Hello Manatee County…and everyone else...Welcome to the rebrand. As I mentioned in the POST earlier this week, I'm expanding this Substack. I will be making it broader than just Manatee County. I also mentioned switching to a more podcast-focused delivery but, honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing and I need time to figure that all out. Look for that to start over the summer when I have some downtime. For now, we’ll stick with the tried-and-true articles.
So, without further ado, welcome to Policy 68!
Let me start off with the punchline. Both political parties are a mess right now.
I'm sure I'll catch hell for that but it's true. The Republican Party platform is entirely fluid and consists of whatever President Trump says on any given day. The Democratic Party platform consists entirely of the opposite of whatever President Trump says.
How are these serious parties followed by serious people? How did we get here and why are so many people content with letting us stay here?
Politics and policies, locally and otherwise, are rarely won by rational, common sense people in the current system. Elections have become more about voting for the lesser of two evils; they've become more about voting against the other candidate and less about voting for a good candidate with good policies; they've become more about voting blindly along party lines.
Why? Because we've trended away from meritocracy and thoughtful policy and toward donor-funded campaigns and identity politics.
We need to get back to common sense.
When I've been up in Tallahassee. When I've been up in Washington DC. Even when I just sit here in Manatee County. What I see is that everything in politics and its policy is trending to the extremes.
The extremes do not represent the vast majority. You do. And you are the ones I agree with and vowed to represent.
But today I go on my Facebook feed and ALL I see are political posts defending or attacking whatever crazy stuff one party is doing today. And that's both parties. It’s as if most people simply cannot enjoy their life anymore. Even the most innocent, benign thing has to be seen and interpreted through a partisan lens.
Politics and policy today are represented by the loudest, most obnoxious fringes.
On the left, the fringe believes everything Biden did was perfect. They believe that AOC, Bernie and Elizabeth Warren really have something going with their socialist tendencies.
On the right, the fringe believes everything Trump does is perfect. They believe every Executive Order is 4D Chess and not just occasionally ridiculous ideas that come and go as the wind blows...or the market drops. And if you're on the right and you don't believe in the omnipotence of Trump - that maybe he COULD actually be the Pope - then you're not MAGA enough and, therefore, you're a hardcore liberal.
Neither party today adheres to anything resembling a coherent platform. The extreme left has hijacked the Democratic party. The extreme right has hijacked the Republican party. Neither reflects the basic common sense or the historical ideals of those party names. They've simply been taken over by people too lazy or too scared to start their own party.
At least Andrew Yang was willing to abandon the Democrat party and start the Forward Party. It may not be holding much influence but at least it's an attempt at giving people who feel politically homeless a place to be. Now we're hearing John Morgan may be doing the same.
But can these third-parties even move the needle with the current system?
Today, due to Citizens United, gerrymandering and antiquated voting systems, we're forced to "pick a team". You turn 18 and there it is...red or blue. Once there, we're told to believe everything a select few insiders decide is the NEW platform, even as it warps into something unrecognizable. If you don't blindly follow along, you're a RINO or whatever Democrats call their side (DINO?).
When in reality, it's the establishment and the current party leadership that are the actual "in name only". It's the money and the power hijacking whichever party is in control at whatever local, state or national level they’re operating in. It's Republican in Manatee County and in the Florida Legislature but it's Democrat in blue locations.
They’re not funding those particular parties because they believe in that party's principals but because they believe those elected officials can do their bidding since that party happens to be in control in that location. They pay to insert their "policy" into the controlling party platform and the party members are then told that those bought-and-paid-for policies are now gospel to be blindly followed.
Which begs the question - why do we even need parties to represent us rather than focusing on policy views? Parties can be, and are, compromised. Policies are not. When will the people elected to represent you actually put good policies over bad parties?
There are no longer real parties or sincere philosophies. What we have are tribes (this is apparently more politically correct than “cults”). If you believe in 99% of your tribe’s platform…but kind of think the other 1% is batshit crazy…you're banished and labeled as being in bed with the other side. They require 100% buy-in and you need to believe your "leader" is perfect and every policy decision and Executive Order should be passed down the mountain carved on stone tablets or you'll be driven out of their tribe. When in reality, these tribes are just establishment-funded ground forces conned into waving signs, knocking on doors, and pushing the policies that benefit those establishment elites who are controlling your tribe.
You may think I'm wrong. Your party is different. It’s not a tribe or its not establishment controlled. Your Florida Republican Party is great and you helped get a supermajority in Tallahassee to represent your individual interests. Really?
We're dealing with a mess with our Manatee County development code due to Senate Bill 250, and possibly now SB 180. Both written, amended in the 11th hour, and passed by that Republican supermajority to take away your home rule. We're fighting to increase impact fees rather than subsidize developers with what are effectively government-forced price controls. Our fight is against Republican bills. We almost had endless agriculturally-zoned development as-of-right this year through "Ag Enclaves". Proposed, and nearly passed, by Republicans in spite of the fiscally-irresponsible nature of the bills. Every time they go into session, a little more of your home rule, your local control, your “government closest to the people” is taken away. Are these really the conservative principals and policies you supported when you helped them get this supermajority in office?
Or are we to look the other way when that absolute power corrupts absolutely simply because that power is held by elected officials that happen to have the same letter after their name as you do?
We need to start focusing on the ACTUAL majority of citizens. That vast majority that, deep down, still believe in common sense policies. That still believe that government can actually do good things.
People who believe that you can fully support the 2nd Amendment while also acknowledging that every reasonable safeguard isn't inherently infringing upon your rights. People who understand that building everywhere and building absolutely nowhere are not the only two options for growth. People who believe that taxes should be kept low but zero taxes is not fiscally feasible. People who believe that government assisting a homeless single mother isn't socialism but that government also shouldn't be the backstop for every problem we have. People who believe that freedom of speech is for all speech, not just the speech you agree with or the books you want to read. People who understand that there are, in fact, pro-choice Republicans and pro-life Democrats and no single-issue opinion defines where those people fall on the overall political spectrum.
Now we get to the question I have been asked since I made my last post. What the hell is up with the…
Think of a bell curve with the average citizen right smack in the middle. The guy who believes the gay couple he's friends with next door should be able to protect their homegrown marijuana plants with an AR-15.
Yes, that center example sounds very much libertarian. This is my Substack and my opinion and I do believe the real center is in the “lower case l" libertarian camp and we'll ultimately trend that way if we ever get to an equilibrium. You can already see some groups trying to push their side in that direction with the Abundance movement working to remove regulations on the Left and the Dispatch/Bulwark/Reason crowds pushing the Right toward common sense.
Now, I loved statistics in business school. Possibly my favorite class.
So lets look at the Standard Deviation of that voting population with our carefree libertarian friend in the center. Approximately 68% of all voters fall within 1 Standard Deviation of the pure center. That's a supermajority of Republicans (34.1% of all voters; 68.2% of the right side). That's a supermajority of everyone. If we go 2 Standard Deviations out, we're at 95%.
However, today, we let those extremists who are 3 Standard Deviations from the center - the pointy 5% fringe with the tinfoil hats - dictate our policies, pick our candidates, and write our talking points.
They have taken control of both parties and they’ve found a big enough group of high-likelihood voters - through threats of being ostracized from the party - to come along with them and take power. If you don't think that's true, take a look at the RPOF and their actions of kicking republicans out of local REC’s if they don't do as they're told. (Recent Substack from Trent Wayman HERE.)
And because of low-turn out primaries, this fringe group outvotes the much larger, but rationale, middle time and time again.
This scenario now leaves the majority - the actual supermajority - out of power to the loud minority. All because we have insane primary voting systems in heavily-gerrymandered districts encouraging equally-insane candidates to pander to this minority at the expense of common sense.
That's why I came up with Policy 68. It's focus will be on a top-level, universal policy - the first threshold of consideration - in order to advocate for local, state and federal policies that agree with the common sense 68% of the population. The One Sigma, the One Standard Deviation, the supermajority of our citizens that have been ignored because their soundbites don’t make it on Fox News or MSNBC. Their policies don't cause protests or outrage. They just quietly advocate for common sense, positive policies to make all of our lives a little better. Is that so bad?
It's not even the “center” or the “moderates” or whatever you want to call them that I'm talking about. I'm not saying to please everyone. I’m not even saying to only seek out non- or bi-partisan solutions. This universal top-level policy is basically covering 70% of all views. You can stick with the rational 68% of your own party if you want. I’m just advocating to ignore the noise from the extreme 30-32%. Cut out the crazy extremes and we're getting someplace.
I recently heard that 63% of voters don't feel their views conform sufficiently to either party. They don’t feel the letter after their name, if they have one, has any meaning or represents them. A disproportionate share are only party affiliated so they can “have a say” in partisan races in locales with one-party rule. These should be the real targets for an elected official vowing to “represent” the majority of their constituents.
Look, every now and then you get people in office with real conviction - like Rand Paul and Tom Massie on the right or Manchin and Sinema on the left - who stand by their beliefs in spite of party politics.
We just saw it with Senator Jason Pizzo in Tallahassee. He could have stayed a Democrat and walked into their Governor nomination in 2026. But he didn't want to run on a platform he felt is trending too far to the extreme just to get a nomination. So he went NPA. Which will be an interesting case study if he runs anyway (as he has said he will) because Senator Pizzo got isolated from the Democratic Caucus "because" he was too common sense and bipartisan.
When exactly did working across the aisle for good policy become such a terrible thing? Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would not put up with today's politics. Hell, they'd probably get primaried for speaking to each other.
There ARE people who still want to run and win elections because they actually care and because they are actually rational and not just because of the letter behind their name.
Maybe if all of those people got together and we had voters who actually voted based on their best interests, and not their party lines, we'd get someplace better than where we are now.
Maybe if we got rid of Citizens United, secret dark PACs, and closed primaries and we installed campaign finance reform, open primaries and rank choice voting, we'd get good candidates and common sense representation.
At my recent townhall, someone asked me if I'm going to run for this office or another office in 2028. Maybe. I'm fairly committed to my self-imposed two-term term limit for this particular position but I'll never unequivocally say never. But odds are, if I decide to run again, it will be for something else. But I'm not going to do it just to read platform bullet points from complicit parties. I've seen every level of the system currently in place. If need be, I'd rather work to fix the system from the outside than to be a part of a broken system from the inside.
Because right now all I see is forced compliance at the state and federal level. You go up there, do as you're told, and maybe you'll get a nice committee seat and some bills passed. If you want to think for yourself, or think for your constituents, you'll get banished to the basement. You'll get no bills passed; you’ll get no appropriations approved. It's become a system in which voters almost have to vote for the most establishment, complicit candidates who will play the game - rather than those looking out solely for those voters’ best interests - if the voters want production from their representative. You can have productivity from your representative or you can have a voice from them, but today, you typically cannot have both.
We have a system designed to pit extreme sides against one another. One that's built to keep incumbents in office and to keep some party members working and donating and fighting on social media to "win" without even knowing WHAT exactly they're winning. They're using them. And deep down, a vast majority of them don't even agree with these parties. They are just pretending they do so their friends, who are also mostly faking it, don't attack them on Facebook.
That's not a system I want to be a part of unless I'm going into it with the singular focus of changing that system for the better.
We just need that 68% of you all to admit there’s a better way and to do something about it.
I will be using Policy 68 to tell you what I really think. At every level of government. So you can make up your own mind without feeling like you have to remain silent. Coming up in the next few weeks, we'll be talking about
what free markets should actually mean - and it's not taxing yourself through tariffs;
what exactly is going on with this state budget and your property taxes in what is clearly turning into a circus in Tallahassee;
Why one-party control is out of control - even if it’s your party;
how development, growth and housing should be done.
We need to have these conversations. We need to get out of the mindset that the only logical options remaining are to be MAGA or Woke to be America First or America Last. That everything is black or white and all policies & politics are zero sum games.
That's lazy and that's simply untrue. These are labels designed to keep you from venturing off and thinking for yourself. But those labels will continue to be incredibly effective until we start focusing on the 68% rather than listening to the fringe 5%.
Until people in office, those who took an oath to do what's right for the majority, start speaking up, we can't expect all of you, the rest of the common sense majority, to do the same. So let’s speak up and get the conversation started!
Have a great day Manatee!
I'll be in touch soon for more Policy 68.
Contact Info: www.georgekruse.com
Twitter: @gwkruse
Well written and thought out
We must fix our primary system
Mike Bennett
Wow. Great piece - and a pleasant surprise.
We are in dire need of more centrist voices, and a repeal of Citizens United to get big $ out of politics.
For much of my adult life I registered as Independent as I supported fiscally conservative (responsible) policies and socially respectful values. I didn’t mind helping out those less fortunate (or having my taxes do so).
While I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, I was never a fan of religious exclusivity. Perpetually observing the hatred and violence between religious groups throughout history (ex. Sunni and Shiite) one can see how extremes are divisive. Separation of church and state is a personal core principle (and supposedly part of our country’s Constitution), so having to follow another’s religious rules in life’s practice is also divisive and a large part of today’s political extremism.
This mess is particularly problematic in Tallahassee, as we worked so hard to right the ship here in Manatee.
Let’s all work together to support this county’s needs, culture dialogue, compromise and respect.