My first Manatee Patriots meeting was full of surprises

Their grilling of county Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge made it a good night for local democracy

The Manatee Patriots gave Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge a grilling on Tuesday evening. Our local democracy was better for it. (Photo by Marc R. Masferrer)

I had my trepidations Tuesday evening when I decided I would attend my first-ever meeting of the Manatee Patriots, whose very broad mission is “to restore the use of our U.S. Constitution to its original intent.” I have written critically about some of the stalwarts at the weekly gatherings and their pet causes, like book banning and restoring a confederate war memorial to the courthouse lawn, but that wasn’t why I was having second thoughts. I didn’t want to be a distraction but I can handle any feedback they might have. We all believe in what we believe “liberty” to be but on these and other issues, I just think they are wrong.

I just didn’t care for the thought of spending time in close quarters with a bunch of Donald Trump supporters — Are Republicans really going to put the nation through another Trump campaign? — just so I could hear Manatee County District 3 Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Tuesday’s main speaker and someone I have already written off as being unworthy of re-election, bloviate.

But my journalistic curiosity got the better of me, and I am better for it. (You can watch the meeting here.)

I cringed — hopefully, only inwardly — as the county’s leading book banner; myriad conspiracy theorists about topics ranging from “the border” to what was described as a one-world-government-style plot to control how Parrish develops ( I think I got that right); a woman who loudly doesn’t like Congressman Vern Buchanan, the area’s highest ranking Republican elected official; a representative of the John Birch Society(!); and others took advantage of the soapbox offered them to gin up support for their favorite out-there cause. Most of those folks could be easily, and accurately, dismissed as crackpots, but what was really alarming was when members of the audience would shout, including during Van Ostenbridge’s presentation, about the threat of illegal immigration. I didn’t hear any slurs but the content and tone of their comments, were ugly.

Which is too bad because while I will never join the Manatee Patriots, despite how welcoming some folks were of me, I was impressed by the discussions, especially during Van Ostenbridge’s long-winded account of how he rolled back COVID-related health and safety measures; how he believes Joe Biden and Democrats steal elections; how he and the rest of the commission have had to fix all the problems created and left to them by their predecessors; and how he doesn’t care if you don’t like how he has “ruffled feathers.” He also claimed there’s not much he can do to slow development, which did not seem to disappoint him too much.

During a question-and-answer session, audience members pushed back hard on Van Ostenbridge on a variety of topics. They demanded answers to their questions about the effects of rapid growth and development in the county, Van Ostenbridge’s apparent support for the embattled chair of the local Republican Party, the influence of deep-pocketed developers contributing money to Van Ostenbridge’s re-election campaign and the commission’s vote last year to roll back protection of wetlands in the county, despite massive public opposition. To his credit, he did not shirk in the face of the tough treatment and he even broke a little news: Not surprisingly, he said he will not support his fellow GOP commissioner George Kruse for re-election and avoided a question about whether he would run against Kruse for the at-large District 7 seat on the commission instead of running for re-election from District 3.

Republicans and the other conservatives / libertarians / America Firsters / conspiracy theorists who make up the Manatee Patriots may all agree that a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president found by a judge to have raped a woman should be returned to office in November but on local issues, as Van Ostenbridge learned Tuesday night, there is far less than unanimity. You don’t have to agree with someone’s ideology to agree with them on the issues.

Overall, the audience members wanted to hold Van Ostenrbridge accountable and make him answer their questions, which, frankly, was surprising and refreshing.

As I was leaving, I was stopped by several folks who told me they subscribe to and enjoy reading The Bradenton Journal. One wanted to make sure I knew that not all local Republicans are crazy. We agreed that there really isn’t a “conservative” or “liberal” solution to issues like traffic, growth and other topics that matter to most residents. I had a pleasant chat with someone I have been pretty tough on, GOP congressional candidate Eddie Spier, which was the third-biggest surprise of the the night.

The second-biggest surprise came courtesy of Deanna Brinkley. I approached her to teach her the correct pronunciation of my last name, since she has butchered it during at least two Manatee Patriots meetings as she decried efforts by my wife Marie, a school librarian, to derail attempts by Brinkley and a handful of others to ban from public school libraries books that make them uncomfortable. Earlier on Tuesday, she had implored the audience to ask me why Marie and I supported porn in schools, or something outlandish like that.

As we chatted, Brinkley smiled and said she thought there might be other topics we might agree on. I didn’t ask for details but I told her it was OK to disagree, as long any disagreement is based on the facts. (Marie said I should have retorted that there is no pornography in school libraries to object to, but I really wasn’t looking for a fight.)

Democracy can be messy, especially here in Manatee County where we have made it a habit to elect the lesser of us, like Van Ostenbridge, to lead us. Despite those moments during their meeting that made me cringe and made me want to shout how wrong they were, we’re all better off that the Manatee Patriots are part of the debate.

That I just wrote that, was the biggest surprise of the night.

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Marc R. Masferrer, previously a newspaper and digital editor in Bradenton for more than 16 years and a journalist for more than 33 years, has received multiple awards for his writing, including a first place for commentary writing in the Florida Press Club’s 2022 Excellence in Journalism Competition and a second place prize in the 2023 contest for work published in The Bradenton Journal. You can reach him at Marc.R.Masferrer@gmail.com. You can also like The Bradenton Journal on Facebook.