Words of Wisdom from Sid Dinerstein

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Our guest speaker for September was former PBC GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein.

Explaining in clear terms why Republicans are not on a winning path, Sid laid out some simple Zen-like truths.

The path to victory is not through finding a bunch more white guys to vote for us. Hard core Democrats are never going to accept our worldview, so why waste time trying to convert them. Find natural conservative constituencies and make your case.

As an example of the latter, he used charter schools. Lots of them in Florida are really helping their students, many of whom are minorities, but the local teachers unions and school boards hate them. Solution: have the Governor appoint an education coordinator for charter schools and give them some Tallahassee weight.

Another example of a “natural” Republican opportunity would be Detroit – show the residents of that city what Democrats have done to them and that there is a better way. Closer to home, there is the Haitian community – with their political clubs and radio stations. Sid has made inroads with the Haitians and offered to the Governor an opportunity to address a meeting of a couple of thousand but was rebuffed by staff. For 2014, the Haitian Republican clubs that are forming could be a real asset in the St. Lucie County areas of CD18.

As usual, he left us both challenged but encouraged.

The meeting saw the addition of several new members and the participation of Gardens Mayor Bert Premuroso.

Coming up next month will be Senator Joe Negron.