By Kartik Krishnaiyer

Last week, RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry made a call for civility last week citing the actions of progressive activists to “eviscerate the leadership and weaken their ability to govern.” The RPOF Chairman is a complete hypocrite who has sought to change the narrative away from his party which has  behaved as if it had a divine right to govern the state. In alliance with Tallahassee lobbyists and countless spineless Democratic elected officials the Florida GOP has implemented a Soviet styled system when it comes to Florida Government. Much like the old Soviet Union, any opposition to Florida’s Republicans whether organized or not is intimidated or bullied at every turn.

Florida’s citizens have been forced to live with a majority party in the legislature that has in the past treated any questioning of them as a media witch hunt.  The Republicans have had a uncontested majority for so long that any questioning of them that is done, be it by a lonely Democratic Representative or by the state’s diminishing press corp is seen as an attack on the entire party and its governing philosophy. Thus, those who are questioned are attacked personally, professionally and are often called different types of unflattering names.

Democracy depends on opposition parties actually developing a differing set of policies and competing in the marketplace of ideas to enhance the public debate. But in Florida, where Republicans have used the Soviet Union as a model of how to govern, dissent or differing ideas are met with blatant intimidation.

As Republican control of Florida Government grew absolute in the early 2000s thanks in large measure to the incompetence of Florida’s Democrats, the RPOF developed an arrogance bordering on entitlement. The generation of Republicans who had to work hard to climb to the top of the ladder in a Democratic state often listened to Florida’s citizens. But this group has given way to a brash, young set of militants who are herded like cats by the leadership and whose critical thinking skills are rarely if ever on display.

With this backdrop, progressives finally got fed up and did something outside the Democratic Party apparatus. The two groups cited in the Curry’s memo to fellow Republicans, Project New Florida and Florida Watch Action have had the audacity to actually organize a competing message to the Soviet style echo chamber pushed on the state’s citizens by Republicans in Florida.

These groups real crime is developing a progressive message, and working to actually provide real organized opposition to the closest thing a large US state has to a one-party dictatorship. (Texas may appear more Republican than Florida, but the diversity of thought and opinions even among Texas Republicans is quite different than what we witness in Florida) So these groups who have achieved a degree of success in defining the anti-everything agenda of the GOP Governor and Legislature are being referenced as a need to introduce “civility” to the political process. The success of these groups threatens the one-party Soviet styled state the Florida GOP has carefully built so they must be stopped at all costs including using this laughable “civility project.”

Either Lenny Curry is a complete hypocrite or he has been asleep for the past decade. Beginning in 2000 when Tom Feeney (whose association with the infamous Jack Abramoff cost him his Congressional seat in 2008. Abramoff had plenty of Florida baggage himself)  became Speaker of the Florida House, Democrats were intimidated, pushed around and threatened consistently about the types of speeches they would give on the floor and in public, the legislation they would file and the voting records they would compile. Lobbyists based in Tallahassee in order to curry favor with majority party often acted as the enforcers on these matters.

Jeb Bush whose over eagerness to seek the Governorship before he was ready (and having served very little time in Government) because after all he was a Bush embodied the Florida GOP entitlement. It was quite ironic when Bush attacked Charlie Crist last year for “organizing his life around his personal ambition.” It was Bush who ran for Governor in 1994 without an ounce of qualification besides being the son of a former President. It was Bush who was so arrogant that instead of listening to Kendrick Meek and Tony Hill about Affirmative Action he used FDLE to intimidate the lawmakers with legitimate gripes about his policies and how they were drafted without proper public input. It is Bush who has assailed his opponents on countless issues but now is seen by the national GOP as a “voice of reason.” It is Bush who created an Imperial Governorship that often clashed with lawmakers of his own party, making decisions personally or in a vacuum where the public and members of his own party were left in the dark. Many of those lawmakers have now chosen to emulate his tactics. Governor Rick Scott has chosen as well to mimic these tactics.

Florida Republicans don’t entirely believe in Democracy and the right of citizens to express themselves at the voting both. The party proved this in 2000 when knowing the likely outcome of a full statewide recount, the party led by Jeb Bush did all it could to prevent Democracy from having its day, and in the end they won. That victory increased the sense that they could do what they want, when they want in defiance of the rule of law, the citizens of the state, the Federal Government and common decency. Voters are only legitimate if they have some possibility of voting Republican. Democracy should only be the province of the privileged in the world the Florida GOP has created. Yet while the Republicans  routinely work to circumvent Democracy, somehow it is progressive groups who are being “uncivil.”

The polarization that has been created in this state is almost entirely the fault of the Republicans and the allies the party has cultivated in the past decade and a half. If anything the Democrats have for too long been too nice, too passive and too accommodating to the “street bullies” of Soviet Florida. When progressives finally got fed up and did something about it, “civility” became the rallying call of the Republicans.

Hypocrisy is just another word to add to the description of Florida Republicans. But we knew that already, didn’t we?