News Update: State Sen. Tom Davis
A conservative populist revolt There will be a march in Washington on September 12 to protest recent federal government actions – runaway spending, unsustainable borrowing, trillions of dollars in debt being passed on to future generations, attempts to nationalize health care and enact a ruinous cap-and-trade bill, the bailouts – and I will participate alongside thousands of other South Carolinians. America’s tradition should always be one of expanding individual liberty, but in recent years we have seen our federal government veer dramatically from the principles on which it – and this nation – was founded. And what we have seen in the past 200 days has been shocking. Our elected leaders seem hell-bent on deforming the relationship between the citizen and the state. I’m glad to see senators and congressmen so shaken by the raw town-hall meetings held in recent days to the proposal to nationalize health care (one-sixth of our nation’s economy). These politicians are not used to dealing with outraged individuals who have finally had enough, and their education on how far the policies now being pushed in Washington have drifted from the American mainstream is long overdue. The politicians in Washington tell us this anger is not genuine, that it is being whipped up by special interest groups. They’re wrong. I know that they’re wrong because I hear that anger at the community forums I regularly hold in Beaufort County. Folks from all over our county – from Hilton Head to Bluffton to Sun City, from Port Royal to Beaufort to Fripp Island – are furious. They realize something that makes America unique in the world is being lost. Actually, it’s those politicians who are beholden to the special interest groups. They have the usual suspects on board – PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), the AHA (American Hospital Association), AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), and the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons – leaning toward endorsement). But what they don’t have are the people those groups say they represent.
Look at the AARP. It has kind words for a health care plan that would cut several hundred billion dollars over ten years from Medicare, even though that plan is opposed by seniors more than any other age group. My constituents in Sun City who speak eloquently and intelligently against the plan are a far more authentic voice for seniors than the leadership of the AARP busy selling them out. And as members of Congress are discovering during their summer recess, cutting deals with the special interest group’s lobbyists to cram nationalized health care down the throats of Americans will not be enough – not when they are facing a genuine grass-roots revolt by people who are being ignored by everyone who is supposed to be representing them. The populism we are now witnessing has long been part of American politics. And while liberal intellectuals preach the virtues of populism when their leaders direct it against “the malefactors of great wealth,” they cry foul when it is turned against the aggrandizing of federal power. The stakes now are very high, and Mark Steyn puts it well: “When governments annex a huge chunk of the economy, they also annex a huge chunk of individual liberty. You fundamentally change the relationship between the citizen and the state into something closer to that of junkie and pusher – and you make it very difficult ever to change back. Americans face a choice: They can rediscover the animating principles of the American idea – of limited government, a self-reliant citizenry, and the opportunities to exploit your talents to the fullest – or they can join most of the rest of the Western world in terminal decline. To rekindle the spark of liberty once it dies is very difficult.” Those of us heading to Washington DC on September 12 seek to remind our elected federal officials of those “animating principles of the American idea.” Of course, they may well decide to continue “annexing all the responsibilities of adulthood” (Steyn again). But if they do, the flames of the conservative populist revolt will burn even brighter, and there will be hell to pay come election time. Tom Davis is the state senator for Beaufort County.
LIBPA scholarship awarded to Bill Evans in Leadership Beaufort Each year the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce conducts a program entitled “Leadership Beaufort” designed to identify key individuals in the Beaufort community and to connect them with prominent civic, business and government leaders to allow a better understanding of how our community works. The program is conducted over a 10 month period and requires seven Fridays and two full weekends. In support of this program the Lady’s Island Business and Professional Association (LIBPA) contributes $350 of the program’s enrollment fee for a Lady’s Island attendee. Bill Evans was selected to receive LIBPA support of his attendance in this year’s program. Mr. Evans and his wife Melissa reside on Lady’s Island. He is the Beaufort County School District School Community Relations Director and has served as principal of Hilton Head High School, Beaufort High School and Battery Creek High School prior to assuming his present position. He is active in the community and has been elected to serve as president of a Rotary Club this year. In addition to financial assistance with the Leadership Beaufort enrollment fee, LIBPA gives each individual selected a one year complementary membership in the Lady’s Island Business and Professional Association. We offer our congratulations to Mr. Evans and to both he and his wife, thank you for your contribution to the Beaufort community.
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