The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Sometimes, It Really Matters

Posted on | April 1, 2013 | 18 Comments

Social media a key part of the campaign
for Mark Sanford, Curtis Bostic
— Charleston Post and Courier

CHARLESTON, S.C.
The campaign action today is down on the south side of the district with events in Beaufort and Hilton Head and, with the Republican runoff Tuesday, we’re down to the point of the race where it’s all about turnout: Get out the vote.

What “social media” has accomplished for Curtis Bostic here is to raise awareness of who he is — a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Desert Storm and married father of five — and to inform the public that this runoff offers an important choice. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Dr. James Dobson, Concerned Women for America, the 60 Plus Seniors Association, One Nation PAC and former Congressman Henry Brown have endorsed Bostic. Not just the fate of the 1st District, but the reputation of the Republican Party is at stake on Tuesday. The Hilton Head Island Packet:

Sanford disappeared for five days while he was governor in 2009, telling his staff he was out hiking the Appalachian Trial. Later, he tearfully revealed at a Statehouse news conference he was in Argentina seeing a woman he later called his soul mate and to whom is now engaged.
Sanford, mentioned then as a possible presidential candidate, ended up divorcing his wife, Jenny.
Bostic says that behavior has left Sanford a compromised candidate who would give the Democrats a shot at taking back a district they have not held in more than three decades.

Given a credible alternative to Sanford, an alternative to handing Democrats and the media — but I repeat myself — a chance to use the Appalachian Trail hiker as a club to beat up Republicans and revive the “war on women” meme, what conservative wouldn’t choose Curtis Bostic instead?

That was what was on my mind the morning of March 20 when I wrote, “S.C. Primary: Will Tea Party Rally Behind Curtis Bostic Against Mark Sanford?” It seemed obvious to me then, and still seems equally obvious to me now, that this was the opportunity to make a difference. Others disagree, and we don’t need to name names of people who made the calculation that the “name-ID” factor was so overwhelmingly in Sanford’s favor that there was no way Bostic could close the gap.

Maybe they’re right. And maybe Will Folks is right, too.

The other day, I used the term “narcissistic sociopath” to describe Folks, who became nationally notorious in 2010 when he claimed to have had an affair with Nikki Haley. Today, Folks responded — you knew he would, right? — to that description, and his response amounted to an apologia for utter cynicism about the political process in America:

Here’s the thing, though: America is almost $17 trillion in debt, has over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities and has decided the one thing it wants to “create” above everything else is more dependency. So, whether Mark Sanford beats Curtis Bostic (or Curtis Bostic beats Mark Sanford) – all we’re talking about at the end of the day is which gnat won a wrestling match on Topsy the elephant’s ass just prior to Thomas Edison switching on 6,600 volt current that killed the poor beast . . .
It just doesn’t matter that much anymore.
Like that guy from Deadspin says, “it’s all professional wrestling.”
More to the point, South Carolina is on the verge of not mattering that much to me anyone because it is clearly never, ever, ever going to change.

The thing about cynicism is, it’s too easy nowadays.

Believing that elections really matter? That’s hard.

Nevertheless, I choose to believe. As bad as it is — and South Carolina GOP politics is about as ugly as it gets — surrendering to cynicism would be a coward’s choice, because you can’t make a difference if you don’t think it makes a difference.

CURTIS BOSTIC for U.S. CONGRESS

 


 

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Category: South Carolina

Comments

18 Responses to “Sometimes, It Really Matters”

  1. Dai Alanye
    April 1st, 2013 @ 10:54 am

    So the message is, “Vote for Sanford, because it Really Doesn’t Matter Anyway.”

    He could shorten that to, “What Difference Does It Make?”

  2. ThePaganTemple
    April 1st, 2013 @ 11:18 am

    He’s not the best person in the world to be complaining about the state of the political culture anyway. What a fucking horses ass.

  3. richard mcenroe
    April 1st, 2013 @ 11:27 am

    Please stop cribbing from the RNC’s letterhead. *g*

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 1st, 2013 @ 12:02 pm

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/south-carolina-mark-sanford-elizabeth-colbert-busch-showdown-expected-89497.html

    I would love to see you proven right and Politico proven wrong.

    Anyone wanna go hiking the Appalachian Trail?

  5. Mike F.
    April 1st, 2013 @ 1:01 pm

    How much of Bostic’s support is made up of those who consider Sanford too radioactive to vote for no matter what? Does Sanford need any of Bostic’s supporter’s for any chance to win? With his bio, I don’t imagine Bostic would have much problem appealing to Sanford supports.

  6. Becca Lower
    April 1st, 2013 @ 1:06 pm

    Folks might be a cynic, but he’s veering towards nihilism.

  7. Jaynie59
    April 1st, 2013 @ 1:28 pm

    The fact that Sanford is allowed to run as Republican after what he did says all there needs to be said about the Republican Party.
    It’s third party time. But until a leader steps up and does it this country is doomed. That’s not being cynical. It’s being realistic.
    Conservatives have GOT to grasp why and how Obama won re-election. People didn’t vote against Romney. They voted for Obama or didn’t vote at all. There are now far too many people who will never vote for any Republican for any reason. The rest are so demoralized by the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and John McCain and Lindsay Graham, if they even know who they are, and then there are people like me who are demoralized by what I see as betrayal by people who call themselves conservatives. They cave so easily it’s pointless to get behind them.
    Chick-Fil-A. The Boy Scouts. They all end up caving. So why bother?

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 1st, 2013 @ 5:14 pm

    Does Folks “sacred honor” require him to divulge that night in Buenos Aires with Mark Sanford?

  9. James Donald
    April 1st, 2013 @ 5:44 pm

    No it really does not matter any more. There is no point in electing republicans.

    What does matter is ending democracy with universal suffrage. The least drastic reform that would make a difference would be to restrict the vote to property owning heads of households. Failing that, then dictatorship, anarchy, whatever it takes. Playing by the rules that progressives keep amending in their own favor is going to get you what it has been getting you.

  10. Larry Salley
    April 1st, 2013 @ 6:43 pm

    I like Bostic. He is my 2nd choice, after Sanford. I do understand why some would strongly prefer Bostic, of course. That said, I do wish some of you pundits would refrain from the sort of primary behavior that poisons the well for the general. When this runoff is done, the GOP nominee will face the equivalent of Al Franken by proxy. Whoever that nominee is, he will be by far the better choice, and in need of support from all conservative voters in the district. All the doomsaying doesn’t make that any easier.

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  12. Dana
    April 1st, 2013 @ 7:03 pm

    Well, the GOP can’t stop Mr Sanford from running as a Republican: he has aright to file for election, and run as a candidate, period. All that other Republicans can do is vote for someone else.

    To me, the issue isn’t Mr Sanford’s affair, but that he abandoned his post! He could have turned over authority temporarily to his Lieutenant Governor and gone to visit his girlfriend, but didn’t. If he thought that he’d get away with it, then he is dumb as a box of rocks.

    The sad thing is that, if Mr Sanford wins the primary runoff, the Democrat would be the better candidate. I’d hate her positions and I’d hate her votes, and I’d hate her support of our nincompoop President, but she never abandoned her post.

  13. Thane_Eichenauer
    April 1st, 2013 @ 9:18 pm

    What pro-Republican critics of Sanford say know is but half of what he will receive after the primary should he prevail. If the information is public let the voters know about it now when they have an opportunity to dump him. Voters always have the choice in SC to vote against a Democrat to elect a broken Republican.

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  15. Larry Salley
    April 2nd, 2013 @ 6:59 am

    There is nothing unknown about Sanford’s issues. The problem in this case is the source(s) of all the dirt. We have seen this over and over again in primaries at the national level. It does little good to sling mud at the fellow who has a very good chance of being your nominee.

  16. Quartermaster
    April 2nd, 2013 @ 8:00 am

    The truth is not “mud.” Sanford’s problems are open and myriad. Why on earth should anyone vote for a man that gave into depravity and abandoned not just his job, but his family, to chase after strange flesh. If GOP voters choose him in the primary, and his opposition paints him with the brush of the publically known problems, then that is teh fault of the idiots that voted for Sanford, not those who told the truth about him.

  17. Becca Lower
    April 2nd, 2013 @ 12:38 pm

    At minimum, the “fact” that Bostic’s events with Rick Santorum were “sparsely-attended” is B.S. I know people who were there, and they tell me that the places were crowded.

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