SC Politics

Heather Bauer: Woke Super Heroine

Misadventures in hypocrisy…

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Freshman South Carolina state representative Heather Bauer seemed to signify a breath of fresh air when she arrived at the State House in Columbia, S.C. Following an upset of five-term incumbent Kirkman Finlay III in 2022, Bauer appeared poised to chart a promising independent streak in state government.

Bauer came out of the gate hot – taking a high-profile leadership role in an ongoing bid to reform the Palmetto State’s badly broken judicial branch of government. Bauer cast herself as a frontline reformer on this issue and she was… right up until she wasn’t.

“When the rubber met the road… her willingness to truly challenge the powerful status quo in Columbia was found lacking,” I noted earlier this year. “Or more like nonexistent.”

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In her betrayal of the reform movement, Bauer also alienated a key Democratic constituency… black voters.

As I reported at the time, Bauer joined other uniparty lawmakers in forcing a qualified black candidate out of a judicial race in order to clear a path for a white Democratic politician, former S.C. House minority leader James Smith. This craven status quo power play might have worked for her, too – but Smith’s bid for the court was was surprisingly rejected when conservative lawmakers affiliated with the S.C. Freedom Caucus caught wind of the establishment machinations and shamed the mainline GOP into keeping him off the bench.

Since then, Bauer has emerged as little more than a caricature of the far left “woke indoctrination complex,” a shrill, fringe voice in a super-minority party wielding precisely zero influence in state government. Yet amid all her windmill-tilting and über wokeness, Bauer envisions herself as some sort of super-sculpted 1980s-era cartoon action figurine.

No, really…

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Disappointing… and embarrassing.

Seriously, is this a campaign mailing or a fetish comic book? Is Bauer seeking elected office? Or auditioning for the role of Agent Scarlett in a racy reboot of the vintage Hasbro franchise?

Of course, in a party that lets people identify as anything they want, perhaps Bauer’s super-hero shtick is the real deal? Maybe she really can leap tall buildings – or tower over the State House like Taylor Swift‘s anti-hero? Maybe she really does have arm muscles rivaling those of a middle linebacker in the National Football League?

South Carolina Democrats love faking it till they make it, right?

This summer, I reported on Bauer’s other problem… the fact that in addition to alienating her base, she alienated the mainstream media that reaches them. Exhibit A? Scathing reporting from Joseph Bustos of The (Columbia, S.C.) State earlier this year about a taxpayer-funded mailing in which Bauer… wait for it… lied about cutting taxes.

Hold up: Bauer spent our tax dollars to brag about a tax cut that never actually happened?

Yes… a definitional double whammy.

“If there are two things that don’t mix well, it’s dishonesty – and tax dollars,” I noted at the time.

Of course the real story wasn’t the scandal over the dishonest mailing, it was the fact the left-wing press reported on it in the first place.

“The liberal propaganda gods responsible for pulling the levers of power in South Carolina’s capital city have decided not only to abandon her candidacy – but to make her a target,” I wrote.

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Bauer’s latest issue? Questions surrounding her participation in a violent and dangerous Black Lives Matter riot that took place in downtown Columbia, S.C. on May 30, 2020.

To be clear, no one is suggesting Bauer – or Richland County councilwoman Allison Terracio, who reportedly accompanied her to the gathering – engaged in violent against against police or property. But Bauer has been confirmed as a “participant in the protest,” according to local law enforcement leaders.

Get this, though… sources familiar with Democrats’ strategy for this district say recent leaks regarding Bauer’s attendance at the BLM riot (which everyone assumed were coming from Finlay’s campaign) are in fact coming from the left. And not as part of some “false flag” operation, either.

“They think this helps her with black voters,” one strategist who spoke with me on condition of anonymity said. “They think this turns out black voters.”

Huh?

So… will we see the super woke heroine’s cartoon alter-ego posing as a flame-retardant Joan of Arc atop a burning Columbia police car in future campaign advertisements? Perhaps… who knows what cognitive dissonance Democrats plan on employing this go-round.

Win or lose, though, there is one thing Bauer will clearly never be, and will thus have to continue exclusively “identifying” as: Relevant.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks (Dylan Nolan)

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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1 comment

Just some guest October 15, 2024 at 7:01 pm

Poor FITS! Going along with Andy Fancher’s Hurricane Helene conspiracy one day, supporting a First-Amendment-killer law (instead of going to coercive-control yourself) the next; and now this?!?!?
What happened to your brain or your memory of Heather Bauer standing in front of the State House, tossing her blond curls right and left, and speaking dog whistles against the Richland County School Board which “doesn’t look like [her] if you know what [she] mean[s]”?
The woman is not woke; she is a latter-day white supremist. They come in both red and blue these days.

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