Well, I guess the headline says it all.
As a Democrat running for office, I don’t like Henry McMaster, Republican Governor of South Carolina. I don’t like him, not because he was re-elected Governor in 2018, defeating his Democratic opponent James Smith. I don’t like him because I was in the audience at Greenville Tech when I heard him either tell a bald-faced lie to get re-elected, or else was shockingly totally ignorant about the issue he was debating. The question the moderator asked was, “Do you support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes?” James Smith had the courage to speak the truth and say yes; he did support medical marijuana. Henry McMaster lied and said there was no scientific evidence that marijuana had any medical benefits. At least I hope he lied. I shudder to think he was really so stupid he didn’t know.
So I worried how McMaster was going to cover the Covid-19 epidemic. If anything, he was hell bent on taking the virus too seriously, immediately shutting down restaurants and bars. At that time I thought it was overkill, even though I acknowledged it was better to over-react and be safe, than under-react and lose lives.
Besides, other politicians I didn’t like whose policies and positions I strongly disagreed with, rose to the occasion and did the right thing when it came to a life-or death crisis. Even Rudi Giuliani, as Mayor of New York, had his moment of glory as a leader following 9-11. Likewise, otherwise inept President George W. Bush, said all the right things just after 9-11, including avoiding the temptation to blame the act of terrorism on Muslims. And I certainly wasn’t fond of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, especially after Bridge-gate, but even he rose to the occasion to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy; and shocked the media by hugging Barack Obama for the President’s exemplary non-partisan efforts to help Christi’s constituents.
So I thought maybe McMaster had rose to the occasion, too. I changed my mind when a reporter asked point-blank why gun stores were allowed to remain open, when all other non-essential businesses were to be closed. McMaster had a ready reply: he needed to protect the 2nd Amendment.
Now don’t get me wrong. We all need to take sensible measures to “flatten the curve” so medical facilities are not overwhelmed. Fighting a deadly epidemic should never have been a partisan issue. But the Republicans are making it a partisan issue. Another reporter asked McMaster why South Carolina got all the supplies it needed from the Federal government, but other states (with Republican governors) did not. McMaster smoothly dodged this question entirely, bullshitting his way around the issue by saying some supplies were being made right here in South Carolina, and besides South Carolina clearly communicated our needs to the Federal Government. The real answer is Trump is playing favorites—letting people in states that voted for him get what they need, and other states that voted for Hillary—not so much.
Of course, McMaster couldn’t say that, and wouldn’t dare say anything against Trump’s gross mismanagement of the crisis since day one.
But it was McMaster’s exception for gun shops that really got my goat. True, we are in the midst of a medical epidemic. But for months and years we have lost thousands of lives—to the tune of about 30,000 a year—to an epidemic of gun violence.
Since January 2019, five hundred and eighty-one South Carolinians died due to gun violence. During this time eight were killed during a mass shooting in a Charleston Church. Fourteen children under the age of twelve died, including Sadie Linton, age three, who was shot to death in Cheraw, SC just about a year ago on April 9, 2019. Twenty-three teenagers also were killed. The United States has the greatest number of guns per person than anywhere else in the world. Consequently the United States has the greatest number of deaths per capita than anywhere else in the world. When these facts were presented to William Timmons, the Republican who replaced Trey Gowdy in the House of Representatives, Timmons replied he didn’t care about the other countries in the world; he only cared about America.
Yet as dismal as the death rate from gun violence is in America, only six of fifty of our states have a worse death rate from guns than South Carolina. We are one of the worst states of the worst country for gun violence.
So far, forty-eight South Carolinians have already died from the Corona virus, and without proper measures more will die in the near future. But it bothers me that now that we have a medical epidemic our Republican Governor leaps into action; but for years, in spite of one horrific mass shooting after another, he and the other Republicans did nothing—nothing except make it easier and easier to buy weapons of mass destruction, turning a blind eye to the senseless killings.
So while the Governor takes emergency measures which restrict our freedom or religion and our right of assembly—both guaranteed in the First Amendment—in order to get the epidemic under control; he defies common sense by allowing guns to be purchased as though they were bread and milk—or toilet paper.
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Note: Of the seven issues I am focusing on in my run for the South Carolina House of Representatives, one of them is “Gun Safety—Protect our children from mass shootings with sensible gun legislation.” My worthy Republican opponent is a darling of the NRA. The NRA has the money to buy politicians because thousands are duped into buying an NRA membership for only $25. If you would like to donate the same amount to my campaign, please send a $25 check to the Dreyfus Election Fund at the below address. Thank you.
Dreyfus Election Fund
Arthur State Bank
1410 N. Pleasantburg Drive
Greenville, SC 29607