Values Missing from Local Republican Party

The manner in which the local Republican Party conducted its recent debate-watch event is disturbing to me, and not simply because I’m active with the Democratic Party in the area.

And not just because I found an element of that gathering to be discriminatory, negatively-stereotyping and racist-leaning, either.

What offends me is the negative implications that one attendee, who dressed himself as a pimp while wearing an Obama mask, may have placed upon my Republican friends and relatives. 

The person who pulled this stunt made it clear that the Republican Party no longer represents the values of its voters. While party officials and representatives may talk about faith, families, limited government and other so-called conservative issues, their actions are completely different. And that unfairly paints a negative image upon voters who actually support those ideals. 

We see this in Republican politicians and candidates very often.

Take, for example, the rhetoric regularly stated by our Republican congressman Tim Scott. He publicly complains about “big government,” but his record seems to indicate he’s in favor of “Big Brother.”

He voted to extend warrantless searches of your computer, for example – that allows government to directly access your computer, even your Internet history, at any time without any authorization or even established need. Scott also voted to allow your employer to force you to give up your passwords to social websites, such as facebook, so that your boss can keep a close eye on your private life. If your employer doesn’t like what he sees, or if you refuse to hand over your passwords? You can be fired.

How, then, is Scott supporting the traditional Republican tenets of freedom and smaller government?

From a more local perspective, consider Dorchester County's Councilman Bill Hearn and state house candidate Ed Carter. While both proclaim conservative values as foundations of their campaigns, both had their campaign websites designed and maintained by a company that also does “soft porn” sites.

So is this a double standard? Or isn’t this simply another example of how very many Republican officials don’t subscribe to actual Republican values, and maybe aren’t actual Republicans?

This hypocrisy is especially evident in Carter’s campaign platform. In a “Political Courage” survey he answered earlier this year, for example, Carter gave some classic conservative answers, calling for reductions in Medicaid benefits and absolutely no restrictions on the purchase or possession of weapons.

In 2000, though, and in response to a survey from this same Vote Smart organization, Carter said he supported an increase in Medicaid benefits, even for non-US citizens.  And we should “maintain and strengthen” gun laws, he said. (See his 2000 “Political Courage” responses here.)

So to which party, then, does Carter actually align: Democrat or Republican?

Neither one. Carter apparently wouldn’t represent anyone other than himself. 

I think he made that perfectly clear earlier this year, too. During a primary debate, when asked about his previous run for the same office as a Democrat, Carter openly stated that he intentionally misled voters that year. He was only running as a Democrat because he thought it was a strong Democratic district, he stated (and you can see that right here.) Carter said that, if he’d won that 2000 contest, he would have switched parties the very next year, right after being elected.

This “say one thing, do the opposite” pattern from the GOP isn’t in any way reflective of the Republicans I know.

My brother, for example, who’s a very conservative financial consultant, is quite fed up with the financial irresponsibility that the GOP keeps presenting in its budget proposals.

A neighbor and very good friend, who’s quite firm in his faith, has lost faith in the Republican Party because of the apparent double-standard its elected officials hold for themselves.

And I know that the Republican voters in our community aren’t childish with hints of racism, either, even though that seemed to be the projection at Tuesdays’s local GOP event. 

To the actual, true Republican citizens in the Lowcountry, don’t worry – I won’t let that incident affect my perspectives of you and your values, and I’ll make sure local Democrats know that, too.

But you need to reclaim your party very quickly, or else just leave the GOP.

Until then, we all need to vote our values this November. And the only way to do that, apparently, is by voting Democrat, especially in these local races.