Billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Fernandez tossed around those million dollar checks the way you might tip someone really exceptional with a twenty. He gave superPACs for Mitt Romney and Rick Scott million dollar pops-- and, more recently, put over three million in for Jeb Bush. And he's given hundreds of thousands more to the RNC and other Republican committees. Although he gives primarily to right-wing Republicans, this year he also maxed out to right-wing Democrat Patrick Murphy (a so-called "former" Republican. He's given thousands and thousands to every garden variety GOP nutcase who's ever asked for money but he's been especially generous to Mario Diaz-Balart. In 2007, though, he contributed to another former Republican, Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, in an OpEd for the Miami Herald, he made it clear that, almost a decade later, he's back with Hillary.He has been a #NeverTrump guy and had paid for some ineffective anti-Trump ads earlier this year but now he's endeavored to explain why he's voting for Hillary, as so many Republicans are. "I am a firm believer," he wrote, "in the fundamental tenets of the Republican Party: individual freedom, small government, local control of issues, free speech, strong national defense and the broad vision that America is an exceptional country that gives exceptional opportunities to everyone." He asserted that Trump doesn't represent those values, but Hillary works for him just fine.
Of all the elections in which I have participated, none has become more transcendental to the definition of “We the people” and the very nature of our democracy than the one we face today.No longer can we seek solace in wishful thinking or the illusion that this is just an election cycle and that by divine intervention all will be better after we vote. There is no basis in thinking that our democracy is so strong, our checks and balances so finely hedged, that no single person can lead us off the precipice. Trump can.No longer can we hide behind the excuse that party loyalty is paramount, and that a bad candidate of our own is always better than any candidate of theirs. Blind loyalty in this case is the ultimate definition of disloyalty to our beliefs. Loyalty to our nation must be the ultimate arbiter of our choice.I have watched this election unfold, from that first press conference where the population of an entire country was cast as insulting to our core. This led to a neverending spiral of vulgarity, intellectual dishonesty, invective, abuse, misogyny, racism, intolerance, bullying, ignorance and downright cruelty. The fact that the person unleashing these forces, reflecting beliefs and biases that we had long ago identified as at odds with the Founding Fathers’ principle of ordered liberty was a member of my party, was at first cause for irritation evolving into alarm and frustration and finally arriving at a sobering moment of embarrassment for my party, and beyond that, of profound concern for my beloved country.We have seen him attack our institutions and receive cheering adoration. At rallies he has implied that if his wish to lead the nation is not granted by popular vote, that the national system is rigged and deserving of attack. This is insanity and dictatorial machinations at best.As a Republican who has contributed millions of dollars to the party’s causes, I ask: Why has our party not sought a psychological evaluation of its nominee?”This abysmally unfit candidate has unleased racist and violent acts. There has been no need for dog whistles. The call to brand entire religions and countries as unworthy and despicable, and the call for profoundly un-American practices, including asking the honorable men and women serving our country in the military to engage in the profoundly dishonorable task of torturing human beings and killing innocent families, has been open and unequivocal. The very worst in our society, the Klan and the neo-Nazis, revel in this horrific rhetoric.I have arrived at this difficult moment. A moment that may define leaders and followers. I harbor no illusion that Hillary Clinton is perfect; none of us is. I do not see eye to eye on some issues with the former senator from New York. However, Clinton is, without doubt, a superior choice to Donald Trump.Balancing any of her shortcomings are intelligence, experience, as well as the humility to accept that she does not have all the answers. She has delegated effectively over the decades in public service. These attributes will serve her well as president.The republic should outlast any party. Our democratic spirit will ensure that we do and that this shining city on the hill eventually will shine even brighter.I am equally convinced that our republic will be placed in fundamental peril if we are foolish enough to elect a person who has made it clear that he does not share in our democratic values and that the only idol in his temple is himself. And he is willing to pull down the glorious edifice of our American democracy.And so my fellow Republicans, swallow hard, look into your heart-- and your gut. Vote for Hillary Clinton and then every single Republican on the ticket.Do that, and rest assured that you will have served your country well.
This paragraph seemed aimed especially towards Mario Diaz-Balart, the only South Florida congressmember of either party supporting Señor Trumpanzee. (Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have been big recipients of Fernandez's generosity and both have said they oppose Trump and will not vote for him.):
No longer can we hide behind the excuse that party loyalty is paramount, and that a bad candidate of our own is always better than any candidate of theirs. Blind loyalty in this case is the ultimate definition of disloyalty to our beliefs. Loyalty to our nation must be the ultimate arbiter of our choice.
So far this cycle, Fernandez has been writing significant checks to Curbelo but hasn't given anything to the Trump-supporting Diaz-Balart yet. Nor has he given any money to the progressive physician who's running against Diaz-Balart, Alina Valdes. He should. You can, here. Of course, unlike Hillary and Murphy, Valdes wasn't a Republican in the past and doesn't jive with the kinds of Republican values that work against the interests of ordinary working families. We asked Alina Valdes to weigh in on how it's possible for the overwhelming majority of Hispanics in South Florida to recognize the Trumpist danger but for Mario Diaz-Balart to be blind to it. This is what she told us last night:
I am in agreement with Mr. Fernandez on many of his issues, especially lifting the embargo on Cuba, which is decades overdo. This particular ideology, which transcends party lines, shows us that we have more in common as Cuban-Americans than we have differences. Like Mr. Fernandez, I was born in Cuba and came to this country in the early 1960's. Like Mr. Fernandez, I have been fortunate to prosper in this country, becoming the first doctor in my family. Like Mr. Fernandez, I long for the day when I can travel freely in Cuba, knowing that her people have all the opportunities the Cuban Americans have had in the US. It makes no sense that Cuba, which is no threat to the U.S., remains on the same list as North Korea.Though I am a registered Democrat and am running against Diaz-Balart in the predominantly Latino CD-25, I do not understand how the current incumbent could still support and vote for Donald Trump with all the vitriol and hatred he seems to have towards Hispanics, and specifically Cubans, a large group of his constituents and a group I am a proud member of. As a physician, I have spent my entire life serving in largely Latino communities with the uninsured, the poor, and the homeless, which are all communities that have been largely under-served not only in medicine but in many other aspects of American life. It has been my privilege and my duty to have the opportunity to help other Latinos and now it is my intention to do the same in FL CD-25, where the polling has shown a trend towards lifting the Cuban embargo since the present policy has been an abysmal failure. Many Cuban Americans still have family and friends on the island and find themselves working to help their people in Cuba, who would otherwise suffer further the injustice of this embargo.Like Mr. Fernandez, I will also be voting for Hillary Clinton not out of party loyalty but because I must do all I can to prevent "The Donald" from taking control of a country which I love and which has given many of us the opportunity to excel and succeed. Mr. Fernandez, we do indeed have quite a bit in common and our core principles and ideology do transcend party lines for we both have an allegiance to our people and want to see our beloved Cuba free again and for her people to have choice and opportunity as the rest of us have had and it is indeed way past time.
