Martin Dyckman, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Martin DyckmanMarch 19, 2017

Some perfectly objective news stories virtually write their own editorials. Here is the top of a recent one from the PBS NewsHour: “A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and […]

Martin DyckmanMarch 14, 2017

An enduring lesson on what freedom of speech should mean to a college campus was taught more than a half-century ago by one of my favorite professors at Florida State University, Lewis M. Killian. I hadn’t taken his class or even met him at the time but something I had written was a hot discussion […]

Martin DyckmanMarch 10, 2017

A young woman who works at a store that we frequent told of a recent experience that haunts my mind, as I hope it will yours. She and her husband were homebound from a European vacation. As the aircraft waited on the tarmac at Amsterdam’s airport, an announcement told three named passengers to identify themselves […]

Martin DyckmanMarch 9, 2017

It would tax the imagination to come up with anything that Florida needs less than to elect a secretary of state once again. Why would the Legislature even consider that? Sen. Aaron Bean, the sponsor, explained it the other day. As reported by FloridaPolitics.com, the Fernandina Beach Republican told the Senate ethics committee that in […]

Martin DyckmanMarch 3, 2017

When current events became too depressing, I turned to history for possible reassurance. It came from what might seem an unlikely source, Volker Ullrich’s excellent 2016 biography, “Hitler Ascent 1889-1939” published in translation by Alfred A. Knopf. There are sound reasons to hope that what happened there won’t happen here, as even though it threatens […]

Martin DyckmanFebruary 22, 2017

Is Florida’s judicial ethics commission about to become collateral damage in a battle over the independence of the courts? House Speaker Richard Corcoran, the Land O’Lakes Republican, appears to have targeted the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) along with the courts themselves in his campaign to curb the independence of the judiciary. The JQC and the […]

Martin DyckmanFebruary 19, 2017

Late in the campaign, the New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz wrote that Queen Elizabeth II was offering to take the colonies back, suggesting that Americans dissatisfied with their options should just write in her name for president. It doesn’t seem quite as funny now as it did then. Let’s imagine, though, that we are still […]

Martin DyckmanFebruary 11, 2017

There is a profound reason why the Founders gave life tenure to federal judges, subject only to impeachment for bad behavior. As Alexander Hamilton explained it in The Federalist No. 78: “In a monarchy, it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince; in a Republic, it is a no less excellent barrier […]

Martin DyckmanFebruary 10, 2017

When President Harry S. Truman threatened in December 1950 to punch out a Washington Post music critic who had panned his daughter’s singing, he wrote the letter in his own hand, affixed his own postage stamp, and did not make it public. Neither did the Post. But America knew all about it once it had […]

Martin DyckmanJanuary 30, 2017

An open letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: Gentlemen: It was wisdom rather than whim that guided the founders of our nation in separating the powers of government with a system of checks and balances. As James Madison remarked in The Federalist 47, “the accumulation of all powers … […]

Martin Dyckman

Martin Dyckman: Genetic testing bill gives bosses power they shouldn’t have

Martin Dyckman: Memory of FSU professor’s enduring lesson on free speech, tolerance

Martin Dyckman: What have we become in the time of Trump?

Florida doesn’t need an elected Secretary of State, or Agriculture Commissioner

History provides a bit of assurance between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler

Judicial ethics watchdog could suffer in fight for independent Florida courts

Hail Britannia: U.K. could teach U.S. a thing or two about running government

Federal judges’ lifetime tenure for good reason; Tallahassee should take note

How can we respect the presidency, when Donald Trump clearly doesn’t?

Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell — why are you enabling Donald Trump?