Her Name Is Dickerson

Well, this mid-term election season is turning out to be another lukewarm exercise in democracy.  The big money is on the pols that work for big money.  Here in South Carolina, most of us don't even know who is running against Tim Scott.  In fact, I just googled "Tim Scott opponent" and the first six hits were about the primary; number seven finally mentions Joyce Dickerson, but it is a summary of the upcoming primary, and only lists Dickerson with the other Democratic primary candidates.

Tim Scott was appointed by Nikki Haley, herself a proud cheerleader for the moneyed and powerful.  Scott was sure to follow quietly in the footsteps of Jim DeMint, who presided in the Senate as the king of negative and stupid for eight years.  Apparently DeMint couldn't handle the mockery and the limited financial reward of being a bought senator, so he bailed to the Heritage Institute, belying its identity as a "think tank."  At Heritage, DeMint can hide behind his title, needs not speak to non-believers, and doesn't have to pretend not to be bought.  No doubt, Scott would like to continue to follow the path of DeMint, and I will not be surprised when he resigns to be a wealthy right-wing figurehead with government connections.

With all the money flowing to Scott, it took a great deal of courage for someone to step up to oppose him, and Joyce Dickerson appears to have that courage.  She has actually spoken out against anti-abortion legislation, stating unequivocally that the government does not have the right to step in to determine a woman's reproductive decisions.  She will fight for veterans, unlike Scott, who never fails to send out flowery emails on military holidays and then votes against every bill that would improve the life of those veterans he claims to revere.  She is not afraid to fight for immigrants or for the poor, in other words, those of us who will not make her rich but deserve a better life.

Joyce understands that big money has corrupted our system of government.  The unfortunate irony is that that big money controls our elections, so that candidates like Dickerson have to fight to be heard, and are overshadowed by the millions of dollars going into keeping Tim Scott in Congress, where he will turn that investment into bigger bucks for his true constituent, big business.

It feels hopeless.  But Joyce Dickerson has taken the challenge.  So we need to do what we can to spread the word.  We need to let people know that she is running against someone who has consistently voted against the people of South Carolina.  Her web page includes Scott's voting record, which provides undeniable proof of who he is working for.  Don't be afraid to ask friends and family if they know who is running against Scott, and then tell them a little about our -- the people's -- candidate.

Share information, her website, this blog, any other information you might have, on Facebook and Twitter, because that is the low-budget way to get out the word.  And it does work.  But it takes work.

What's the Matter with Nikki?

Nikki Haley has it all:  she's smart, poised and really manipulative.  She had just as much fun flirting with Stephen Colbert as she does doing, well, just about anything she does.  And did I mention that she is manipulative?

When it comes to appearing to be warm, friendly, happy to see you and in love with life, Nikki is the best.  And she knows how to flip a tough question to her advantage, and make it sound like asking that tough question was all her idea, and at the same time, she is really glad you had the brilliant idea to ask it.

Nikki is on all the time.

She knows how to appeal to moms, businessmen, military, children, friends and enemies, the latter which she treats as warmly as her friends.

In an article in USA Today, Nikki pulls out all the stops.  She is not only a powerhouse of a governor, she is a woman that yearns for the support of her husband (who, by the way is serving in Afghanistan), eats ice cream with her kids and takes them trick or treating even though they would rather go with their dad (who, by the way is serving in Afghanistan), and because of course she is fallible just like us she locked herself out of the house -- which happens to be the Governor's Mansion.  Unlike us, she locked herself out of the house when she ran outside in her bathrobe to get a state trooper to help her figure out how to put a clip-on tie on her son.  And then she added that her husband's response was, "Really, Nikki?" (by the way, he responded via Facebook from Afghanistan where he is deployed).

I agree.  I am a single parent who had to get instructions from the internet the first time my son had to tie a tie (the trooper wasn't around), but you want me to believe you couldn't do a clip-on?

This superhuman yet feminine and fallible mom-wife-and-governor has one piece missing.  And that is what makes her the exception to the rule, you know, about women being able to run things better than men?

Nikki lacks empathy.  She has the psychopath's ability to be charming and appear caring, but if you look to her actions as governor, it is obvious that she is as shallow as, let's say, her good friend Tim Scott.

You don't have to be a mother to understand that it is wrong for children to go hungry.  Nikki's solution to the problem of hunger in South Carolina has been to try to ban sweets for food stamp recipients.  And she had no problem sending out those notices a couple of weeks ago cutting the dollar amount of food stamps because President Obama's stimulus money for the program had run out.

You don't have to have children to not want children to be needlessly sick, or die because of inadequate -- or no -- health care.  Yet Nikki Haley is proud of that fact that she is among those governors who refused three years of federally funded expanded Medicaid.  You might think she herself was making the sacrifice, and not thousands of poor women and children.  For goodness sake, Nikki, even Arizona's Jan Brewer, no fan of President Obama,

wasn't hardass enough to say no to providing federally funded Medicaid to low income uninsured residents of her state.

But, you see, Nikki has thrown in her fortunes with the powerful men who she truly admires.  She believes as purely as any old rich republican man that wealth begets wealth, and therefore it is the wealthy that require the strong protective arms of the government.

Mothers and children who don't live in the Governor's Mansion can certainly fend for themselves.  After all, they aren't the "job creators."  And by that I mean those rich folk who have created Nikki Haley and her job.  And a very nice future as well.

I feel for Vince Sheheen.  He is so totally clueless about what he is up against.  She will put him down with irresistible giggles, slay him with that sexy smile, make him look like a fool for trying to show her for her corruption.

What do we take away from all this?

A woman can do anything better than a man, including psychopathy.

It's a sad thing for all us good women, who work hard and try to do the right thing, raise our children without the taxpayer funded chefs and troopers -- oh, and health care -- that Nikki has at her disposal.  We worry when our children are sick, but we also worry when another woman's child needs food, shelter, medical care.

The only hope we have, really, is for one of those good women to step up to take Nikki on and hold her accountable.  Maybe not as her political opponent, not this time around, but in marches, on Youtube, in letters and articles.  We may not be able to fight her dollar-for-dollar, but we have values on our side.