KEEPING AN OPEN MIND ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINA’S NEXT GOVERNOR …
This website has weighed in critically on S.C. lieutenant governor Henry McMaster in the past. We don’t think much of his intellectual capacity, ideological orientation, partisan affiliation or the political company he has kept in the past.
As for his policies? Well, they are undefined … meaning we’re not sure what he will advocate for or against when he takes over as governor for Nikki Haley upon her appointment as the next United States ambassador to the United Nations.
Policies matter … more than anything else, actually.
And while we suspect McMaster will provide more of the same “status quo” GOP governance, we aren’t able to say that with certainty …
After all, McMaster did surprise us this year.
Seriously … everyone expected him to join his establishment buddies and embrace the most liberal Republican in the field prior to the Palmetto State’s “First in the South” presidential primary.
He didn’t … which is why we’re where we are …
In our most recent assessment of McMaster’s prospective 2018 gubernatorial candidacy, we wrote as follows …
We’ve never really been fans … although our goal is to judge each candidate who ultimately files for governor in 2018 on the basis of what they put forward from a policy perspective, not what we think of them personally. If McMaster embraces a true change agenda, we’ll have to take that seriously …
McMaster has the chance now to advance such an agenda two years ahead of schedule. If he does, we will support him … aggressively. If he chooses to embrace failed ways of the past, we will oppose him. Also aggressively.
It’s as simple as that … but to approach his upcoming elevation to the governor’s office with anything other than an open mind would be wrong of us.
Whatever we’ve said about McMaster in the past, he deserves a chance to prove us wrong … and a chance to prove himself up to the job and worthy of the responsibilities he is about to inherit.
Of course it’s not about proving us wrong. If McMaster is serious about running for a full four-year gubernatorial term in 2018, he has no choice but to improve dramatically on the outcomes of his predecessor.