Devil’s Brew in Dixie
The Dutch Fork of South Carolina
Our small but proud State can't seem to stay out of the political spotlight. We had barely recovered from the exposure of our present Governor's exotic extra-marital affair when we made the headlines again as a result of the surprising outcome of the Republican primary for the next governor.
As you have probably heard by now, State Representative Nikki Haley (née Nimrata Randhawa) took 49 per cent of the vote, swamping three well-known Republican aspirants. The Establishment Republicans and Neocons, who are always interfering and positioning themselves, seem to be claiming Mrs. Haley as their own. Very possibly she will be co-opted by them, à la Sarah Palin, but the outcome of the election was not a victory but rather a serious defeat for the Republican establishment. To this point, Mrs. Haley's showing looks more like a Tea Party type rebellion than the emergence of one more Republican celebrity. Her biggest campaign theme was anti-tax.
She has rendered two Establishment Republicans into has-been, also-ran nobodies: the present lieutenant governor, a rich carpetbagger doofus in the mould of George W. Bush and the darling of the press, and the present attorney-general, a reliable party man endorsed by Rudy Guiliani. The run-off election on June 22 will be between Mrs. Haley and the next highest scorer, U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett. Barrett is as honest and as conservative as one can be and still be a Republican. The outcome will be interesting and not necessarily easy to assess.
Mrs. Haley was born in South Carolina to Sikh parents, immigrants from India. Her father practiced medicine in an impoverished rural area. Her siblings have succeeded in legitimate businesses and a brother is a career Army officer. She married a local man who is prominent in the National Guard, attends the Methodist Church, and has participated in the usual public service activities. She has served responsibly as one of the members of the lower house of the General Assembly from my populous suburban county. She has, as far as I know, never played the race card. Indeed, the black vote is negligible in our county and in Republican primaries, although the carpetbagger vote is large.
Being a fan of the British Empire, I have a soft spot for Sikhs, who were a creditable part of the British Army for so long. In Texas it used to be said that a nasty mob required one Ranger to deal with it. It was said in the Raj that one Sikh could deal with a nasty mob of Muslims or Hindoos. Please, Lord, if we must be flooded with immigrants from India, and we must whether we will or no, let them be Sikhs and not Muslims and Hindoos.
The shifting demographics of our State (even more evident in our esteemed neighbour to the north) render the election results something of a puzzle. In the 1964 election Hubert Humphrey got only 30 per cent of the vote in North and South Carolina. In 2008 Obama got 50.3 per cent in North Carolina and 45 per cent in South Carolina. We are obviously witnessing here a large demographic transformation. This has nothing to do with the black vote because the black percentage of the population has been diminishing in both States with the influx of white carpetbaggers. It is estimated that half our Republican voters were born elsewhere. Our coasts and mountains are dotted with gated communities full of mini-mansions inhabited part of the year by rich Northerners. Our cities are filled with lower-middle-class refugees from the Rust Belt seeking subsistence employment where the economy has been until recently still growing.
Further, thanks to the feds, the Chamber of Commerce, and that heroic and far-seeing statesman George W. Bush, our Mexican population will before long be 10 percent, and Asians, black Africans, and West Indians are numerous enough to be noticeable in any public place.
Our State is still very conservative by American standards. Three hundred years of brave and independent spirit do not disappear over-night. But that conservatism should not be conflated with the Republican Party, which here, as always and everywhere since the days of Lincoln, has been an electioneering machine whose aspirants will say anything and do anything to get hold of the power and perks, and whose only real agenda is maximising the use of the government to increase their wealth.
For South Carolina, which long prided itself on never nuckling under to either party, this is largely the heritage of Strom Thurmond, who easily morphed from Dixiecrat rebel into the earth's biggest and longest-lasting patronage artist. Remember, we are the State that produced the evil, principleless election manipulator Lee Atwater, godfather to Karl Rove.
Shortly before the election, two Republican hacks, connected to the lieutenant governor, held a press conference to announce that they had both had illicit affairs with "that woman," Mrs. Haley. It was implausible, to say the least, when the two pathetic operatives were viewed in relation to Mrs. Haley, a quite handsome woman..The public showed good judgment and her poll numbers shot up. (We South Carolinians seem to have had more than our fair share of rakes in office, but it is well to remember that always and everywhere "politician" is a synonym for "rake." We may even have elected one or two closeted types, if rumour is to be credited, but at least we have never elected a flagrant faggot. Unlike certain Deep North States that politeness forbids me to mention, although one of them starts with "M" and ends in "s.")
Since the election their have been hints of financial irregularities associated with Mrs. Haley, but these mostly seem to be related to alleged non-disclosures of information. Whether there is any substance or this is just another trick from the bottomless bag of Republican dirty ones it is impossible to say.
Meanwhile, the fate of our State, of genuine conservatism,, and perhaps of America, rests upon how successful we South Carolinians are in converting all our new residents from Republicanism to State Rights. The good news is that we are making good progress. Whatever course Mrs. Haley takes in the future, she has done good work in breaking down the party establishment.
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We've got a Sikh here. He makes a magnificent looking centerpiece (literally) in all the diversity photos.
"attends the Methodist Church"
Do you still have conservative Methodist Churches up there in South Carolina? Down here, they're just what you'd expect from Hillary Clinton's Church.
Unlike certain Deep North States that politeness forbids me to mention, although one of them starts with “M” and ends in “s.”
Michigans?
#2 The old Southern Methodist Church, a mighty force for good, has been totally absorbed into the so-called United Methodist Church, i.e., taken over by the very different Yankee Methodists (who seized our churches thanks to the U.S. Army during The War and kept them until 1876.) Alas, the Southern Methodist Church no longer exists. I merely meant to indicate that she considers herself a Christian, which I have no reason to doubt.
Mr. Toddard, I am sure he meant Massachussetts, the notorious left-wing land of elite intelligentsia, that is loathed by the down-to-earth conservatives in US.
My goodness, I follow international politics too much! I feel uncomfortable when I am clarifying British, French, and American people online about what happens in their country. Such behaviour on my part must be wrong by some standards.
(Anyway, any person should do good to be wary of Hindus. As a person from eastern India from the forests of Jharkhand, I belong to an ancestry that was hunted down and pushed away by the invading fair-skinned Aryan Hindus who brought Vedic butchery to original peoples of India like me and my family. They believed they were killing our ancestors to "purify" the earth, in the name of the Destroyer, Shiva. Nowadays, they condemn nonbelievers without religious tradition like us, because we don't respect the "original" Hindu practices of this region. It is still not understood by Hindus that there is an older non-Hindu history to India, that existed before they either enslaved others under Hinduism or pushed away and killed those of us who refused their beastly practices.)
I am surprised by your reaction, Dr Wilson. I dont know much about Mrs Haley, but I am suspicious of any GOP candidate - Although at least both her and Jindal have acquired Southern accents and converted to Christianity. As nice a people as they seem, I feel like Jindal in LA and Haley in SC are the elite's way of greasing us all up for eventual rule by foreigners. I hope I am wrong in my assessment.
Mr Sanjay writes "It is still not understood by Hindus that there is an older non-Hindu history to India." I am so ignorant of that part of the world I am ashamed of myself, but I am interested in this non-hindu history you speak about. Would you mind to elaborate just a bit on this. Many thanks. I am also interested in the three wise men from India who visited our Savior after seeing his star( some say it was Jupiter) over the small village of Bethlehem. Or any direction of understanding you might have about those ancient Christian communities still existing in India which date back to the martydom of doubting Thomas, that ancient empiricist and modern type thinker Christ selected as an Apostle. Any comments will be appreciated.
Im also reading now that Mes Haley still attends Sikh services, which makes me doubt how sincere her conversion was. (I will welcome being corrected)
Dr. Wilson,
Carpetbaggers and too many immigrants at one time can sure change a place fast. Will South Carolina survive this two pronged invasion or it will it crack and crumble under the strain? This loss of any sense of place or plot of soil is rampant and every where today. But when economics is based on bread alone, I guess we should expect such things. Carpetbagging is still frowned upon out here in Oklahoma, so most of them boast about it where they came from, but once the locals get accustomed to them, they start lying and cheating the locals just like they did back up north and east of here. I of course don't think women should be too involved in politics or the military but if you say she is pretty good as far as politicians go, that would be enough for me. Good luck to her.
"so most of them boast about it where they came from,"
should read "don't boast about where they came...."
Mr. Sanjay, Mr. Toddard is a long-time commenter who lives in Massachusetts. I am sure he was joking.
Daniel @8
Oh, come on Daniel!! Sikh, Sac, Brit brat, we all worship the same god these days anyway -- His Name is Legion !!!!
For a split second robert, I really thought you had gone from Catholic (?) to universalist - until I got to the part about Legion.
All I contended was that the election had shaken up the Republican establishment, which was a good thing, a possible opening for something better. If Mr. Sanjay is a citizen of India, then his observations are of intellectual interest. If he is a U.S. citizen then I advise him to forget all that and try to be an American.
"Catholic (?) to universalist "
Yes, they say I was baptized a Catholic as an infant. My friends, however,(there are only two or three of them and one is considered "extremely difficult") all say if I was ever accused of actually being a Roman Catholic, there would not be sufficient evidence to warrant a conviction. But in my heart, I do hope to be one some day.
In connection to the present July issue of Chronicles Magazine, necessary reflections to be applauded.
Here in Maine, the Republicans (including my household) nominated a fascinating candidate, Paul LePage, for Governor, after a combined Ron Paulian/Tea Party effort first overwhelmed the GOP convention (Mr. Raimondo reveals part of that story in the current issue.) He spent something like $3 a vote--that is to say, almost nothing but the grassroots delivered.
LePage was the eldest of 18 children, in a dysfunctional, French speaking family, ran away from home at age 11, and worked as a shoe-shiner, living on the streets for two years, before a family took him in, keeping him busy in their eatery. (None of this can be real, right, cynic?) He didn't truly learn English until he got to college, which he paid for with work as a short order cook. He runs a discount merchandise business of great success, and served as mayor for the town of my college daze, err--days.
I get this sense about him, that he loathes the welfare state for 'paleoconservative' reasons--he has seen what it does, and out of, all I can guess, affection for those who helped his improbable journey.
No cynic is more surprised then me that this happened--there was zero polling data published anywhere (and I have a thought why)--I was so concerned that the Collins-Snowe duo of candidates might get the knod, I almost took it seriously...anyway. we just showed up, if only to vote down the local school budget and the endless bond scams--glutton for punishment that wife and I are.
I certainly appreciate Dr. Fleming's point about not looking to politicians, but those who fight the establishment are worthy of note. If ours is to be a tragedy, make it a good one.
I appreciate Dr. Wilson's...unusual optimism about this race but I fear his hope is misplaced. The Tea Party is shaking things up. Fine. We want small government say the Tea Party folk. Alright. Cut Fort Jackson? No, say the Tea Party folk. We must support the troops. They stand for small government and big military...in short perfect dupes for the Republicans. "O, I wish I was for Empire! Hooray! Hooray!
For Empire I'll take my stand to live and die for Empire. Away, away,
Away down south for Empire!" South Carolina continues to take its stand...and no doubt will be taking its stand behind that paragon of conservatism and Christianity Mitt Romney in less than two years...
I have to agree with Rob. Although though I was on board with the Tea Party when it first started, it was co-opted almost right away by the GOP. They stopped asking hard questions and overly-craved 'respectability'. Of course what they failed to see is that the elites dont respect regular Americans at all.
I am starting to feel more and more that our country is doomed. Between the loss of faith, loss of sovereignty, low birthrate and the coming demographic tidal wave I wonder what our country will look like in even 20 years. I have yet to see any sign that people are waking up, as we are still babbling on about democracy and universal human rights.
All political movements will be co-opted; how else would they gain political power? I agree we shouldn't cheerlead the Tea Parties or anyone else, but defeats for the establishment are always useful and entertaining, even when they only lead to a new sort of establishment. In the end, there is only so much the Tea Parties can do, whatever their sentiments, because Americans are increasingly incapable of self government or good government. The people get the government they deserve, unfortunately.
My outlook is to just go cast your protest vote or lesser-of-two-evils vote every couple of years and then go home and focus on more important things.
Dr. Wilson @ 4
Here and there, where there are springs at which churches were built as settlements grew in our climes, there are yet Southern Methodist Churches. Just down the road from me is the Davis Springs Southern Methodist Church, and at the place were I once had a little school there is the Holley Springs Methodist Church (Southern) with the "Holley" spelling because it was founded by the Holley family from North Carolina. (The late Joe Adcock is buried there since his boyhood home was in that community.)
My mother, as a young girl, used to attend a union church. In the same sanctuary with the same congregation, a Methodist (Southern)minister would preach one Sunday and a Baptist (Southern)minister would preach the next. The union churches are gone in Louisiana.
The remnant of Southern Methodist Churches has a dignity and genuine piety which is gone from most Southern Baptist Churches. My family attends the Christmas and Easter services at the SMC's quite often.
Dr. Wilson,
When I saw that Mrs. Haley had won the primary and learned that she was from India, I wrote her off as another Jindal who is merely a Republican partisan with the face of diversity. I hope that your analysis is correct and that Mrs. Haley, be your analysis correct, has the opportunity to give some worthy service to South Carolina.
The spirit of Ben Cameron is alive and well in Lil' Caroline! Halleluyah!
I'm thinking of starting a Dixiecrat party in the Old Dominion.
Etienne @ 22
I was in the Old Dominion Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday giving two papers, up Warrenton way. The hospitality was great. Good luck with your proclaimed endeavor!
Dr Wilson,
Being part of the North Carolina diaspora here in God forsaken Georgia I am burdened with the tone of your piece. I have no issue with you concerning the carpetbaggers (we get half backers here-they moved to Florida from the Big Bagel then moved half way back) who have swamped North Carolina far more than South Carolina (Mouth Carolina).
I am troubled by your calling yourself a South Carolinian. You are a Guilford County boy, a Grimsley man if I recall properly and a product of the piedmont red clay that once was covered with mills and farms. North Carolina has suffered greatly in her Sanfordian pact with the devil but am I to take it that you are no longer claiming the land of your birth?
Beyond my stubborn regionalism I find the piece very well positioned. Let us do hope that this lady will not be seduced by the bright lights of the neo-con cabal and their endless numbers of lording commissars come right.
McCallum
South Carolina politics isn't boring
Two Indians as governors of Louisiana and South Carolina and a black man was governor of old Virginia. The Old Confederacy sure is changing. I have a Hindu Temple a couple miles away from me and a lot of them are moving into the neighborhood. So far I can't complain about them as neighbors. I live in a pretty Caucasian area otherwise.
#24. Mr. McCallum. In my book DEFENDING DIXIE you will find (p. 345) me endorsing this statement:
I'm a Tar Heel born
And a Tar Heel bred.
And when I die,
I'll be a Tar Heel dead.
#25, Mr. Bryan you are right about that. Other beyond-the-pale news from our primary elections that you may not have heard. The Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate was won by an unemplyed black gentleman with a pending felony charge. He did not campaign, but defeated the normal party man in the primary. It is plausibly suggested that he was paid by the Republicansm as a dirty trick.
The Democrats are nearly dead in South Carolina, being run by a few pathetic homegrown Liberal wannabees and black patronage artists who are certainly no more corrupt than most of the white Republicans. The Republican hold is firm enough that the party naturally attracts the slimy opportunists that make up most of the American population of politicians.
I thought you Southerners had a higher birthrate..I dont understand how you can be getting overwhelmed by foreigners, if that is true.
When I have gone to TN, VA or SC, I havent seen anything but a white or black face (not the case in NC - which is in real trouble unless you guys get an AZ style law).
#28 Dr. Wislon the U.S. Senate Democrat nominee is national news. Does Jim DeMint fall into the anti establishment GOP. I know Senator Coryn of Texas who wants to recruit Republicans in various State Senate races based on their broad appeal rather idealogy is critical of DeMints efforts.
I think Senator DeMint (and the same goes for Rep. Barrett) is as good a conservative as we are likely to get. They both have good voting records and high marks on immigration. However, they genuflect to Dubya when they think its helps them and to the military (which, alas, is necessary in our old-fashioned State).
This is why I always read Clyde Wilson, even if the subject is local politics, which ordinarily doesn't interest me:
"a rich carpetbagger doofus in the mould of George W. Bush"
"Barrett is as honest and as conservative as one can be and still be a Republican."
I'm sorry I can't hear "doofus" spoken out loud by Prof. Wilson, because it only really comes into its own with a Southern accent; the second quote is the best put down of Repubs I think I've ever heard.
Mr Sanjay @ #5: I am aware Dr. Fleming was referring to Massachusetts, my home state, and where I have lived all my life. Michigan doesn't end with an "s". I was being humorous.
I am employed at a manufacturing plant in New Castle, PA. I've heard several of the hourly plant workers state that if they lose their job there, they're heading for the Carolinas. The folks from around here will assimilate down there, Dr. Wilson. I see more Confederate flags flying around here than I ever saw in Wake County, NC.
Pardon - my last post should have read "Dr. Wilson", not "Dr. Fleming"
Better than voting is to buy "White Mansions" and "The Legend of Jessie James" (One 2 CD Set) at Amazon and drink some good Cabernet while you listen to it.
It will stir some good memories
#29 I am afraid you perhaps just did not look in the right places. There are entire little pockets of Mexico in Greenville for certain.
Dr. Wilson -I am afraid that I have almost fell off the band wagon of states rights. I look about me and wonder what our states would actually do with such rights - if they were truly willing to use them. With rare pockets of true conservatism we essentially swim in a sea of progressive ideology. Our states freely enslave themselves to the rubbish the Federal government panders.
#37. All that can be said is that the States are a POTENTIAL means of counter-revolution. I cannot think of any other promising tool.
Dr. Wilson @ 38
Among may of my fellow Southerners, there are far too many who have bought into Rousseau's notion of the autonomous individual with his abstract rights. This has led many to the delusion that "my gun and I" can stand against the Leviathan in "that day." Unless there is a polity, a commonwealth, a republic, a state such as South Carolina or Arizona to provide the moral, social, legal and practical framework, such statements of "courage" will be meaningless in "that day." Even with that support, as our own Southern experience has taught us, the task will be daunting.
My commitment is to continue to be the best son which I can be to my aged mother, to be the best husband which I can be to my wife of nearly forty years, to be the best father and grandfather I can be to my children and grandchild, to love and support my kith and kin, to live Christianly as a member of the Body of Christ, to be a good citizen in my local community, to keep a small garden and to keep the guns clean and ready, all of this based on the Revelation which I have been given with such understanding as Providence has deemed fit to give me.
No words which I could utter, no lines which I could write and no actions which I could take, even the most radically executed actions, could check the globalist elites, could thwart to goals of the Washington establishment or halt the march of the ideological fanatics.
Mr. Peters,
Well said, if only we could convince the majority of a state or a few states to see life, our individual responsibilities and moral duties as you describe.
My fear is that mass media and mass migration have made it too easy for those that otherwise would have ascribed to a life devoted to God, family and the local community to fall prey to the prevalent mindset of self, profit and pleasure.
I know it is darn hard to raise children with an understanding and appreciation of long held values. How does one account for mass migrations of those accustomed to looking to the government for all answers and battle the perverting influence of popular culture and still hope that we might somehow stand under the sovereignty of our states to set things right? Our communities and states are becoming and infected as the federal government.
I noticed that AP and others are reporting Haley's win in the primary in this fashion: "...In a break from the state's racist legacy, South Carolina Republicans overwhelmingly chose Nikki Haley, an Indian-American woman, to run for governor and easily nominated Tim Scott, in line to become the former Confederate stronghold's first black GOP congressman in more than a century"
Daniel @41 I read the same AP article this morning. It was the beginning paragraph. I have to wonder if the the so called reporters researched on how many Blacks and Indian-American women have been elected to congress or Governor in the New England states?
It was written out profound ignorance and hate of the former Confederacy and old South. Had true reconciliation been implemented rather than revengeful pillaging following the war to prevent Southern independence the election of Black GOP representatives would not be an anomaly.
Mrs. Haley won the primary decisively and more than likely will wind up SC's next governor. This is bad news for those of us who lived through the nightmare of eight years of misrule by Showboat Sanford, for Haley is Sanford in a skirt, an ideologue with little awareness of the needs of real people.
Of course the journalists are too dumb and too truth-averse to note that Mrs. Haley, though dark-skinned, is NOT an African and belongs to a group that was never enslaved and were high status in their native land.
The path to political success in South Carolina: Sikh and ye shall find!
Of course they'll ignore this and concentrate only on the novelty of her "status" as a woman and an "Indian" and a "rising star" in the Republican party. Meanwhile the people of the state will suffer from legislative stalemate and goofy antics in the name of "Tea Party" principles.
not to get off-topic here but in response to robert's comments following mr. sanjay's, i am convinced the three wise men, having been described as "magi" strongly suggests they would've been from a Zoroastrian tradition, and so likely Iran.