Greenville County Republican Party Chair sends another piece full of wisdom, interesting analogies and perspectives. Read, Learn & Enjoy …

September 20th, 2023

Dear Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committeemen, Body & Associates,

If someone told you that the two lines below were not the same length, would they be a liar? 

If that same person told you they had a PhD from MIT in line measurement, would you bother to measure the lines for yourself? If someone you dislike intensely tells you the lines are the same length, what is your response?

If you haven’t bothered to measure the lines for yourself, which of the two people mentioned above are you more likely to believe?

If you are in a group with all your best friends and people you go to for advice and they all tell you the lines are different lengths, what is your response.

If you do measure the lines and find something different from what you have been taught to believe, what is your response?

Likely most if not all of you have seen this optical illusion before and know that the lines are actually of equal length. But isn’t it fascinating that even after you know this, you still see them as different.

This is an analogy to the power of lies. You can’t “unhear” or “unsee” them once they have been put into your mind. So even after you know the truth, a lie you heard still has some power. People who purposefully and routinely use the various forms of lying know this.

The questions I asked are simplistic, but they raise the important issues of the kinds of lies people tell, why they work on us and what we can do about it.

I thought you might get a kick out of a Newsmax summary of Biden lies below.

These lies of commission are so blatant and easily disproven one has to ask why tell them? But Biden is relying on his expert/authority power. Some of you may recall from a previous newsletter the statistic that up to 25% of the time, a co-pilot in a simulator flight will not challenge the pilot on a decision and the plane crashes. Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals encourages people to pretend they have expert power by teaching “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have”.

How many of us will question our doctor, a lawyer, or academics. How many of us will look up a candidate’s actual donation record in the FEC and find out about PAC donations. Not nearly enough-which is why lies can work. We are doing better as a delightful Riley Gaines video shows. She is speaking about the differences between male and female skeletons, some guy who calls himself the “expert in the room” disagrees and the room break into laughter. What are YOUR solutions to experts or authority figures who lie? Be courageous and willing to respectfully challenge anyone trying to influence or control you, get second opinions, don’t be rushed into decision making and do your own research.

Lies of omission are those that mislead you by intentionally leaving out relevant information or making suggestions. The person that tells you the lines above are different lengths because they look that way but doesn’t tell you he or she hasn’t measured them is leaving out relevant facts. We can expect these kinds of lies from people who need to convince themselves that their moral compass is intact or have convinced themselves their cause is so good, that the ends justify the means.

“They engage in something we call justified dishonesty,” said Shaul Shalvi, who runs the Behavioral Ethics Lab at the University of Amsterdam. It happens when people’s desire to be ethical clash with the desire to profit or get something. In that case people are willing to lie just a bit “as long as it seems legit,” Shalvi said (New York Post, April 2016). We protect ourselves against this kind of behavior by listening carefully and “peeling the onion”. Keep asking who, what, where when why questions until the truth is revealed. “Is Yvonne Julian one of those Krystle Matthews sleepers” as a Facebook post said recently, is this kind of lie.

Likeability, the human tendency of reciprocity and “we think” can make us believe liars, and sometimes with tragic consequences. The serial killer Ted Bundy was well known for his ability to convince women he needed help because of his looks and immediate likeability. It is unwise to assume that someone we dislike intensely can never tell the truth or have some knowledge we can put to good use.

A woman survived the Jonestown Massacre because she purposefully never took any of the special favors Jim Jones offered her, so didn’t feel obligated to reciprocate and comply when he asked her to drink the poisoned beverage that killed 900 people. “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and other bits of wisdom remind us that gifts can be used to make us accept lies out of obligation to the gift giver.

Even a group of people we like would be wrong if they told us the lines in our optical illusion are different lengths, but we would be less likely to dispute them. According to one research study, “people were willing to follow the norms of a group, even when they knew the norms to be unconnected to reality, provided they felt a strong shared identity within the group”. (Pryor, Perfors, & Howe, 2019).

Yes, it is just as easy to be a GOP Sweep bobblehead as a Jeff Davis bobblehead.

I hope you find this brief overview of how and why lies work and how we can fight their influence helpful. Lies are common currency in the political arena, so learning how to combat them is very important-especially for grassroots activists like many of us who do not want to develop lying skills as a tool to gain power, influence or money.

I know our HQ Republicats agree! I hope you do, too!

Are you sick of the fundraising emails and text messages we are all getting from XYZ second & third tier presidential candidates?

We got one from Tim Scott the other day saying send me a “critical $15 gift” to help him travel to New Hampshire. Like Tim really needs our $15 added to the $21 MILLION he already has in his campaign account. But worse, they also encouraged the donation because Tim was allegedly taking off in the polls. So … we thought we would fact check it and see if it was true.

Well per the Real Clear Politics average of national GOP polls (HERE), Tim Scott was 3.4% on June 14th … and 2.4% on September 13th. That sounds like common core math to me if Tim’s people think that is “taking off” … but that is another article for another day.

But it did remind us that one of the best polls to to consider are the RCP Betting Averages. Specifically tracking where people in Vegas and elsewhere are putting they real money.

NO, relax, we are not promoting “gambling” because whatever all of our personal reasons might be to oppose gambling, we are “numbers people” and we know gambling is a BAD BET as the house always wins!!!

But we do know a lot of you do not trust the polls or pollsters. They sometimes seem to tell us things we don’t see out there on main street … sometimes to influence us one way or another … and who knows what the personal bias may be of a pollster … or “who” is actually paying for the poll in the first place. There is just too much opportunity for manipulation.

But, although the betting numbers can be manipulated as well … it is much more expensive to do so … and over time it gets back to actual public sentiment as to the state of the races.

There are 3 main betting odds tacking numbers, (#1) who will be elected President on 11/05/2024, (#2) who will win the GOP Nomination, & (#3) who will win the Democrat nomination.

The data is very interesting to track. Hope you find this useful …

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1: To Win President

BIDEN: 33.3% odds (falling)
TRUMP: 29.0% (rising)
Newsome (not even in the race): 7.0%
DeSantis: 6.0%
Ramaswamy: 5.1%
Obama (not even in the race): 4.9%
Kennedy: 4.9%
Haley: 3.4%
Harris (not even in the race): 3.1%

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting-odds/2024/president/

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2: Republican Nominee

TRUMP: 62.8% odds
DeSantis: 11.9%
Ramaswamy: 8.6%
Haley: 6.3%
Youngkin (not even in the race): 3.3%
Christie: (2.1%)
Scott: 1.9%
Pence: 1.4%
Kemp (not even in the race): 1.0%

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting-odds/2024/republican-nomination/

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3: Democrat Nominee

BIDEN: 60.8% odds
Newsome (not even in the race): 12.5%
Obama (not even in the race): 8.0%
Harris (not even in the race): 6.0%
Kennedy: 4.9%
Clinton (not even in the race): 2.4%

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting-odds/2024/democratic-nomination/

Precinct lines, county lines, SC House, SC Senate, County Council, School Board, City Wards, Fire District, other election district lines, etc., etc., etc … NONE OF THESE LINES MATCH UP!

It is extremely frustrating (maybe by design) to “organize” a county of 151 precincts and hundreds of elected and appointed officials … much less the entire state of 2,261 precincts and thousands of elected officials … but we have found a way!!!

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Big County Example:

Let’s use Greenville County since that is our home base.

ZONES:

Greenville, as the biggest county with a population of 547,950 people, has 151 precincts (a few counties have more precincts). It is like herding cats! 151 times 2 (EC & President) = 302 people!!! After two years as Chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party (GCRP) … I did not even know all our ECs & Presidents. Well, that is a problem!!!

So … we split the county up into 12 “Zones”. We wanted to do it by our 12 county council districts, but with the two Democrat districts totally gerrymandered … that was not going to work. So, we just divided the 151 precincts down into 12 rough GEOGRAPHIC ZONES.

It is not perfect … but that is OK as nothing is perfect and knowing that adjoining precincts and Zones are expected to work together anyhow helped. We had to start somewhere that included ALL of your county precincts, and this was it.

PRECINCT ELECTION-ZONES:

NEXT … and this is “THE FUN STUFF” as we call it … we set-up precinct Election-Zones based on election districts.

We obviously started with the most important target election districts … you know, the biggest RINOs and SC Republican Party Platform “covenant breakers” as our good friend & GCRP Legislative Chair Harrison Musselwhite likes to call them.

Below are just two examples for the Greenville County Council members that recently “broke covenant” and unnecessarily raised our property taxes (HERE & HERE).

CO-LEADERS / TEAMS:

FINALLY … we appointed Co-Leaders for each of these Election-Zones … a “TEAM” of motivated & SC Republican Platform believing individuals who can work together cooperatively (ie, no egos, etc.) and are looking to focus (or cross-focus) on their specific ZONE or ELECTION-ZONE (or both).

GROW, GROW, GROW!!!

The most refreshing thing in all of this is WE have motivated SC PATRIOTS all over Greenville & South Carolina that are making it happen … and more are coming in the door every day!!!

In Greenville County alone, our target is 10,000 ACTIVE members … and as crazy as that number seemed in the beginning … I think our people are going to make it happen!!!

God Bless America!!!

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[NOTE: Greenville County Council Election-Zone 25 below is a Democrat district as indicated from the gerrymandered lines. Before it has been nearly impossible to organize these geographically dispersed precincts … but now we have a process that works. So, even though the Precinct Election-Zones are needed for RINOs … they are ideal for left leaning Democrats as well.]

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Small County Example:

Now, small counties are a tiny bit different … so let’s look at Allendale County.

ZONE – singular:

Allendale, as South Carolina’s smallest county with a population of 7,579 people, only has 8 precincts. That is pretty manageable for a County Chair… so really the entire Allendale County Republican Party is “the Zone”.

PRECINCT ELECTION-ZONES:

But small counties are very different when it comes to the fun part … the Election-Zones.

Allendale for example has 5 County Council Districts, so presumable they will have 5 small Election-Zones for each district (unless elected countywide like some city wards, we do not know specifically for Allendale but are checking).

But, Allendale also has a single SC House member … and that Allendale SC House Rep. also represents Barnwell & Orangeburg Counties. So, guess what, our Allendale friends get to work cooperatively with precincts from two other counties as this Precinct Election-Zone crosses county lines!!! Fun!!!

Likewise, Allendale has TWO SC State Senators. One representing Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton & Orangeburg Counties … and the other representing Allendale, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Hampton & Jasper Counties. That is a total of NINE COUNTIES. It seems intimidating … but it is actually exciting as you get to work with a larger geographic area (which you will soon see, becomes important … stay tuned!).

Yes … the big counties do have some Election-Zones that cross our county line as well … so here in Greenville we get to have fun working with our friends in Pickens, Anderson, Laurens, Union & Spartanburg as well … but this is much more important in the small counties, so we wanted to introduce you to this concept.

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Exciting Times!

So my friends, all of this is a lot of work to put together. We have some fantastic people working on this here in Greenville and I know others around South Carolina that are doing fantastic things locally themselves. We can ALL contribute to the cause … and we can ALL learn from each other.

This is what America is all about!!!

This is “real” GRASSROOTS!!!

So, even though it is hard work … once it is done, it is DONE (at least until the 2030 census & redistricting).

SO … GET BUSY ORGANIZING MY FRIENDS!!!

SaveAmerica #SaveSouthCarolina #SaveTheChildren

Dum spiro spero

Best,