December 17, 2012

South Carolina’s New GOP Senator Less Crazy Than the Old One

Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/timscott1/8113851894/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Rep. Tim Scott</a>/Flickr

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On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced she will appoint Rep. Tim Scott (R) to fill the seat soon-to-be vacated by Sen. Jim DeMint, who is leaving the world’s most deliberative body to take over the Heritage Foundation. The good folks at Right Wing Watch say this is just more of the same, blasting out a press release claiming Scott is “DeMint’s Double.” As Right Wing Watch notes, Scott opposes gay marriage. Scott opposes Obamacare. Scott’s campaign website features its very own “Prayer Team,” led by “Prayer Team Warriors.”

No, really, the Prayer Team was a thing. Here’s their most recent set of instructions:

  • Please pray for discernment to the Holy Spirit and for heavenly wisdom.
  • Please pray that the Lord would protect Tim, his family and staff members – for good health and safe travels.
  • Please pray for our nation and all our leaders and citizens -that we would heed the call of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways.
  • Praise God in all things and thank Him for all He is doing.

Tim Scott is a pretty conservative guy, as you’d expect from a Republican congressman from South Carolina, and he will be a pretty conservative senator. But it takes a special kind of crazy to truly replace DeMint, and Scott has given little indication that he’s got it. Scott has issued no warnings about the evils posed by single women and gay men teaching in public schools. He’s made no attempts to ban people on the Internet from talking about abortion. He hasn’t tried to put a hold on the National Women’s History Museum. And for Democrats, that’s what makes Scott so dangerous. He’s beloved by his colleagues but has an inoffensive demeanor; Jim DeMint is the guy who literally eats lunch by himself.

Meanwhile, I’ll just note that Jamelle Bouie saw Scott’s promotion coming back in March.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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