Trump’s puppeteers are helping Bernie in the SC Democratic primary
“We’d like to have a hand in helping the president by giving him an avowed socialist to face in November,” said Ron Tamaccio, former chairman of the Greenville Tea Party.
You may have heard about this, but it’s getting serious now: Tea Party and Republican operatives in South Carolina are telling GOP party loyalists to crash the Democratic Primary and vote for Bernie Sanders in the February 29th primary. It’s called Operation Chaos and they’re not even pretending to hide their plot which is being carried out by Tea Party groups, GOP operatives, and right-wing radio.
- “Bernie Sanders is the most socialistic, liberal candidate running,” said Nate Leupp, the Greenville County GOP party chair and the leader of this scheme.
- “GOP Voters Should Help Sanders in February 29th Dem Primary,” screams one SC Tea Party website.
- “I think we can easily affect the outcome,” GOP operative Leupp told The Post and Courier.
There is nothing we can do to stop Republicans and Tea Party operatives from their dirty tricks. After all, in South Carolina’s open primary, even Republicans are allowed to vote in the Democratic Primary. But Democrats and Independent voters in South Carolina can come out en masse and overwhelm them by voting for anyone—and that means anyone—other than Republicans’ preferred choice: Bernie Sanders.
Why do Republicans so desperately want to make Sanders the nominee?
Why does the Trump team call Sanders their “ideal Democratic opponent?” Three reasons:
His politics: He’s a far left socialist who has said on camera, “Of course I’m a socialist.” He’s so far out of the mainstream that Sanders even fought to elect candidates from the Socialist Workers Party for president. The stated goal of the Socialist Workers Party was “the abolition of capitalism through the establishment of a Workers and Farmers Republic.” Tea Party operatives know that today socialism is viewed unfavorably by Americans by a 34-point margin.
His policies: His major proposals cost $60 trillion and would double the size of the federal government (while his tax plans fall $27 trillion short of paying for it). There’s a reason that when pressed on the cost of his plans – and how he would pay for them – Sanders simply refuses to answer. Sanders told CNN that Americans would be “delighted to pay more in taxes” to fund his huge new government programs.
His past: Whether it’s his embrace of the former Soviet Union or Fidel Castro’s Cuba, or his call to abolish the CIA or cut the military budget in half, Sanders’ past writings range from the fringe to the down-right bizarre.
So Trump knows that once Sanders’ views are exposed, Trump wins the White House again … AND Tea Party Republicans sweep to power down ballot—in races for the Senate, the House, for governor, and for state legislatures. And not just in South Carolina, but just about everywhere.
But there’s hope. Some courageous South Carolina Democrats have spoken up:
- “South Carolinians don’t want socialism,” US Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham.
- “There is an issue with the Republican Party conspiring to vote for the weakest candidate, they've said that publicly and that is Bernie Sanders," State Senator Marlon Kimpson.
- “Bernie Sanders will get trounced [in] the ENTIRE South,” former State Representative Bakari Sellers tweeted.
- "Bernie does not resonate in South Carolina," former State Representative Boyd Brown said. "He'd be doing us all a favor if he just got lost."
- “Nominating Bernie Sanders will not just re-elect Donald Trump but it is also a direct threat to important congressional & state down ballot races like Joe Cunningham and many others,” tweeted State Representative Leon Stavrinakis.
In 2016, no one really examined Senator Sanders. His opponents assumed he’d lose, and he did. But the first two states in 2020 showed that when his record is scrutinized—when voters learn, for example, how unpopular his big-spending, high tax ideas would be in a general election—support craters. Remember, so far in 2020, Sanders lost half of his 2016 vote totals in Iowa and New Hampshire.
South Carolina Democrats made the right choice in 2016 for Hillary Clinton, the right choice in 2008 for Barack Obama, and the right choice in 1992 for Bill Clinton. Now, Trump’s puppeteers in the Tea Party and among his most fervent GOP supporters are interfering in South Carolina’s effort to make the right choice in 2020.