Крипто-фонды и сторонники Трампа тратят миллионы на дискредитацию кандидата Оливера Гилберта в Флориде

Protect Progress is a cryptocurrency super PAC affiliated with the Fairshake political network, financed by cryptocurrency and Silicon Valley interests. These are some of the same MAGA supporters of Donald Trump. Outside groups are spending heavily redefining Oliver Gilbert. Put plainly, MAGA donors are telling Democrats they should not vote for Gilbert. I have lived long enough, practiced law long enough and fought for civil rights long enough to recognize an old political trick when I see one. Divide people. Identify someone as the enemy. Repeat the accusation until people stop asking whether it is true. Spend enough money to make the allegation feel bigger than the facts. Then somebody else walks away with what they wanted. We are seeing that strategy in Florida's 24th Congressional District. That allegation should be weighed up against people who have worked with Gilbert and examined his record. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has endorsed Gilbert as her preferred successor; she knows he is not MAGA. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has also endorsed him; she knows he is not MAGA. Multiple labor organizations have backed Gilbert; they know he is not MAGA. All these endorsers are known as champions for working men and women — and so is Gilbert. Then there is the money. Protect Progress has spent over $1 million attacking Gilbert in the last week. Another federal super PAC, Good Growth, has entered the race attacking Gilbert and Shevrin Jones, while supporting Kendrick Meek Jr. Meek Jr. is a beneficiary when an outside group promotes his candidacy while attacking his opponents, primarily Gilbert. The spending is not symmetrical. Comparable amounts in one filing do not erase the larger volume of outside money being used against Gilbert. That matters because money can create an illusion of consensus. If voters see the same allegation in the mailbox, on television and online, repetition can begin to feel like proof. It is not. I have known Gilbert for decades. I know him to be a good man. I have watched him serve as mayor, county commissioner and chairman of the Miami-Dade County Commission. I have watched him work with people who agree with him and people who do not. Gilbert gets things done. Some people view working across party lines as suspicious. I call it governing. The problems facing working families do not care about political labels. A woman in Miami Gardens or Miramar who needs a breast examination confront the same fear. Poverty does not ask your race before entering your home. Rent, groceries, medicine, childcare and insurance weigh on families everywhere. Gilbert’s message is that our solutions should reflect that reality. We need education that prepares children not only for jobs, but for ownership and opportunity. We need a Small Business Administration that identifies talent and invests in people who can build businesses and create jobs. Today's working-class children should have a real chance to become tomorrow's employers. Black children and white children. Hispanic children and Haitian children. Urban communities and rural communities. There is an important word there: "and." Too much of American politics is built around "or." Black or white. Business or labor. Police or community. Left or right. Us or them. The politics of "or" survives by keeping people divided. The politics of "and" asks the harder question: how do we move forward together? I learned something about that during the 1,000-day Boycott Miami campaign after local politicians snubbed Nelson Mandela in 1990. We organized, followed the money, demanded accountability and stood together. Technology has changed. The mail is slicker. The television ads are louder. Super PACs can move millions into a community overnight. But money can buy repetition. It cannot buy truth. An accusation does not become accurate because someone can afford to put it in every mailbox. We have seen this trick before. We should recognize that it has arrived — once again! H.T. Smith is a pioneering Miami trial attorney, civil rights advocate and the founding director of the Trial Advocacy Program at FIU College of Law. He was Miami-Dade County’s first Black assistant public defender, and served as founding president of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association.