Billy Townsend zeroes in on Lakeland, Florida’s mayoral campaign to illustrate how far off the rails the Republican Party has gone. The Republican candidate is promoting an extremist agenda that shows no concern for people who don’t agree with her. She is a Trumper through and through. Townsend sees her as symbolic of the loss of citizenship as a unifying principle.
She is running to represent people who agree with her. She reflects the bitter partisanship that is tearing the country apart.
He writes:
Saga Stevin will not represent the people who don’t believe the same way she does. She can’t — or won’t — even see them. They exist outside her frame of citizenship.
In a debate with the incumbent mayor, Stevin states bluntly:
“I don’t believe in equity,” she says to start the answer and then she ends it like this: “Lakeland’s a lovely mix of people. And I think we’re people who have American values that want a traditional family kind of lifestyle, conservative views…”
Shrinking Lakeland’s frame of citizenship to conform to her frame is the entire reason she’s running. Not representing the people who think and believe differently is the entire point of her campaign.
When you read Townsend’s post, you will worry about the fate of our democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reality does not seem to matter anymore.
Alternate facts.
True freedom is only maintained by the majority honoring the wishes of the minority to a reasonable extent
Ban the Marxists!
Groucho should be banned
From every single club
By which he has been fanned
By which he has been loved
Two days ago Business Insider reported: “Majority of Trump voters believe it’s ‘time to split the country’ in two, new poll finds”
If the Trumpist Republicans pulled off splitting the country and were allowed to get away with it (meaning no 2nd Civil War to keep the union together), I think the results would be similar to the partition of India.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46428985
How did that work out?
Since Independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have been in four wars, including one undeclared war, and many border skirmishes and military stand-offs.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/india-pakistan-war
The Trumpist-GOP RED states would also be the HAVE NOTS, and the BLUE states would be the HAVEs.
“Democratic districts, for example, have grown significantly more dynamic in the last decade. Overall, “blue” territories have seen their productivity climb from $118,000 per worker in 2008 to $139,000 in 2018 as recent demographic changes and electoral sorting ensured they became better educated and more urban. Republican-district productivity, by contrast, remains stuck at about $110,000, reflecting only slight improvements of bachelor’s degree attainment and Republicans’ increasingly non-metro domain.”
There is a lot more information in this study from Brookings that shows the growing economic gap between RED and BLUE Americans.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/09/10/america-has-two-economies-and-theyre-diverging-fast/
Imagine the moron Trumpeteers trying to run a country. OMG. Now that would be funny. Ivankastan.
What also struck me listening to her was the emphasis on meritocracy – those who have money just simply worked hard for it. Those who have less are lazy. If her leadership follows this type of simplistic, uninformed and un-insightful thinking and if she lacks a background that includes a wide range of experiences…. she will not be the best candidate on many levels.
In Stevins case, it’s spelled “meritalkcrazy”,a system under which crazy-talking braggarts rise to the top.
Love “merittalkcrazy”!!
https://www.cc.com/video/46ctwa/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-satan-laws-are-coming-to-town
Saga Stevin’s first video’d response is not particularly controversial. When she says ‘I don’t believe in equity’, she defines that as measuring and comparing outcomes, and pairs it with ‘I believe in equal opportunity for all,’’ buttressed with standard references to Constitution and Bill of Rights. The conservative family values bit is a vague tack-on at the end, not a statement she won’t represent those with differing values. Townsend links it up with tweet-pix showing Stevin allies herself with polarizing political groups. More revealing is the 2nd video’d response to Townsend’s pointed question [name the Marxists trying to ruin Lakewood]: a babbling word salad of rwnj dog whistles. The Soros bit is comical & shows an inability to interpret biz news [he didn’t “buy 378 companies 19 of which are in Polk County” tho he did buy 378 stocks in 2009, & no doubt has bought & sold them & many more since 😀 ].
I do think Townsend’s take is important, and it’s fully supported by the chilling excerpt from Trump-pardoned-felon Roger Stone’s address to the Jan 5 “Rally to Save America.” The scary thing is that Polk County’s Rep Chair fetes Stone, suggesting he and his GAGA candidate Stevin are hapless tools of such actors [thinking Bannon too], thus importing these dark and schismatic views into a fairly ordinary Republican town [70-20-10 White-Black-Latinx; 52% for Trump in 2020].
We are ONE NATION UNDER GOD. PERIOD! READ THE US CONSTITUTION & BILL OF RIGHTS. I advise everyone to be educated on how America was founded.
People have caused division!
The attack on the Mayoral Candidate is ridiculous. Did you know that Mutz voted for President Trump too? Does that make him a Trumper too?
These games are ridiculous. The cancel culture is sickening.
It is free will…God gave us free will. Each person is responsible for their own decisions. It is between them and God.
Pushing an agenda that would destroy Lakeland is intolerable. Obviously the comments here have do idea what Seattle and Minneapolis look like because of pushing an agenda!