Senator Lindsey Graham had relatively free rides to the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in 2002 and 2008. Further, his Democratic opposition left a lot to be desired. Potential heavyweights sat out 2002 and 2008 on both sides of the aisle, giving Graham easy wins.
With two easy wins, five years left on his current term, and money in the bank, Lindsey Graham is less confined by the will of the people he represents. It is human nature for the Senator to have confidence in such a situation. Whether or not that confidence is bold or arrogant will be the question on Republican minds especially as events in Washington unfold.
South Carolina Republicans cringed when they saw Senator Graham laughing it up with John Kerry recently at Graham's announcement of support for the Obama "cap and trade" energy plan. Most Republicans see support of that plan as toxic. They do so with good reason, because "cap and trade" is actually a defacto tax increase on families. According to the Treasury Department, American families will endure increased energy costs of at least hundreds, if not thousands, or dollars per year.
That might not be much in the eyes of United States Senator, but for a working family trying to make ends meet, spending more money on gassing up the car or keeping the electricity on is just one more problem to deal with in these difficult economic times. It is ironic that the United States Senator who will make Obama's plan "bipartisan" represents a state that does not support it and can least afford it.
Graham supporters note that the Senator's support is due to the provision in the Obama plan that would open up offshore drilling and more nuclear energy. While both measures are needed, should they be obtained by adding more basic living costs to middle class and poor people?
Perhaps those who say that increased energy costs are necessary to make the American people conserve energy should take into account the average American family, or individual, for that matter, that pays already for what is accepted as basic human needs. The promise of offshore drilling offers little comfort to someone who is already scrambling to pay the electric bill. Those Americans are already conserving to just get by. So many South Carolinians face that everyday.
Such is the great disconnect between elected officials and those they are supposed to represent. South Carolina voters gave Lindsey Graham big victories. In return, Senator Graham seems increasingly disconnected from what most of the people he represents go through in just paying the bills. Perhaps history will note Graham as some sort of courageous statesman, but right now, Senator Graham seems unplugged from the people he represents.
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