Don’t blame me, I voted for Howard the Duck

South Carolina native Stephen Colbert announced last week that he is running for president as both a Democrat and a Republican, and will campaign only in his home state.
Colbert is among the Southern-born alums of The Daily Show and used the “fake news” program to springboard into hosting his own show, The Colbert Report. If it sounds strange that the host of a fake talk show is running for president, there’s a long tradition in America of hoax political campaigns. Heck, even the comicbook character Howard the Duck ran a mock campaign back in the 1970s (not that anyone but me remembers.)
Colbert’s campaign is an obvious publicity stunt, but will probably be a fascinating lampoon of politics that might become its own form of performance art.
Curiously, there is also a long tradition of South Carolina natives running for president. Colbert, born in Charleston, is hardly the first Palmetto Stater to run for president. Democratic whipping boy John Edwards (one of the few politicos I’ve interviewed who made a positive impression on me) is from South Carolina, as is Jesse Jackson, who ran for president back in the 1980s.
And from the files of “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” let’s not forget Strom Thurmond, who ran for president as a member of the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party in 1948.
America’s seventh president (and genocidal maniac) Andrew Jackson was born near Lancaster, but later moved to Tennessee. Jackson almost came to blows with his home state in 1828 when Vice President (and also a Palmetto State native) John C. Calhoun supported a movement in South Carolina to ignore federal laws they didn’t agree with. Jackson threatened to use soldiers to put down talk of secession, and vowed to hang rebels from the highest tree in South Carolina. He was a bloodthirsty guy.
Even closer to home, Cheraw native Dizzy Gillespie ran for president in 1964 as a write-in candidate. And if you think rage at American politicians is a new thing, consider what music critic Ralph J. Gleason had to say about Gillespie’s campaign in a 1964 column:
“John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie is running for president, in case you hadn’t heard, and since we really don’t have free elections, you won’t find his name on your primary ballot.”
In 1997, Knitting Factory music label released an album titled Dizzy for President. I think it could be a great slogan for next year’s Jazz Festival in Cheraw.

MEANWHILE, we have a few local elections scheduled to take place in a few weeks. Over in Cheraw two men are campaigning to see who will follow Andy Ingram as the town’s next mayor. Andy has been involved in politics for much of his adult life and I doubt his retirement from office will mean he is bowing out of the public eye.
Here in Pageland we have a much smaller election, but one with big consequences. In District 3, Town Councilman Tommy Rivers is running against former town councilman Shane Hancock. This election has the potential to shift the current 4-3 stalemate among members of council and the mayor, which is probably not a secret. It’s up to you to determine if that’s a good thing or not.
Actually, it’s up to the people of District 2 to decide this. Single-district elections are notorious for low voter turnout, so it will be very interesting to see the results of this year’s election.

Wallace McBride,
editor