Governor Mark Sanford is whistling Dixie

while local leadership sleeps.
 By: Cjw

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Mark Sanford is the Governor of South Carolina. He is a Republican who is about half way through his second term. Descriptively, Governor Sanford could pass for Governor Sarah Palin’s brother. They both speak in sentence ending phrases and they never miss an opportunity to draw attention. They are able to mask their levels of intellect by espousing snippets of complex issues so that it will make the unenlightened think their ideas make sense but it is we who just do not understand. They are both good looking but all of this misses the point of this article. It has been said for many years that the easiest way to understand complicated or complex things is to look at it in its most simplified way. To this end simply put, Governor Sanford is not a stupid person and he is not unaware of how contrary his position is when he opposes the populous view or posture of any given issue. This means that when you listen to Governor Sanford speak you have to think of what the Governor must be up to when he breaks with the pack. In the case I focus on here is about Governor Sanford’s reaction to the economic stimulus package of President Elect Obama. Out of the fifty Governors, forty-seven are supporting the idea of a stimulus package. Governor Sanford and I guess a couple others are against it or not voting. I contend that when Governor Sanford speaks out against the stimulus he is just whistling Dixie as a way to play Republican Party politics.

President Elect Barrack Obama’s is proposing a stimulus package that he wants ready for him to sign into law on his first day in Office. In an unprecedented conference called by a President Elect for Governors to tell the President Elect how he can best fashion the stimulus package, Governor Stanford responded with his objections. Governor Sanford stated that, “The economic problems were caused by debt and cannot be solved by getting into more debt.” He said a lot more in bits and pieces but that was the essence of his objections. Everyone and more importantly every economist knows and agrees with the President Elect. That is, in times of recession or depression the government must spend regardless to deficits to get the economy going again. This argument of economic even if I elaborated here misses the point of this article.

The point of this article is to call attention to the fact that the Governor of South Carolina could make this kind objection to an offer of infrastructure rebuilding money and economic stimulus money while the State of South Carolina lags in the cellar on all these matters. President Elect Obama wants to, among other things, build schools, playgrounds, pave roads and rebuild bridges, extend health care to children, improve educational opportunity and make it affordable.  Governor Sanford said explicitly on C-SPAN on December 2, 2008, “South Carolina can get by on its own without federal help.” I thought when I heard the Governor say this that every superintendent of schools, every local representative of the people of South Carolina, and the people of South Carolina would be furious.  I thought the evening news would be laced with “Shame on you Governor Sanford.” I thought someone, especially the elected leaders of South Carolina, might remind the Governor of the plight of the schools in the “Corridor of Shame.” I thought someone would remind the Governor of his own staff’s assessments that South Carolina does not have enough money to maintain all of its roads and bridges. I thought someone would remind the Governor of the number of agencies and departments who are presently laying off staff and furloughing folk to make ends meet. To my dismay, there was very little mentioned in the news about Governor Sanford's remarks. I also pondered, how can the Governor of a State with unemployment among the highest in the nation play politics with an opportunity to put people back to work?

To answer that question for myself and you we have to look at what I call "the sleeping leadership in South Carolina." South Carolina is still segregated in life and in most of its schools and it seems that the civil rights leadership is please with that so long as their friends get jobs running these segregated components. Roads in many counties are deplorable but the elected leadership from these counties seems happy so long as they can get Department of Transportation contracts for their friends. I cite the legislative fight over reform of the DOT. The poor in South Carolina are literally ignored by the media and elected officials it seems so long as the politicians can get reelected without awakening these sleeping votes in their districts. The point is that there is a quiet code of “get along by going along” in South Carolina that allows Governor Sanford to object to this stimulus money while presiding over a State in peril. Instead of my documenting here all of the allegations in this paragraph to the point of making your eyes glaze over, I invite you to observe any of the State’s Xmas Parades. You will see a segregation display of schools, bands, and contingents’ joyfully prancing down the street like this is 1952. I invite you to look at the AAA findings about the roads and bridges in SC. I invite you to look at the number poor children on the streets on any given school day. There is no secret that South Carolina is making an effort to only educate and provide for only some of its people.

Aside from the circumstances that I have described above, let face it in its most simplified way; Governor Sanford is a player in the Republican Party. The Party is going through a power struggle to see who can emerge as the new leader to rebuild the Party. The Republican Party, since President Reagan, has had a “southern strategy” that means advocating for racism, big business, and the wealthy. This coalition of constituencies amazingly get the poor white folk via their churches to forget about their own best interest and vote for this strategy by combining their advocacy for the rich with claims of concerns for “social issues” like abortion, gays, prayer in schools, law and order, and you name it to get elected. This is why and how the former southern Democrats switched Parties and took over the Republican Party after the Democratic Party was forced to admit Blacks into the Party and convention in 1960s. I say that Governor Sanford is knowingly whistling Dixie to show that he can be the strongest advocate of these land of Dixie policies and strategies. Knowing this helps you understand that Governor Sanford is not really turning down money in spite of the deplorable conditions in South Carolina. Governor Sanford is aware that whatever other states gets, South Carolina will line up at the same pay window to get a share of the money that agrees with the Governor's agenda. The silent wink and nod leadership in South Carolina is why Governor Sanford knew that no one was going to object when he plays Republican Party politics at a time when South Carolinian need his leadership to get things done. That is also why I say that this is clearly a case of, "Governor Mark Sanford is whistling Dixie while local leadership sleeps." I say the South Carolina elected and otherwise leaders are sleep because they allow this by their silence. The silence of these people is the most despicable and shameful part of this. The leadership of South Carolina is sleeping silently undisturbed by these shenanigans and yet they will ask for votes like they care on Election Day.

South Carolina needs an economic stimulus package more than most states. In order for South Carolinians and other southern states like it to participate fully in this economic stimulus package and other changes possible from this new administration, the people must wake up. The people are going to have to wake up and force their leadership to wake up as well. To grasp this opportunity for “change” the people must be working at the local level to stop the ole boy’s business as usual. No more wink and nod politics and let the poor continue to fill the jails, drop out of schools, get hit by State Trooper cars and no one does anything about it. No more of the old politics where folk elect the guy or girl whose family is well known but has never done more than pay lip service to the issue that matter. President Elect Obama very correctly says that we must rebuild America brick by brick and block by block. This is very true of South Carolinians and the people of other states like it. We must get out and work for change if we want change. I am really amazed at the silence and I wonder if maybe I missed something. Maybe I missed getting my blinders or maybe I was not there the day when they passed out blinders; TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. Peace, Cjw

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Gov. Mark Sanford is whistling Dixie.              Click here to email this
                                                                                           Gov. Mark Stanford of SC is whistling Dixie

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Saturday, December 6, 2008: "I am not in a position to say what I think." NT