facing the gravest threat to the Republic since . . .  CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

Too Young to Worry?

Mariane Kulick

Maybe you’re in your forties with two children and a decent job. Your daughter is just entering college. Your son is a high school junior.  The last thing you’re thinking of is Medicare.   CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
   
   

 

March 2023