|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by DUKE BUCKNER
My name is Duke Buckner, and I’m the Republican nominee for South Carolina’s sixth congressional district. I’m writing to discuss the crisis facing our nation and this district.
The last several weeks have revealed that America does not have a functioning president and has not had one for at least two years. Throughout that time, the White House, the mainstream media, and the Democratic party have lied to us. Whoever is making policy for our nation, directing our military, and holding the nuclear football is not the person elected in 2020. This is not just a political crisis for Democrats, it is an existential crisis for America.
It would be hard to imagine this crisis occurring at a worse time. Our nation is in economic turmoil; our schools are failing; our young children are being sexualized; our open borders are bringing in record illegal immigration; in the Middle East, Israel is fighting for its existence; and in Europe, NATO is engaging with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Our nation and our world are aflame while the president’s office is effectively vacant.
***
Congressman Jim Clyburn, my opponent in this fall’s election, has played an important role in furthering our crisis. He has also not been fully forthcoming with the American people – including those in his district. Let’s take a moment to look at the facts and then you decide.
In 2020, it was already apparent Joe Biden was experiencing cognitive decline. Ignoring concerns, Rep. Clyburn single-handedly saved Biden’s failing campaign by endorsing him just before the 2020 South Carolina primary.
We know now that once elected, President Biden’s mental abilities swiftly declined. By 2022, according to NBC News’ Chuck Todd, Biden no longer seemed able to handle presidential duties. New York Magazine’s Oliva Nuzzi painted a bleak picture of President Biden’s mental capacity in early 2024 when his open mouth and blank stares a man who wasn’t “really there.” Moreover, CNN recently reported that Biden has not been a functioning president for at least nine months, with his last full Cabinet meeting conducted in October 2023.
***
***
After the June 27 Trump-Biden debate, NBC interviewed Dr. Tom Pitts, a Democrat neurologist who regularly treats patients with Parkinson’s disease. He stated that Biden’s affliction was so obvious that, if one of his students saw the debate footage and failed to diagnose Parkinson’s, that student would flunk out of medical school. Indeed, president Biden’s dementia is so obvious that The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart savagely ridiculed the president and those who propped him up.
Dementia is a degenerative affliction. The best that can be done is to use medications to mask the symptoms for a few hours.
We can all feel sorry for President Biden’s affliction. What we cannot do is tolerate him as president, nor can we tolerate those who lied about and hid his incapacity.
Speaking the truth about a problem in the White House requires courage, honesty, and love of country. Rep. Clyburn has failed on every metric. He has cravenly chosen to place party over country, to embrace dishonesty over truth, and to embrace politics over service to the sixth district.
***
***
Immediately after the June 27 Biden-Trump debate, when all could see President Biden’s catastrophic cognitive decline, Rep. Clyburn bizarrely dismissed the problem with a baseball metaphor. Biden’s horrific performance, he said, was nothing more than a “first strike.”
Three days later, Rep. Clyburn ludicrously claimed that Biden had suffered from “preparation overload” and recommended that Biden stay in office and continue to run for the presidency. Or, as Rep. Clyburn has since put it, “we are ridin’ with Biden!”
Most recently, Rep. Clyburn claimed that Biden’s dismal performance at the debate wasn’t because Biden has obvious dementia but was, instead, because Biden was “still working to overcome the stuttering of his childhood”—a stutter that has never once appeared during Biden’s half-century in the public eye.
Instead of calling upon Biden to take a cognitive exam administered by a neurologist to definitively answer for America the degree of Biden’s dementia, Rep. Clyburn made the outrageous claim that Biden’s mental acuity is “the same” today as it was “four years ago.”
Rep. Clyburn’s brazen dishonesty is stunning.
***
***
There is no one better placed to demand that President Biden resign or Kamala Harris invoke the 25th Amendment than Rep. Jim Clyburn. However, he hasn’t done it. Were he to demand President Biden’s immediate replacement for the good of the country, it would be a loud and powerful voice – nearly impossible to resist.
Many in the Democratic Party, showing intellectual honesty and courage, have called for President Biden to resign. Rep. Clyburn is not among them. That is why Rep. Clyburn must go.
When we needed Rep. Clyburn to protect our nation and the sixth district, he protected President Biden. When we needed Rep. Clyburn to be honest, he misled the American people to protect the Democratic Party’s interests.
Let me make two promises to the people in the sixth district. First, if you elect me to succeed Rep. Clyburn, I promise that I will always be honest with you. I will never lie to you for political gain or to shield my political party. Second, and most importantly, I will always place the sixth district’s needs first. I will never forget, nor will I ever neglect the Sixth District’s residents amidst the swirl of national politics.
For the good of the nation and the sixth district, President Biden and Rep. Jim Clyburn must go.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Born and raised in Walterboro, South Carolina, Duke Buckner is a 1990 graduate of Walterboro High School and a 1994 Graduate of South Carolina State University. Mr. Buckner began his career as a 7th grade English teacher at Colleton Middle School. He then taught 11th grade American Literature at Walterboro High School . Mr. Buckner left the school system to start the first African-American owned and operated weekly newspaper in Colleton County. After serving as the newspaper’s managing editor for eight years, Mr. Buckner received his J.D. from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 2007.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
7 comments
Duke, I’ve sent you money, and now I’m sending your prayers. Black residents have been trapped on Clyburn’s plantation long enough, and you have the ideas needed to help them move on to a better life.
Godspeed.
Get a grip, Duke. Your hellscape vision of America is far from factual, and more in line with Donald “elotrocution vs shark, late great Hannibal Lecter, whales are going insane” Trump’s demented version.
Never heard of you before, can’t wait til you slide back into oblivion again.
If things are as bad as you say you might want to just hide under your bed. Have a great day!
Nanker, thanks for sharing. When you have some time, let’s take a ride together through Allendale, Bamberg, Hampton, Williamsburg and other areas of the 6th District. I honestly believe that you will have a different opinion of the economic conditions of the area. Please give me a call at 843-217-3628 when you can.
When you consider Clyburn being the party whip it kind of makes sense why the guy would go along with the general direction of the party itself.
I would think what actually hurts the 6th district is the 6th district existing as it does today. Maybe if Republicans didn’t purposefully design it in such a way, those voters could have much more vibrant and diverse elections where candidates actually have to compete for their seat and give results, rather than just scratch the right backs to make it thru the primary unscathed.
But that hurts Republicans. Why have 4-5 seats you have to somewhat work for when you can have 6 near-guaranteed wins every two years? Seems kinda two-faced to ignore what that does to the 6th just to score a jab at Clyburn and Biden.
Thanks for sharing how you feel. I appreciate your comments. The bottom line is the 6th Congressional district is the poorest in South Carolina and is in the top 10 poorest congressional districts in the country! Regardless of how we got there, the fact remains we are where we are. Mr. Clyburn has been our representative for over 31 years. The future of the 6th District is on the ballot in November. We deserve better!
Nanker, thanks for sharing. When you have some time, let’s take a ride together through Allendale, Bamberg, Hampton, Williamsburg and other areas of the 6th District. I honestly believe that you will have a different opinion of the economic conditions of the area. Please give me a call at 843-217-3628 when you can.
Nanker isn’t getting into a vehicle with a black man and riding through poor rural black areas.