The nomination of Mr. Greene

When Alvin Greene won the Democratic nomination to the United States Senate, people finally noticed that Democrats had a race for the nomination.  Greene is an unemployed man facing criminal charges.  Greene’s opponent, Victor Rawl, is a respected member of the Democratic Party and was thought by many Democrats to give United States Senator Jim DeMint a serious race for the seat in the Fall. 

Then Greene shocked the Democratic Party by winning the nomination.  Democrats are upset.  Among them is Congressman Jim Clyburn, who has called for an investigation into Greene and his nomination.  Prominent Democrats want to think something sinister happened to nominate the unknown employed man with criminal charges for such a prominent position.  They simply cannot accept that their voters could have simply made a dumb choice. 

Picking on the voters is never something that a politician wants to do.  But, let’s face the facts in the race for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate.  Democrats were overshadowed by the race for Governor and other offices in the GOP Primary.  Frankly, the campaign of Nikki Haley sucked all the political oxygen out of the room over the past few weeks, even among Republicans.  Democrats who stayed loyal to their party in the primary were concerned about the Governor’s race and local offices.  The race for the United States Senate race was not on their radar. 

There is a reason for that.  Greene and Rawl did not campaign very much.  Voters did not know who either one of them were.   While there might be something sinister found out, VUI doubts it.  What is more likely is that voters in the Democratic Primary did what voters typically do when they do not know either candidate.  In such cases, voters typically do three things.  First, they ignore the race and do vote for anyone.  Second, they vote for the first name that they come to, which was Greene.  Third, they vote for a name that seems familiar in some way.  Alvin Greene sounds a lot like Al Green, the gospel singer. 

VUI believes that the nomination of Mr. Greene was that simple.  While prominent Democrats like Jim Clyburn do not want to face that fact, VUI thinks that they and anyone else in politics should.  There is a lesson to be learned.  If you want the nomination of your party for some office, you have to campaign for it.  If you don’t, anything can happen, including your party’s voters making an embarrassing choice at the polls.