Okay voters, what now?

“Vote for me and I’ll set you free! Rap on, brother, rap on,” sang the Temptations in 1970. I interviewed Otis Williams, one of the original Temptations, about 12 years ago. I asked him if the world was still a “ball of confusion,” as it was in 1970, when they recorded the song. He replied, “Ain’t ya read the news today, Rocky?”

He was right. “That’s what the world is today, hey hey ...”

Especially when it comes to South Carolina politics.

Now that the primaries and the runoffs are over, I have learned this much: The Warren supporters are mad at the McMaster supporters; the McMaster supporters are mad at the Templeton and Bryant supporters; the Democrats are mad at everybody and Yancey McGill is mad at Krispy Kreme for not endorsing him.

Warren supporters are particularly pouty, since candidate John Warren surged ahead so quickly, coming out of nowhere, like a happy-face boo-hag on Magazine Street on Halloween. No one in the Lowcountry knew his name and suddenly — there he was, telling us the most compelling reason to vote for him was that he was NOT Henry McMaster. Well heck, I know that, John. What else ya got? Then, Warren’s supporters flooded social media with a barrage of “John is not an insider” and “Warren is a Marine” postings. Well heck, I knew that, too. As I already said, what else ya got? So I called his campaign office to get him on the show and got an earful of how “John is winning-winning-winning! He’s way ahead!”

“Wel,l actually no he’s really not,” I told a gal named Laura-Beth from his office; “He’s more than 10 percentage points behind going into the runoff. That means he has to get well over 65-70 percent of the also-ran candidates’ votes; which is not impossible, but unless McMaster falls into a sinkhole, it’s not likely.” Then she got mad at me. So at this point, everyone is mad at everyone and I ended up, that day, the only happy person in S.C. politics.

Meanwhile, Catherine Templeton was left to ponder whether blasting hapless snakes into smithereens was really worth the price of ammo. Everyone expected her to be in a runoff with McMaster, but that did not happen.

On my show, Templeton told me “They call me he ‘Buzz Saw’!” Okay. But I never heard anyone say that until she told me that. One thing to remember is no matter who you are, you cannot pick your own nickname. I mean, if you’re 500 pounds and 6’7” tall, no one is going to call you “Tiny.” Maybe they’ll call you “Big Buzz Saw,” or something like that. [You can hear Templeton’s interview here: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/radiofree-rocky-d_124682]

I interviewed McMaster twice as he campaigned, mainly because his campaign people were very good at returning phone calls and emails. They even texted me with reminders. When he was on my show, Henry did what Henry does best: Be Henry. People like his folksy attitude and his Southern colloquialisms. He says things like “Coopa Rivva,” and “We cain’t be drillin’ off-shoa, ‘cuz there’s an H-bomb lyin’ out theah.” And the truth is, there IS a 7000-lb hydrogen whopper lost in the drink somewhere near Tybee Island. So ... go ahead, brave oil-drillers; drill away. Just give me a day’s head start so I can run to somewhere safe, like crime-free New Orleans. [McMaster’s interview is here: https://soundcloud.com/rocky-d-charleston/sc-gov-henry-mcmaster-052518]

Personally, I would’ve been happy if Warren, Kevin Bryant or Templeton had won. Bryant was especially good on the stage. [Kevin Bryant’s interview is here: https://soundcloud.com/rocky-d-charleston/kevin-bryant-050718] However, in the end none of the challengers could explain to me just what the advantage was to replacing Henry McMaster. “I’m not Henry” was not enough for the voters. There are 3.04 million registered voters in South Carolina. Only 384,000 voted. And that’s STATEWIDE. Do the math; it’s about 12.6 percent. So the 87.4 percent who did not vote can go pitch your hissy fit somewhere else. Like back where you comeya from.

As far as the Democrats, they barely figure in. The last time S.C. elected a Democratic governor, it was 1999. Before that, it was 1983 (re-electing Dick Riley). South Carolina had Democratic governors from 1876 all the way to 1975 and y’all can see how well that worked out.

So here we are in our 2018 ball of confusion, because that’s what the world is today, hey hey ...

Rocky Dee may be found at www.rockyd.com or rockyd@knology.net.