There’s an old saying—probably mis-attributed to the Chinese—that goes something like, “may you live in interesting times.” It’s meant to be a curse, because as any historian will tell you, the most interesting times are often the most tumultuous. I don’t remember anybody laying any ancient Chinese curse on me, but the 21st century in South Carolina definitely qualifies as “interesting times.”
By any measure, our state has seen better days. Unemployment stands at 12.6% statewide, and 12.7% in Spartanburg County. Our public school students perform well below the national average in every measurable way, except perhaps on the football field, and more than half of those same public school students qualify for free or reduced price school meals. Meanwhile, the average worker in South Carolina makes about $8 per hour less than the national average. Nationally, 15.2% of the population doesn’t have health insurance. In South Carolina, that number is 19.4%, and Spartanburg’s number is 20.68%. 62% of South Carolinians without health insurance are employed.
If all of that sounds bad, well then be glad that I only spent 20 minutes or so looking up statistics. If I’d dedicated more time to it I might have had you running for the hills.
At this point you may be asking what, it their infinite wisdom, our state house and senate representatives are doing to address these issues. Well, to be honest, they’re not doing anything about those things, but recently they did manage to pass a non-binding resolution telling that evil, socialist, Kenyan usurper occupying our nation’s highest office how much they don’t like his big guv’ment’s attempts to destroy our way of life.
Last week, Senate Resolution S. 424, or the “We-Hate-Obama-But-We-Can’t-Do-Anything-About-It-Except-Piss-And-Moan Act” as I prefer to call it, passed the house 85-27. The act passed in the Senate several weeks ago 31-11.
In essence, the “Piss and Moan” bill is just a memo addressed to President Obama telling him how bad ass we think certain parts of the Constitution are, while conspicuously leaving out other parts, and warning him to keep that liberty-destroying health care bill out of our God-fearing state.
A couple of questions have been running around my mind these last few days. First, am I the only one out here who worries that our state is slipping into some sort of political crypto-fascism, combining religious fundamentalism with corporate feudalism? Second, why does this bill read like it could have been written by John C. Calhoun?
I don’t have a real answer for that first one. I ran our state’s government through Dr. Lawrence Britt’s great “14 Characteristics of Fascism,” and frankly, it did scare me a bit. I was particularly troubled by how closely the descriptions in numbers 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 13 resemble things in good old South Carolina. Give it a try and see what you come up with. Even if you disagree with me, It’s an interesting little experiment.
My answer to the second question is a little more cut and dry. The bill looks like it could’ve been written by John C. Calhoun because most of our lawmakers think a lot like John C. Calhoun. One of the bill’s primary sponsors, Spartanburg’s own Sen. Lee Bright went so far as to make a secessionist joke, saying that “If at first you don’t secede, try again.” I’m sure that one had them rolling with laughter in the lines at the unemployment office, to say nothing of the 28.5% of South Carolinians who happen to be African American.
Personally, I think it’s great to see that Sen. Bright is working so hard at doing absolutely nothing of importance.
In the past, I haven’t exactly been kind to Sen. Bright. The last time I wrote about him I said that he’d gotten that last name of his from the “World’s Most Ironic Last Name Store.” I figure that might have been a bit unfair on my part, and I want to clear things up a bit. Sen. Bright is not the lone moron I once suspected he was. He’s a man of the people. The people, in this case, just happen to be morons.
This bill is an empty gesture, attempting to defend an America that doesn’t exist, and never has existed, at least not outside the confines of the Ronald Reagan pop-up book that must be on some kind of perpetual loop inside of Lee Bright’s mind. Having said that though, I’d be willing to bet anyone who’d take the wager that this move, along with all of his other pointless ideological stands, will only help Sen. Bright when the time comes for his reelection. For whatever reason, Spartanburg County voters seem to have little interest in electing state representatives who actually care about fixing the tangible problems we’re facing.
Sen. Bright, along with his other pals who fought for this measure, will come home to warm receptions from the new Tea Party dominated GOP. They’ll talk and talk about the important stands they’ve taken against the encroaching Federal Government, a government they all seemed to like just fine back when a certain faux-Texan was running things. They’ll continue to ignore issues that actually affect people’s lives, and will instead continue to appeal to people’s ignorance and irrational fears. They will stoke fires of intolerance against anyone they can point to as “other,” all the while proclaiming themselves defenders of “the real America.”
They’ll do all those things, and we’ll eat it up. Not all of us, but more than enough to keep them in power. Alexis de Tocqueville once famously said that “In a Democracy, the people get the government they deserve.” As much as I’d like to, I can’t find a single reason to disagree with that sentiment.
Christopher George
Hmmm. Looks like I will be voting straight non-incumbent for the next few state elections.
I am heartedly sick of the whole posturing ineffective mess. For some insane reason I expect our state legislature to legislate, passing laws, making needed changes to existing ones, minding our budget, seeing what can be done to improve the status of all our citizens in the way of good jobs, affordable health care, dealing with our environment and natural resources, and high quality sources of education…you know, pie in the sky ideals like that.
And this coffee drinker just can’t stomach that whole tea party stuff. It is again something that doesn’t show any effectiveness for those things that need to be done. There is no real action there, just a whole lot of posturing, pointing fingers and displays of anger.
This stuff frustrates me and almost makes me want to step into the fray and run. Instead I’ll do other things. I’ll vote, I’ll recycle and try to reduce my own personal spot of our state’s environment, I’ll continue to save for a rainy day and live as best as I can within my means, and I will plan for my future by returning to school in May.
I must say one thing too, thank you for the education I am receiving about our political process. Your and Steve’s insight, and careful examinations are very helpful.
I’ve generally been happy with Senator Bright. He had a contentious primary a few years ago, and there are still some folks over here on the Westside that are ready for Talley to run again, but for the most part I think people are fine with Bright, esp. since he’s proving to stand out as a conservative when that is what the people he represents seem to want. My problem with him would be nothing that you point out, but the fact that he has recently been accepting money from the trial lawyers’ lobby (as reported by the SHJ). So I guess we’ll have to watch to see if he continues to oppose anti-business legislation in the General Assembly or if he softens up and votes with the interests of that lobby. If he can take the trial lawyers money and then turn right around and vote against their agenda, then more power to him. I hope that’s the case.
Oh, and the clever little turn of phrase about “…the people, in this case, just happen to be morons” is anything but unexpected, and it’s not that bothersome either. See Gerard Alexander’s Washington Post opinion piece from this week, “Why are liberals so condescending?”
Thanks for the comment Paul. I have to ask, what makes you think Bright “stands out as a conservative.” Does standing out as a conservative mean making pointless ideological stands at every possible turn, and never making any attempt to address real problems? If that’s what you mean by “standing out,” I agree wholeheartedly.
This is what the modern conservative movement has become. It’s not concerned with tangible things, only with ideology. It has no interest in working towards the common good, because it doesn’t believe in a common good. It exists solely to oppose, only caring about the PERSON being opposed, without any thought as to what ACTION is being opposed. President Obama has done nothing more threatening to the Constitution that his predecessor, but again, it’s not the action Bright and his supporters care about, it’s the man behind the action.
As far as referring to Bright’s supporters as morons, I’ll stand by it. As you say, I was using the term just because it helped me turn a phrase, but it’s more or less accurate.
The Tea Party conservatives have no idea what they’re for, only what they’re against, which in this case happens to be anything that uppity black guy in the White House proposes. They pine for an America that has never existed in history, but which they somehow claim is the “real America.” The best of them are simply misinformed, but the worst are xenophobic, homophobic racists who speak of America in terms eerily reminiscent of Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, or Pinochet’s Chile.
I believe that anyone who allows themselves to be sucked in by crypto-fascists, anyone who believes a message based primarily on mistrust, fear, and sometimes out and out hatred, is at best, ignorant and at worst, a moron.
Here’s a little food for thought before I bid you good day. It’s a quote from Sinclair Lewis, and it’s been scaring the hell out of me for quite a while now: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
Could you post something that illustrates how SC matches up w/ 14 Characteristics of Fascism?
Ive seen similarities w/ the federal gov’t.
1- not as much now, but displaying flags during the 2 wars- most of them plastic and made in china
2- aspartame, the use of depleted uranium in ammunition and fluoride in the water.
3- al qaeda
4- Army conducting DUI checkpoints.
6- pundits
7- al qaeda, MIAC report executive order forming the council of 10 governors http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-signs-executive-order-establishing-council-governors which includes gov. Nixon whose name is on the MIAC report http://www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09-
8-FEMA training pastors for emergency situations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hamefRxFZ4A
9- the supreme court’s decision abt corporations contributing to campaigns.
12- INTERPOL given more power. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425 and the whole “don’t taze me bro” thing.
13- asset forfeiture seizure, imminent domain.
14- see HBO’s hacking Democracy.
aspartame???? flouride?? seriously???
HBO?? Heck many of us don’t even get that channel, and personally don’t see what Big Love and movies such as “He’s Not that Into You” or “Seventeen Again” (yes they are both on this month’s play list, I looked it up) have to do with fascism. One of the reasons I don’t subscribe…oh yeah I don’t watch television hardly ever anyway.
Pundits? Well some may qualify but all of them? Hardly! I’d love to hear John Steward being called a fascist. In fact I hope he is, just to hear the hilarious results. His is one show I will pull up on Hulu.com now and then.
Good ‘ol Lee Bright! Tuesday’s Herald points out that the whole Hospital Board turf war thing is something he and Keith Kelly cooked up to help represent the Cancer Centers in GREENVILLE! They had a meeting and now our wonderful representatives have decided to side with a group detrimental to Spartanburg County. How much under-the-table money did THAT take?
Seriously. We need a journalist who really knows what he’s doing to dig this thing out. I want to read this full story and I want every other voter in Spartanburg County to read about it too.
aspartame: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6551291488524526735&ei=maFxS5WqEZPorAKT4IWMCQ&q=sweet+misery#
hacking democracy: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737&ei=2qFxS8HMOYiOrQL28d2vBQ&q=hacking+democracy#
fluoride: http://www.fluoridealert.org/fluoridation.htm
2- Torture- John yoo- dunno if this policy is still used:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz01hN9l-BM
6- Glenn Beck hijacking the Tea Party movement? eh, I dunno
Take the info for what it’s worth.
ok….doing the math…..calculating……calculating……calculating…..cannot compute
still failing to see what that stuff has to to with fascism, but everyone is entitled to their opinion