Horry County Moderate

A moderate perspective on all things past and present

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The race to secure former President Donald Trump's endorsement in SC's 7th Congressional District has seemingly come to a close. Russell Fry announced earlier today that he secured the much sought after endorsement in his bid to unseat Tom Rice, who cast a controversial vote to impeach Donald Trump in the wake of January 6th protests. Last Friday, MAGA personality and social media influencer Graham Allen announced he would drop out of the Congressional race, and hinted that a Trump endorsement for a local candidate could be coming soon. This led to a scramble amongst the other leading candidates. Ken Richardson immediately took to social media to issue a challenge to the other candidates to publicly declare that the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump:

"I want to make myself perfectly clear. The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and Joe Biden was never legitimately elected President"

Russell Fry answered Richardson's challenge with a Facebook video posted on Monday in which he laid out his thoughts on the subject:

"If you look at the 2020 election, it is very clear that is was rigged... Two things I know to be true... Joe Biden is not my President... and two, if election laws were followed in 2020 President Trump would be making the next Supreme Court pick..."

Shortly before the Fry endorsement Richardson went on Steve Bannon's podcast and warned the President that he would not back out of the race even if Fry gained his endorsement: "If you don't want to throw that endorsement away Mr. President you need to endorse me... If you support Russell Frye, there's still gonna be 3 people in this race... If you want a guaranteed win you support me and you endorse me." After the endorsement was announced Richardson told The Sun News, "He pissed his endorsement away".

MyrtleBeachSC.com blogger David Hucks wrote that SC Governor Henry McMaster has been in Mar-A-Lago the past 2 days seeking a Fry endorsement.

Congressman Rice is one of only 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former President. In a statement to WBTW Rice issued the following:

"I'm glad he's chosen someone... All the pleading to Mar-a-Lago was getting a little embarrassing. I'm all about Trump's policy, but absolute pledge of loyalty to a man that is willing to sack the Capitol to keep his hold on power is more than I can stomach."

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Whether you agree with Maher’s political takes or not, his Slow Moving Coup narrative leaves much for us to consider. What happens in future contested elections as Republicans install more Trumpists throughout the 2022 midterms and beyond, replacing conservatives and moderates alike? What happens as Democrats progressively view elections as “stolen” through altered voting requirements, gerrymandering, and electoral disadvantages? What happens if Kamala Harris is pressured to do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on Jan. 6th? What happens if Americans, on both sides, continue to reinforce their beliefs that their elections are being “stolen” and conclude that force represents the necessary solution? What happens if current polarization grows into a proverbial powder keg and two Presidential candidates expect to be sworn in after the 2024 election? These are questions we should all be asking in a world where Democracy and the peaceful transfer of power hang in the balance.

https://youtu.be/7cR4fXcsu9w

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Mayor Q: Far-Right Candidate Caught Scrubbing QAnon Ties From Website

Eugene Ho is running as a pro-Trump, anti-vaxx, law-and-order candidate — but he built his following with an even darker message

“Ho’s run for mayor of the South Carolina city is a prime example of how far-right conspiracy theorists have pivoted from largely promoting misinformation online to focusing on efforts to affect change in the real-world political sphere, all while toeing the ever-winnowing line between mainstream respectability and going full-throttle Q. It’s a strategy that’s yielding dividends, as the ranks of elected officials with ties to the movement grows — particularly in South Carolina.”

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Horry County GOP suggests members stock Ivermectin

Earlier this week, leadership within the Horry County GOP urged party members to consider stocking Ivermectin as an effective treatment for COVID-19. According to the Sun News, a video that painted the drug as "a medicine which can end the pandemic" was played, and state executive committeewoman Tracy Beanz Diaz offered personal testimony on how she used the drug to keep her family safe from exposure.

Diaz, an early proponent of the conspiracy QAnon movement, was elected this past April amid much criticism. Her ties to the QAnon movement have since forced her from major social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Diaz has formerly admitted to using QAnon to help promote herself as an online influencer, and she credits herself with suggesting the movement be moved from fringe online message boards like 4chan and 8chan to larger sites like reddit where it could effectively reach a larger audience. Reuters reported last year and Twitter confirms that known Russian backed accounts helped spread her claims and that Diaz interacted with those accounts more than once.

Propaganda is the term typically used to describe the promotion of biased and misleading information for political purposes. Coroner Robert Edge admitted to The Sun News of at least one Ivermectin related overdose in Horry County. The consensus opinion of scientists, doctors, and governmental agencies tasked with COVID response urge people to avoid Ivermectin as self medicated COVID treatment.

Source: myrtlebeachonline.com Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-qanon-cyber-idUSKBN27I18I Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ywwv/one-of-qanons-earliest-influencers-just-got-elected-to-south-carolina-gop

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NBC News on Twitter

“FULL SPEECH: Former President George W. Bush speaks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on the 20th anniversar

In his speech at the Flight 93 National Memorial today former President George W. Bush touched on the polarization that seems to be tearing this nation apart. He reached out to those too young to experience the images of a unified country in the aftermath of 9/11. For those who could recall it, his speech was an effort to bring them back to when American unity seemed eternal. He admitted, rather solemnly in fact, how distantly removed we seem to be from those images of late. He spoke about a lacking fundamental difference between extremism abroad and extremism at home, and how essential it is to confront those enemies head-on. He spoke about the America he remembers and how it could be had again, but confessed to offering no solutions on how to get it back. Then he spoke about the people on Flight 93, facing similarly impossible odds and a similarly impossible fate, and how they acted in a unifying manner by "bracing each other for action and defeating the designs of evil."

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An Horry County Moderate's Perspective

As polarization increases across the country, online content tends to fall to the left or right on the political spectrum. This site is an attempt to inject a more moderate tone on things past and present, from an Horry County perspective. Whether diving in to topics of history or current events, the goal is not to criticize or demean any particular point-of-view, but merely to provoke greater thought on the topic at hand.

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The need for a moderate voice

Is there room in this place for a moderate voice?  Stay tuned to find out...