South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s grumpy tap dance around, against, and now for federal stimulus money for his state comes as no surprise to anyone who either grew up in S.C., or is familiar with its history. The state has, for a long, long time, prided itself on its ingrained orneriness and attitude of willful, ill-tempered obstruction. South Carolina authorities have historically glorified the good old days while sneering at modern ways and all those newfangled ideas like, say, letting black people vote and so forth. I can hear Sanford’s crowd now: “Hell, they ain’t no fed’l gumment gon’ make me take no damned money if I didn’t ask for it first.” And then they no doubt snickered and congratulated themselves on their infantile, can’t-do attitude. Never mind that the state suffers high unemployment and its schools’ offerings led to the common joke that kids in S.C. learn to read from the Hardee’s drive-thru menu. I grew up in S.C. and as much as I love some things about the state — family and friends, Charleston, the beaches, the sea islands, its natural beauty and the best peaches on earth — I absolutely do not miss — in fact, it’s why I’m not there anymore — the hard-headed, willful backwardness that keeps S.C. on the national backburner. By the way, Sanford finally surrendered in his efforts to deny his impoverished state extra money for education for one reason alone: His poll numbers were dropping precipitously, as South Carolinians — even Sanford’s fellow Republicans — rebelled at the idea of doing nothing while their substandard schools were facing mass teacher layoffs.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2009.
