'Naïve Trump defenders' badly distorting key red state battle: conservative

In deep red South Carolina, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn was fired elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992. And on March 12, the liberal congressman announced that he plans to seek an 18th two-year term. But according to Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol, Clyburn could lose his seat thanks to redistricting by the South Carolina State Legislature.

Kristol, in The Bulwark, argues that MAGA Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump are badly distorting the issues at play in South Carolina's 6th Congressional District. Pro-Trump Republicans, according to Kristol, view redistricting as a revolt against the excesses of "woke" culture while failing to see the value of having a congressional district that is 47 percent Black.

"This week, the South Carolina Legislature is debating whether to redraw its congressional map to try to carve up the district and eliminate the seat of its one black congressman, James Clyburn," Kristol explains. "Why, you might ask, is this necessary? After all, South Carolina's delegation now consists of six white people and one black person. You might think that the 63 percent of the state's population who are white are amply represented. You might think it reasonable that the 26 percent of the population who are Black should have at least one representative. No. Six out of seven is not enough. One out of seven is too much."

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) is arguing that Clyburn "does not represent the rest of South Carolina, which is conservative."

"Those 47 percent African-Americans in Clyburn's district?" Kristol writes. "They aren't real South Carolinians, you see. It's the rest of South Carolina that deserves all the representation. Donald Trump agrees…. In Trump's America, having an all-white delegation for a state that is 25 percent black means that 'everything will be fine.' Getting rid of the one Black member of Congress out of seven from South Carolina is 'leveling the playing field.'"

The Never Trump conservative continues, "Some naïve Trump defenders think — or some faux-naïve Trump defenders pretend to think — that what Trump and his movement are about is getting rid of the woke excesses of the last decade or so. But James Clyburn has been in Congress since 1993. He was the first Black representative from South Carolina since 1897. It is the America of 1897 that Trump, and Norman, and their Republican Party yearn for."

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