If we follow some Miami Democrats’ advice, Trump will win in 2020

Before the 2008 election Barack Obama came to Miami-Dade County Auditorium, which sits in an area of the city characterized by its Cuban Republican voting bloc, and before a packed house did what many had advised him not to. 

When elected, Obama promised the crowd on that Saturday more than a decade ago, he would allow freer travel to the Island and would work to normalize relations. People cheered wildly. As president, Mr. Obama kept his promise on travel, and in 2014, he took the first steps in a process of normalization with Cuba’s president Raul Castro.

I remind readers of this because interestingly, Obama was the first Democrat since 1959, who dared take a different approach with Cuba, and had the nerve to come tell Cubans in Miami. Most interesting, though, he is the only Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of Cuban American voters. And, by the way, he won the crucial state of Florida in both of his elections — 2008 and 2012.

I think there’s something to be said for politicians audacious enough to take, and express, difficult positions. And whether they agree with you, or not, most voters respect that.

Why do I remind you of this? I am writing this column before the first Democratic debates are held here in Miami, and the 20 hopefuls participating in the debates are already being advised by elected Miami Democrats on how to approach Miami voters. Chief among these sage advisers are Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Donna Shalala. 

Wasserman-Schultz was one of Hillary Clinton’s chief strategists on Clinton’s quest for the presidency in 2016. After playing dirty tricks on Bernie Sanders and thereby assuring that he would have no chance of winning the Party’s nomination, and as head of the Democratic National Committee, Wasserman-Schultz’s advise and leadership, as head of the Clinton campaign, made certain a defeat was wrested from the jaws of victory for Mrs. Clinton. 

As for Donna Shalala, she’s been working hard since being elected last year. Every chance for a photo opportunity, there’s Donna with sneakers on. We’ve seen her photographed with other elected officials in front of the Krome area concentration camp where immigrant children are being detained. There was also the trip to the Colombia-Venezuela border where Shalala and Wasserman-Schultz stood for pictures (on the Colombian side) in the Trump-Rubio-, John Bolton- and Mike Pompeo-planned failed coup attempt against the Nicolas Maduro government in Venezuela. In both cases, at the detention center and in Colombia, absolutely nothing was accomplished, but it made for good photos to use during upcoming campaigns to fool Venezuelan and other Latin American voters. 

What the likes of Shalala and Wasserman-Schultz are advising the candidates is to not tread on difficult subjects: The Green New Deal; Medicare for all; Federal funding for abortions; A universal basic income; Reparations for the descendants of slavery; and others.

Stay away from the hard (but vital) subjects, says Shalala. Instead, she recently told the Miami Herald: “I want them to talk about issues that affect people on a day-to-day basis. I want them to talk about what a Democratic leader can do. That is, what’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans.”

Exactly, Ms. Shalala: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? Because in her case, that fine line has been blurred — by words and actions.

It’s not surprising, though. Why would Shalala, for example, want Medicare for all? Heck, she once made a killing (five million dollars) sitting on the board of a massive, for-profit health insurance company. It’s not surprising, then, that she has always steered away from taking-on the private insurance, healthcare industry. They have been good to her.

Democrats, in Miami at least, have forgotten that they did very well in political races around the country last year by talking about and proposing ideas that deal with important issues: 

• Or is climate change not important —especially in Miami? (And what possibilities does a Green New Deal offer for the future of our children, and the nation’s economy going forward?) 

• What about the disparity between the very rich and the very poor (again, especially here in Miami, one of the poorest areas in the nation)? 

• And health care? Don’t touch it, some say. Yet, Miami leads the country in people enrolled in Obamacare.

• Don’t broach the Cuba subject (unless you attack the dictatorship)… I guess they’ve forgotten Obama took it on, and look how he fared. 

• Same can be said for Venezuela. Are we going to endorse a plan of regime change designed by murderous liars like Bolton and Elliott Abrams? Look how well it’s worked in Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East, and Afghanistan, Korea, and so on and on…

In the end, what we are seeing are South Florida Democrats, never the most courageous of the Party faithful, advising candidates to steer away from issues that should be discussed and debated. 

I say: follow the Shalala and Wasserman-Shultz types, and chances become strong that Democrats don’t take back the White House. Because with their kind of advice, the sun-tanning machine and the bottles of blonde tint will remain in the White House in January 2021. And MacDonald’s will be served for dinner.