D' Annunzio vs Johnson

I’m not one to endorse candidates for office.

My personal belief is this; most liberal legislation needs a touch of conservative fiscal responsibility. Most conservative legislation needs a touch of liberal humanitarianism. Most reasonable answers to any problem lie somewhere in the middle.

If you choose to label yourself (I don’t like labels) either “liberal” or “conservative”, then it seems to me that you’re playing to an audience and may have trouble looking at things objectively.

There comes a time, however, when I look at what’s going on in a race and figure I better put my two cents worth in. Somebody should have done that when Hitler was a corporal.

Tim D’Annunzio is in a runoff election with Harold Johnson for the Republican nomination in the 8th District Congressional race. The winner will take on Democratic incumbent Larry Kissell.

I know Harold Johnson. I know little about his politics (neither does anyone else according to mainstream press), and I haven’t seen him personally in years. His wife taught public school with my mother. I was friends with his son Vince when we were in grade school, but we lost touch over the years. The times I’ve been around Harold, I’ve found him to be a personable, reasonable guy. The time he spent as “The Big Guy” on WSOC TV was merely an on-screen persona. We’d occasionally run into each other around town at a convenience store and he always recognized me and spoke.

Most of what I know of D’Annunzio is what has been in the media. It is accepted as fact that he has a criminal record for domestic violence and trespassing. My own divorce never got that far, but even if you give him the benefit of the doubt about that there’s this whole issue where he refers to the government as “the Antichrist”. To paraphrase one of my favorite columnists Tommy Tomlinson, he now wants a job with the Antichrist. Furthermore, as evil as this government of ours seems to be he made most of his money doing business with it by manufacturing body armor and supplying it to the Pentagon.

Almost comical is his use of “machine gun” socials to woo voters from the far right. I’m a gun owner myself, but I don’t identify with anyone seduced by this type of campaign. There’s a lot more to our Constitution than the Second Amendment.

At best, D’Annunzio has a warped view of what America should be. Unfortunately, a lot more voters are turning to non-traditional politicians because of their frustration at the current situation. He’s lost the support of the Republican Party leadership so I really don’t see how he can get on board with anyone else about any single issue.

I would have to look closer at the issues and candidates after the primary to decide who I’d rather see in the District 8 seat. I just know that I’d hate to see D’Annunzio there.