Hooray for Tim Scott! Once again, he has received an award -- and just in time for the upcoming election -- for his service to, well, to the wealthy and powerful. In Newspeak, it is called, The Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. With emphasis on the word "legislative" of course. What it means is that our Tim has worked hardest of all hard-bought legislators to make laws that protect big business.
You might not be surprised to learn that the National Association of Manufacturers is associated with our friends the Koch brothers. Their agenda is also not much of a surprise: they are anti-environmental regulation and have fought efforts by the government to control greenhouse gas emission. Most recently, they lobbied to exempt certain external power supplies from complying with federal energy standards in February of 2014. Yeah, Tim!
It's been a bit like word-puzzle fun to get an email from Tim about an award and trying to figure out what it really means, but not that much of a challenge. As usual, Tim doesn't ever break new ground. He pretty much does what all those fancy corporate lobbying groups tell him to do.
But I am tired of our state being held hostage by ALEC and the Kochs. Our workers are underpaid and there are too many unemployed (latest figures show the numbers creeping up in spite of the nation's continued downward trend). We sacrifice improving schools and roads and bridges so we can cut taxes on big corporations who are willing to do business in South Carolina if we treat them real good. Too many in South Carolina are needlessly uninsured and suffer poor nutrition because Tim continues to vote against programs that would give his constituents a fighting chance.
Tim Scott and his buddy Nikki Haley have gotten pretty tiresome. Their press releases are lies that cover up their true alliances as we continue to hold down the bottom rungs of any measure of education, health, public safety.
This is why we need to talk up the November 4 election. Lots of our friends and family don't know it's coming up, and too many don't think it is important. With only two more years of the Obama administration we need to give him a Congress that will support his environmental, health care, and immigration initiatives. We need to give him a Congress that does not force him to compromise on programs that will truly move us forward.
Joyce Dickerson is a woman who will accomplish that in the US Senate. She has been fighting to be heard over all the cash that is flowing on the other side, and she needs our help to let others know who she is. She is the candidate that will work for better health care, better education, better services for seniors and veterans. She will fight so that we all can earn a living wage, and so that women have the same rights as men. She will protect our rights to privacy and a safe and healthy environment.
So please, spread the word. The time is getting short and this election is too important to skip out on. Use Facebook and Twitter, send out emails, call your friends and family and talk to your co-workers. Tell them how Tim Scott's votes have kept them from improving their lives and those of their family. Let's not let the phony awards get in the way of the truth.
Joyce Dickerson
for US Senate
November 4
Given the fact that we are free to complain as much as we want about our politicians, it's just sad how little we know about what they do. Political success these days, with help from the Supreme Court, is determined by public relations, which is brought to us by... money, lots of money.
And yet, if we wanted to learn about our candidates, we have so much information at our fingertips. Project Vote Smart has a wealth of information about candidates, including voting record and ratings by organizations.
And yet, if not for a plethora of TV ads, most of us would have no idea there is an election coming up. And those of us that do know, and plan on voting, may not have a clue who the candidates are, or their stand on the issues.
Man oh man, this is not the time to vote with your eyes closed. Nor is it the time to skip voting. We have had too many years of the rich getting richer and the poor losing voting rights, health care, and wages to stay silent.
Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Nancy, is an amazing documentary film maker, who wanders around shopping centers and parking lots across America asking people questions about politics. In an interview with Bill Maher on Real Time on September 26, she said, "...people do not know there is an election." Those who said they were going to vote rarely knew the candidates. If they said they were going to vote "for the republican," and Pelosi asked about specific issues, she comments that "...if you go through the laundry list (of issues), they don't know what a republican is."
So here's the thing. We need to tell people there is an election on November 4. Our politicians need to get personal, and talk not just about the issues, but about how the issues are going to affect them.
They need to know that by South Carolina not taking federal Medicaid dollars, not only are our tax dollars going back to Washington, but people here are getting sick and costing us all whether it is in time lost from work or children going to school with contagious illnesses. When state and federal government try to make laws regulating a woman's reproductive health, this is government interference in family decisions. When our lawmakers refuse to allow our college graduates to refinance their student loans, they are burdening our young adults as they are trying to begin their adult lives. And all of the above taxes our economy and stresses our families. And wastes taxpayer dollars.
We need to get specific. Because when people talk about the issues, and their personal stake in those issues, they are talking about Democratic values. They just don't know it yet. And when they realize what is personally at stake, they may just make the effort to get out and vote.
Yesterday, the Post & Courier had an opinion piece by Dave Schwartz. You may not know him; he doesn't even have a wikipedia page. But this is just the way his employer, David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity, likes it. Anonymity allowed him and his brother, the other Koch, to get away with years of control of our legislators, until investigative journalists like Rachel Maddow forced them out of the shadows.
So we have this new guy who comes into town and spreads lies about bad government and good corporations, bad taxes and good job creators, and then moves on. He has been State Director for AFP in Maryland, then Virginia, and now South Carolina.
The opinion piece in the Post and Courier is an example of the dirtiest of dirty work, full of blatant and absurd lies, like calling the American Legislative Exchange Council "non-partisan." He argues, predictably, that it is our high state taxes that is the cause of all our ills. If only we had low taxes like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, we would have -- that's right -- job growth and prosperity. And he sites that other "non-partisan" group, the Civitas Institute, for research that states that SC has the highest tax rate and the "lowest take-home pay in the region." The Civitas Institute, for those of you who aren't aware, is that North Carolina group of right wing-nuts who, despite Schwartz claim that they are non-partisan, describes themselves as "North Carolina's conservative voice." A voice that is funded by Art Pope, who as NC budget director engineered the cutbacks that have devastated North Carolina in recent years. He has just resigned; we might want to keep an eye on him to see where he will be going to spread his dysentery next.
Anyway, to get back to Dave Schwartz and the Post & Courier. He has made claims in that piece that are totally fabricated, made to scare and anger readers. We know he is disseminating lies. We know that our governor bribes businesses to our state with tax giveaways, that our education system suffers as a result, that too many of our workers are not paid a living wage. We know that the reason our economic growth in SC is lower than much of the rest of the country is that our yahoos in the legislature and our governor are wasting our resources working to cut services to the poor, deny voting rights to seniors and minorities, and ensure that workers are not allowed to fight for a living wage. We also know that big corporations are favored over small businesses, and that because the wealthy who profit in our state are not made to contribute, our education, health care and infrastructure resembles that of a third world country, where the lines are clearly drawn between the rich and the poor, and those in the shrinking middle struggle every day to access the American dream.
We should not allow Dave Schwartz and other Koch and Pope minions to get away with disseminating lies without fear of contradiction. When we see an article online, let's quickly comment. Let's write letters to the editor pointing out the fallacies and distortions, and correcting the misinformation. Let's not complain among ourselves, or ignore these outrages. They will not go away. They will invade and erode, so that truth becomes fiction. They snuck into North Carolina like body snatchers and left its government wasted and its people devastated.
It is hard to believe that we have elections coming up in a few months. Interest has been pretty lackadaisical, considering all we have at stake. Our Democratic politicians and candidates aren't screaming loud enough, they aren't showing enough outrage. Shouldn't one of those candidates be writing an Op Ed in the Post and Courier denouncing Dave Schwartz's ridiculous claims?
Somebody, anybody, everybody, please, speak out. And let's start with the fact that he is misrepresenting who he is and what his organizations stand for.
