Updated

Although I am an active Republican in Florida, it has been a pleasure to have a friendly and respectful relationship with many democrats, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Like many Americans, the stories about how Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill worked together for the good of the country inspire us about the way politics should be.  

Today, though, the problem is that the Party of Reagan and the Party of Tip O’Neill have never been farther apart.

While the Grand Old Party still seeks to follow Reagan’s vision of lesser government and a strong America, the Democratic Party is unrecognizable from Tip O’Neill’s tenure in the 1980’s. Tuesday night’s crushing victory by Bernie Sanders can attest to how far to the left they have gone. 

As much I do not want to pick a fight with my former Congressman from District 23, Debbie Wasserman Schultz clearly holds much of the blame. 

Let us review Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s damning record:

Her tenure as DNC Chairwoman would be bad enough if it were just her hard left turn and being out of touch with even her liberal-leaning congressional district.  But, far worse is the chaos and destruction that she is leading not just her party, but our country towards — radical left-wing policies that are sure to impoverish and endanger America. 

These policies comprise an agenda utterly antithetical to the interests of those in the 23rd Congressional District here in my home state of Florida, and are void of the cornerstone principles that Americans have cherished since its founding.  

As the leader of the Democratic Party, she is pushing for increasingly anti-capitalist policies -- the very ones that have made Venezuela and Cuba economic basket cases.

After 18 years, Venezuela is proof of the destruction democratic socialism brings. That country is in economic shambles as the nation's wealth has been completely destroyed.

Shortages abound in today's Venezuela and these shortages include staples such as medicine, toilet paper, food, and bread. Inflation is over 700 percent. 

Ironically, the socialist policies that were supposed to help the poor, have only served to hurt them the most. Those of means and forethought have left--many live now right there in her District.

Why would Democrats — feeling “the Bern” — advocate for policies that would import the same miserable agenda that others in our own hemisphere are fleeing right at this very moment? 

In the recent Democratic debate, Sanders and Clinton clashed on the all-important question-- who was the real progressive? Progressive is a code word for socialist.

Sanders is at least authentic- he is a self-proclaimed socialist. As for Clinton, well she'll say or do anything necessary to be president, and so she has chased Sanders to the left.

Hence, the Democratic Presidential candidates sound like Bolsheviks versus Mensheviks in their rhetoric on taxes, profits and the free enterprise system itself. These positions are out of the mainstream across the U.S. — again, just ask any Venezuelan translated into Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s Florida Congressional district.

It should also be noted that as a result of the destruction wrought by Cuba’s pursuit of the same policies Rep. Wasserman Schultz has been pursuing by way of reign as DNC Chair, there is a growing Cuban refugee crisis in Florida. Rep. Wasserman Schultz is nowhere to be found.

None of this even mentions the fact that Rep. Wasserman Schultz gave her imprimatur to an Iran deal opposed by Floridians -- including many in her heavily Jewish and Democratic district -- that will give its Holocaust-denying regime billions of dollars with which to spread its terror and enable it to build nuclear weapons that could destroy Israel and devastate the United States.

Conversely, Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s fellow Democratic Florida Congressional colleagues including Reps. Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel and Alcee Hastings all had the good sense to cross their party’s leader and oppose the deal on behalf of their constituents.

Under Party Boss Wasserman  Schultz’s strong-armed authority, the Democratic field was to be cleared for Hillary Clinton. Left-of-center Democrats need not apply. But, these heavy-handed tactics caused a rebellion on the left and gave us the greatest potential of a socialist president for the first time in our history.

Not only has Rep. Schultz prioritized her own interests over those of Democrats nationwide, but she has also prioritized her party’s interests over those of the very people who elected her in the first place, the people of Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. 

I am happy about one thing though and that is that I no longer live her district. But, sadly, I still cannot escape the scary place she intends to take America if she succeeds.

She must be stopped before she does so.