By Paul Gable
It’s a great day in South Carolina!
It has to be.
Gov. Nikki Haley was reelected to a 2nd term in office by a 57% to 40% margin and incumbents around the state were swept back into office.
Many of the incumbents didn’t even have opponents to worry about in the general election.
Republicans control all the statewide offices and some commentators are pronouncing the Democratic Party dead in the state.
Not really. Fifty years ago, Haley and her Republican counterparts would have been Democrats and the election results would have been the same.
Some of the Republicans elected to office Tuesday began their careers as Democrats. Most come from families that voted solidly Democratic before the transition from one party to the other began in South Carolina.
But, the politics remain the same.
At least since the run-up to the Civil War, South Carolina has never been a competitive two party state. The politics of the state, however, have been generally consistent.
Those who once voted solidly Democratic now vote solidly Republican and vice versa when they have been allowed to vote at all.
The power structure behind the scenes doesn’t really care what party moniker the politicians use, as long as it has control of their votes. And it does.
It’s not the Democratic Party that is dead in South Carolina, it’s representative democracy.
My generation has done a terrible job of giving power to the people.
Hopefully, the next generation will do better.
Speak Up…