America’s political reality show coming to town: Do more than shout ‘You lie!’ | Opinion
Here they come. Act busy.
The free world will be descending on South Carolina after this week’s Democratic primary in New Hampshire.
Nevada will hold its caucus (can I say that word in public?) on Feb. 22, and then comes the “first in the South” Democratic primary here on Saturday, Feb. 29.
South Carolina Republicans are not holding a presidential primary this year, but still, the next few weeks are the best of times to be a South Carolinian.
People from all over America actually want to know what we’re thinking.
At all other times, they think we don’t even have the ability to think, so they don’t care what we think, unless a civil war ensues.
So, let’s think. How are we going to handle this?
If Joe Biden loses in South Carolina, it will be a shot heard around the world. He’s always been ahead in the polls, but he’s slipping.
And, this being South Carolina and all, shenanigans are already afoot. Republican leaders are urging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary, and to vote for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
They say it is because President Donald Trump could more easily beat Sanders. And they say it is to push Democratic state legislators to close primaries in this state, where we don’t register by party and can vote in any primary we choose.
But this is minor shenanigans for the state that gave Lee Atwater to the national political stage.
Still, it’s just starting, so fasten your seat belt.
Will we award star power to Biden, Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer or Amy Klobuchar?
By now, we’re used to making stars.
This is the state that gave Ronald Reagan his boost into history, beating John Connally and George H.W. Bush in the first-ever South Carolina Republican primary in 1980. That sent Connally packing.
Maybe he should have gotten a hint when he made a long-delayed speech one night at the Hilton Head Inn. While the crowd waited, the bar was open. When the tall Texan finally made it to the stage, he was heckled to the point that he said his father told him to never make a speech at a football game or a cocktail party. Good night.
You could also say that Barack Obama was launched into history in South Carolina. The skinny U.S. senator from Illinois beat favorite Hillary Clinton by more than 25 percentage points in 2008, and she never recovered.
Beaufort County is always a must-stop for the candidates, and often some of their kin.
It’s given us some interesting moments, like the day Obama spoke in the Battery Creek High School gym and his wife, Michelle, packed the much smaller house: Central Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church on Hilton Head.
Bill Clinton — a regular visitor to Hilton Head Island as a sitting president — was stumping for wife Hillary in 2008 when he told an audience at the Penn Center on St. Helena Island: “A lot of mean things have been said about Hillary over the years, mostly because she’s been married to me.”
In 2015, candidate Donald Trump gave an audience at Sun City Hilton Head the cell phone number of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, back when they were calling each other boneheads, or something similar. And our Liz Farrell reported that moments later a dude jumped up to interrupt the Donald’s rambling speech: “It says Lindsey Graham is unavailable!”
Locals are still laughing about the time candidate Walter Mondale was served boiled shrimp in Beaufort and proceeded to crunch down on it, shell and all.
These next few weeks offer us a chance to see the reality show of American politics in person. Every four years, they seem to care what we think. They’ll poll us every minute. The media will draw deep meaning from our diners, drive-ins and dives.
Will we ask intelligent questions? Or will we shout, “You lie!”
Don’t blow it.
(Update: This column was updated Feb. 9 to correct the name of the candidate who ate the shrimp in Beaufort.)
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
