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Okay. Let's talk about South Carolina state politics.
There's little to be happy about. We lost bad. And we lost not just this election, but maybe the next 5, too. Hundreds will die and thousands more will mourn them as a direct result of Republican leadership this decade.
There's little to be happy about. We lost bad. And we lost not just this election, but maybe the next 5, too. Hundreds will die and thousands more will mourn them as a direct result of Republican leadership this decade.
(I'll get to this later, but there's no Dem to blame. NO ONE to blame. I am looking desperately for a scapegoat and not finding one. We ran amazing candidates and were true to our values and never saw even one warning sign along the way. See more below.)
It's a gut punch of a loss. We hoped to tie the State Senate, instead, we lost ground. We lost ground in the State House, too, in places we theoretically expected to eventually (mostly rural areas) and failed to take seats that should have turned blue already, like in Charleston.
Institutionally, our loss in the #SCLeg is a major setback for the decade ahead: an emboldened GOP will gerrymander prohibitive districts & further suppress the vote. Democracy will continue to wane in SC and Democrats, especially those of color, will neither be heard nor served.
Enough about politics as a team sport, though. People will die on @scgop's watch:
1) We can expect another decade of Republicans declining a 900% match on Medicaid expansion because they don't like the black man who offered it: https://www.statehousereport.com/2019/07/26/big-story-hundreds-in-s-c-died-without-medicaid-expansion-experts-say/
1) We can expect another decade of Republicans declining a 900% match on Medicaid expansion because they don't like the black man who offered it: https://www.statehousereport.com/2019/07/26/big-story-hundreds-in-s-c-died-without-medicaid-expansion-experts-say/
2) The party of "post-birth abortion" fearmongers and deranged conspiracists chanting "save the children" will preside over one of the worst infant mortality rates in the US: 400 dead infants last year. Playboy part-time reps will do nothing about it. https://www.postandcourier.com/news/new-infant-mortality-rate-in-sc-shows-widening-gap-between-black-and-white-baby-deaths/article_51f446d2-040f-11eb-8542-d34d615491b6.html
3) Representatives from Charleston, Beaufort, and Horry counties will deny climate change and halt green energy infrastructure even as the floodwater seeps into their shoes. https://www.postandcourier.com/rising-waters/filthy-floods-cover-charleston-area-with-poop-bacteria-viruses-and-other-dangers/article_97b6f1aa-9f5c-11ea-a3c3-176968e35a46.html
4) And our state gov will evaluate public schools every year, designate them "below minimally adequate" every year, and do nothing about it, every year. Because it's more fun to sabotage our public goods and pour tax money into their kids' private schools. https://www.postandcourier.com/news/minimally_adequate/
In short, this is a disaster for South Carolina. But I'm having a very hard time finding someone to blame: when you're not resonating with voters, but all the information you get says you are, there's no reason to change. We did our best; we thought we had it; we didn't.
As I said above, pretty much everyone in @scdp and Dem politics worked extremely hard this cycle, gave it their all, ran amazing candidates, and were true to the values we hold dear. We didn't win because we didn't know we were living in a fundamentally different reality.
(For what it's worth, Republicans didn't know anything we didn't - their polls showed the exact same situation ours did, and they were running scared 'til Tuesday night. All the happy talk about "silent majorities" was just that - but unfortunately correct)
So what do we do going forward? First, we recognize that we were wrong - most likely, that the Dem brand is not as popular as we hoped - but that our goals are noble, popular, and good for South Carolina. We cannot leave our values behind; we just have to message them better.
Can we rehabilitate the Democratic brand in an electorate so brain-poisoned by @Facebook they think we're (literally?) blood-drinking lizard people? Can we run against the party brand while including the most vulnerable and delivering the life-saving policies we hold dear? IDK.
Questions for innumerable Zoom calls and Signal chats to come. There are hopefully many lessons to be learned if we work together and don't put down the work (after a short breather, of course).
In the meantime, remember that we do not do this for us, but for the thousands of South Carolinians who will mourn a loved one, or miss their chance to escape poverty, because of our failure to rebuke the GOP. The stakes are high and we cannot walk away from this challenge.
