It is unfortunate that Congressman Cunningham has to be so shady. He has to duck the ‘D’ questions because he is representing a red district. He has to come across as independent.

With 80 days remaining before the elections, talking season is in full session.  In the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina, Democrat Congressman Joe Cunningham, along with his dark money PAC supporters, have already spent over $1 million on campaign ads.  Cunningham, and most every other politician nowadays, boasts that they will not accept any dark money contributions to their campaign.  What they don’t tell the voters is they will remain silent as dark money PAC’s run misleading and even dishonest ads meant to sway the election in their favor. 

In 2018, Cunningham had this to say about dark money: 

Great news. We’ve run this entire campaign without taking one cent from PACs or special interests. Dark money is poisoning our politics but this ruling is a step in the right direction. There’s much more to do and I’m ready to get to work.

If a candidate, democrat or republican, renounces all PAC political ads and is quick to counter any ads with clarifying statements, then, and only then can he or she truly claim that they are not allowing dark money to poison our politics.  Cunningham would like the Lowcountry of South Carolina to believe he’s that guy, but he is not.  He will be silent as PAC’s begin to run mean-spirited ads against his republican challenger, Nancy Mace.  Those ads, paid for by dark money, will be a direct assault on Nancy Mace’s character.  The closer we get to election day, the more venomous will be the charges against Mace.  Meanwhile the ads that end with “I’m Joe Cunningham and I approve this message” will try to maintain Cunningham’s wholesome as wholesome gets political image.  It’s all politics.  Did I mention that Cunningham was an Eagle Scout? 

Cunningham seldom uses the ‘D’ word.  It’s never in his campaign ads.  It isn’t on his campaign website either.  I have e-mailed his campaign repeatedly, trying to get Cunningham to explain why he is a democrat.  I have received no response.  What parts of the DNC platform does Cunningham find so attractive that he is willing to be in the same ideological company as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer?  If I asked Nancy Mace why she is a republican, I’m certain she would provide an in-depth explanation of what it is in the RNC platform that she believes in wholeheartedly.

It is unfortunate that Congressman Cunningham has to be so shady.  He has to duck the ‘D’ questions because he is representing a red district.  He has to come across as independent, so he presents himself accordingly.  However, he votes with the democrats close to ninety percent of the time.  He voted in favor of the impeachment hearing for President Trump.  He favors the majority of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed Green New Deal – but he’d never say that while being recorded.  Instead, he supports a PAC commercial touting the Move Forward Act as something that would benefit the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina. 

Cunningham also seems comfortable allowing voters to believe half-truths about his track record.   He has appeared in political ads that claim he stopped Congress from giving itself a pay raise.  He’d like the voters to believe that his objection to the pay raise was due to his thoughtful stewardship of taxpayer dollars.  As the narrator of the ‘That’s Joe’ commercial puts it, “And when politicians tried to raise their own pay, he stopped them.  That’s Joe”.  Can you see it?  Congressman Joe Cunningham, 37-year-old newcomer to the United States House of Representatives, stopping Pelosi, Clyburn, and Hoyer? 

The truth is Congressman Cunningham was not alone.  Many of the newer Democrat Congressmen and Congresswomen, particularly those that won seats in historically Republican districts, expressed their concern to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.  Even though the House and its staffers have not had a cost of living allowance increase in over ten years, Hoyer and his leadership saw the political risk. 

Passing a pay raise would have put control of the House in serious jeopardy.  Across the nation, Republicans and conservative PAC’s would have ran commercials condemning these selfish lawmakers for taking a raise when our national debt is nearing 27 trillion dollars.  As reported by Cristina Marcos with The Hill, close to a dozen vulnerable swing-district Democratic freshmen had submitted or co-sponsored amendments to block the pay raise.

So, did Joe Cunningham stop the pay raise for Congress?  No.  He did not.  Did Joe Cunningham join others, like Haley Stevens of Michigan, Ben McAdams of Utah, along with other vulnerable swing-district Democratic freshmen in voicing concern about the timeliness of a congressional pay raise?  Yes.  Would Joe Cunningham be better off not misleading the voters of the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina with deceptive nuances and trickery?  Yes. He would be much better off if he simply spoke the clear, plain truth.

When you take credit for work that isn’t really yours, or stand in someone else’s light, it’s just a few notches below the offensiveness of stolen valor.  Stolen valor is despicable.  Cunningham has demonstrated that he is comfortable on the edge of what most honest people would consider the division line between ethical and unethical conduct.  As previously mentioned, the PAC commercial pushing the Moving Forward Act, H.R.2.  is a great example.  The ad tells voters that Joe Cunningham passed the Moving Forward Act and now he needs their help getting the bill passed in the Senate.  Listeners are encouraged to call their senators and tell them to pass the Moving Forward Act.  The commercial highlights funding to repair roads and bridges, and makes mention of clean energy and jobs.  Here’s the parts Cunningham knows are not popular with conservatives.  He must have been counting on few people actually reading the bill.

Some republicans refer to the Moving Forward Act as Pelosi’s My Way or the Highway Act.  It is an enormous bill with over 2,300 pages.  The price tag for the Moving Forward Act is over $1.5 trillion.  Throughout H.R.2 are Green New Deal mandates and projects that Pelosi hopes republicans will tolerate in exchange for the funding for the bipartisan supported projects such as building / repairing roads, bridges, and schools. 

According to Americans for Tax Reform, the public and lawmakers should be aware of the following key, non-highway related provisions in H.R. 2:

• Includes a $25 billion bailout for the Postal Service including a mandate to purchase electric vehicles and requires every postal facility in the country to have electric vehicle charging stations by 2026. 

• Extends the investment tax credit (ITC) for wind and solar energy through 2025, contradicting the bipartisan agreement reached in December of 2019 to phase these tax credits out permanently.

• Expands the electric vehicle tax credit by tripling the cap from 200,000 to 600,000 vehicles per manufacturer.

• Creates a new tax credit for used electric vehicles capped at $2,500.

• Authorizes $2 billion per year through 2025 to build electric vehicle charging stations. 

• Allocates $1 billion in credits annually to colleges and universities that establish an environmental justice program. 

• Includes a $325 million program for electric school buses.

Shady Joe Cunningham voted in favor of taxpayers subsidizing Green New Deal initiatives. He supports $1 billion in credits annually to colleges and universities that establish an environmental justice program.  Environmental justice is yet another banner for liberals to rally behind while blaming corporate capitalists for the plight of the poor.  Whenever democrats speak of civil justice, it always involves a hostile redistribution of wealth.  This is Joe Cunningham.  He supports these types of mammoth, federal government programs that cost too much, do too little, and always need more money.  The worst part is Shady Joe doesn’t own it.  He doesn’t wear it on his sleeve.  He hides it. 

On July 17, 2019 Cunningham made this post on his Facebook page: 

As an Eagle Scout myself, I’m so glad I got to meet Boy Scouts Troop 484 out of Joint Base Charleston today! And look – I still remember our core values!

Your constituents don’t want you to just remember those core values Congressman.  We want you to live those core values while representing us in the United States House of Representatives.  We want you to put down your beer and get real with us.