Democrats call for 'citizen revolt'
LAKE BUENA VISTA — State and national Democratic Party leaders told Florida Democrats Saturday they can re-elect President Obama and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by rallying voters in a "citizen revolt" against Republican Party policies being dictated by "a brutally fanatic right-wing group of extremists" in Washington and Tallahassee.
About 1,900 enthusiastic delegates to the state party's biennial convention loudly applauded the rhetoric of past and present party leaders. The main theme running through a series of general sessions, small-group caucuses and large social events was that Democrats failed to get motivated in 2010 — resulting in the Republican sweep by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Rick Scott, three Cabinet officers and four new members of the U.S. House who ousted Democrats.
"We need to have a citizen revolt in Florida," former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham told the crowd. Graham, who was governor 1979-87, said Scott and the Republican-run Legislature "have turned back the clock on 40 years" of environmental and growth-management policy, progress in education funding and election reform.
"We in Florida seem to be up for sale to whoever wants to pay you the highest amount," Graham said. "Pay-for-play is the standard of operation in too much of Florida government today."
Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 4.5 million to 4 million in registration, but Nelson is the only Democrat in statewide elected office. The GOP holds 19 of 25 U.S. House seats, and holds two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. The party has targeted Nelson for defeat next year in its drive to take over the Senate.
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the featured speaker at a party luncheon, said Democrats should play defense in discussing Obama's record on jobs and education. She said tea party activists have sought to dominate the debate, but that Obama supporters have nothing to feel shy about.
The former Los Angeles congresswoman told of her family's experience, coming from Nicaragua, and how federal programs helped her and millions of poor or middle-class Americans with jobs, health care, housing and equal protection of the law.
"I'll be darned if I'm going to set that aside now because a few tea baggers want to somehow muzzle my voice," Solis said. "We don't have to sit back and allow a minority in the Congress, known as the tea party, to dominate the discussion in our households."
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the Obama administration has seen job growth of about 2.6 million over the past 19 months, reversing a trend of rising unemployment under Republican President George W. Bush.
She said Obama policies have "saved the auto industry," arranged for removal of troops from Iraq, ended the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays serving in the military, protected Medicare and passed national health care. And lately, he's promoted his jobs act to spur employment and public-works construction.
Wasserman Schultz said Republicans won control of the House and made gains at the state level because "frankly, we dropped the ball in 2010." But she said winning meant the Republicans had to turn their party over to the Tea Party and other very conservative elements.
"The unfortunate thing is that the problem, in fact, stems from a brutally fanatic right wing group of extremists, who put politics and ideology above principles and people," said Wasserman Schultz. "These fanatics are destroying our state and our country and the contrast between their agenda and ours has never been more stark."
Nelson said he has a good personal relationship with both Rubio and Scott, although he disagrees with them on policy issues. Alluding to an old car commercial, Nelson said, "This is not your father's Republican Party."
The current GOP, he said, is dominated by members who refuse to compromise. But Nelson said most voters want Washington to work, not to be perpetually logjammed by filibuster threats or partisan intransigence.
State party chairman Rod Smith of Gainesville said Florida's 29 electoral votes will be decisive next year. Obama carried the state in 2008.
Smith predicted that Republican stonewalling on Obama's "American Jobs Act" will backfire on the GOP.
He jokingly referred to the famous photo of President Harry Truman holding a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1948, with the mistaken headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." Smith said Obama is down in the polls now, nationally and in Florida, but that he will win re-election if Florida and some other swing states have a large voter turnout and party activists aggressively promote his policies.
"The issue is not about who wins the next election," Smith shouted. "The issue is larger — it's about who creates opportunity for the next generation."