A South Carolina statewide elected official had some harsh words for his political party Tuesday afternoon.
Curtis Loftis, a Republican who was elected state treasurer in 2010 reelected in 2014, 2018 and 2022, told the Aiken Republican Club Tuesday afternoon that his party is losing out for a lot of reasons.
“One, we don’t really love government,” Loftis said. “We do government because we have to. We like to keep it away from us. We want smaller government. We want efficient government. Well, the other side lives by it.”
Second, Loftis said there’s a systemic problem within the Republican Party: “We refuse to appoint conservatives to positions of power.”
Loftis said there are over 1,000 vacancies on state boards and commissions and several overstays – people whose terms have expired but have not yet been replaced or reappointed – that could be filled with conservatives.
“We absolutely refuse,” Loftis continued. “I have spoken to the powers that be over and over and over again. They don’t want to hear it. They don’t care. And they’re not going to appoint.”
Loftis added South Carolina’s Republicans appoint and hire Democrats instead.
He said the South Carolina Educational Television Commission recently appointed a “hard-core, radical leftist.”
The South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) Commission appointed Adrienne Fairwell president and CEO in June.
“What does ETV do? They pump information into our schools everyday that none of you ever see,” Loftis continued. “Three of the four people who run ETV are radical left-wingers. They’re hard-core diversity, equity inclusion people.”
He said the chief academic officer in the state education department is an Obama Democrat.
He said until recently the chairman of the Lexington County election commission was a Democrat. Loftis said he’s been a member of the Lexington County Republican Party for 50 years and the county used to be strongest Republican county east of the Mississippi but it now has Democrats running its elections.
Loftis said the chairman of the Department of Health and Environmental Control board said in a public meeting he and his agency were “woke.” He added the chairwoman of the Arts Commission said her agency was woke.
Loftis added an African American lesbian runs abstinence grant for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. He said the female and her partner post rap videos “straight from Hell” on her Facebook page.
He said the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees includes Alex English. Loftis said English wants to remove Sen. Strom Thurmond’s name from the university’s fitness center.
“He’s a nice man, I’ve known him for a long time,” Loftis said. “But, he’ll be on that board until he dies.”
Loftis added The Federalist recently rated the University of South Carolina the third worst college for free speech in the country.
He said Clemson has pioneered an app that allows a student to film another student doing something and anonymously send it to the university’s administration.
“Hitler never had it so good, the Stasi never had it so good,” Loftis said. “The KGB, you had to go to the bushes and have somebody whisper to them. It’s 2 a.m. in the morning and somebody tells an off-color joke, you have them thrown out of school.”
He added a radical feminist from New York could use the app to get people she didn’t agree with thrown out of the school.
“Do you know how few allies I have when I go around to state agencies,” Loftis asked.
He asked the Republicans attending the meeting to ask their representatives, senators and the governor why the state is appoint Democrats to boards and commissions and why Democrats are hired in positions of power in the Palmetto State.
Loftis added Republicans shouldn’t look to corporations for people to appoint or hire.
“If we continue to appoint the donor class, the bankers, the telecommunications executives, Boeing, BMW, all of these people have pledged allegiance to the left wing,” Loftis said.
Loftis said it doesn’t matter what one of these executive’s politics are, they’re beholden to environmental social governance investment theories.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) is an investment theory where investors consider the impact of a potential investment on factors like climate change and racial equity.
“They’re a Democrat when it comes to voting,” Loftis said. “Their corporate bosses have all signed off on ESG… They cannot vote against it.”
Loftis said corporate executives could face boycotts if they openly oppose ESG.