Political Parties on Key Biscayne? No Thanks

Photo Illustration (Adobe)

Political parties in America are nearly as old as the country itself — which turns 243 this month. Concerns and warnings about the negative impact of partisanship are even older and were a major concern of our wise founders and earliest leaders. Since its founding, Key Biscayne has never had political parties nor had much use for the national parties in its politics. Instead, elections and decisions have been focused on choosing the best people and the best approaches to achieve goals and avoid problems. 

That is beginning to change on our island paradise. 

A nascent political party has seemingly arrived. And, surprisingly, it isn’t the Republican or Democratic Party — or even the Whigs or the Greens — but something new and unique to our island.  It doesn’t have a name or a clear leader. It doesn’t have a platform nor any declared members or representatives. But what it does have is an approach to issues that is having an impact on our community.

For ease of reference I’m going to dub it “The Disgruntled Party” because as far as I can tell, it’s the unifying sentiment. Its members communicate publicly through WhatsApp chats and from the podium of Council meetings about taxation and government spending as it relates to a handful of proposed and ongoing Village programs. When they speak or write, members of this party pepper their communications with words and phrases like “transparency,” “full disclosure,” and “conflict of interest.” It’s tempting to view this group as active participants in citizenship using their Constitutionally-enshrined rights and, of course, that’s ultimately what they are. 

But rights have corresponding responsibilities — as our founders, with their investment of their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor,” knew all too well.

Our island paradise is not governed by professional politicians that serve for decades. Our town hall is not littered with lobbyists. Our political campaigns are not lavishly-funded affairs. Our representatives do not live in distant cities behind a wall of staff and security.They are in line with us at Winn-Dixie, or in the pews at St. Agnes, or scoring a regatta with us at the Key Biscayne Yacht Club.  

We don’t need partisanship nor political parties to give us access and influence. We don’t need partisan tricks like engineered scandals and threats of investigations to keep an entrenched political class in check. We don’t need to create toxic divisions when our differences and disagreements are so relatively slight. 

Partisanship has turned politics at every level into a sport. For some it’s for fun; for others it’s for profit; and for still others it’s for a sense of meaning.

But we don’t need this sport on Key Biscayne.

Being disgruntled that our property values have recently slipped from nosebleed levels is somewhat understandable. Being disgruntled about expensive infrastructure projects that don’t benefit you enough personally may be reasonable. And being disgruntled that elected representatives sometimes make decisions differently than you would is as American as apple pie. 

But the answer, the responsibility, is learning more, talking more, engaging more — not creating a partisan atmosphere to divide our small, close-knit community. The high cost of partisanship is on display around the clock on a half dozen channels on our televisions, in newspapers, on the radio, and for many it has ruined the experience of social media. 

I expect we can all agree that we don’t want that for our island politics — and we don’t need it.

Godspeed.