This past year, our community has demonstrated that our democracy works and people can come together for common causes. This alone is a reason to celebrate this Independence Day. We are blessed in Manatee County to have educated citizens who value many things that set us apart from other communities. As a Manatee County Commissioner for 22 years, I have always known that we could count on citizens to participate in our government, volunteering, making their voices heard, and voting to protect our quality of life.
August 2024 will always be an example of what democracy should look like and what “we the people” can do when we educate ourselves on issues and demand our elected officials be a bit more than some developers' puppet. Some call what was taking place corruption, when money buys what seems to be every elected official. However, money cannot and should never be what dictates who elects representatives of our government.
We all know that too much money is poured into elections by people who want to pull the levers of our government. Taking the money out of Politics will not happen anytime soon. Still, as we have seen in the Primary Election of August 2024, educated voters did not let slick flyers and often misleading, sometimes fraudulent ads deter them from voting. Then the endless barrage of text messages, often with a fake organization’s name, decides who will represent us.
While the new board has not been perfect, they are trying to learn an enormous job and undo the damage caused by four years of elected officials like KVO. Their heart is in the right place, and even the other board members who were not on the ballot appear to have changed their arrogant approach to governance and are listening to “we the people”.
For four years, we as citizens had our voices drowned out by the voice of money from a few developers that only cared about making a few extra millions after making tens of millions under sensible regulations, such as our wetland buffer policies. It is hard to understand how people who made so much money from their community are willing to destroy the government and policies that made them so much more money than the majority of people will ever see in their lifetime. So we, as a community, proved democracy works, and the oligarchs of Manatee County failed in dictating their will for now.
As the Publisher of The Bradenton Times, I am very proud of our reporting and the opinions we published as a critical part of making our democracy work for the people. I am proud of the citizens from all parties who helped contribute to our publication with their own opinions and information. I especially want to thank those who help financially, subscribing, donating, and advertising.
It does come at a cost, and more than just the cost of publishing The Bradenton Times. It is the additional cost of harassment suits attempting to stop news organizations like ours from educating citizens; one of the most important aspects of a democracy is an educated citizen. Van Ostenbridge and Pedicini sued us because we dared to link to a cartoon video, a parody of characters protected under the freedom of speech, which was truly newsworthy. I am confident we will prevail; however, it does cost additional money we should not have to pay. This is a trend to silence voices or publish facts that some would like to keep private. If you have not subscribed, made a donation, or advertised on our site, now is a great time to help maintain The Bradenton Times as a news site and, in the future, make it sustainable.
This Fourth of July, I also want to urge us as a community to stay informed and resist the temptation to act on a social post, a random headline, or even those text messages we still seem to receive. I also know people are offended if we don’t opine or publish news that may only fit their viewpoint or bias. We all have biases, opinions, and sometimes actions that may not align with those of another person. It is okay not to always agree with each other. The best policies do not come about without differences of opinion. We need to return to a sense of civilized debate.
As a Republican, I have my conservative bias, but I balance that with facts I can hopefully trust. It is not easy to trust anything anymore. For years, a photo, video, or audio was reliably authentic. Today, with AI (Artificial Intelligence), I now doubt every video and audio on the Internet. It is acceptable to critique another Republican, provided it is done in a respectful and factual manner. We need to stop demonizing other parties. Democrats are not out to ruin America, and in reality, the majority of Republicans and Democrats, along with those with other or no party affiliation, are very close to having the same thoughts about policy issues. Combined together, this is the majority, and the current polling, if accurate, reveals this overwhelming majority is not comfortable with the current policies and actions at the federal and state levels.
I think we've all witnessed the name-calling and the harmful erosion of respect and values within our society. Let's demand more from our leaders; name-calling and hurling insults are simply unacceptable. Recently, Vice President Vance called all the previous presidents "dumb" because they did not bomb Iran. There was no reason for this ill-considered comment about previous presidents, and it reveals the little respect he has for our nation.
We are a better country than that, and calling all past presidents dumb hit a nerve with me. We have accepted too long and normalized disrespectfully treating people, especially when we disagree with them. Each President and elected official brings a great desire to take the correct action based on the information they have at the time. They deserve our respect, even if the actions they took may not align with the actions of our current government.
As a nation and a local community, we face significant challenges ahead. I have seen my quality of life impacted by climate change. The higher temperatures make the water warmer, leading to more fish kills and the proliferation of deadly bacteria in the water. We are experiencing a greater intensity of storms, from the thunderstorms that can now swamp our streets, homes, and cars within an hour to record-breaking hurricanes and storm surges of the kind we have not witnessed in our lifetime.
We used to swim in the saltwater to help our wounds heal. Now, if you swim with an open wound, it could kill you from some flesh-eating bacteria within a few days. We had schools that were open after hours so we could play ball on their fields, but now they close them off like prisons. I miss the days of flying without all the security. I know it's for a reason, helping to keep us safe, but it's just another example that our quality of life and the freedom we had took a hit.
My point is that these are significant issues that require people to become educated and develop solutions. That is why removing polices to protect our wetlands was so disappointing after citizen after citizen, scientists, experts, and organizations tried in vain to educate a board of County Commissioners that it was the wrong decision. But because we are a democracy and able to make our voices heard at the ballot box, we removed the elected officials who chose to ignore facts and pleas. There is hope; if it can be done here locally, it can be done at the state and federal levels of government too.
So, my hope as we celebrate our independence is that we continue to show up and make our voices heard, and that the forces that want to limit our freedom of speech do not prevail. There are forces trying today to limit what we can publish because it does not fit their narrative. This is not our democracy. The trend in other countries like India is to harass the press that criticizes the current government. It is happening here within the United States. Social Influencers get a pass creating false narratives, brainwashing people’s minds, but the media, trying to help produce actual facts, are labeled as liberals, socialists, communists, and the list goes on.
As a Marine, I was trained to charge ahead, no matter if we were outnumbered. As a publisher, I know it is equally critical to our democracy to continue charging ahead, doing the best we can with the limited resources we have. We can only maintain our democracy if we all work together, respecting our differences of opinion and reaching a compromise that respects the process and “we the people.”
History will tell our story. Will it speak of the end of democracy, or will it be that “we the people” took the time and used our financial resources to remain a viable democracy, as envisioned by our founding fathers? This year, we are trending toward what I consider more of a dictatorship, a razor-thin majority in Congress is failing to enforce our constitution and maintain a separation of powers. The time to get involved is now.
Remember that the real majority, with the combined moderates of all parties and those with no party affiliation, agree on sensible polices. Let us not get pulled apart by the extreme edges of any party. If we can ask our military to die for our country, is it too much to ask our elected officials to vote for “we the people” even if they lose their reelection?
Semper Fi!
Joe McClash, Publisher, The Bradenton Times
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UteKegel
Thank you, Joe. Right on.
Thursday, July 3 Report this
CLEGma
Thank you for stating what most of us are feeling on this important day. We all need to get involved in our local and national politics or we could lose our democracy. I’m grateful for the articles from Bradenton Times.
Friday, July 4 Report this
misty
So. Well. Said. If we listen deeply, elect those who lead with wisdom and compassion, and hold our elected representatives accountable to governing for the people, we can hand off our beautiful community to the next generation.
Friday, July 4 Report this
N_Alice_Newlon
Thank you for this message of hope and encouragement.
Friday, July 4 Report this
nellmcphillips
Well said Joe. Keep doing what you are doing. You and your staff are well appreciated. Thanks for all you do.
Friday, July 4 Report this
multiedd
Joe, I want to compliment you on a great column. I hope you and yours are well.
Take care,
Eddie Robinette
Friday, July 4 Report this
rjckeuka4
Joe, Like you, I'm a lifelong Republican...68 years' worth! The Republican Party has left me, but I retain my conservative values and perhaps someday it will recover. I may not live that long, but... :) There are many of us in the "middle" and your leadership in turning the tide in our County in August demonstrated what democracy is all about. I continue to hold hope that we can do the same thing in our Country as the Country is headed down a "dark road." Many of us understood that would happen prior to last November's election. Unfortunately, a few more did not. But... they are beginning to...and perhaps even our State can be turned around! We need to make it happen in '26...and we need leaders like you to continue to speak up. Excellent article. Keep fighting the fight... and don't lose HOPE.
Friday, July 4 Report this
ruthlawler
Thank You! I so appreciate your publication. Your assessments and stand for reporting well researched and in depth information is invaluable. Keep up the great work, we need this publication! Ruth Lawler
Friday, July 4 Report this
FrstWordDr
Thank you Joe, as always, you are spot on! Rick read this too and said "Well said!" I think the sensible, educated, aware people are out there in large enough numbers, we just have to figure out how to get them to be engaged and move us forward.
:)
Friday, July 4 Report this
andreart
Thanks, Joe. Good commebts.
Carol W.
Friday, July 4 Report this
David Daniels
As always, Mr. McClash is right on target. We are so fortunate to have his leadership at TBT's and in our community.
Friday, July 4 Report this
ner125
Perfect, Joe …
Sempir Fi as well!
Sunday, July 6 Report this