Randal Wallace

It was painful to watch Mark Sanford’s press conference and to witness the fall from grace of our home grown presidential contender, the man the Republican Party had hopes of seeing lead it back from oblivion in 2012. Those hopes are  now dashed. My heart went out to Governor Sanford as I watched him genuinely suffering in front of God and the world. No question his heart was hurting. However, the situation was emblematic of why we are the minority party and, unless we change, why we are going to stay that way.

You see, the American electorate is a very forgiving bunch. They understand mistakes get made and that there are dynamics in play  that create these kind of situations. The public forgives because ,deep down, they understand that their elected leaders are really a reflection of themselves.   “There, but for the grace of God, go I” I think the old saying goes.  We aspire to be morally right in all things, but those falls from grace are who we really are. Which brings me to my point.

The public will forgive anything, except HYPOCRISY!  Nobody likes someone who sits in judgement of everbody else and then goes and does the very thing they were hollering about. I am not saying Mark Sanford behaved in that manner; however, it sure looks like the Republican Party is full of a bunch of people who do just that! Look at how many of our ” holier than thou” Republicans have lined up to kick him while he’s down.  Until that changes, we will be sitting on the sidelines. People vote for people they like and right now the public does not like us.

My political hero, Ronald Reagan, put a smiling face on conservatism. People liked him… a lot. He won over an entire generation of Americans. Reagan talked about smaller government, less taxes and YES, family values. He stuck to his principles yet you never felt like he was sitting in judgement of you if you did not live up to the ideal. 

Ronald Reagan, as does  the general nonideological public (you remember them, the one’s in the middle who really make the decisions), understood that people are not perfect.  That an entire host of circumstances create these falls from grace or a host of other imperfections in people’s lives.  That here is what we believe in and want to do,  and even if you are not perfect, we want you to come along with us. That was the “big tent” message he always preached and it was the message that always worked.

The message we keep sending at the moment is we are a party of unfeeling hypocrites. You are with us all the way or you are against us. Here are the facts. Only a certain percentage of the electorate ,on both sides ,vote on issues; the rest vote for the person they like and, right now, they don’t like us! We will only be back when we can find the person to lead us that understands that reality and puts a smiling face back on conservatism. Sadly, I do not know where the next Ronald Reagan is…..YET.

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That I am sure is a very scary thought to anyone who knows me. For me this is the most exciting thing I’ve done in a long time. The idea of being able to connect directly with the public in a meaningful way is something everybody in the political world should want to be able to do. To get your ideas out, your interests exposed and introducing to you the people  who are your neighbors that I meet as I go door to door.  They are, afterall , the real faces of Myrtle Beach.  That to me will be fun.

I hope to be able to do all of these things with this Blog. Throughout the campaign and beyond, I plan to report back to you my views on various issues we face as a community, to express opinions on different subjects, both local and of interest to me  and, as I walk the neighborhoods, introduce you to some of the interesting people I meet along the way and tell their stories.  Meeting and talking to our citizens  has always been the most enjoyable aspect of knocking on doors and listening to the fascinating stories they tell and hearing about their lives.  I’m looking forward to sharing the campaign with you.

For me, this will be a throwback to the only other thing I enjoyed in college other than politics,  Journalism. I admit, upfront, to not being up to “Sun News” standards but their reporters are  professionals and, I assure you, I am not. However, I really did enjoy my time as a student staffer on Lander University’s newspaper, “The Forum.” So I hope you will find this of interest.

I also hope you will let me know what you think. That is part of getting the information you need to make a good decision, hearing from many different people and listening to their point of view.  I am also reminded of something one of my favorite journalist told me when I was on one of my rants.

“I don’t want you to sound stupid or like you don’t know what you are talking about!”

 

So, please, if I go off on a rant, feel free to try and prevent the above from coming true,  either with a comment or an email.

As always,  if I can ever be of service to you as your Myrtle Beach City Councilman, please do not hesitate to call  843-602-3845

Thanks again,

Randal

Tags: Election, Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach City Council, Randal Wallace
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