Abstract
Alvin Michael Greene, the first African American to be nominated by major party, is the Democratic Party nominee in the 2010 United States Senate election in South Carolina. Greene won the Democratic primary race against candidate Vic Rawl, a former judge and state legislator. Greene graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2000 with a degree in political science. He is a United States military veteran who served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. He was currently unemployed and living in a family home in Manning. On August 13, 2010 it was announced that he had been indicted on criminal charges of showing pornographic pictures to an 18 year old female college student on the campus of USC (Phillips, 2010)
Alvin Michael Greene the epitome of political injustice and travesty During Greene’s time in the Air Force he received numerous poor evaluations from his superiors. The evaluations stated Greene was an ineffective leader who lacked organization and was unable to express thoughts clearly (Khimm, 2010). Therefore, Greene received an honorable but involuntary discharge from the army in 2009 after a 13 year career. From a radical perspective Alvin Greene got removed from the Air Force because he was unable to show guidance and direction to small groups. How can he possibly be the voice for the state of South Carolina? He cannot. Greene was unable to deliver highly intelligent speeches to the public; he spoke with uncertainty, fragmentary sentence, repeating certain phrases or interrupting himself multiple times while searching for the correct term. When asked in an interview was he surprised about his victory, he reply “I wasn’t surprised, but not really. I mean, just a little, but not much. I knew I was on top of my campaign, and just stayed on top of everything, I just—I wasn’t surprised that much, just a little. I knew that I worked hard and did,” (Khimm, 2010).
“It wasn’t much, I mean, just, it was—it wasn’t’ much. Not much, I mean, it wasn’t much” is how Greene reply when ask how much of his own money was spent in the primary (Khimm, 2010). This introduces the second controversial issue, Alvin Greene did not campaign. He had no campaign funds, no signs, and no website. There’s only $114 in his campaign bank account, and Greene insists that he paid the $10, 400 filing fee and all other fees from his own personal fund (Roig-Franzia, 2010). In which he was saving for two years. However, Greene was on unemployment and receiving money from the military also. So therefore, that is all government funded money. Nevertheless, Vic Rawl, his opponent, had an $186,000 campaign war chest and had already planned upcoming event (Roig-Franzia, 2010). Greene shouldn’t have been able to run without a campaign. How can you enter an election without a campaign, and somehow manage to win. I don’t think he deserve the right to receive unemployment and use the money for a political election. I personally believe he went to private donor and received the money. Therefore, he is speaking their political viewpoint, not his own. The state of South Carolina needs someone who is entitled to their own thought and idea.
The day after the primary election, it was reported that Greene was facing felony obscenity charges from November 2009 arrest for allegedly showing a pornographic picture on an internet site to an 18 year old female at USC, and then allegedly saying to her “Let’s go to your room”(Phillips, 2010). Throughout the election process Greene was under investigation, thus that was a controversial issue for many people. However, whether it was before or after the election he should not have had the chance to be nominated. No one can hold a political office position with a felony. With a felony you no longer have the ability to vote, so therefore you don’t have an opinion. In conclusion Mr. Alvin Michael Green should have never been nominated, let alone won the election in the first place. He needs to be behind bars for the charges and a public apology is needed. Some may say in this elections people spoke instead of money, which may be true but Alvin Greene is a sick and twisted individual and don’t deserve the right to serve as the state of South Carolina Democratic senate. References
Khimm, S. (2010, June 8). Who Is Alvin Greene? | Mother Jones. Mother Jones | Smart, Fearless Journalism. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/alvin- greene-south-carolina
PHILLIPS, K. (2010, June 10). Who Is Alvin Greene? - NYTimes.com. Politics and Government - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/who-is-alvin-greene/
Roig-Franzia, M. (2010, June 11). In South Carolina, Greene is mystery man despite winning Democratic Senate nod. washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/06/10/