As many of you know, my friend Robert Ford, the Veteran State Senator and Civil Rights hero, is running for Governor. So far, of the 7 candidates for that office, he is the only one with a plan to do what we HAVE to do to get our state running again—and that is RAISE REVENUE! The engine cannot run without fuel. The best thing about his plan to bring back video gaming and to license a Casino on the Grand Strand is that it does not require new taxes on working people. This is a plan that WILL CREATE billions in new revenue for our state treasury.
Unfortunately the Republicans, who have been in control of the state legislature for so long (and the governor’s mansion for the past eight years) have "starved the beast" over the last twenty years by cutting taxes to the bone and insisting on no new revenues, no matter how deep the financial hole we are in. Our schools are on shaky ground to begin with, but now that we are 4 Billion Dollars out of balance, school principals and superintendents are having to lay off teachers and staff in nearly every county. We cannot abide this—we need more teachers, not less. Smaller classroom sizes, not larger.
There is another consequence of all the tax and budget cutting the Republicans have done over the years: It is that we have tens of thousands of public employees who are barely making subsistence wages. Robert Ford feels that public employees in South Carolina deserve at least $11 per hour. That is still a low figure to support a family, but at least they will not have to live below the poverty line, as some of our public employees are now.
Robert Ford doesn’t have the campaign funds to compete on television and radio with his two well-heeled opponents. He has no entourage traveling with him. He drives himself from campaign stop to campaign stop, organizing his own material and schedule as best he can. He even does his own mailing, sending out thousands of Mother’s and Father’s Day cards to his friends and supporters all over the state. He has two (2) volunteer staffers—one besides me (a scheduler, who is good enough to field all the many requests for him and keep his schedule reasonably in order.) But, never mind about that! He is out there all over the state, wherever he has invitations to speak, communicating the REVENUE gospel. Hopefully his message will take hold with ordinary voters.
Speaking of ordinary voters, we’ve gotten word that there’s some absentee voting hanky-panky going on in favor of The other Senator in the race, Vincent Sheheen. It appears (and we have no reason to doubt our sources) that the "Plantation County Machines" (as Robert calls them) are in full swing in the nursing homes and all about, pressuring older voters to vote absentee for Senator Sheheen. I thought we were through with all that, but I guess we aren’t, according to our multiple sources. Wouldn't it be ironic if Robert Ford's opponent in the Democratic primary abused the very thing he marched and went to jail for (The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other Voting rights) to game the system to their unfair advantage. SHAME, SHAME! In any case, if we aren’t over it, I think somebody should call in SLED and the FEDS to watch this election. We need to put an end to it now!
Here is a video I posted about "The End of Street Money" a couple of years ago, after Barack Obama’s victory here in the 2008 Presidential preference primary.