Rare News Desk
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Kurt Wallace: This is Kurt Wallace, and our guest today is Lee Bright, a Republican South Carolina State Senator. He is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. He’s been endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus, the National Association for Gun Rights and Senator Bright, thanks for being with us today on Rare.
Lee Bright: Thanks for having me on the show.
Kurt Wallace: Tell us about your track record as a South Carolina State Senator.
Lee Bright: I have been fighting for the unborn, fighting for limited government, and trying to protect gun rights in South Carolina. We’ve got a Republican majority in the South Carolina Senate, but we’re stacked with former Democrats. So there’s a lot of folks that – there’s Democrats leaning still in them. A lot of folks change parties for the sake of convenience instead of conviction. We’ve got a lot of Republicans that go all over the platform – that aren’t conservative, that aren’t in the mold of Ronald Reagan – they are more in the mold of Gerald Ford and the big-government-country-club-type Republicans, and that’s kind of the battle for the heart and soul of the national party and goes on in South Carolina for the state party.
Kurt Wallace: It would be great to go through every issue with you, but for time’s sake, what is your primary goal – or goals – that you want to accomplish as a US Senator?
Lee Bright: Well, I believe that Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee need some help. I would be out front on a whole host of issues. I think our President – it would be a struggle to name where he is right – and we have a current U.S. senior senator from South Carolina who doesn’t quite view the President the same way I do.
Kurt Wallace: You brought up your opponent. Graham has obviously worn out his welcome across the country with the Tea Party and many Republicans. He has a bunch of challengers, but your numbers are the highest which today would cause a runoff between you both if he doesn’t hit fifty percent. How are you going to break South Carolinians out of this political Stockholm Syndrome they’re in with the unpopular Lindsey Graham?
Lee Bright: That’s a good way to put it, but I don’t believe it’s a majority of South Carolinians. If you look at the polling data, he’s polling at less than forty percent of capability. Even in the latest polls I’ve seen, he’s at forty-five percent of the votes. So if he doesn’t get fifty percent plus one on June 10th, I don’t see any way he’s going to survive the runoff.
Kurt Wallace: We’ve seen a surge in libertarian positions and the Tea Party and among Republicans. This has been very evident that CPAC over the last two years. But back in 2009 at a South Carolina Republican Convention, Senator Graham told the audience, “We’re not going to build this party around libertarian ideas.”
Lee Bright: Well, he’s got a lot of Democrat leanings. You look at cap and trade, you look at the Supreme Court justices he’s voted for – he has not been a bastion of conservatism. I think that’s where you see his position on immigration. He would like to dilute the conservative votes so he doesn’t have to pander to us every six years. It’s interesting. It’s on YouTube, folks aught to go out and look at it, where Chris Wallace – or not Chris Wallace, I’m sorry, but his predecessor [Tony Snow] – was talking about, “Reagan was a libertarian” and “Reagan espoused a lot of libertarian beliefs.” If you go back to Jefferson, I think that the heart of – you look at the Republican creed and it talks about how you want to make your own money and that you’re not going to cower before a master – it is, I think, the Republican Party in itself is heavy with the liberty message. It’s just the fact – and I think that so many people are disillusioned with the party, it is the elected officials don’t look at the platform.
Even from a social standpoint, if you look at social conservatives – if we’re going to be true to our message – a lot of these social issues are not federal issues, and that’s something that we need to hold on to because we preach the constitution and we preach the fact that we need to get back to the constitution. A lot of these issues are not in the constitution and I am one that believes that the right to life is a federal issue because the 5th and 14th Amendments something that’s very clear. But a lot of these other social issues – for instance the drug war, I don’t believe that’s a federal issue. I think it should be determined by the states. A lot of these other issues – you know, homosexuality – I don’t know what the federal government has got to do with homosexuality.
There’s just so many issues that we – and I’m a social conservative, I’ll be upfront and honest about it. I also don’t believe that it’s the federal government’s deal, I think it’s the states have purview and all that. If I’m elected to U.S. Senate, I’m going to be a strict constructionist and I’m going to follow the Constitution. Really outside of national defense, there’s very little – and if you study national defense, it’s not national offense – the way our past presidents have gotten to be so quick to meddle in the affairs of others, I think that’s something that when you talk about the libertarian message, I think it’s something that aught to be the Republican message. It’s something that I’ll take hold, and I think it’s heading my way.
Kurt Wallace: Lee Bright, www.brightforsenate.com, thanks for being with us today on Rare.
Lee Bright: Hey, thanks for having me on the show.
