I haven’t been a registered SC voter in years but I can’t imagine having a functioning brain and voting for him.
Will any of you actually vote for McMaster?
- Thread starter ForzaTigre
- Start date
That’s the thing. This is much like the 2016 election for me. How crappy can all the options be in November?
OP, Oct 17 was the last day to register to vote in SC....thanks for doing your part again!
Yea, I'll hold my nose and vote for him just like the presidential election. What choice do we have? What kind of nut job identifies themselves as a democrat in this era?
James Smith is not your typical Democrat. He has an A rating from the NRA so he won't take your guns. He has consistently worked across the aisles to pass legislation. He does not support SCE&G but has tried to help the customers. He consistently supports teachers and education. Governor Mcmasters is representative of the good old boy system in Columbia that does nothing but waste our tax dollars. If you want change, you have to vote change.
Smith is a good guy and several Republican legislators told me they like him and can work with him. They said the same about Sheheen. I like his views. So I’m voting for him. McMaster is too arbitrary for me. The same legislators said that McMaster is a breath of fresh air compared to Haley because he works with them. Not sure if that is good or bad. I think we are OK with either.
But McMaster’s greatest attribute is his accent. Almost as good as Hollings.
But McMaster’s greatest attribute is his accent. Almost as good as Hollings.
I would vote for no one other than vote for him. I lean to the right but some of you should actually read about other candidates rather than say they’d never vote for the opposite party.
Voting for James Smith, no hesitation.
He’s the only candidate with whom I’ve been able to have an intelligent discussion regarding Net Neutrality. Was impressed with his understanding of the issue. Displayed to me that he’s looking forward to what SC can be rather than maintaining a stranglehold on the status quo.
He’s the only candidate with whom I’ve been able to have an intelligent discussion regarding Net Neutrality. Was impressed with his understanding of the issue. Displayed to me that he’s looking forward to what SC can be rather than maintaining a stranglehold on the status quo.
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I do NOT like McMaster. Not. One. Bit. But he is beholden to a conservative base - in theory. So he will listen to the conservatives - again in theory.
That said -
Some of you guys are selling me re James Smith. Not to vote for him necessarily, but to at least give him a look.
ETA - on the surface I question the NRA A rating. This is from his website:
Advocating for Common Sense Gun Safety
James believes in a South Carolina that’s stands with our youth and he was proud to stand with them at the March for our Lives rally in Columbia. As Governor, James will sign legislation that:
- Closes the Charleston loophole
- Bans bump stocks and trigger cranks
- Requires universal background checks, including for gun show sales
- Makes it a crime to threaten use of a weapon on school grounds
- Restricts retail sales of military-style assault weapons, including AR-15s
- Introduces individual responsibility measures requiring owners of military-style assault weapons to be responsible for safekeeping and reporting stolen weapons promptly
These are things that the NRA does not like. ICCL about bump stops and trigger cranks.
WTF is the Charleston Loophole?
Background checks - meh
Okay with the fourth one
Not cool with #5
Not cool with #6 (sounds good until you think about it and how politicians think)
And if these are not consistent with his earlier views, then he is most likely flip-flopping to get votes.
But will he listen to the ones that do?
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One thing on McMaster is that he is a hardcore advocate of sticking to the state Constitution. He veto'd the merger of the Orangeburg County School Districts because of a constitutional issue. The veto got overridden, thereby assuring that I will do everything in my power to never live in Orangeburg county while I have school-age children.
The point is - you have to look at WHY people do things.
I'm no McMaster apologist by any means. Been reading up on Smith, but I don't like everything I see. But some of it sounds good.
The trick is to try to see if he has a chance in hell of doing it, or if it's all just words.
My personal opinion is that new taxes should only be put in place if they can take something else out. My company can't just ask our customers for more money to provide the same service. State Government should be the same way. Set the input at a fixed value and do what's most important.
But both sides of the aisle have problems with that.
On the plus side for Smith - the Lt Governor candidate he chose is cute....
James Smith is a great guy and will make a great governor. As for whether he has an A rating from the NRA....what difference does it make? The governor of South Carolina has no power whatsoever to override the Second Amendment. The governor has no power to raise taxes either. The governor of this state barely has any power at all. McMaster is a 71 year old, do nothing politician. He won't get my vote.
Two counterpoints:
1) You can't ask for more money if you're improving services?
2) You can't ask for more money if you're not profitable at your given price?
The gas tax was, ostensibly at least, to improve our roads. That's something that wasn't being done before. Our federal budget has a deficit either because revenues aren't high enough or because we're spending too much. In that situation the federal government is either going to raise their prices or provide less services. I don't think your example of your company is very accurate.
Smith joined the United States Army Reserve in January 1996 as a Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) officer, transferring to the South Carolina Army National Guard in the same role in August 1998. In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Smith resigned his commission and enlisted as an infantryman, beginning basic training.[2] In February 2007, Smith deployed to Afghanistan as an infantry officer, part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He served as a combat advisor to Afghan National Security Forces in remote areas of southern Afghanistan. During his 12 month tour, he received the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and Purple Heart. He remains a member of the South Carolina Army National Guard, at the rank of Major.[1]
Nope - not if the customer already expects that service at the current price. In the corporate world, the customer goes to someone else. In business you find a way, and you cut costs somewhere else. Get more efficient, and do more with less.
In politics, they vote for the guy you've spent millions trying to convince them is a dumbass.
As to the second part - I bolded your answer. Road maintenance should be in the budget already. If we went over that line item, pull from something else.
The point is you can't just ask for more money every time you want to do something. We The People are not an endless money tree. You have to look at the budget as a whole and find the money. Compromise. Figure out what you value and what you can live without. And I'd bet there is a TON of shit in there we can live without.
At the Federal level - probably a million metric ****-tons.
Were there any state constitutional questions on the gas tax? Because, as I stated, McMaster is a stickler for that apparently.
The customer does not always go to someone else. Netflix has raised prices and no one left. TONS of companies raise prices for reasons other than inflation and they don't go out of business. None of this makes any sense.
You're certainly entitled to your opinions on how a government should be run. I've worked big companies on $270,000,000 expansions and sometimes you just have to pay more for what already promised. I feel like your argument is either so idealistic/naive as to be inaccurate or being made in bad faith.
Also, you said in your original post "My company can't just ask our customers for more money to provide the same service." but you're saying it's totally fine to pay the same money for less service?
I can understand how the price might go up on a building expansion, or in the construction industry in general. "Sir, we didn't have a way to know that there is a gigantic rock slab here and it's gonna be more money to move it." Shit happens in construction. Mother Nature can be a bitch. I get it.
My point is that, with politics, the answer seems to always be "let's increase taxes!" rather than "let's see where we can get the money from within the budget." or "let's put it in the budget next year and take from somewhere where there is excess." And that crap gets old. Especially when those taxes never seem to go away. And I wasn't just talking about the roads issue.
It would be different if state budgets didn't have so much crap in them already.
Here's the problem:
You add the tax. The roads are fixed. Okay, everything seems great. But then two problems come up:
1) Will the tax ever go away? Probably not. (If it does then I MIGHT not object too much)
2) What happens when the roads need fixing again? Probably another tax.
As for Netflix - they are growing pretty fast so it's hard to see if they are losing customers but I've seen some data that suggests they have lost some. In truth their main competition is cable as much as it is Hulu/Prime/etc, and they are still a deal.
I have considered cancelling it though because the programming seems to suck lately.
No way I can vote for an abortion apologist. Voting McMaster. Not surprising, I know.
McMaster is not everything I'd like him to be, but I don't think in this day and age putting any dem in office is safe. They all, ultimately cow down to their leadership; which are bat-shit crazy. Even if he were a decent governor, he could parley this into a senate run at some point and that would be dangerous for the reason above. jmo.
McMaster is not everything I'd like him to be, but I don't think in this day and age putting any dem in office is safe. They all, ultimately cow down to their leadership; which are bat-shit crazy. Even if he were a decent governor, he could parley this into a senate run at some point and that would be dangerous for the reason above. jmo.
2) Roads aren't just permanently fixed. I'd imagine that the tax goes to keeping our roads in decent shape. You can be aggravated about the way we're taxed; I am too sometimes. It's just silly, though, to say that the Government needs to act like a business. For one, you've acknowledged that you've got plenty of exceptions to businesses needing to act like businesses. More importantly, the government is not a business and should not act like one. A businesses prime directive is to make profit and the government's is the welfare of its citizens. Sometimes that requires more taxes and sometimes it doesn't.
McMaster is someone who, at best, is an ideologue about taxes to the detriment of South Carolinians. He'd rather stand on bad faith principles than raise taxes so that we don't have the worst roads in the country. Sometimes things cost things.
You still don't get my meaning.
By act like a business, I mean be fiscally responsible. Businesses don't operate like there is an endless fountain of money they can take from. Governments tend to do that.
Plus the government could stand a good lesson in "Lean manufacturing." Get more efficient. Do more with less. When is the last time "government" and "efficiency" were used in the same sentence when it didn't involve blowing something up?
Sometimes a new tax is needed. But if the state government hasn't properly budgeted for road maintenance that is a massive failure. And a new tax should be a last resort.
Were I governor, I would probably veto any proposed new tax at least once, unless they can prove to me that there isn't another way to get the money.
I checked out Smith's website. Same shit I see from just about any other democrat.
He has some good concepts but no plans on how to implement them.
Concepts like "We need to improve education!" No shit. Tell me how.
"Better jobs." Bold strategy Cotton. Let's see how it plays out.
And McMaster has basically the same stuff. He does have a little more info on how he plans to DO this stuff. Will it work? No idea.
And McMaster does address roads/infrastructure.
