Hicks: Revenge is a dish often served by extremist politicians ... instead of governing By Brian Hicks May 10, 2026 So, a handful of Republican lawmakers has proposed stripping all state funding from South Carolina State University.
The lawmakers argue that our only public black college should be defunded just because the school rescinded an invitation for Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to speak at this year’s commencement.
An invitation it never should’ve sent in the first place.
Yes, the bullying is laughably petty, clumsy and just a little bit gangster. They might as well just call up S.C. State and say: “Nice school you’ve got there. Be a shame if something happened to it.”
But that’d be way too subtle for revenge politics — which is all the rage. Or rather, is the politics of rage. And that’s not how government is supposed to work.
More on that in a second.
Here’s what happened with S.C. State: The college invited the lieutenant governor to speak, a naked attempt to curry favor at the Statehouse. But — surprise — some students protested, because bashing diversity is a big part of Evette’s meager platform in her campaign for governor.
And the campaign is perhaps the biggest reason she shouldn’t have been invited. If you're a state school, you don’t offer one candidate for the state’s top office such a public platform weeks before a primary.
It’s not fair to Alan Wilson, Nancy Mace or those candidates, like Evette, who most people have never heard of.
As my colleague Cindi Ross Scoppe recently noted, there were poor decisions all around here. That includes Evette’s vocal support for efforts to defund S.C. State. Talk about petty.
But this is increasingly the way politicians conduct themselves these days. Statesmanship is an outdated concept. There's no more putting aside the campaigning, as winning candidates used to say regularly, and bringing the people together.
Many elected officials no longer even pretend to represent all the people — just the ones who voted for them.
Today’s pols perpetually want to divide and conquer ... but mostly play the victim. Instead of governing, which is hard, they bully. Which is easy — and apparently popular. Wonder where they got that idea?
The threat against S.C. State was barely newsworthy because, well, it happens regularly. In March, some other state lawmakers tried to defund Clemson because — get this — the college didn’t issue a statement on the 2025 shooting death of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Which is sort of like saying (to quote the only printable line in “Blazing Saddles”), “I didn’t get a harrumph out of that guy.”
Lawmakers who actually represent Clemson employees declared the Legislature should “stop funding the woke.” Which sounds much like Evette calling a bunch of college students a “woke mob.”
They sure love that word.
And that’s a big hint that all this has nothing to do with governing, and everything to do with culture war pap. Just last year, Charleston-area state Sen. Matt Leber introduced legislation to defund any board or commission whose members haven't sworn an oath to the state and U.S. constitutions.
Because, you know, there aren’t any other issues that need attention in South Carolina. At least not ones that provide a handy impetus for an “oath” PAC to separate suckers from their money.
That's gone about as well as his legislation to defund boards and commissions.
But not all of this performance art is so ineffectual. On Thursday, the House adopted a slightly modified version of the Senate’s sequel to the state Heritage Act. The bill would allow so-called “affinity organizations” to sue governments that dare to take down or explain any historical monument. But originally, they also threatened to withhold all state funding to any city or county who took down monuments.
Which is all about protecting Confederate monuments, but could just as easily be called “The Denmark Vesey Statue Protection Act.” D'oh.
This bloodlust for revenge is a dangerous trend, and a threat not just to state agencies, but all taxpayers. The money governments could lose would be used to fund our parks, our schools, fire departments and police.
Don't these guys have some roads to pave, schools to fund and judges to browbeat into letting them raise their own pay?
And what about Democrats doing it? Well, if the state elected any, maybe we'd have some more examples to share. Instead, lawmakers are currently doing their best to make sure that South Carolina — which votes about 40 percent Democratic in statewide elections — has no elected Democrats.
Some people will tell you that, too, is about revenge … but nah, that’s really just about power.
Fact is, once elected, these officials are supposed to represent everyone — not just trolls on unsocial media. And that's not happening these days.
These penny-ante power plays are going to continue until voters decide it’s time for them to get their own revenge — at the polls.
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