Thomas Ravenel in 2014 SC Senate debate
On Homeland Security:
No NSA snooping; defend the Fourth Amendment
Ravenel welcomed Rand Paul to S.C.--praising the Kentucky Senator for his support of individual liberty. "Rand Paul took an aggressive position in support of individual liberty during his trip to South Carolina this week," Ravenel said. "His support for
the Bill of Rights--including our Fourth Amendment freedoms--is exactly the sort of perspective we need in the U.S. Senate."For those who've forgotten your social studies, the Fourth Amendment affirms the right of the people "to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures"--and requires search warrants to be issued "upon probable cause."
Who doesn't support this amendment? Sen. Lindsey Graham--who has attacked Paul in the past for his
defense of liberty. Graham has repeatedly defended the mass snooping of the National Security Agency (NSA)--going so far as to say he was "glad" the government was unconstitutionally obtaining private records with no warrant and no probable cause.
Source: 2014 South Carolina Senate campaign press release
Aug 26, 2014
On Abortion:
Hired abortion activist as campaign Communications Director
Thomas Ravenel hires pro-abortion activist as communications director: Liberal abortion crusader joins forces with convicted drug felon:Amy Brandstadter Lazenby, a liberal contributor to the anti-Republican and gossip-monger Web-log, FITS News, has
been hired as the Communications Director for the Thomas Ravenel Senate campaign. A Sunday press release bears her name and title. Lazenby's name is also included in an Aug. 17 release.
Lazenby, who claims she's not a lobbyist, but a legislative
advocate, is married to the wealthy owner of a large personal injury law firm. She has contributed several written pieces to FITS. Most of her activism is based on a pro-abortion agenda. She has also promoted the homosexual lobby for
government-funded perpetuating of their cause.
Ravenel claims to be a Libertarian. But could his choice of Lazenby be a sign that he is gone totally leftwing?
Source: SC Politics & Sports Digest: 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Aug 24, 2014
On Families & Children:
Let churches provide for families in need, not state
If there is a breakdown in the moral fabric of society, it is because there is too much government--not too little. There was time when private charities and religious institutions provided for those in need. Individuals would take care of family,
friends and neighbors and engage in activities that created stronger connections among people and ultimately a stronger society. Americans are a faithful, giving people, but our government--concluding that Americans don't care in the "correct" ways--
wants to deliver charity that is best handled by individuals and private institutions. Should the state extract from the people the resources to fund dehumanizing, dependency-creating social programs, or should the people voluntarily take on these
responsibilities? I believe the answer is the latter. Libertarians care too much about our fellow man to allow the state to usurp so many of the functions that are essential to a moral society.
Source: 2014 South Carolina Senate campaign press release
Aug 19, 2014
On Principles & Values:
Values taught by church, not enforced by mandate
Government has, in many instances, usurped the role that religious institutions and private charities should play in our society. Values cannot be effectively enforced by mandate. They must be taught and encouraged by private institutions.
Throughout history, using force to build a social system has failed repeatedly. Our founding fathers established a system that allowed positive values to flourish, but also allowed negative values to exist. In an environment of true liberty, the market
will sort out the good from the bad. "The market," in this context, is allowing God's hand to work rather than depending upon the government to decide which values are virtuous and must be enforced in the community. Freedom to believe allows the best to
rise to the top, the worst to collapse on its own, and depravity to find its own error. I firmly believe that weaker believers are those who insist that only by government edict is it possible for God's way to prevail. That is a false ideology.
Source: 2014 South Carolina Senate campaign press release
Aug 19, 2014
On Homeland Security:
No more blood & treasure on 'nation-building' in Iraq
Graham said this week that if America didn't step up its military intervention in Iraq, he envisioned "an American city in flames." Ravenel reiterated his debate challenge in criticizing Graham's foreign policy, and asked Graham to provide South
Carolinians with a cost estimate--and a body count--for achieving his vision of Iraq."Here's my challenge to Lindsey Graham: Stop fearmongering using other people's sound bites--and other people's blood and treasure--and give us some hard numbers,"
Ravenel said. "Tell us exactly how much is it going to cost to mold Iraq into the country you want it to be? We know trillions of dollars and thousands of lives have already been lost there in the name of 'nation-building'--yet the situation is worse
than it's ever been. So tell us Senator: How many more trillions of dollars is it going to take? How many more dead heroes? How many more lost limbs? How many more shattered families? How many more PTSD victims?"
Source: FITS News on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Aug 11, 2014
On War & Peace:
Intervention in Iraq based on same nonsense as in past
Ravenel blasted Lindsey Graham for "warmongering and fearmongering" in regard to the ongoing US military intervention in Iraq. "John McCain spouted the same nonsense in 2008," Ravenel said. "Nobody bought it then, and nobody's buying it now."Graham
said this week that if America didn't step up its military intervention in Iraq, he envisioned "an American city in flames."
Ravenel invoked Syria in pointing out the hypocrisy of Graham's calls for additional military strikes against ISIS. "I'm
confused by Senator Graham's statements," Ravenel said. "Didn't his buddy John McCain recently pose with ISIS fighters that our government supported in Syria? How exactly does he square that? Why would we support ISIS in one country yet bomb it in
another?"
Ravenel has challenged McCain to debate him on foreign policy since Graham is "too afraid" to appear in a series of 11 televised town hall debates proposed by Ravenel. McCain, like Graham, has not responded to the challenge.
Source: FITS News on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Aug 11, 2014
On Drugs:
End the war on drugs; it's federal overreach & unsuccessful
As part of his effort to limit federal overreach, Ravenel said he wants to see an end to the war on drugs, which he argues has fueled dangerous cartels in Mexico that profit from running drugs across the border."I don't want to see South Carolina
legalize drugs, but I want the federal government to say, 'We're getting out of this business,'" Ravenel said. "Our war on drugs is far worse than Prohibition" in the 1920s; "then it was just manufacturers; now it's mere users that get locked up."
Source: The Island Packet on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 21, 2014
On War & Peace:
U.S. military is over-involved overseas
Ravenel cautioned the U.S. military is over-involved overseas and called for changes to foreign policy that put the military's focus on national defense, not intervention in other countries' conflicts or humanitarian missions, he said. He did not
explain how that kind of policy would affect local installations. "One of the goals of terrorists is to induce the victim state to overreact," Ravenel said. "Al-Qaida basically induced two conventional wars that cost $4 trillion to $6 trillion."
Source: The Island Packet on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 21, 2014
On Welfare & Poverty:
New Deal & Great Society are examples of federal overreach
Ravenel and Kocher made respective cases for unseating Graham by emphasizing their aim to place more federal government services, such as the IRS and Medicaid, under state control. Ravenel argued that history shows the New Deal and Great Society
programs passed by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson are examples of federal overreach that should be eliminated.
For example, the government could dole out Medicaid funding to the states in the form of block grants and let the states run the programs from there, Ravenel said.
That could help eliminate bureaucratic red tape and encourage each state to experiment and innovate. "It's nothing about cutting anything, it's about being more efficient," he said.
Source: The Island Packet on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 21, 2014
On Budget & Economy:
Federal spending is headed for a doomsday scenario
Ravenel's candor illuminates a desire to tackle the problems that Washington has so far ignored and may give voters a reason to take a look at his long-shot bid. With nothing left to lose and no one else to fear offending,
Ravenel is ready to unload on the Republican Party, incumbent politicians, the ballooning federal debt, and what he sees as a dangerous and unprecedented expansion of the federal government into the lives of Americans.
Now that he has been "emancipated" from the party label, the more libertarian Ravenel gladly holds forth on just about any issue that comes up. On federal spending he warns that the nation is headed for "a doomsday scenario."
"The federal government is making all these promises, but at some point, we're not going to be able to fulfill those promises," he says. "We're going to end up like dogs fighting for scraps."
Source: TheDailyBeast blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Civil Rights:
Stay out of marriage, but if not, treat gays equally
On marriage equality, he says he'd rather see the government stay out of marriage altogether. "But if we're going to have equal treatment under the law, if you're going to give certain benefits to heterosexual couples that are married, likewise treatment
must be given to those who are gay and married," he said. "A lot of Republicans are intimidated by strident, hateful anti-gay rhetoric from religious right leaders. I'm not cowed by these people. I don't have to be."
Source: TheDailyBeast blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Homeland Security:
I want a military that defends America, not Germany or Japan
The largest gulf between Ravenel and the GOP is on the role of the US military around the globe. He warns that the US has engaged in nation building, humanitarian missions, and picking winners & losers in countries where we have a track record of getting
it wrong. "I want a military that defends America, not a military that defends Germany or defends Japan," he said. "The EU has a GDP bigger than America's. I don't blame them. Why spend any money on your own military when America's got it covered?"
Source: TheDailyBeast blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Homeland Security:
We absolutely must have the world's strongest military
Ravenel said crafting a new foreign policy would be a centerpiece of his campaign. "Ill-conceived interventions and this constant
flip-flopping of allegiances between terrorist organizations does not make us safer--it only makes another attack on our homeland more likely,"
Ravenel said. "We absolutely must have the world's strongest military to protect our borders and secure our national interests--but our national defense is weakened by politically motivated
pork projects, failed attempts at nation-building and picking up the tab for wealthy countries that won't defend themselves."
Source: WLTX on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Immigration:
Robust worker visa program, plus anything else reasonable
He does not appear to be cowed by anti-immigration activists who have blasted the Senate immigration reform bill as "Grahamnesty" because of Lindsey Graham's support for it. "These immigrants reinvigorate the American spirit," Ravenel says of those in
the country today. "That's why I love that show West Side Story, it's about the possibilities of now, that beautiful sense that something wonderful is around the corner. It's that spirit that sometimes we Americans take for granted."
Ravenel endorses a "robust worker visa program," but stops short of endorsing a path to citizenship for those in the United States already. "I am open to any ideas that sound reasonable. What's happening now is totally unreasonable and
it's bad for the economy. Saying let's control the border first and then we'll deal with immigration is like saying we can't deal with your cancer until your symptoms go away."
Source: TheDailyBeast blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Technology:
Government doesn't belong in your email inbox
Ravenel's press release: "It's time for voters across our state and this country to declare their independence from a failed two-party system," the star of Bravo's 'Southern Charm' said. "Election after election of choosing the lesser of two evils has
our economy and our freedoms on a downward slide--but there's still time to change the road we're on. To do that, though, we need a real debate and a real choice--candidates who are offering real ideas to turn things around."
"Government doesn't belong in your boardroom, your bedroom or your email inbox," he said. "But its presence in every aspect of our lives continues to grow. Democrats keep dictating choices in our marketplaces and Republicans keep telling us who
we can and cannot love. And both parties want to keep spending like there's no tomorrow while they spy on us to make sure we don't step out of line. All of this leads to less prosperity and liberty--and more dependency and fear."
Source: WLTX on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On War & Peace:
Republicans are pro-invading this or that country
With nothing left to lose and no one else to fear offending, Ravenel is ready to unload on the Republican Party, incumbent politicians, the ballooning federal debt, and what he sees as a dangerous and unprecedented expansion of the federal government
into the lives of Americans."As a Republican, if you're not anti-gay, anti-immigrant, pro-war and pro-invading this or that country, you get the cold shoulder," he said from his Mt. Pleasant, S.C. real estate office. "At some point you
rationalize certain viewpoints, cognitive dissonance notwithstanding, and you adopt that platform. And the Democrats do the same thing on their side."
He also speaks of the overarching need for Americans to reevaluate their relationship with their
government, "We need to ask not what your government can do for you, but what you can do for yourself and where necessary, what you can do for others."
Source: TheDailyBeast blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Jul 4, 2014
On Civil Rights:
Government should stay out of our bedrooms &our boardrooms
Ravenel has consistently described himself as a fiscally conservative and socially moderate libertarian. He's pro-gay marriage and in favor of ending the war on drugs. "The government should be limited, small, and should stay out of both the bedrooms and
our boardrooms," he says in one episode.Ravenel, with a chiseled jaw and slicked-back hair straight out of central casting for a Southern politician, has good reason to hope that voters aren't overly concerned with what goes on in peoples' bedrooms.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
On Drugs:
In favor of ending the war on drugs
Ravenel is in favor of ending the war on drugs. [He was elected in 2006 but] his term in office didn't last long. By June 2007 he was indicted on federal charges for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. (He wasn't selling, he tells
Mother Jones, just offering to friends when he was using it a couple of times per month: "I shared it because I didn't want to be a stingy guy who used it but didn't give it back," he says, noting that he "never even bought an eight-ball.")
Then-Gov. Mark Sanford (R) suspended Ravenel immediately, and he resigned from office shortly thereafter. Facing 20 years in jail and a $1 million fine, Ravenel accepted a plea deal to serve 10 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine (he spent the
last three months of that sentence on house arrest at his mother's retirement home). He again ran afoul of the law when he faced drunk-driving charges in 2013, though that only resulted in a six-month suspension of his driver's license and a small fine.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
On Foreign Policy:
Opposed to foreign interventions
Ravenel has consistently described himself as a fiscally conservative and socially moderate libertarian. He's an acolyte of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.): against ObamaCare,
opposed to foreign interventions, but pro-gay marriage and in favor of ending the war on drugs. "The government should be limited, small, and should stay out of both the bedrooms and our boardrooms," he says in one episode.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
On Health Care:
Against ObamaCare
Ravenel has consistently described himself as a fiscally conservative and socially moderate libertarian. He's an acolyte of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.): against ObamaCare,
opposed to foreign interventions, but pro-gay marriage and in favor of ending the war on drugs. "The government should be limited, small, and should stay out of both the bedrooms and our boardrooms," he says in one episode.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
On Principles & Values:
Fiscally conservative and socially moderate libertarian
During the course of the first season of "Southern Charm" --a show that, per Bravo, "goes behind the walls of Charleston, South Carolina's most aristocratic families to reveal a world of exclusivity, money and scandal that goes back generations"
and drew, on average, 1.1 million viewers per episode--Ravenel has consistently described himself as a fiscally conservative and socially moderate libertarian.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
On Social Security:
Voluntary personal accounts for younger workers
SC GOPUSA: Both Social Security and Medicare programs will completely run out of funds in 15 years. What options will you support to fix or replace these programs?RAVENEL: I want to fix this problem by giving younger workers the opportunity--on a
voluntary basis--to place a portion of the payroll taxes they are currently paying into personal investment accounts which the individual worker would own and control. These accounts would grow into very substantial savings over the 40-plus years the
average person works and they would provide a far more generous retirement benefit than Social Security currently promises--and can't deliver. The accounts would be professionally managed by government-approved financial institutions that the individual
worker could select. Best of all, since individual workers would own their own accounts, no politician could ever spend that money on anything else. The reforms I will advocate would have no affect on those nearing, or already retired.
Source: RalphBristol.com blog on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
Apr 5, 2014
Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018