The Corruption Probe Here at Home

Last week I went international and talked about the atrocities occurring in Somalia and Myanmar. Tonight, I�m going to go local and talk about another atrocity of a different sort. This atrocity does not involve genocide or terrorism, but it does involve corruption and a breach of democracy.

A few hours ago, former state representative Jim Harrison lost his law license amid a corruption probe within the South Carolina State House being investigated by the FBI. Harrison is one of five Republican representatives being investigated in a case that is expanding and extends to multiple branches of our state government. These House Republicans are being accused of accepting bribes from GOP strategist Richard Quinn and not disclosing the transaction on campaign disclosure forms. Harrison received $900,000 alone while a representative from Myrtle Beach supposedly received $300,000 from Quinn.

            This probe, uncovered by my friend Will Folks from FitsNews in 2014, has damaged our state�s political system recently causing both the Speaker of the House and the House Majority Leader to resign with over thirty charges pressed between the two. Speaking of FitsNews, they have done a very good job in covering this story recently and detailing the scope of this probe.

            In the future, we can expect more accusations and more convictions as the probe reaches deeper into the pit of corruption and deceit within our government. The next person to reach the chopping block, in my opinion, will be Attorney General Alan Wilson, who Quinn had directly bragged about his influence over.

            I could have talked about a whole plethora of stories tonight, as our country is rapidly changing and new problems arise daily. But 2018 is approaching and the GOP majority of this state�s electorate need to take notice of the corruption within our leadership and kick them out of power. If we continue to elect corrupt leaders who listen to a wealthy donor before acknowledging the people they represent, we are enabling an aristocracy to exist. We have to vote people like Harrison out and put somebody else in. This is not me telling you to vote against your party. In fact, my message is non-partisan on this issue. The voters in this state and across the country too often vote based on the �D� or �R� next to a candidate�s name on the ballot. That allows irresponsible people to become powerful. That has helped fuel the divide in our country. Too often, our citizens put party before country and completely turn away from people who try to share a different opinion or suggest that their candidate may not be everything they claim to be.

In other news, CNN put out a very good commercial this week that subtly fired back at the people (specifically the President) who have been calling them, �fake news.� Also, there is a tension that is steadily rising in the Republican party on Capitol Hill that will boil over in the future as more senators join Flake and Corker in their defiance of the President. I will be grabbing my popcorn for that one. That�s all for this week. I ended this article quite abruptly because life moves abruptly and I have abruptly felt a wave of exhaustion crash over me and suddenly I want to sleep. 

This is the CNN commercial I was talking about.