Backsliding? Top UnParty Leader caught at Dem shindig!
OK, so maybe he’s not a "top leader." Maybe he’s not even a "leader," seeing as how we’re not organized enough to have leaders. We’re in such disarray that we don’t know who our candidate for governor is. Spencer Gantt thinks it’s me.
But at the very least, since he’s one of the few to have expressed sincere interest, we can certainly call him a party stalwart.
So, needless to say, I was taken aback to find him there.
But I’ll say several things in Dr. DeMarco’s defense.
First, he practices internal medicine in Marion, which is right down the road. Even if I didn’t have to go to stuff like this professionally, if I lived in Marion, I suppose I might go out of curiosity. It’s the conscientious thing to do as a voter.
Next, the first thing he said to me — after introducing himself — was "We need to get that party started." I shushed him before anybody could hear us. We will not be strong enough for pitched street battles until there are more of us.
Third, I found his presence there useful, for readers of this blog. As it wore on to 8:30, and I had decided it was time to head home, I asked Paul to keep an eye on the rest of those down-ballot candidates who speak after almost everyone else has left. He agreed, and I split. So we can expect his report at any time, possibly as comments to this item.
Of course, none of those excuses accounts for the "Willis" sticker on the lapel.
How about it, Doc?
Seriously, though — he still talks like a true Unpartisan. Referring to Joe Biden’s speech, he observed, "He talked about sacrifice. I like it when politicians talk like that."
I was about to ask him which politician he has heard say that since JFK at his inaugural, when he added:
"I’m one of the people who got the tax cut" Sen. Biden was deriding in his speech. "And I didn’t really want it."
Of course, he’s not sending it back, he admits. True UnParty ambivalence. The movement lives.
Now, I suppose, I’ll have to write about what Sen. Biden said. But first, I must run to keep an optometrist appointment.
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Biden’s latest greatest idea is to split Iraq into 3 new nations along religious lines. I.e. Balkanize Iraq. What will be his next proposal, perhaps split the USA into 3 nations, White, Black, Hispanic? This guy is not presidential material in any way shape or form.
And here I thought the UNPARTY was dead. HA! As if it ever existed. It’s just a game to be played on BW’s website.
I am serious, however, about voting for BW for governor. I’m just going to write-in his name with no party affiliation needed. Perhaps Paul DeMarco for LT-GOV and Mark Whittington for Treasurer.
If you will read my website,
WRITEIN-SC
you’ll understand why. If my attempt at HTML doesn’t work, go to
http://www.writein-sc.blogspot.com).
The write-in vote is the only power left to ordinary people, and it’s an extreme longshot at that. But, with the Internet and “shoe leather”, actual door-to-door campaigning, signs, bumper stickers, etc.,there’s a chance the system can be beat.
It will take a lot of work, and not much money if every individual will help “carry the water”. I intend to do my part. What about you?
BTW, Joe Biden is just another PRC.
Spencer, you make me feel bad. It’s not a game to me; I’m very serious about the fact is that I think we desperately need alternatives to the partisan system that’s currently tearing the country apart.
My problem, my challenge, is that all I can really do it throw the ideas out there. I have a role to play, and the truth is I can’t really play that role and run for office. It’s one or the other.
I have thought about “running” as a hypothetical candidate for governor, just as a way of writing a series of columns defining the issues as I think the real candidates for governor ought to be talking about them. I’ve always worried that would seem just a little too cute for an editorial page editor — oh, look at him, he’s so full of himself — to the point people wouldn’t pay attention to the ideas.
Of course, maybe a gimmick like that is the WAY to get them to notice the ideas. It’s a calculated risk.
Maybe I should begin my Uncampaign for governor here on the blog, and see how it goes. If I get virtual support, and the readers back me, we can take it to the next level — sort of like trying a play out off-Broadway first.
Or, sort of like running a primary before the general. The online campaign would determine whether I moved on to the next level… The “general” election could be in the paper.
I even have the greatest of all excuses that politicians use to run — people are urging me to. “People” in this case being Spencer.
Maybe I should first ask, are there any OTHER people who think this would be a worthwhile exercise? I’m not asking you to give money. I’m asking you whether you will be ENGAGED in the campaign. That’s the kind of contribution I’ll be going after.
Count me in. If there is any way that issues can be debated, instead of froth, I think it desperately needs to be done. If someone would only put the pros and cons out there, and suggest compromise solutions that a majority can support.
I guess I’m trying to echo your opposition to this crazy “partisan system”, but can’t do it as eruditely (for lack of a better word!) as you do.
Can I give one stupid example? When I was in Germany, I served on the parent advisory board of the school (not a governing group as such, but more than just PTA equivalent). There was one other evangelical and myself, out of about 14 members total. The drinking age is 16, so the older kids had free access to alcohol. The problem was that, at parties, the younger kids could get at the stuff, too. The parents, for the most part, saw a problem. My fellow evangelical wanted to argue for a tee-total approach — get rid of the stuff entirely (and he was the German, I was the Ami!). I said, “that’s never going to work. But we can work towards a compromise that at least bars the young kids from the bar!” I won’t go into the particulars; can’t remember it all anyway, but we did find a halfway satisfactory solution. I say halfway, because we still had the problem of some drunk 17 year olds.
The stuff you’re talking about is far more complex, but it seems to me the principles are the same. We can’t help it if we don’t help move it, but it has to be done in a way that shows mutual respect for each other as human beings and citizens.
Brad,
Hey, I just came up to you at the Galivant’s Ferry stump to make some polite converstaion and you’re already ragging on me on the blog!
Actually, you misunderstood my initial comment. When I said we need to have a party I meant a social event (music, libations, raucous laughter, etc. for the blog regulars-I wasn’t thinking about the Unparty. Awhile back when we debated excommunicating Mary Rosh, the idea of a blog party came up as a way to soften the rhetoric-I think its a great idea.
As to my presence at Galivants Ferry. I was there for several reasons:
1) I enjoy political events, particularly old time events like the stump. You certainly learn more about candidiates when you can meet them, look them in the eye and ask them questions than you can from a 30 second commercial.
2) As it is unlikely that the Unparty will field a viable candidate this cycle, I want to know what the two traditional parties have to offer. I’m supporting Frank Willis for governor becuase of his support of public education and his experience recruiting industry (he helped recruit Honda and Hoffman-Laroche to Florence) and because he’s from the Pee Dee.
As for the down-ballot candidates who spoke after you left, the best was Jim Rex, candidate for Superintendant of Education. Inez Tennebaum introduced him. He knelt down and asked her for one of her shoes and then brought it to the podium with him and spoke about how diffficult it would be to fill her metaphorically big but physically petite shoes. It didn’t seem staged but struck me as quick-witted and clever.
And I wholeheartedly support you writing a series of columns as the Unparty candidate for governor-I think it would bring a needed perspective to the campaign.
Well, believe me, it was not my intention to make you feel badly. I was just “testing the waters” as to how folks on this site see the possibility of elections outside the current two-party system. As you can see from the number of posts, there is absolutely no interest in challenging the status quo. Your “candidacy” as an Unparty type would be a good beginning by bringing visibility to possibilities other than the Dem/Repub stranglehold on government. But, look at the support you have from your own bloggers. THREE responses from the multitudes that frequent your site.
Nobody really gives a rat’s rear about a change in government. They just want to bitch and moan, write their little soliloquies, shoot hate mail at each other and go on with the same ol’ same ol. All that anyone can do is get theirs as best they can, and not be here when it all goes bust. And, it will.
Brad,
I’d encourage you to do whatever you can to upset the status quo… whether it is a “virtual” candidacy or a write-in campaign. I think it would be an eye-opening experience for you. The minute you pop on the radar,
the establishment will set the wheels in motion to make sure you are put in your place.
Ask John McCain… the fact that South Carolina voted for GWB after the organized characted assassination that his campaign executed against McCain told me all I needed to know about SC politics.
Dr. DeMarco should practice explaining his positions in small forums like this one before taking them on the road. I was disappointed when he gave up trying to formulate his view of why socialist control is necessary over things like Lexington Hospital expanding its cardiac care.
I encourage him to run against the most senior, entrenched, corrupt member of the legislature that he can.