If it’s an election year, you can be sure that in Cherokee County it’s open season on campaign signs. We don’t know of a single candidate who hasn’t had to put up with this immature nonsense.
The latest sad sign of the times was pointed out in the Feb. 16 edition of the Cherokee Scout, where Commissioner Cal Stiles ran an advertisement offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone vandalizing or unlawfully removing his campaign signs. Stiles also had to deal with this kind of silly thing in previous campaigns.
This isn’t just a local phenomenon, either. A couple of hours to the east, my son-in-law ran a positive campaign for the Town of Canton Board of Aldermen last year, and the sign on the front lawn of the home where he lives with my daughter was riddled with bullet holes.
These attempts at political intimidation are illegal, anti-democratic and unAmerican. Anyone caught doing such things should go to jail, pay a fine, perform community service – and lose their right to vote for a few years.
Cawthorn vs. State
A group of North Carolina voters filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections on Jan. 10 to remove U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) from this year’s ballots, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits public officials from holding office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
Cawthorn attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. As has become his custom, Cawthorn offered fire-breathing rhetoric ahead of and during the rally, falsely casting doubt on the 2020 presidential election result and using the word “fight” when addressing the audience.
The violence that occurred afterward is still being investigated by a bipartisan U.S. House committee. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the riot that ensued at the Capitol a “failed insurrection.”
As you might expect, Cawthorn has filed a lawsuit to stay in the race for the 13th Congressional District, where he is moving after representing the 14th District for the last two years. While we’re not a fan of the combative language Cawthorn often uses, he’s right that it would be unconstitutional if the board attempted to take him off the ballot.
As a Wall Street Journal editorial put it, states can’t review a candidate’s qualifications because the Constitution reserves that power to Congress itself. If voters elect a rascal who is constitutionally ineligible to serve, the people’s representatives must decide whether or not to throw him out of the House.
N.C. haven for trolls
A study has found that North Carolina has among the highest number of internet trolls in America. As if our beloved state needed anything else to bring us down.
Trolling is part and parcel of online activity these days; anyone brave enough to live on Twitter, write a blog or set up a YouTube account has to accept that comments from complete strangers is par for the course, according to a release from Apricot Content. There is criticism – hopefully constructive – and then there is being plain mean and provocative about someone else’s content, almost just for the sake of it; aka “trolling.”
Redact.dev conducted a survey of 3,846 social media users, asking if they’ve ever sent, shared or tagged someone in an unsavory social media post. The survey uncovered that 23 percent of social media users in North Carolina admit to
having trolled someone in the past – higher than the national average of 17 percent – while 28 percent of social media users have been a victim of trolling.
As a result of this outrageous conduct, 48 percent of people believe abusive online behavior should be a crime under federal law. And 71 percent think such a crime warrants a ban across all social media platforms, while 11 percent think the punishment should be community service, 10 percent think trolls should have to pay a fine and 8 percent think they deserve jail time.
Please answer the Poll Question on page 5A to let us know your thoughts on the subject. While the blissful anonymity of hiding behind a computer screen makes some people feel untouchable, everyone should be held accountable.
– Publisher David Brown