I would vote for Mark Sanford over 90% of the Republicans currently in Congress.
Not because he is necessarily a better man than them. But because I know that he would actually do the job he was elected to do.
He already has the record to prove it.
I vote for candidates who I believe, or hope, or pray, will vote for fiscal restraint, small government and the Constitution.
Most Republicans do not do this. Hardly any Republicans have ever done this.
Our $16 trillion debt did not begin with Obama. The last time Republicans were in charge, they doubled the debt and the size of government.
Most Republicans currently in Congress aided and abetted this. TARP, stimulus, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Plan D—any expensive, big government item you can name—if a Republican President was behind it, most Republicans supported it.
Sanford is not one of them. He never has been one of them. Ron Paul earned the nickname “Dr. No” for often being the sole “no” on so many votes. When Sanford was in the House, the congressional scorecard often featured two “no” votes—Paul and Sanford.
Even those who disagree with Ron Paul know that he is politically principled. The same can be said—and right now should be said, as a stark reminder—about Sanford.
I was born and raised in Charleston, and during my decade of commentary on 96 Wave and WTMA talk radio, I would rant and rave about my ideal conservative Republican. Someone who actually voted the way he talked on the campaign trail. Who would stand by the Constitution even if it meant standing against his party.
On Tuesday, South Carolina District 1 will have a chance to vote for exactly the kind of Republican I always said we needed. We need this type of leader today more desperately than ever.
This is not a commentary on Sanford’s personal failings. This is about policy. This is about how a representative will vote. This is about the future and what’s at stake as America stares down a $16 trillion debt with no end in sight.
By all accounts, President Obama is a good family man. I do not care. His policies are badly damaging this country.
By all accounts, Elizabeth Colbert-Busch seems like a nice lady. I’m even a fan of her brother’s television show.
Still, I do not care. How will she vote? Like Obama and the rest of her party. We know it. She knows it.
If Sanford is better than 90% of Republicans, than he is certainly better than 99.9% of Democrats.
Most elections come down to personality, attacks and peripheral things that, once the campaign is over, will have nothing to do with how that leader votes. Colbert-Busch ended the SC 1 debate saying that the “sky is not falling,” mocking Sanford’s concern over a $16 trillion debt.
No surprise there. She belongs to a party that has always believed we can have as much government as we want—to hell with the cost. Most Republicans have behaved in the exact same manner.
Sanford has never belonged to either group.
On Tuesday, SC 1 voters can choose someone who will simply be another part of problem in Washington, another cog in the big government machine…
Or someone who has proven—time and again, in Congress and as Governor—that he will stand on principle no matter the odds.
As an American, I fear for our economic future. As a Charlestonian, I know we have the opportunity to send a proven leader to Washington with the guts to challenge the status quo.
In fact, I think Mark really enjoys challenging the status quo. It’s something I’ve always liked and admired about him.
Most Americans in most congressional districts throughout the country have to settle for whatever unprincipled hack they’re presented with. Not SC 1. We’re lucky.
In most elections, voters are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. If “evil” is judged by how the winner of this election will actually vote in Congress, we are presented with a clear choice—a Democrat who will vote as horribly as most Democrats, or a Republican who will uniquely vote as a true conservative Republican should, unlike most in his party.
There are not two evils in this race. There is only one.
And then there is Mark Sanford.