Living in South Carolina

[You should sing the title of this post to the tune of "Living in America" by the late James Brown.]

My time in South Carolina is usually limited to seven weeks, spread out during the course of the year. Unfortunately, right now is one of those weeks (two to be exact) and I’m bored out of my mind.

I’ve decided to use the obscene amounts of free time I have to do three things: read, playing Final Fantasy XII, and read the editorial page of the local paper. My local paper is the “Post & Courier,” which in addition to being the official newspaper of the Low Country area, is apparently one of the oldest dailies in the South.

It is also…painfully right-wing. Which admittedly, makes reading the paper a combination of terribly depressing and a tad bit frustrating.

The worst part of the paper is the editorial section, and in particular, the letters to the editor, which all seem to be a variation on the these three themes:

America is teh awesome.
Democrats are teh suxor.
Republicans are l33t.
[Unfortunately, there is no internet speak in this newspaper.]

Here is an example (Name omitted):

GOP successes

The letter writer who wants to “stop Republicans” needs to read something other than left-wing blogs. I thought I was reading some liberal talking points. You need to be a little less close-minded and stop watching Rosie O’Donnell and Keith Olbermann.

I’ll tell you what the Republicans have done for the average American. George Bush signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in history. George Bush increased small-business incentives to expand and to hire new people. The operative word here is “small” not “big” business. There are a lot of average Americans who are small-business owners.

Bush is trying to permanently eliminate the marriage penalty. I know a lot of average Americans who are married.

This country has not suffered a terrorist attack since 9/11. Someone must be doing something right.

George Bush signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline. Aren’t teachers average Americans, too?

I will agree with you that politicians forget why they were elected. Unfortunately, once they’re elected, their number one goal is to get re-elected. I don’t agree with everything the Republicans have done. They haven’t come close to solving the immigration problem.

They’ve made plenty of mistakes, too. But for someone to say they can’t think of one thing the Republicans have done for the average American is blind and uninformed.

One more thing, if all the Republicans signed on to the fair tax plan, they’d keep the White House and win back Congress in 2008.

Yeah! Rudy 2008!

Ah, I am far too tired to write a meaningful response to this.

Goodnight.