South CarolinaPing
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Posted on 11/03/2010 6:48:13 AM PDT by upchuck
South Carolina has never been this red, and the state Democratic Party has never been this lost.
For the first time since Reconstruction, all nine of South Carolina’s constitutional offices will be held by Republicans, come January.
The one statewide office Democrats held, the superintendent of education, was lost in Tuesday’s Republican landslide. Democrats failed to capture any of the eight other statewide offices already held by Republicans.
Both the S.C. Senate and House continue to be dominated by the GOP along with the powerful State Budget and Control Board.
That could mean the S.C. Democratic Party, limping along since the 1990s when it lost majorities in both the state Senate and House, is dead along with the state’s two-party system, birthed by Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat campaign that, over time, brought more and more white Democrats to the GOP.
What led to the complete pulverization of S.C. Democrats Tuesday?
A national political climate in which voters, frustrated by Democratic initiatives including stimulus spending and health care reform, chose Republican candidates in record numbers and rebuked Democrats, who control the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and White House.
S.C. Democrats deserve blame too for their demise, some say.
“We as Democrats were never able to give a big and bold and compelling enough reason of what voters were going to get if they voted for us,” said Phil Noble, president of S.C. New Democrats. “We never articulated a message loud enough and distinct enough. Instead, we talked about incremental change. We never talked about bold change.”
Republicans’ one-party control of South Carolina is not good for the state or democracy, said Andy Brack, a Lowcountry Democrat and publisher of Statehouse Reports.
“If the point of our democracy is to have the best laws possible for the most people, then you have to have multiple sides who battle it out. Otherwise, the democracy becomes more of an authoritarian state,” Brack said. “What stirs up the issues pot more than anything is vigorous debate. When only one party is controlling the agenda, ideas are limited and compromise is limited.”
As resentment among Democratic voters grows,
Calls to rebuild the S.C. Democratic Party are growing.
“The smart people in the Democratic Party realize there’s a problem,” Brack said. “What will happen, starting Wednesday, is some of these people will have new conversations. It’s got to happen.”
Rebuilding could start this spring when the state Democratic Party elects new leadership.
Chairwoman Carol Fowler has said she will not seek another term. During Fowler’s watch, Alvin Greene of Manning, an unemployed Army veteran facing felony obscenity charges, became the Democrat’s nominee to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville.
“There has to be just a ruthless reinvention of the party, based on what people in the state think we need to do as opposed to what a bunch of insiders in Columbia think we need to do,” Noble said. “There has to be a total rebuilding of the party from the grass roots up, using new technologies, new solutions and new people.”
Congratulations, South Carolina!!!
I hear Georgia is the same way...the Dhimmies were run completely out of town.
Good start, and other States should take note. The South is rising again...
Who’s the early favorite to challenge Graham in the primary in 2014..
What are they whining about ? As long as RINOs infest the GOP, Democrats are well represented in it.
Michigan, too.
Don’t laugh, but I wouldn’t mind Mark Sanford. Despite his personal life crapola, he’s still one of our best Governors, and he is leaving SC in the best GOP shape since Reconstruction.
Oklahoma may have had the most dramatic shift. Out of 8 statewide offices (excluding the multiple member Corporation Commission), the Dems swept all of those in 2006... but last night, the GOP swept EVERY one of those for the first time in state history.
Possibly you have the wrong Sanford? Jenny would look good in DC..
There is only one man who can lead the South Carolina Democratic Party out of the wilderness and back to the greatness it enjoyed during the Jim Crow era.
Some say that he’s very handy with a laptop and an Internet search of porn sites. And, that if you get him angry enough, he howls like a wolf.
All we know is...he’s called ALVIN GREENE!
}:-)4
Way too early to tell. However, there are lots of good, young conservatives to choose from.
The party of slavery and segregation is dead, in SC no less.
Next target: Get rid of the racist Clyburn in 2012.
As a side note, I’m interested in the man who won the state’s Superintendent of Education, Mike Zais. I understand he’s a retired general and has quite a reputation in turning around failing institutions.
This might be an office to watch as he takes on the Marxist teachers union.
Hey nobama, you worthless POS, can you hear us now?
Vitter wasn’t damaged at all despite the attacks (although Louisiana has a very laissez faire attitude towards sexual peccadilloes, so long as they don’t interfere with their work). As for Jenny Sanford, we have no idea how she’d vote. I don’t know what Mark’s popularity rating is leaving office, but I’d be surprised if he hadn’t been rehabbed a bit. He should marry his g/f, which would probably help, too. He was a big anti-pork Congressman, and we need more of those, especially in the Senate coming off of last night’s disappointing results in that body.
It might happen sooner..I think that when Gates leaves DoD Obama names Graham to replace him..
Can’t get rid of Clyburn. He’s protected by the “Just-Us” Department thanks to the racist Voting Rights Act. Even if we could chop up his district, that would endanger all the surrounding GOP incumbents (now that we have a 5R-1D delegation) by putting Dem voters in their seats.
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