Sen. Kevin Bryant: The Problem With God and Governance

Bryant is a born-again Christian, having trusted Jesus Christ as personal savior not by works, but through faith. He came to this saving knowledge at eight years old. Christian principles are an important part of Kevin’s enthusiasm to display a servant leadership approach to public office… –statement of faith from Senator Bryant’s website

Lord, please keep your arm around my shoulder–and your hand over my mouth. –Christian wit and wisdom, too seldom taken seriously

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There’s a reason even God-fearing, Lord-loving progressives blew a gasket when Barack Obama mentioned the possibility of taking another stab at a working partnership between faith-based groups and the government.

The minute Lord meets Legislator all hell busts loose, and that’s a shame. We liberal believers don’t recognize the face of God as presented us by the far right. Seems to me somebody has been mighty busy giving God a bad rap.

Obviously, South Carolina Republican Kevin Bryant is a leader in the Let’s Prove God’s a Goon PAC (Please do not Google this PAC. I just made that up). His shamelessly bigoted and dishonest Obama/Osama smear is a prime example of the lethal hypocrisy and intolerance evidenced by this fundamentalist brand of pseudo-religiosity. There is nothing Christian–or Christ-like, for God’s sake!–about Bryant’s idea of a joke on the opposition. Far from it. We all know what the hidden agenda is here: to propagate the Muslim Myth in a red state vulnerable to both bigotry and invective. Especially when it’s thrust at us in the name of God.

It’s no wonder most of the nation believes we South Carolinians are a passel of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. Clearly, some of us are not much farther up the evolutionary ladder (forgive the reference to hard science).

Kevin Bryant is a certified, sanctified right-winger. He’s anti-choice, anti-gay rights. In the Gospel According to Kevin, “Bryant is committed to the sanctity of marriage as prescribed by our Creator.” He supports the notion of a constitutional amendment defining and defending marriage as a divine, one man/one woman union. Our Creator doesn’t want a bunch of homosexuals mucking up the marital works. With half of all marriages failing and infidelity a burgeoning national pastime, we straight folks have caused quite enough connubial consternation, thank you.

What kind of God is this, we liberal believers ask? One who abandons his gay and lesbian children in favor of faithless heterosexuals?

Senator Bryant, being a devout Christian and all, worries about poor folks. South Carolina is teeming with ’em. He’s no believer, however, when it comes to any kind of universal health care. He’s a de-regulating, free-market pandering, profit-loving believer in the power and glory of big pharma, corporate medicine and big insurance. He believes in their oh-so-charitable yen to voluntarily cut costs for working class folks and those living in poverty. If we’ll just let ’em alone. And that takes some serious faith, honey. Too bad it’s faith placed in the wrong entity.

What kind of God is this, we ask, who values the free market and writes off the poverty-stricken sick as collateral damage?

Kevin’s four-square against all these unbridled giveaway programs; “…the trend in our welfare system,” he likes to say, “[is] to reward laziness and irresponsibility, while punishing hard work and personal character.” Lord knows the have-nots spend most of their time lying around, watching their family members slug it out on Jerry Springer…and plotting new ways to avoid responsibility while persecuting all those hard workers with personal character.

What kind of God is this, whose love for “the least of these” makes no exceptions for despair, hopelessness, depression or rage against a system designed to keep them where they are?

The Bryant family are members of National Right to Life and the Christian Coalition. They’re card carrying members of the NRA.

Kevin Bryant is a true believer in the right to bear arms. On his Obama-bashing website he says, “Kevin personally has a concealed gun permit and encourages all citizens, especially women and seniors, to acquire a CWP and other necessary self-defense training.”

Holy cow. The good senator packs heat. Which begs the question: Does your abiding faith in the Almighty fall just a tad short of the mark? You feel the need to carry a pistol in your pocket? Where’s that angry God of yours when you need him?

What kind of God fails to shield his Chosen Ones–those who are so damned sure of their personal piety–from the Godless heathens who would shoot them dead?

Answer: The narrow, intolerant, militant, Old Testament Smite-’em-and-Fight-’em judgmental God of the far right. This God is no friend of the weak, the poor, the persecuted. He doesn’t like women all that much, either. This God is the one who frightens off believers who embrace Christ’s message of love, tolerance, understanding and standing firm for the welfare of all God’s children–without need for arrogant, self-serving condemnation of those who might be different.

To be fair, I did attempt to contact Senator Bryant for an interview. I was honest enough to tell him a) I’m a South Carolina liberal and b) he’d be explaining himself to readers of The Huffington Post. I did offer him the opportunity to have a look at a couple of topics I’d like to cover–like “How do you reconcile that ugly, smear- and fear-mongering, lying photo on your website with your Christian faith?”

That question is my personal favorite. I’m a person of faith, too, so I’m sure the senator and I both know exactlywhat I was asking: “How do you feel, Senator Bryant, about breaking the Ninth Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor’?”

Can’t wait to hear what he has to say. As we Southern Christians like to holler in church: “Justify! Justify!”

I’ll let you know when he explains himself.

Don’t hold your breath.

America’s Mental Meltdown: Hard times? It’s all in your head

“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession…We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining…”   — top McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm, July 2008                                                               “I would imagine that we are [in a recession], but a lot of our problems today are psychological.” — John McCain, April 2008    There you have it. Expert economic analysis. Right from the top.    Gas may be $4. a gallon, the cost of groceries might be rising faster than Grandma’s best biscuits, our 401Ks and IRAs may be tanking with the market, foreclosures are all over the news, IndyMac Bancorp just went belly-up and analysts warn us that as many as 150 more banks may fail in the coming 12-18 months…but any problems we have with the state of the U.S. economy are mental problems. If we’d just stop whining and complaining, we’d feel a heckuva lot better. And our money would go a lot farther, too.    Now, John McCain was real quick to denounce Phil Gramm’s “You’re nuts” assessment of our money woes mania. He doesn’t agree with old Phil. “He doesn’t speak for me,” McCain snapped. “I speak for me.” But note, if you will, the dates on which the McCain/Gramm diagnoses of our national manic depression were made. McCain was the first to play the crazy card. Way back in April. Besides, if your hand-picked top economic advisor doesn’t sorta speak for you on matters, well, economic, then what’s he doing with the job?    And who is Phil Gramm, anyway? He’s the ultimate D.C. insider. He served in the House and then the Senate from 1978-2002. 24 years on Capitol Hill. It was old Phil who led the fight to shove through the kind of deregulation and no-oversight legislation that freed up Ken Lay & Jeff Skilling at Enron to cook the books, commit fraud, loot their own corporation and leave their loyal employees–who’d been urged to invest in “their own company”–with no jobs, no stock, no 401Ks, no pensions. Enron was a mega-corporation. There were thousands of employees who were robbed of everything.    Whose wife was on the Enron board of directors, serving on their audit committee? Phil Gramm’s wife, Wendy. For that service, the company paid Ms Gramm as much as $1.85 million in stocks and dividends, as much as $50 thousand in annual salary and $176,000 in fees for attending meetings. Enron was Phil Gramm’s largest corporate contributor. There’s no doubt Enron made the rich Gramms richer.    Phil resigned from the U.S. Senate in January, 2002. He’d worked his way up the legislative ladder, becoming chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. That experience proved handy. Gramm’s been a lobbyist since, until April 2008. And not just any lobbyist. His client was UBS, a Swiss international banking and sub-prime mortgage giant. Recently UBS executives have been cautioned against making any trips here to the States. Crossing U.S. borders, it seems, might result in criminal prosecution.    Enron was George W.’s top corporate contributor, too, from his ’94 Texas campaign right up to January 2004. Big money, free rides on Enron jets. At one time Ken Lay was on Dubya’s short list to become energy secretary.    Mmm, mm, mm. What’s that old song? “There ain’t nothing surer–the rich get rich and the poor get poorer…”     Or maybe Phil and John are right. It’s not our checkbooks that are unbalanced. It’s us.

Faith, Hope, and the Courtship of South Carolina

Always a bridesmaid.

That’s the sad story of the Palmetto State. We are wooed and won during primary season by progressive and conservative suitors alike. They love us then. We are Scarlett O’Hara to a dance card full of dashing beaux who promise us commitment in such gallant terms we’re shopping for something diaphanous and white before you can say “Where’s the ring?”. Mm-mmm. Hoops and crinolines, buttons ‘n’ bows, tiny little ole pearls and yards and yards of tulle is what I’m talking about, sugah.

We get ourselves all gussied up for the ceremony, and then find out it’s a shotgun weddin’ to the rascal Big Daddy picked for us way back in the day. We don’t even have to get out of the pick-up. We might hum “O Promise Me” and swoon over the young fella who really loves us and wants what is best for us, but we always end up hitched to the man who, like Big Daddy, has a God, guns, guts and glory fetish. It’s a bad marriage, and we spend a mighty long time wondering why it is we’re still doin’ poorly, and why we’re lonesome and miserable. Where’s the romance — or the future — in that?

Truth to tell, we South Carolinians have been jilted before we got to the altar so many times we don’t bother with trousseau shoppin’ any more. We’ve lost faith. Abandoned hope. The Dems gave up on us long ago and the GOP knows we can be had, cheap.

John McCain is Big Daddy’s dream, his ultimate nocturnal emission. Ole John is the uber-Dubya with a chest full of service medals, an itchy trigger finger, and an attitude. We can stay in Iraq until Kingdom Come. We can either “Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran!” or kill ’em all off with gen-yoo-ine, made in the US of A cigarettes. Either way, he’s the 21st century Marlboro man. He’s that lone maverick on a stallion, silhouetted on a garish western sunset, who might just do anything.

Rasmussen says he’s nine percentage points ahead of Barack Obama in South Carolina.

Above all, McCain is a hero. He’s got a sweet, reluctant sort of “Aw, shucks” way of sharing his “I went through hell for you” experience in Vietnam, but a visit to the South Carolina for John McCain website puts the lie to all that false modesty. Prominent on the page is a video. One of those compare and contrast masterworks that warms the cockles of the American heart. It’s an either/or thing. Shots of young, virile, handsome McCain suffering for the greater good at the hands of the enemy…juxtaposed with footage of the “Summer of Love” and all those filthy, high-on-God-knows-what hippies with their tongues down each others’ throats. You were either for him or against him; you were either a red, white and true blue AMERICAN or you were one of those vulgar traitors to God and country. And he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still living the heroic higher purpose. And you can’t touch that.

Us Southerners, even those who had family clout and avoided the Vietnam draft like a raging case of Southeast Asian STD, do love us some war hero.

There are two McCain-lovin’ posts on the front page of the website, both written in June. “Welcome Clinton Supporters!” is the message in both pieces. The McCain-Clinton union, it seems, is a match made in GOP heaven. Y’all come right on over here where Big John will make you feel all better.

What you won’t find on the South Carolina website is any sense of urgency, of energy. What you won’t find are any events scheduled in the Palmetto State. None. John’s right cocky. He knows the pick-up carrying his Carolina bride is on the way. She’s his for the taking. Shoot, he won’t even have to shave first.

History, as they say, always repeats itself.

Unless that truck’s passenger seat is as empty as W’s cranium when Big Daddy pulls over for the cursory nuptials.

It could happen.

Romance is in the air. Unlike our progressive suitors in the past, Barack Obama won’t give us up without a fight. In April Obama HQ quietly began decorating the church for a real wedding. State Field Desk Organizers went to work. South Carolina had her very own partner in Chicago and the grass roots movement was rebooted. Mission: Help bring in the North Carolina primary for Barack. And bring it in big. Phone banks sprang up statewide to call our North Carolina cousins. On May 6 Obama won a commanding double-digit victory in the Tar Heel State.

Meet-ups are on again. Platform Parties are in the works for the third week in July. Phone bank and canvassing teams are reorganizing. A statewide voter registration drive is underway. Phones are ringing again. Charleston for Obama called the rural Pee Dee Region offering help and volunteers if needed. Groups from all over the state are talking a mass meeting in Columbia soon.

Obama for President paid staff are on the way back to South Carolina. The same kind of professional staff that birthed a grass roots effort in the run-up to our primary; one that had veteran Carolina media saying they’d “never seen anything like it”. The same kind of staff that organized a loose, defeatist confederation of Southern liberals into a powerhouse that delivered an Obama rout on January 26th.

Always a bridesmaid. Never a bride. Not a real one.

But this time the Carolina story may have a happy ending. We’re being courted right up to the church doors. And the music is playing. Maybe this time we’ll make it all the way to the altar. What a thought. It’s enough to get us thinking diaphanous and white again…yards and yards of tulle…and tiny little pearls…

GOP Co-Star: South Carolina’s Sanford Wants It So Bad, He’s…Speechless

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford wants the veep spot. He wants it so badly he salivates at the very thought of four years living at Number One Observatory Circle–the big, Queen Anne style Victorian residence of the Vice President of the United States of America.

The former U. S. Congressman’s chances of moving back to D.C. aren’t so hot. Two reasons: South Carolina isn’t as risky or as valuable for the GOP as, say, Florida; and Sanford really blew his own shot when he balked at endorsing McCain during the week before the S.C. primary. Bad move. Lousy timing. Some folks say he was being a really smart, savvy pol, keeping his options open in a state where Mike Huckabee could have preached his way to a win. McCain supporters? They’re not so generous about where Sanford’s loyalties should lie when it counts most. It was, at best, a bad audition.

Now Governor Mark, seeking a spotlight somewhere, is tap-dancing as fast as he can to make up for lost momentum. How do you prove yourself months after the main act has left the stage? Well, duh? You go for the lead in the Sunday Morning Talking Head Show Line-up. Sanford performed on Sunday’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. Oh, my. It was not an Emmy-level debut as Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. A comedy? Maybe.

Like I said, he’s salivating for the veep role. Face it, swallowing all that drooling ambition can hamper the best of soliloquies.

Poor Mark. He looked so good. Casual and tan as always, effortlessly pseudo-rumpled upper class. All those white teeth. That captivating Southern grin. Gawd. He was practically Rhett Butler. What could possibly go wrong?

Wolf Blitzer. He ruined everything. One question — like the bad apple — can spoil the whole bunch. Given John McCain’s new propensity to embrace all things Dubya, Blitzer recklessly asked Mark Sanford if there would be any real difference between McCain’s economic policy and the Bush fiasco.

Sanford bared his pearly whites in pure-T South Carolina rapture.

“Yeah!” he declared.

And then the script failed him. There was a pregnant pause, folks — and you know how the GOP feels about unsanctified pregnancies. Sanford looked in every direction but the camera’s while he groped for a line. “Yeah…I mean…for instance…take…you know…umm…ahhh…take for instance the issue of…uhh…” Governor Mark Sanford, vice presidential hopeful, rap-tap-taps his knuckles on Wolf’s table.

“…I’m drawing a blank,” he says, grinning, trying to Southern-charm his way out of the hole he’s in. “I hate it when I do that…Oh — yeah! Earmarks!”

Sanford launches into a spiel on Maverick John at the Pork Barrel Corral. It almost works. We can see McCain, both six-shooters drawn, bullets a’flyin’, mowin’ down the Earmark Gang at high noon and God Bless America!

But Blitzer cuts and runs. Cut: NAFTA. Run: Okay, Obama may have nuanced his policy for NAFTA reform a la general election mode, but as far as NAFTA is concerned, aren’t Bush and McCain on the same page?

Sanford hangs down his head like Tom Dooley. “They are…” he admits, pauses. “…For free trade.”

Not one to give up the economic ghost, Sanford goes on to say how John McCain is solidly behind the demise of pork barrel spending — like that awful farm subsidy stuff. McCain, he declares, was all for limiting subsidies like the ones given farmers who earn more than $250K a year. Times are hard. We’ve got to cut spending. We can count on McCain.

Sanford went off-script. Truth to tell, there were two Senate votes in December, 2007 about farm subsidies. One, S AMDT 3695, was to limit subsidies. The other, S AMDT 3810, was a vote to adopt an amendment that grants subsidies only to part-time farmers, ranchers or foresters with an average adjusted income that DOES NOT exceed $250K and to full-time farmers, ranchers and foresters with an average adjusted income that DOES NOT exceed $750K.

McCain did not vote. No vote. None. Either time. For or against either amendment. Hardly a testament to a dedicated, do-or-die foe of both the pork and the barrel it came in.

If there’s such a thing as guilt by association (see GOP rule as it applies to Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright), McCain is guilty as sin. His pet lapdog Lindsey Graham voted against both subsidy amendments. No limits on this man’s pork. Pay up to that rich farmer, buddy boy. Here’s your constituency.

Mark Sanford just doesn’t get it. Can’t blame him. His personal script was crafted to win elections in South Carolina, where we have the highest high school drop-out rate in the nation and are ranked 49th in ACT/SAT scores. We don’t expect much. We like a Good Ole Boy in office, and we’ll vote for him almost every time. Mark Sanford sold us on his Po’ Boy creds. He understood all about hard work, long hours and sacrifice, he told us. He learned those earthy values growin’ up, workin’ hard on his daddy’s South Carolina farm. We could practically smell the rancid sweat of hard labor wafting all around Sanford as he talked about the bad old days.

But Mark did not grow up working on daddy’s Carolina farm. Daddy wasn’t a farmer. He was a cardiologist and Mark was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Mark was born to privilege. He and his family came to South Carolina to spend summers and holidays on daddy’s proppity. A farm? Sorta. Take a look at Coosaw Plantation, the Sanford “farm” in the South Carolina Low Country.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Sanford’s real history. We’re born to the families we’re born to–we don’t get a vote. But it gets mighty tiresome hearing all these overgrown children of the upper-middle class and the wealthy lying about how they really, really understand us because they, too, have struggled to live the American Dream.

It’s the worst kind of elitism. Sanford floundering, then pandering as usual–lying to the poor American unwashed like we’re too dumb to dig up the truth.

This South Carolinian reckons Mark Sanford did more than shoot himself in the foot on Sunday with Wolf Blitzer. He blew his lines. His foot? He blew the whole thing right off at the ankle. It’s his own fault for trying to bluff his way out of a bad script.

And it’s partly John McCain’s fault as well. He gave Sanford damn little to work with.

Gas Pains: How America’s Wealthy Get Theirs…

   Ouch. Like most Americans, I’m suffering a severe case of gastric distress. At the pump. It’s painful when half a tank–for a small car–costs over $30. We watch, horrified, as the price per gallon escalates and we are powerless to do a thing about it. We don’t know if we’re coming or going…I take that back…ordinary folks aren’t doing either one. We’re staying home, plotting forays like military strategists: How many stops can I make on my way to or from work to save gas? What’s open early and how can I keep frozen foods or meats from spoiling in the trunk for nine hours? If I shop after work I won’t be cooking before 7:00 or out of the kitchen before 10:00 and I’m too tired to shop and cook anyway…Taco Bell’s cheap enough…fat fast food, carbs and empty calories never looked so good…

   Makes you wonder what other folks are doing with their time and money. $4 per gallon doesn’t have much impact on the well-to-do. According to economists, the richest 10% of Americans own nearly 80% of all wealth. Like Exxon CEO Lee Raymond, who retired a couple of years ago with a $400 million “Golden Parachute”. He’s one of that 10%–even if he’d swear he’s a retiree living on a “fixed” income. John and Cindy McCain, with a net worth of $40 million, are members of the Ten Percent Club. So are Romney ($202 million), Clinton ($34.9 million), Dubya ($21 million) and Dick Cheney ($80 million). The Obama family, whose net worth is a paltry $1.1 million, isn’t among the elite.

   If the uber-rich aren’t spending the bulk of their cash on gas, grits and gravy, where is their money going? I did a little on-line shopping. Topic? New fad consumables for those who can afford them. The best of the best took me right back to gastric distress:

   It’s coffee. Kopi luwak; the rarest beverage in the world. Seems that civets, cat-like mammals, climb coffee trees in the jungles of Indonesia and gobble up the ripest beans they can find. In short order, they ingest, digest and produce some fine, fermented coffee beans. The rare beans are crapped out in cat-poop. Indonesian villagers hastily harvest the feline fertilizer, by the lump, for export. It’s gotta be fresh, mind you, and it’s gotta be in its original cat-poop lump form so that buyers know it’s authentic kopi luwak. Enzymes (and waste) in the civets’ digestive tract add something extra special to the ordinary coffee bean.

   Purveyors (and happy consumers) swear by it. It’s “…the best I’ve ever tasted…smells musty and jungle-like green, but roasts up real nice…a little funky…almost syrupy…not your average coffee aroma…”

   Animal Coffee, a prime distributor, sells regular kopi luwak for $75. a pound. For the coffee connoisseur, however, Animal Coffee offers a premium Arabica kopi luwak in a two ounce pouch…for $40. That would be $320. For a pound of coffee. With a musky, fresh-roasted manure bouquet…

   Maybe only the very rich have the stomach for it. And with a gastric gap like that between the haves and the have-nots, it’s little wonder that wealthy Washington has done nothing, for decades, to promote alternative energy and protect the rest of us from a looming oil crisis. They’ll suffer gas pains at the pump only if they pay the price at the polls.

You Might Be Patriotic If…

   If there’s a moment in time that every American is an American, it is surely on Independence Day. The annual fireworks fest, the celebration of a new nation’s grand experiment in modern democracy. No matter our personal politics, our disagreements over public policy, we are one nation, one people. Something wonderful was born along with the conception of the Declaration, the Constitution: a vision; a government “by the people, for the people”; the birth of a free nation in a world still held in thrall by the Divine Right of Kings.

   We forget that the birth of our free society was not one without labor pains. It began with disgruntled citizens, with open dissent, with protests in the streets, with fiery anti-government-as-usual rhetoric, and ended with a revolution to overthrow that oppressive government. None of it was easy, much of it was a messy business. There were two American factions: Loyalists who believed government was government, the King’s Law was the law, and right-minded citizens should honor that government and obey that law. Then there were the other guys: Those rebellious ones who would not settle for living under the yoke of a monarchical government they believed to be abusing their human rights. Neighbor turned against neighbor, brother against brother.

   In the current American climate, we forget there was–and still is–honor in the dissenting opinion. Honor in opposition to the status quo. The definition of patriotism has been narrowed to include only those who march in lock-step with one party, with one notion of what is truly American. The “You don’t support our troops…You’re either with us–or against us” mentality has extended to United States citizens who don’t toe the current policy line. It’s unfair and it is fundamentally unAmerican.

   So. You might be patriotic (and a decent human being) if:

   You supported the invasion of Afghanistan, but opposed the war in Iraq.

   You do not support the U.S occupation of another country.

   You do not accept the defense that torture (“enhanced interrogation”) of prisoners held by the United States, in violation of the Geneva Convention, is okay “because they might be terrorists.”

   You believe that black sites and extraordinary rendition of prisoners for the sole purpose of torture is illegal, immoral and unAmerican.

   You believe there is a need for some rational form of gun control–well short of “Taking away my Second Amendment rights and all my guns!”

   You believe abortion as a casual means of birth control is immoral, but…

   You believe the government has no business interfering in the very painful, private matter of women’s reproductive rights. Anti-choice laws didn’t work in the past and they won’t work now. Wealthy women, as before, will have access to safe procedures. Poor women will pay the ultimate price…

   You believe in comprehensive sex education and the availability of birth control.

   You believe gays and lesbians are people, too. With rights.

   You are extremely uneasy with additional offshore drilling, oil spills, water, land and air pollution. You are incensed that Exxon-Mobile, last quarter, had the highest earnings of any corporation in history and you are convinced your government is in bed with Big Oil. At our expense.

    You believe alleviating poverty must become a national priority. You believe universal health care, like that enjoyed by, say, your own family in Norway and Denmark, is not only a good idea but a moral imperative (See Matthew 25:40).

    As a member of the loyal opposition, you love your country. Even when you oppose its policies.

Barack Obama Rallies Rock Hill, South Carolina

I don’t want to do this. I’ve been dreading the trip all week.

Saturday, October 6th. A hastily rescheduled stump speech in upper South Carolina — the do-over for the one Senator Obama canceled on September 20th so he could stay in Washington, vote again for futile legislation to end the war. I was disappointed then. I was eager for that rally; this guy had been pushing all my buttons for months. I wanted to be there, see it up close, feel it, write about it: “The Visionary Speaks!”

But I don’t want to go now. Polls and pundits tell me this is a campaign — and a candidate — circling the drain. He might be a great guy, he might be an intellectual with soul, he might draw huge crowds, he might have garnered nearly a hundred thousand new donors in the third quarter and collected enough cash to raise the Titanic but it’s a done deal. Prevailing wisdom says HRC’s nomination is inevitable.

He’s speaking in a very small southern city. In a high school gymnasium. And I’ll have to tell the truth: A small, passive crowd, a tired speech. A tired candidate on his way out.

I travel the hour-long trip with a group of women. They are Obama activists. They are all African Americans, mine is the only white face in this small crowd. “It’s frustrating,” one of them laments. “I keep calling and folks are still saying ‘I don’t know yet…'”. Much of the ride is silent. My stomach sinks.

We arrive at Northwestern High School, a large, multi-building campus. The first sign that there’s life left in the Obama movement is the parking lot. Too many cars, too little space. It looks like Super Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve. Folks are parking across the street. I almost smile. Almost.

We walk some distance. There are Obama volunteers everywhere. I wonder if there are more of them than there are of us. We open the door to the gym and I relax. There is a thrumming, a pulse of sound and energy, a large gymnasium filled with people. We have arrived fairly early and already the seats are full, the floor a mass of humanity. It’s a racially diverse crowd; black, white, Hispanic, Asian. There are young and old, the well-dressed and the rural poor in clean but worn clothing. There are small children riding the shoulders of their dads.

My friends go off to find seats, if they can. I pull out my steno pad and begin working the crowd. I meet Democrats, Independents and a surprising number of Republicans. About half of the twenty or so attendees I speak to are committed to Barack Obama. Many are “leaning his way.” They cite his stance on the war, healthcare and education as primary reasons. I hear “charisma”, “judgment”, “speaks to diversity”, “the need to heal”. I hear, more than I expect to hear it, deep concern about the way the rest of the world sees this country after six years of George W. Bush. Republicans tell me they like Obama. “There’s something about this guy…” they say. They can be swayed. The sole concern for any of them is one word: Experience.

I meet a twenty-four year old fellow who smiles and tells me he is most definitely Republican. He’s a Huckabee supporter, he says, for one reason: “I’m pro-life — and it means the world to me.” On every other issue, he goes on, he’s solidly with Barack Obama, especially in the areas of foreign policy and the war. “What if Huckabee fails to win the nod?” I ask him. He smiles again. “Then I’ll vote Obama.”

The music ramps up, Sam & Dave singing “Hold On, I’m Coming.” The crowd noise swells with it. Congressman John Spratt appears on the stage, an enormous American flag on the wall behind him. He looks almost boyish, his cheeks flushed as he begins introducing the Senator from Illinois. It’s hard to hear him over the crowd. There are, he tells us, over 2000 people here. I learn later that event organizers had to turn people away. We are an overflow crowd.

Barack Obama springs onto the stage and the roar is deafening. I’m a veteran of NASCAR crowds; I’ve sat on the second row at Darlington Motor Speedway when the green flag dropped and 43 muscle-cars sped by at 165 mph. I know noise. 2000+ Obama supporters and others give any race I’ve ever attended serious competition in the clamor department. A hush falls. Obama scans the room, grins at us. A lone voice hollers “How ya doin’, Senator?” Barack laughs and waves. “I’m doin’ good!” he hollers back and the tone is set.

This is no stump speech, no passive crowd of listeners. This is a 45 minute interactive revival meeting. We are in the “big tent” — that all-inclusive space where the spirit takes flight and everyone goes with it. There is no podium in sight. There are no notes. Barack Obama, mic in hand, is a man in motion. He walks the walk while he talks the talk, gestures with his free hand for emphasis. Choruses of “Amen!” and “Yeah!” and “You’re the man!” punctuate his oratory. He hears the crowd and they know it. I’m on the gym floor with the standing throng; I watch them react. They move to the cadence of Obama’s words, rising from flat-footed stance to tip-toes, arms in the air swaying or clapping. The Republicans I’ve spoken to are equally taken with the mood. Enthusiasm like this is contagious.

He’s had a little spat with Hillary Clinton, Obama tells us. It’s about his willingness to meet with all world leaders, even the bad guys. It’s about EXPERIENCE. “Naive Obama!” he declares, “Naive Obama will lose a propaganda war! Well, I’m not worried about a propaganda battle with some petty tyrant! Strong countries and their presidents talk to their adversaries! …We’re not afraid of any other country…Experience does not equal judgment! Age does not equal character! [I should] wait longer? Why? To be more like the folks in Washington?” The crowd goes wild.

The Senator from Illinois speaks to the issues of equal justice, war and diplomacy, healthcare and education, poverty, the environment and our dependency on fossil fuels, oil money for terrorists. He speaks to the need for parents to step up to the plate and be responsible for their children. The crowd grows louder, more enthusiastic with each challenge for change. Obama slows the pace. “It won’t be easy,” he warns us. “I’m asking you to make the sacrifice…’cause none of it will come cheap…I’m asking you to make the hard choice…to be responsible…to hold your president and your government accountable…”

The roar of approval, sacrifice or no, is ear-splitting.

“We can change the world!” Obama cries out. The masses respond in kind. The litany begins. “FIRED UP! READY TO GO!!”

I back out of the gym while Barack and the crowd chant the campaign mantra. I want to watch the exodus, measure the impact of nearly an hour of the Message of Hope. Folks come out dancing, still chanting. There are hugs and high-fives. “You hear that?” one man shouts. “He’s takin’ it to her about experience!” “Amen to that!” someone answers. I assume they are talking about Hillary.

It’s over. We’re leaving. Music pounds from the speakers again; Jackie Wilson this time. “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” I’m exhausted. My feet are swollen from two hours of walking and standing. But I’m singing along with Jackie: “Now once I was downhearted…” and I’m dancing my way two blocks to the car.

Burying Jim Crow: A New Democratic South

Will the climate ever be right for a Democratic resurgence in the South? Fair weather or not, an early primary translates to the power of the South Carolina vote to play The Decider in a critical election. Or the spoiler.

The two top Democrats are a woman and an African American. We may tolerate a Clinton candidacy — but how will this southern state respond to the notion of a black president? Jim Crow may have been blown away by the liberal highs in 1965, but that racist storm front spawned a bunch of little bastard squalls all over the deep South before he breathed his last.

We don’t much like change down here. We liked the climate just the way it was before The War of Northern Aggression ended badly and Yankee emancipation was crammed down our throats. We were punished with Reconstruction. It was a long, bitter cold snap, but we rose again with Jim Crow to keep us warm. We were Jim Crow Democrats for nearly a hundred years, until Yankee Liberals co-opted our Democratic States’ Rights Party, turning Jim Crow on his head. Strom joined the new Conservative GOP and so did we.

Recently I was privileged to interview two retired Southern journalists about the Old South and the New. Both were editors of small newspapers during the Civil Rights Era. Both are veterans of decades in the newspaper business: Ed as reporter, editor, owner/publisher and past president of the South Carolina Press Association; Betty as reporter, the first woman in the state to edit a newspaper and past vice-president of the SCPA.

Ed: “…the Democratic Party here [once] encompassed both ‘Democrats’ and ‘Republicans’…both were known as Democrats. The few registered Republicans sometimes ‘picked’ a candidate at a small social gathering. [But] in election news coverage back then…to win the Democratic nomination was the same as being elected.

“No doubt it was race issues that caused the ‘right turn’ and as civil rights moved forward the Democratic Party in South Carolina moved steadily backward.”

Both Ed and Betty made the hard choice: They would cover civil rights, particularly the integration of South Carolina schools, fairly. In doing so, both editors embraced the “liberal” view that the real story was a human rights issue.

Betty: “Republicans were the anti-integration party. In my column I tried to get my licks in on why [integration] was necessary — just driving by those poor ‘colored’ schools should have been reason enough — and I stressed the fact that everybody bleeds the same color… I covered NAACP meetings and reported the facts: No violence there; their young people were told to always be respectful…

“Threats were made against me for those editorials, so arrangements were made with the county sheriff for someone to keep an eye on me as I did the daily traveling my job required. It was unnerving and I admit I did worry about my family.

“…there were family issues, too. My husband’s two older brothers had a talk with him, telling him he should ‘make her quit writing all those awful things’…he refused.”

Ed: “There were Ku Klux Klan rallies and the more acceptable ‘Freedom of Choicers’ [rallies], some led by politicians…[that] made a lot of noise without violence erupting.

“I was sitting in front of hundreds of screaming rednecks at a Klan rally…the Grand Kludd (or whatever he was called) passed around a copy of my newspaper in which I wrote an editorial advising people to stay away from the event. That editorial was noted in his speech…When it was over I didn’t waste time getting to my car and…out of the field while the cross was burning.”

Both editors suffered the consequences of standing firm for what they believed to be morally right, from threats to the loss of advertising revenues when merchants were angered by their pro-civil rights reporting. Both agree the solid Right bloc still holds today. Neither sees a dramatic shift coming in 2008. Lynchings, burning crosses, poll taxes, literacy tests and segregation, the old Jim Crow Laws, all are a thing of the past. But the Jim Crow squalls: felony disenfranchisement, which denies the right to vote to offenders in a justice system heavily weighted against African Americans, impacts the southern vote; intimidation tactics, like those used in Florida in 2000, frighten minority voters away from the polling place; poverty, unemployment and fewer opportunities for advancement leave a substantial segment of the population feeling hopeless. Little has changed for them. They’ve come to believe elections don’t matter; promises of “better weather” have been made and broken too often. They stay home on election day. Jim Crow lives on.

Ed and Betty did offer different responses to my final question. “Is the South ready to vote for a woman or for an African American for president?”

Ed: “No and no. I live in a [coastal] area that is mostly Republican and getting more so every year. The change here [now] is not racially motivated, it is the Northern retirees moving to the beach. They strengthen the Republican Party two or three to one over the Democrats. Property values and fixed income concerns [top] the list these days.

“I… would have no qualms about voting for Hillary or any other Democratic nominee. If ever there was a time to be a ‘yellow dog Democrat’ it is now. In the primary I intend to vote for the candidate with the best chance of whipping the Republican nominee.”

Betty: “I live in an enclave of Bob Jones Republicans, but I have hope. So I’ll say ‘yes’ to both questions. I hope that either Hillary or Obama wins the primary.”

The GOP has, for now, a steely grip on the South. How does the wind blow in South Carolina? From the Right. But a finger in the wind tells us there’s a change coming. Against all odds, Barack Obama has a strong, well organized campaign on the ground here. A new front may be coming along to clear out the last of the Jim Crow lows. Lightning has yet to strike, but there’s ozone in the air and a definite rumbling in the distance. It sounds like hope.

Palmetto Family Council’s Stump and Straw Poll: Dancing in Dixie With the Devout

 

 

 

 

 

Conventional wisdom, the polls and the SC press have been in agreement: Giuliani’s in the lead. He’s the man to beat. Tough enough. America’s Mayor. When it comes to the threat of another terrorist attack, he’s practically packing heat. Fear trumps family values any day of the week. Even on Sunday.

Not so fast. Maybe the South is looking for a new partner.

On Thursday, September 20th, the Palmetto Family Council held their Stump and Straw Poll & Barbecue in Columbia. Nearly 600 conservatives attended the event, eager to share pork and politics with Republican candidates for the presidency. John McCain, Fred Thompson and Ron Paul joined the crowd by telephone, speechifying for all they were worth. Romney sent his regrets via video; he was “busy raising money” for his campaign. Sam Brownback had to cancel, a vote and Senate business kept him in D.C.

Only former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Rep.Duncan Hunter (R-Calif) came south to meet, greet and eat. Bluegrass music filled the air and sweet-tea (one word in the deep South) flowed like–well, wine.

A grand time was had by all. Pols spoke to the issues of the war (for the most part, Hooray!), strong families (Yippee!), opposition to gay marriage (Hallelujah!), and ending abortion (Now you’re talkin’!). No groundbreaking policy pronouncements were forthcoming. No matter. Like Dubya tells us, there’s a lot to be said for consistency.

The Palmetto Family Council is a non-profit group formed in 1994 in association with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Its mission is “…working through the centers of influence…to present biblical principles…committed to promoting those things that strengthen the family and decreasing those things that are destructive…” They see the importance of victory in Iraq, frown on Hollywood, gay marriage and women-who-choose.

No less a Southern religious icon than Jerry Falwell suggested the ever popular social sins agenda might be side-stepped in 2008. What’s more important than the family values dance card: adultery, sex, abortion, sex, gays, sex, the sanctity of marriage and stem cells? D-I-V-O-R-C-E? Nope. National security. We need a tough guy in the Oval Office. Someone who, no matter what his sins, will keep us safe. From Al Qaeda. From Liberals.

Falwell gave the religious right tacit permission to hold their noses and change partners right in the middle of the old Texas Two-step. No more “It’s all about moral character” song and dance. What would have driven them right around the family values-morality bend a few years ago is perfectly acceptable now. A candidate or two with fidelity problems and a fractured-family past? No problem. One who’s happy to change his every position on sin and public policy to one-size-fits-all-believers faster than you can say “What exactly is a Mormon, anyway?” is just fine.

But the PFC is calling a new tune in South Carolina. Or a reprise of the old one–and it had a great hook and was easy to dance to, as the votes showed when they were finally tallied.

The three-hour event ended with the vote: Huckabee, 206; Paul, 179; Thompson, 43; Brownback, 29; Hunter, 25; Romney, 14; NC businessman Daniel Gilbert, 12; McCain, 10; Alabama physician Hugh Cort, 7; Giuliani, 5.

The only major candidate who chose not to participate at all was “I-don’t-do-straw-polls” Rudy. When his absence by choice was announced, the crowd booed.

Seems the vote defied Jerry Falwell, conventional wisdom, polls and the press. Soft-spoken Baptist preacher Huckabee won the night. Anti-war Ron Paul finished a strong second. McCain was beaten by a businessman nobody ever heard of; Giuliani, the favorite, lost to both of them and to the Alabama doc. Last place.

Southerners can be stubborn. Ornery as hell. We may come to the dance with one guy but if he steps on our toes, we’ll darn sure leave with somebody else. At the end of the night we might just surprise everybody.

Public Opinion Surveys and Pollcats: If It Stinks, it’s Probably a Skunk

“Bad wording is often the deliberate result of interested parties whose aim is to generate specific responses. One of the best tests of a poll is your reaction to it. Does it seem fair and unbiased? This ‘smell test’ is not foolproof, however. Seemingly innocent variations in phrasing such as ‘aid to needy’ vs. ‘public welfare programs’ can produce very different results.” — Daniel Yankelovich, 2002 PBS interview with Bill Moyers.

Face it. There are polls and there are polls. The notion of a perfect poll, one that accurately and fairly measures and reflects the opinions of “the majority of likely voters” everywhere, every time, is just that — a notion. And it’s a dangerously far-fetched one. All polls are not created equal.

I recently had the chance to communicate with a real, live person who has a weighty opinion about what “some polls” are like. Rick Beaule, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, worked his way through college. In 1992-93 he worked for Intersearch, a market research firm based out of Horsham, PA. The company was contracted to conduct surveys of various types — a quality control survey for Cigna Healthplan, a survey of TV coverage of the ’92 Winter Olympics. Then there was the other one. It was political.

“It was the fall of ’92, I believe, when a survey came in for a political race in the Philadelphia area,” Mr. Beaule wrote. “At first the survey seemed as straightforward as the [others], asking for a general rating of each of the two candidates, but I soon began to notice differences.

“Among the most striking were long paragraphs…that we were to read before asking a rating question. Often these paragraphs would contain words analogous to the following: ‘If I were to inform you that Candidate X voted to raise taxes six times during his tenure in the legislature, how would that affect your [opinion] of the candidate? Positively, somewhat positively, not at all, somewhat negatively or very negatively?’

“Following that was another such question preceded by a paragraph detailing pay raises the candidate had supposedly voted for himself.

“[Then] was a long paragraph detailing something the other candidate had done that was positive, followed by a rating question about [him].

“Finally the survey asked the overall ratings of the two candidates again.

“It was plain to me that this survey was not intended to obtain opinions so much as to sway them. This seemed unethical to me. I went to my supervisor who sent me to the branch manager who stated that this was what we were hired to do and that the survey had been vetted by experts.”

Mr. Beaule requested — and was granted — permission to be removed from participating in that survey.

A female voter from the Midwest tells me she’s been polled this primary season. Another telephone opinion poll. How did she feel about Hillary Clinton? Did she support HRC for the Democratic nomination? After responding that Clinton was not her first choice of candidates, as she remembers it, she was asked the following question: “Given that Senator Clinton supported allowing women who have just given birth to stay in the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours [after delivery], would you say your opinion of her is now much more favorable, more favorable, less favorable or much less favorable?”

Now, what sane woman in America would say her opinion was anything but “much more favorable” to a question like that? A childless, menopausal insurance company exec, maybe? Where’s the positive percentage in such a weighted question? Whose “favorables” might rise accordingly?

“I felt that was kind of like asking if ‘you still beat your wife,'” this voter went on. “I asked her [the pollster] questions about some of her questions but she didn’t respond, which made me suspect the call was being monitored. She talked very fast, too.”

A Virginia voter shares her experience: “I was polled during Democrat Tim Kaine’s race for governor. I was asked a lot of questions about religion — like ‘Would I be okay having a non-Christian governor?’ Kaine is Catholic, which was apparently not Christian according to the crazy Southern Baptist zealots around here.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Onlinereports that Oregon-based Moore Information called hundreds of Wisconsin voters about the ’04 presidential race. Among the questions asked was this one: “Whose position do you think is closer to the truth — those ‘veterans who served with John Kerry’ and say that he does not deserve the medals that he received, or John Kerry who disagrees with the veterans that he served with and who appear in the [swiftboaters] ad?”

This kind of push polling begs the questions Who paid for this poll? Who stands to gain from this kind of “question”? Am I being manipulated?

Some polls are about as “fair and balanced” as Fox News, as “No Spin…” as Bill O’Reilly. They’re not about the business of asking what we think, they’re engineered to tell us what to think. And there’s money to be made for doing it. Maybe they think we’re a few watermelons shy of a truckload. Well, we’re smarter than they believe we are–and we’ve all got noses. If something doesn’t smell right we know it. It’s time to compare notes, ask questions and demand answers.

Scratch and sniff, America.