Highest Concentration of Power
“We have the highest degree of concentration of power and secrecy in the country. Nowhere else in the United States are politicians so out of control,” said Ashley Landess, President of the South Carolina Policy Center, while speaking at the Republican Women’s Luncheon, Thursday, January, 22.
The South Carolina Policy Center is a non-partisan public policy research organization located in Columbia, SC. One of the issues and concerns she spoke of during the luncheon was a policy that they discovered by accident pertaining to Bobby Harrell, SC’s Speaker of the House.
“Statute is clear. Public officials are not allowed to appoint family members to committees that they supervise. They aren’t allowed to appoint family members and then be responsible for disciplining those family members. That’s the law, that’s not my interpretation of it. It doesn’t require interpretation,’ said Landess.
The concern that Landess speaks of is the appointment of John Harrell to the Judicial Merit Selection Committee, a committee that chooses SC judges. Other ethical issues that Landess addressed toward Bobby Harrell is the documented hundreds of thousands of dollars the Speaker transferred into his personal account from his campaign account.
“There’s been no investigation. There have been no discussions,” said Landess. “We have a speaker of the house who has taken a great deal of power.”
Landess doesn’t believe there will be any ethics reform until the judges are independent from the legislature.
“There can be no check on corruption when the legislature controls the executive branch, because you can’t hold 170 people accountable,” said Landess
An overall concern of Landess is the concentration of power in the state. She believes that wherever there is power and secrecy, there will always be corruption. Landess is aware of the obstacles that come when challenging the system. When challenging the system, those that are challenged will say that the opposition is being negative and headstrong on destroying the state.
“We’ve been accused of wanting to tear our state down. I do not want to destroy South Carolina. This is my home. This is where I live. This is where I choose to draw my line in the sand and stand up for my country,” said Landess.
Believing that the first steps to fixing the country starts in fixing the states, Landess sees the chains that come with accepting federal funding.
“It starts with your politicians. They are the ones that accept billions of dollars in federal tax money. And most of the money that they send down to South Carolina is not only not ours, but it’s debt. We have to say ‘No’. It starts at home,” said Landess.
One problem that needs to be fixed, according to Landess, is the concentration of power with the decision making within the state. Not being able to vote for the Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Senate Finance Chairman places three politicians in highly influential positions of power that are not elected statewide.
“Practically speaking, that is who controls your state. There is billions of dollars of road money, an executive branch function that ought to be controlled by your governor, controlled by a couple of legislators who funnel it into an infrastructure bank. There’s a reason that we’ve been rated as having the most dangerous roads in the country. 31 counties in the state of South Carolina have not received a dime from the state infrastructure bank. A handful of other counties, including Charleston, have received billions of dollars. That’s why all of government, all of the executive branch, needs to be controlled by the governor. One person, elected by everyone, managing state government,” said Landess.
A fear of Landess’ that she has developed after hearing alarming stories from how politicians view their role in government, is how they will pass the Medicaid expansion. The views that scare her from politicians are their thoughts that they are in their position to control, design, and change things. Believing that they try to succeed these beliefs in private, Landess believes that Medicare expansion will be passed without most politicians knowing that they voted on it through the budget.
“That’s where they’re going to do it. It probably won’t be a law that you can fight and call your representative about. It may very well be in the budget. Half the people that are in that State House may never know it’s there. That’s why we have pushed to enforce the open budget process law,” said Landess.
The goal for Landess is to make SC the freest state in America and she believes the power rests in the hands of the people, not the politicians. Until citizens stop putting politicians on a pedestal and treating them like celebrities, Landess believes that we won’t see change. She believes that we should treat them like employees. Instead of giving politicians parades, we should be giving them performance evaluations when we see them.
Landess wants people to accept the uncomfortable realization that some that have been voted into power aren’t better suited to manage the affairs of others. Before blood has to be shed to regain control of government, Landess believes that citizens just have to be more forceful more often. She feels that no change will ever occur until the American Republic is restored in the state of SC.