Sen. Lindsey Graham’s pathetic showing these past few years as a lackey for Donald Trump, a man he called a “race-bating, xenophobic, religious bigot,” has led to an unexpectedly tight race for his seat in South Carolina against Democratic nominee Jaime Harrison. Harrison’s been outraising Graham to the point that the GOP has felt compelled to launch a fundraising campaign for the integrity-free Republican senator. Things are so tight that Graham went on to Fox News last week to beg that Fox News viewers save some of the money they have earmarked for MyPillow supplies and give it to him.
With Donald Trump’s one action of “policy” being to beat the fascistic drum of “law and order” over and over, Graham has decided that his best chance at bringing out the vote for himself is to follow suit. In for a penny in for a pound and all of that. On Friday morning, Graham gave the keynote at the opening ceremony for the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police (SCFOP) meeting in Myrtle Beach. His opening remarks, traditionally filled with pandering and jokes, didn’t go over as well as he might have hoped.
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To be clear, Graham received endorsements from the SCFOP at the beginning of September. He has since tried to leverage the racism towards the Black Lives Matter movement to boost his flailing campaign. The SCFOP’s Facebook page is filled with posts that include quotes like “It is not he American Police Officer’s job to risk bodily injury so you can safely resist arrest.” You get the picture.
People wore their masks during the event, taking them off when speaking into the microphone. (Maybe they can all lick the microphone for extra safety?) Graham opened his speech by noting that Myrtle Beach was in the middle of Bike Week, a motorcycle thing that this year started this past Monday and goes to Sunday. Graham got off the joke: “Retired cops in town, bikers—what could possibly go wrong?" I’ll give you a few moments to stop laughing, dry your eyes, drink some liquids. Considering that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is conservatively estimated to have spread COVID-19 to around 250,000 people and cost around $12 billion in healthcare costs, the joke ended up getting polite laughter.
Then Graham got down to some good old-fashioned political pandering: "Can you believe the world as it is today? So I’m glad I came here this morning to remember, ‘Hey, South Carolina is still South Carolina.'" What does that mean? You know, Bible, flag, guns and shit. "We pledge the allegiance to our flag, we had an African American chief leader say ‘we pray.'" Got it.
It’s here that Graham walked into the wall that is law enforcement’s general culture of white supremacy and self-pity as he attempted to play that great racist’s game that there are Black people on both sides, saying: "I think the hardest job in America right now is being a Black cop." Graham paused at what can only be described as a deafening silence. “I mean, just really, in between everything.” Realizing that law enforcement culture is about white cops, not Black ones, and that this predominantly white audience didn’t want to hear about how hard Black people—even Black police officers—have it, Graham licked his dry lips and went back to your standard, no-frills pandering.
”I am honored to have your endorsement. You had my back all these years, so I’m going to have your back in the coming years.” The audience clapped. Good boy. Graham finished out his speech by telling cops that having a religious zealot on the Supreme Court was good for cops and that liberals were going to lose this November. Edgy material.
You can watch the uncomfortable opening moments of Graham’s pandering here.