Darryl Paulson, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Darryl PaulsonJune 16, 2017

The first article in this series looked at the possibility of removing Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment and it concluded there was virtually no chance of that happening. The next article looked at the Constitutional Convention and the debate over whether or not impeachment should be part of the constitution. It also looked at […]

Darryl PaulsonJune 15, 2017

In my recent op-ed, I examined the possibility of removing President Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment. That amendment allows for the president to be removed if the vice president and a majority of the cabinet find the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” This option is highly unlikely to […]

Darryl PaulsonJune 10, 2017

Each day seems to bring more trouble for President Donald Trump. He fired his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after just three weeks in his position. Then came the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Numerous other individuals in his administration are supposedly on the chopping block, ranging from Press Secretary Sean Spicer to Chief-of-Staff […]

Darryl PaulsonJune 6, 2017

Some readers may be incapable of getting beyond the title of this article. How in the world can anyone defend politicians and politics? It’s easy and, I would argue, necessary. One recent study found that Americans rank politicians lower than cockroaches. I hope Americans are expressing their frustration with politicians, but not their actual sentiments. […]

Darryl PaulsonMay 31, 2017

Sometimes political change comes slowly, one drop at a time. That was the 2016 Florida congressional election where Democrats gained a single seat, although the opportunities were everywhere. Sometimes elections result in a political tsunami, where the political landscape is fundamentally altered, and one party replaces the other party as the dominant political force. The […]

Darryl PaulsonMay 19, 2017

I expect the title of this op-ed will generate enough hate mail to keep me busy for a month. How can anyone oppose democracy? If the Founders hated democracy, who am I to disagree? The Founders recognized the inherent dangers of democratic government. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, called democracy “one […]

Darryl PaulsonMay 12, 2017

Although a Republican and a conservative, I was never able to support Donald Trump for president for three reasons. First, he has seldom been a Republican in his lifetime. Second, he is a pragmatist and populist, but not a conservative. Finally, he has difficulty telling the truth. So, what was so appealing about Trump that […]

Darryl PaulsonMay 4, 2017

Florida’s Republican Party has governed Florida for less than a third of the past 150 years. After the Civil War, a coalition of newly enfranchised blacks, a small number of native white Republicans and northern carpetbaggers dominated Florida politics from 1865 to around 1885. After the blacks were stripped of their voting rights at the […]

Darryl PaulsonMay 1, 2017

On July 16, 1949, seventeen-year-old Norma Padgett claimed that her husband Willie was assaulted and she was raped by four black males near Groveland, Florida. Groveland is located in Lake County in central Florida. In July 1986, I co-authored the first scholarly article on the Groveland case in the Florida Historical Quarterly, along with historians […]

Darryl PaulsonApril 14, 2017

The Era of Good Feelings is the term used to describe the aftermath of the War of 1812 where the American nation sought to establish national unity during a period of one-party dominance. The Federalist Party, representing the urban and aristocratic citizens, disappeared after the disastrous Hartford Convention in 1814, leaving only the Jeffersonian Republicans […]

Darryl Paulson
Image via AP.

Darryl Paulson: Will Donald Trump be dumped? Part III — Impeachment

Darryl Paulson: Will Donald Trump be dumped? Part II — The Constitutional debate

Darryl Paulson: Will Donald Trump be dumped? – The 25th Amendment

Darryl Paulson: In defense of politics

Darryl Paulson: Will 2018 bring no change or a political tsunami?

Darryl Paulson: The Founders were right — democracy is flawed

Darryl Paulson: President ‘Pants on Fire’

Darryl Paulson: Should the Florida GOP feel blue?

Darryl Paulson: Groveland — Florida’s legacy of hate

Darryl Paulson: The Era of Bad Feelings