South Carolina

"Making the trains run on time" has long been a kind of excuse for supporting the neatness of authoritarian rule. There were-- until Pearl Harbor-- lots of Americans who enthusiastically and openly supported fascism. In 1933 a Nazi from organization, Friends of New Germany, was active in New York and Chicago, spreading fascist propaganda. Two years later it morphed into the German American Bund, led by Fritz Julius Kuhn, a nationalized American-- like Trump's grandfather. It was most active in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The video above is a pre-announcement of Mark Sanford's run-- or possible run-- for president. He handed out his office number for people to call him. I did. A handler eventually agreed to pass my name and number along to him.Sanford comes from a whacky Florida family. His wealthy parents-- dad was a cardiothoracic surgeon-- insisted the whole family share one bedroom during the summers in order to save electricity. That vignette actually helps people understand who Sanford is politically.

Remember when everyone had to learn how to spell Buttigieg because it looked like McKinsey Pete was a real contender? Don't worry if you didn't quite get the knack yet. This was a NY Post headline yesterday: Buttigieg receives 0 percent support from likely black voters in South Carolina: poll.

By NoahSouth Carolina is one of the few states that I've never been to but, really, why would I want to go there? They keep voting for Lindsey Graham to represent them and represent them he does. That should say enough. That's democracy for ya, in a state that's chock full of people who want to secede from this country, again!

The most recent poll of South Carolina primary voters-- actually a registered voters poll by Emerson-- was about a month and a half ago. South Carolina is different from the states we usually look at.

JoeI got an e-mail yesterday from Joe Cunningham, a freshman from the most progressive area of South Carolina. The subject line was "Howard -- Could we talk about the GOP's strategy to beat me?" Here's the letter and my response. Was I too harsh?-----Original Message-----From: Joe Cunningham To: Howard Klein Sent: Wed, Feb 20, 2019 9:06 amSubject: Howard -- Could we talk about the GOP's strategy to beat me?

Donald Trump and John Kasich face off at a 2016 presidential primary debate (Joe Raedle/Getty Images; source)by Gaius PubliusI normally don't follow the predictable machinations of Republicans, partly because there's a national industry these days to do that for me, and partly because that's not where the actual action is.

Yesterday in this time slot, we looked at the most unexpected congressional win of 2018, Kendra Horn's in Oklahoma City. But there was an almost an unlikely a win in another deep red state: South Carolina. OK-05 has a PVI of R+10... and so does SC-01.

Joe Cunningham (SC) & Amy McGrath (KY)-- their races will be the 1st reported. If they both win, the  Republicans will lose 60 seatsNext Tuesday we may have an idea how big the wave is going to be because of something that happens in South Carolina. SC-01 is, generally speaking, the coast-- not counting the stretch from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach and the North Carolina border.

Too extreme for the Scouth Carolina Democratic establishment?A question that often comes up in the comments section-- which has about 3 regular commenters-- is about why anyone (myself generally) could assert the Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party. Wishful thinking, mostly... although the Democrats aren't really as bad as the Republicans have become.