Open Letter to Ron DeSantis

 

Governor DeSantis,

        Like you, I am a Navy veteran. I honor your service and actually hoped that you would show far more integrity in the Governor’s office than your unconvicted felon predecessor. Instead, you have become a sort of Floridian Louie Gohmert.

        As a 26 year senior enlisted (I declined nomination to be considered for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy) I had more than a few interfaces with JAG officers, usually representing young men who needed their help and got it to the best of their abilities. At Nuclear Power School in Orlando, where I was Command Master Chief, we had several instances when the diligence and skill of a Navy Lawyer made the difference.  As I said, I honor your service. Unlike you, I completed my higher education while on active duty, which meant shore duty, since I made 17 deterrent patrols on three submarines. I was able to complete a Masters in management, and BAs in U.S. History/Government and a separate major in Psychology. After the Navy, and for another 20 years,  I taught high school Social Sciences, including Honors level World and United States history, US government and Advanced Placement (College level) American History. As you probably were in your field of Law, I was good at mine. I only elaborate on that, so you don’t make the mistake of assuming that, being an enlisted man,  I have no basis for what I am about to write. 

        We both took essentially the same oath when we entered Naval Service. It was not an oath of loyalty to any specific individual, but rather to the US Constitution. I continue to feel bound by that. What occasioned this letter is your recent comments encouraging another state to select faithless electors, so your idol might win reelection. Does Donald Trump hold your mortgage?

        The Constitution stipulates the day of the Presidential election. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (a mandate that many southern states have become good at skirting. You know, Governor, like making freed felons pay exorbitant fines to vote even though their civil rights have been “restored?” Except for the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was aimed at insuring other voter suppression tactics would not be used due to the federal oversight the Act prescribed, and which you Republicans dislike, the Constitution and Federal law code remain mute on voting instructions, relegating that to the states. For more on Voter suppression, read about the Ocoee Massacre in Orange County in 1920. Since the Act of 1965 has lapsed, nationwide, about 1000 polling places in predominately minority areas have closed. So, you and your partisans already know more than a smattering about voter suppression.   You know, like your hero appointing someone (a massive donor) to “lead” the USPS and instructing him to “slow things down?”

        The precise manner of choosing electors, oddly enough, is not specified. Right up front, as stated earlier, this means that, if not mandated in the Constitution, it is relegated to the authority of the states. In essence, this means that parties choose stalwart supporters to go to the state capitol and cast their electoral votes. It's a sort of pat on the head perk for being a loyal partisan.

        It is that way because party hacks who think their states are likely to consistently favor one party, like Florida, have mandated an “all or nothing” allocation of electoral votes. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska. Electoral votes there are allocated by winners in Congressional districts, with the 2 Senate seat votes going to the majority vote getter. Sound fair? It is, which is why Florida will likely never do it. Every state could do it, but most would rather bitch about the Electoral College, except when it helps them like it did in 2016.

        Your attempt to encourage a post facto selection of faithless electors is nothing short of pathetic and unworthy of a leader. It is an insult to the uniform we both once wore. I hoped and expected better from you. It hasn’t happened.

           Michael Dorman MMCM(SS) USN ret.