SC Governor Fiddling While State Burns
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has emerged as the current economic crisis’s greatest sadist, not just refusing to help victims of economic distress in his state, but going the extra mile to ensure that the federal government can’t help people either. Some say this is just a cynical play for Republican presidential primary votes, but it seems to me to reflect a very authentic strain of Dixie conservatism that simply takes a vindictive attitude toward the poor. You saw a lot of this in the Depression, when the locus of resistance to New Deal programs that transferred wealth from the prosperous northeast to the poor south was actually in the South.
Here’s John O’Connor’s account in The State of anti-Sanford protests and Sanford’s reaction:
“Tent city is obviously people trying to make a political point,” Sanford said. “I get it. But it doesn’t make it true.”
Sanford should know, said Sheheen, adding Sanford has a history of publicity stunts.
“Things like this pale in comparison to bringing pigs to the State House,” as Sanford once did to decry pork-barrel spending, Sheheen said.
According to the latest Center for American Progress analysis of state-by-state unemployment numbers by Heather Boushey and Nayla Kazzi, South Carolina has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation (behind Michigan) at 11 percent. Take a look at the state’s rapidly deteriorating labor market conditions:
Back in 2007, before this spike in the unemployment rate, 15.1 percent of South Carolinians—and 21 percent of South Carolina’s children—were living below the poverty line. That was above a national average of around 13 percent. But, again, the unemployment rate has almost doubled since then so that’s sure to be a serious undercount of how many people in Sanford’s state are facing a dire situation.
30 Responses to “SC Governor Fiddling While State Burns”
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April 8th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Suprised? Necessity and fact should never get in the way of ambition.
k1
ryanculver.blogspot.com
April 8th, 2009 at 9:38 am
It’s an authentic strain of Dixie racism that simply takes a vindictive attitude towards African Americans. This is the state where John McCain had to find a way to not be offended by the illiterate Confederate flag on their statehouse.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:39 am
South Carolina has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation (behind Michigan) at 11 percent.
So “right to work laws” are actually more about union-bashing and ensuring that the poor and working class “know their place” than about improving the economic environment? What a surprise!
April 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
and 21 percent of South Carolina’s children
To be fair, they’re probably mostly black children.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:55 am
You saw a lot of this in the Depression, when the locus of resistance to New Deal programs that transferred wealth from the prosperous northeast to the poor south was actually in the South.
It was?
April 8th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Yes, but Sanford’s behavior goes way beyond the usual eruption of southern stereotypes evident in this post and the comments. Sanford ain’t exactly “typical”; indeed, most of the political leadership of the state, Republican and Democrat alike, is aghast at his behavior. He’s endangering public education and the criminal justice system, both of which, needless to say, have considerable middle-class constituencies; indeed, the open protests that we’re seeing now primarily involve schoolteachers. Indeed, a common meme locally [I don't live there any more, but as a concerned native I follow things closely, and have contacts] is that Sanford is mainly playing for support from the *national* right wing. He has close ties, for instance, to the Heartland Institute, the even-more-wingnutty counterpart to Heritage. His attitude has certain affinities to a certain old-style southern conservatism, but–as I’ve tried to explain here before–the region has changed somewhat since the 1930s. Indeed, most of us who study the South for a living would call it a revolution.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am
When are these people going to stand and fight,get a RECALL petition going and get this piece of $hit out of office and when is their state legislature going to step in and do something?
April 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hasn’t the South historically been described as a “labor-repressive” system, dating back to slavery days? The idea is that some strains of Southern conservatism feel that the impoverishment of an underclass of laborers is absolutely essential to the maintenance of societal order. Thus, according to this strain of Southern conservatism, any payment from outsiders that goes to people at the bottom of the social hierarchy is viewed as a threat.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
The most important metric is in what numbers do poor people vote? Can their turnout, if low, be diluted by middle and upper class voters less affected by the poor economy? Can their turnout be suppressed, can they be fooled into voting against their own interests and failing that can enough of them be incarcerated or otherwise prevented from voting to allay their presence as an electoral factor? Sandford is only responsible to treat the poor in a fair and humane fashion in proportion to whatever threat they represent to his reelection and future political aspirations.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I believe Sanford is a quite intelligent and successful man. He, after earning his MBA at UVA Darden, made his own pile of money through real estate finance. A capable fellow and a firm hand at the helm.
This is more than can be said for most politicians, to be independently successful.
Let him do his thing and see how it turns out.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Well Hell, if he was in real estate finance, then he has to be smart. It’s not like he could have just gotten lucky with the timing or anything.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Well Hell, if he was in real estate finance, then he has to be smart. It’s not like he could have just gotten lucky with the timing or anything.
And certainly, the man is in the eminent field of real estate finance, a field that rewards hard work and smarts rather than salesmanship and obfuscation to make money! Give this man the keys to the kingdom, my friends! His disdain for the poor and unemployed is just another facet of his moral rectitude that turned him into the man he is today!
April 8th, 2009 at 11:22 am
The nerve of the man, trying to reduce the state’s debt and keep a lid on spending. Didn’t he get the Schwarzenegger memo? Republicans are supposed to spend just as much or more than Democrats.
when is their state legislature going to step in and do something?
They are doing something. They’re planning to include the funds in their budget and let the courts decide who really has the authority here.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Re Myles SG
believe Sanford is a quite intelligent and successful man. He, after earning his MBA at UVA Darden,
What’s this, Mr. Myles claiming that UVA, a public school, might be OK? I seem to recall on an earlier thread that Mr. Myles badmouthed public schools.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:56 am
So, I’m reading the John Adams biography right now, and it’s struck me:
The Southern aristocracy has never changed politically.
They can’t SAY that they’re pro-slavery or segregationist anymore, but they WANT slavery (as defined by the lowest possible wages) and segregation. They oppose universal suffrage, they oppose women’s liberation, they deny the existence of rights.
In short, they’re a bunch of feudal monarchists. We should have just thrown the Civil War.
April 8th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I seem to recall on an earlier thread that Mr. Myles badmouthed public schools.
If you recall my exact quote, I praise Southern publics for being the best publics in America, as opposed to Big State U in say, the Midwest.
The University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill is probably the best public university on this continent, and UVA and Cal-Berkeley/UCLA not far behind. U of Wisconsin, on the other hand, I would not similarly comment.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I might have actually attended UNC Chapel Hill or something similar if I were White and thus a bit more at ease in the American South.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
None of which he managed to find the goddamn spine to do when times were good. And heaven forfend that he stop licking backsides at the Club for Growth long enough to raise revenue in those better days. But now, during a recession, throwing even more people out of work and cutting their safety net is just the right medicine. Well, I’m not loaning him my tax dollars to make up for his dumbfuck ideologue budgeting skills; I’m loaning it to help the citizens unfortunate enough to have him as their governor. So spare us the bullshit spin on Mark Sanford’s naked political ambitions and contempt for the poor.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I might have actually attended UNC Chapel Hill or something similar if I were White and thus a bit more at ease in the American South.
Your worries are unfounded – apparently you must not be familiar with your ideological compatriot Jesse Helms’s assessment of the school as “the University of Negroes and Communists.” That said, UNC isn’t in the same league as Cal-Berkeley, or Michigan, for that matter.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Re Myles SG
UC Berkeley, that den of left wing radicalism, and wild eyed rioting radical students located in the Peoples Republic of Berkeley (I say that as a Berkeley graduate).
April 8th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
In short, they’re a bunch of feudal monarchists. We should have just thrown the Civil War.
No, we should have unleashed Phil Sheridan after they assassinated Lincoln.
They killed the only guy in the North who gave a shit about them. If we had turned Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina into the Shenandoah by way of response, we could have finally ended it.
As it was, we had an active Southern sympathizer as replacement president, followed by a great general who didn’t know shit about governing. Hence, guys like Sheridan were kept on a leash.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
We did throw the Civil War. The US Army quit the field of battle before it had annihilated the traitors. Granted, amnesty for the enlisted ranks was reasonable enough but the Union leaders were too soft and its African-Americans who’ve paid the price every since.
Uncle Sam should have sent Confederate officers and officials to the gallows (sorry Bobby Lee) and imposed Douglas MacArthur-style land reform. OK OK, if you don’t want to execute anyone, they could at least been forcibly deported to Indian reservations.
In March, 1947, MacArthur looked at Japan and was pleased. His land reform had ended what he called a “system of virtual slavery” and put 90% of the land in the hands of the farmers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/transcript/transcript3.html
April 8th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I might have actually attended UNC Chapel Hill or something similar if I were White and thus a bit more at ease in the American South.
From what I’ve heard, Duke is more tolerant of cravat-wearing fops.
As for Sanford, David in Nashville is right: he’s not really typical of southern pols on either side. His voting record in the US House was closest to Ron Paul, though the social conservatism is a big differentiator. Alternatively, you can say that this is what “government by realtor” looks like.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Most similar to Ron Paul? That’s my kind of man! Awesome.
I’d have liked his steadfastness on this issue even if I sensed it was a political stunt. But the man seems to have a sensible head on his shoulders, to not commit the South Carolinian budget to what are essentially unfunded mandates. Because we know that these “temporary” stabilization funds are never going to decrease, just the same way we know that the business cycle ends eventually.
And only a few people in America are truly impoverished. I suppose SC’s unemployment rate would have nothing to do with the rampant illegal immigration, would it? Stop the whining, you’ve already dismantled the federal budget, and when it goes, we’ll all drown in the debt and inflation collectively.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Duke is more tolerant of cravat-wearing fops.
Duke leaves a foul taste in my mouth after seeing the grotesque witch-hunt of Duke lacrosse players. It was a tragedy.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Re: If we had turned Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina into the Shenandoah by way of response, we could have finally ended it.
Sherman had already done the job on South Carolina. Columbia was in ashes in 1865, and Charleston too had been shelled to rubble. However, the bloodthirsty here need to recall the lesson of Versailles. Something far worse than Jim Crow could have come of a policy of vengeance.
Re: Hence, guys like Sheridan were kept on a leash.
Um, it’s customary in modern times not to unleash pillage and rapine on surrendered territory. Certain modern conquerors who disregarded that rule ended up on trial for their lives 60 years ago.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
There’s nothing like a situation like this — a blog post (justifiably) exposing the zealtotry of a far-right Southern politician — to bring out the same tiresome Rorschach effect that characterize these discussions. Among the predictable claims: That opinion is monolithic among all politically interested non-liberal Southerners. That the indulgent antics of a far-right figure like Sanford supposedly command universal support across the spectrum of the state’s political leadership. That any instance of knucklehead policy action by someone like Sanford of course justifies pretentious, overwrought statements of the hey-I’m-only-a-sophomore-but-I’m-so-insightful variety (”The idea is that some strains of Southern conservatism feel that the impoverishment of an underclass of laborers is absolutely essential to the maintenance of societal order”). And that any discussion about Southern politics sooner or late simply must include the obligatory insinuation that if you scratch any non-liberal white Southerner, you’ll find the intellectual residue of a Coleman Blease and even a strong hint of deep-fried fascism. The most pathetic comment, though, was the needless swipe at UNC-Chapel Hill, the leading public university in a state that’s shown tremendous vision in working to boost public-sector higher ed. NC passed a billion-dollar bond issue a while back to support that vision. Wanna compare that to the record in NY or CA?
April 9th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Not all that knowledgeable about foreign(American) history, but I thought southern Democratic politicians loved the New Deal once they were given power to ensure the benefits were largely directed to whites.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Re Greg
It should be recalled that General Sherman did a pretty good job on Georgia and South Carolina. The March to the Sea was every bit as destructive as anything that General Sheridan did in the Valley.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Good evening. It is not enough to aim; you must hit.
I am from Ireland and bad know English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “We have airline tickets for airline tickets.”
Thanks for the help
, Lina.