Is an “R” rating good enough for you?
A short while ago I wrote a letter to the editor in SHJ expressing my outrage that SCGOP Chair Karen Floyd and the SCGOP leadership chose to protect Jake Knotts after his racist comments rather than bring up a vote to expel him from the party.
and then … Holy Long Reaching Newspaper Batman! … Glenn McCall over in York County responded to my letter.
Exactly what happened in the closed door meeting in Columbia on June 26 … only those in the room know. I think one of the points to be made is that there WAS a closed door meeting … this was dealt with out of sight of the voters who were there, and the media. The end result lacked the dignity owned to South Carolina voters who, while they may not reside in Knotts’ district, are subject to the legislation he votes on, and are shamed by him representing our state. And it’s just too reminiscent of all the closed door meetings that Reid/Pelosi held to make deals and retain power in DC.
Several times during the June 26 meeting both Floyd and McCall called for “UNITY! UNITY!” Chairwoman Floyd even commenting during the public part of the meeting that I was in attendance for that there was “an elephant in the room” but that we should “get the November elections over, and get these good Republican candidates into office and we can deal with these issues after the elections.” Really. So more of the same Vote Republican for the sake of Unity! while ignoring the caliber of those candidates, their voting records, and their adherence to the GOP platform. Just an “R” behind their name ought to satisfy us.
Are you satisfied with that recommendation from the SCGOP leadership?
> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get Voter ID passed.
> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get State Government Reform passed (having major political positions all from one party, or by appointment)
> A Republican majority allowed passage of a cigarette tax, which violated some members’ “No New Tax Pledge”
> A Republican majority voted for receiving Stimulus funds
It seems to me we may have a RINO problem here in SC. What good does uniting behind the SCGOP or even candidates here in Spartanburg with an “R” if these candidates are unable to deliver to constituents these basic conservative principles of representative governing, the transparency we are demanding, and a decrease, not increase, in our taxes and state government spending? Are we satisfied in acceding to the SCGOP leadership’s plea for unity, in electing/re-electing candidates with an “R” rating and trusting their promise to “deal with the elephant in the room” after the elections? I say we’ll have lost our leverage to hold the SCGOP leadership and the RINOs accountable, to move them to the right, to pressure them to listen to our voices by November.
In the months leading up to the November elections we have the opportunity to decide whether an “R” rating is good enough, or whether there are any options in the upcoming elections to draw SCGOP leadership’s attention to our discontent in how the GOP majority in Congress failed us this past session, and how shielding one powerful GOP Senator who has shamed our state has really pissed us off.
