ESTABLISHMENT “REPUBLICANS” BEGIN SEIGE OF REBELLIOUS COUNTY PARTY
|| By FITSNEWS || We honestly can’t believe true supporters of freedom and free markets still believe the “Republican” is worth saving. We gave up on the GOP years ago … fed up with its (ongoing) legacy of hypocrisy on fiscal issues and its insufferable sanctimony on social ones.
In our humble opinion, it’s past time for a third way … believe us.
Amazingly, the vast majority of “conservative” activists in early voting South Carolina – dubbed the “reddest state in the nation” – still believe the GOP is worth fighting for, even as “Republican-controlled” leaders steer the ship of state further to the left.
Case in point: Greenville County, S.C. – heart of the socially conservative Upstate – where a rebellion of reform-minded GOP activists was recently put down.
Fast-forward to this week in Pickens County, S.C., another socially conservative region of the Palmetto Upstate where limited government GOP activists have experienced some success at controlling local party organizations.
According to several of these activists who attended this week’s Pickens County convention – a trio of liberal state lawmakers and a disgraced former state-level appointee conspired to take over the local party. In fact the attempted coup may have been supported at the state level – as several operatives have suggested SCGOP state director Hope Walker was supporting the effort.
The goal? To seat an estimated 40-50 new delegates – many of them rumored to be former Democratic voters – in the hopes of swinging the organization back to the left.
“The GOP establishment want Pickens to get back in line,” one operative told FITS.
According to our sources, the state party is upset with the Pickens County GOP for its repeated broadsides against establishment politicians like liberal U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who hails from nearby Seneca, S.C.
Hence the coup by left-leaning S.C. Reps. Gary Clary, Neal Collins and Davey Hiott – who believe the local party has been overtaken by Tea Partiers who are actively opposing their reelection efforts.
Assisting them? Disgraced former S.C. board of education chairwoman Kristin Maguire.
FITS readers will recall Maguire as a sanctimonious social conservative who fought to prevent South Carolina’s government-run sex education curricula from including – among other things – references to oral sex. Technically we agree with her: Government shouldn’t be funding any sex education … but Maguire was forced to resign her position on the board after this website uncovered her side career as an erotic author.
Wearing a bright red dress, Maguire repeatedly objected to the rulings of county party chairman Phillip Bowers – who refused to seat the new delegates.
She even threatened to have the convention nullified – and she may get her way.
Sources tell FITS the SCGOP’s executive committee will hear a challenge from the establishment “Republicans” who tried and failed to take over the Pickens County party. In fact, SCGOP chairman Matt Moore is apparently on board with the challenge.
“As State Chairman, I cannot stand idly by when so many Republicans were blocked from participating,” Moore told The Easley Progress. “The S.C. Republican Party State Executive Committee will meet this weekend to hear appeals and consider next steps, including but not limited to invalidating the Pickens County convention and beginning the process again with impartial officers.”
Impartial officers? We think what Moore is really trying to say is that he wants “liberal delegates who won’t get angry when GOP politicians sell out.”
Again … we don’t especially care one way or the other what happens to the Pickens GOP, the SCGOP or the Republican National Committee (RNC). Like we said, “Republicans” are dead to us.
We bring up the issue because it’s instructive of the futility of trying to change the “Republican” party.
18 comments
Yeah the SC Republican Party is really a bastion of
“LIBERALISM”
Do you really believe that anybody .except for some of the regular Right Wing goofs who blab here,buys into that kind of Silliness.
Just because one group of Right Wing nuts is battling another group that’s even nuttier doesn’t make them “liberals”
Of course you Right Wingers live in an Orwellian world anyway.Words are meaningless and simply tossed around with wild abandon.
Hey why not just call em Damn Commies?
I heart your screen name.
They’ve been calling us commies for a while now, darlin’.
She wouldn’t allow reference to oral? Oh my – she’d be very upset with Grand Tango – he references it nearly every post. On a side note, I love when RINOs and Tea-jadists fight – it’s so entertaining.
Could someone explain why this makes any difference? Do the voters ever know or care about what happens at a party convention.
No one want’s to go to a party convention. They want to raise money, ask for your views and never change a damn thing. I ripped up at least 10 plus mailings from Republican party. I never registered Republican? I simply voted and contributed at one point.
I have asked repeatedly to be taken off the list. They don’t give a care what I have to say. They simply want money to perpetuate the divide. Are we not divided enough? Hey – I personally think Obama did a FANTASTIC job of dividing America, but I am not on that band wagon. I still have hope people can think for themselves.
Outside these petty party issues, we are all human. Throw a pebble in a pond – the ripple effect. That is how we interact. Should we destroy the pond by colliding, or should we work to find some common ground?
Who is responsible? We are.
If you don’t want to be a republican then get the hell out. Quite writing about it and run on the teaparty or libertarian ticket. Just quit your bitchin and find your own way. If you want to make a change, run for office and quit writing this column.
This blog is his way. He has a following without having to run for office or the accountability of public office.
I’d vote for him, at least he is predictable – at least for now?
Most of us have lost faith in the Republican Party. We are looking for an exit or the nearest thing. We are finding our own way – thanks for illuminating the way Torch.
Charleston County, as well.
https://libertytreeprecinctproject.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/repel-the-squid-2/
The Concerned Citizens of Pickens County have also hijacked the Pickens County GOP over raising taxes!
This is an extension of the conflict on the School Board. The Republican Party Chairman is a School Board member and many of those who showed up part of group lobbying the board to increase taxes. They have referred to those who are against raising taxes as “Timothy McVeighs”. Bad blood all the way around.
“Government shouldn’t be funding any sex education”
Ladies and gentlemen, the shark has been jumped.
All I can say, what a bunch of shit from Matt Moore. Truth is Phillip Bowers is not “status quo” with Republican party. He does believe in transparency to the best of my knowledge.
I don’t know all that goes on in Pickens, but I reached out to Phil Bowers long before shit hit the fan. IMHO he is one of the good guys. THAT is why they don’t like him.
Call him, email him, do whatever it takes to put your heart to rest, but keep in mind, how much shit are you willing to suck up for a chair?
Is the goal to destroy GOP? Well, If there is a 3rd party I think Mr. Bowers (whom I have never met, only electronically via updates) – just might be the man.
If they really want Pickens back in line, then WTF not fire Sen. Martin. This is all bullshit and political posturing. Not on the part of FITS, but maybe Matt Moore? What a load of crap for those of us who live here.
Isn’t it Sayre’s Law which states in most arguments “the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake?”
The Chairman wants “liberal delegates”?? Dude, you really are an F-ing idiot. Just saying.