Opinion
By Steve Nicklas, 11-26-24
In a new twist for a new year, I’m launching my first-ever podcast — Nicklas’ Nassau News.
The podcast will deliver to viewers/listeners a summary of newsworthy developments inside and outside of Nassau County. As a filter, I will use my experience as an award-winning columnist and a decorated financial advisor.
I am fiscally conservative, but I try to welcome other views – as long as they are not radical. This podcast won’t be overtly slanted Republican, but it will steer away from the far-left ideology of the Democrats strangling our country.
As my first elementary installment, nothing is more important than the outcome of the November elections, both nationally and locally. Our fabulous country almost got swept away in a mudslide of ultra-left liberalism.
The Biden-Harris administration took the country on a hard left turn like a NASCAR driver heading into a curve at a high rate of speed. Beyond the curve, a cliff awaited.
Of course, race car drivers only turn left, and many cities and states have followed a similar path — with disastrous results. Look at our nation’s capital for proof.
Or take a city like San Francisco, with rampant homelessness, lawlessness and poverty. It used to be a vibrant, dynamic city. However, it has imploded like peers New York City and Chicago and Philadelphia.
Locally, the Fernandina Beach city elections turned out diametrically opposite of the national results. Two and possibly three liberal candidates are taking over the city commission.
Nothing could be worse for our coveted town than this outcome, other than a Class 5 hurricane or an ethanol plant explosion. The city will inevitably follow the same failing trajectory as its bigger peers behind starkly liberal leadership.
A respected associate of mine described the outcome with distaste, like a bite of bad sushi. The same deplorable dynamics overtook several towns he lived in before. Then he found the solace of Fernandina Beach and Nassau County.
Hopefully I’m wrong and these new commissioners can turn salt water into wine, but I doubt it. I’ve followed local politics for 35 years, so I have history as my guide.
Economically, small businesses in Nassau County are struggling with exorbitant costs from the same runaway inflation the nation is experiencing. These suffocating costs impact goods and transportation and workers.
Service-oriented businesses can only mark up their products so much before customers stop coming and buying. I’ve even heard from workers at the Omni Amelia Island resort that traffic has been slow, a commentary on sluggish corporate activity.
Don’t be misled by the fool’s gold the Biden administration is peddling. The U.S. economy has been slowing for months. The only new jobs are in government, filled with only foreign workers.
But euphoric optimism is replacing a prevailing pessimism following the federal elections. The indominable Trump has come to our rescue once again like a divine savior.
Trump’s new cabinet of outsiders and disruptors will create a political revolution that will morph into an economic renaissance in the U.S. The onerous weight of a bureaucratic government will be lifted and replaced by a bullish sentiment economically, financially and emotionally.
The national momentum will carry local communities forward like a king tide — even dysfunctional Fernandina Beach. Our once-idyllic town that has taken a turn for the worse. Hopefully it’s not too late to avoid a municipal crash.
Steve Nicklas is a financial advisor and an award-winning columnist who lives and works in Nassau County. He is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and an author of the financial book “All About Money.” He can be reached at 904-753-0236 or at [email protected].
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
