The day after Thomas Massie lost his primary in Kentucky, after the most expensive primary race in US history, after record (suspicious?) voter turnout and an obvious age-gap in media and voters, I hosted The Rep on 100.7 The Point.
The first three-quarters of the show were about the special session of the General Assembly called by Governor McMaster for the purpose of taking up redistricting of the congressional delegation.
These two things are connected: 1) an incumbent primaried by his party for opposing President Trump, and 2) a special session for Trump-requested redistricting called by our Governor.
If you are concerned, even in the smallest sense, even if you’re not really sure why, even if things just feel a little off, a little icky, a little broken, then you’re in the right place.
You can like some of the things this administration has done (defunding US AID for example) and still wonder about the velocity and validity of its actions.
You can feel one kind of way about the midnight raid and deposition of the Venezuelan President Maduro and feel another kind of way about the Strait of Hormuz and the war in Iran. Identifying both as military aggression not approved by Congress, you can still feel that they were in our nation’s best interests. Or you can feel that they were just more evidence of an administration that does not consider itself to be accountable to anyone.
All of the news, all of the drama, from Greenland to Women’s Hockey, can be annoying, befuddling, confusing, or infuriating. However you’re taking it, we’re all taking it.
With little to no control over our own governance, we’re all feeling let down.
Thomas Massie is now a lame duck Representative. He won’t be re-elected and can therefore act with total abandon, doing what he thinks is best for the country and Kentucky, not beholden to party pressure.
Isn’t that how all of our elected officials should be? Able to do what’s best for their constituents without retribution from the President or his party?
Some of our bravest General Assembly members considered the risk to their own political futures in opposing the President, and some just said redistricting when an election is already underway is crazy. Irresponsible. Expensive. Some of them said, “no.”
But we are living in a super majority Republican state and the reality is that what the party gives, the party can take away. Many of our elected officials are so committed to maintaining their positions that they will do whatever the party tells them to do. That’s bad. It means we didn’t elect the person, we elected the party.
The party’s power, when uncontested, is the true threat.
Once the party gains total control, it will do whatever it must to maintain that control. Even when it’s your party, the unchecked control does not protect you or your rights from the party’s priorities.
There are those who would stand between consolidated power, greed and control, and us, the voters. Those who will protect us from the overreach of authoritarian government. Those who will defend our rights against entities who use government to inflict their will upon us.
I volunteer. Send me.
We are meant to be a free society. When any entity, be it a single individual or a full party seeks unilateral control, we should all fight back.
On the radio on the day after the Massie defeat, I interviewed Nicole Sanchez, President of Better Ballot SC, a non-partisan effort to reform the ballots in our state. Nicole’s Vice President, Marcurius Byrd joined me on a Not My Circus livestream. Our conversations were similar, highlighting the naked corruption of these redistricting efforts.
It’s not about race or geography, it’s about unilateral party power. Our government has been hijacked by unrestricted corporate interests: the Republicans and the Democrats. We must wrestle back control, by telling the truth, defeating the machine, and electing new voices.
I volunteer. Send me.
**Update: This redistricting effort failed in South Carolina.
One million South Carolinians know the government isn’t working for us. So let’s do something about it.
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