21 February 2019 — 1617 mst
Few phrases lift a red flag higher than “good ole boy”
An aunt who lived in Arkansas bristled whenever one of her family’s menfolk heaped high praise on a “good ole boy,” a class of southerner she considered more lowdown than grifters, white trash, and convicts. Were she still alive, the Washington Post’s report of the tainted election in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District would not surprise her, and her assessments of Leslie McCrae Dowless, and possibly Mark Harris, probably would set asbestos afire.
And after reading the paragraph below, she would have directed a few words of scorn at cheapskates who meet in a furniture store instead of a cafe or bar to avoiding paying for drinks:
Dowless was a “good ole boy” who “ate, slept and drank” politics and was recommended to him by a former state judge, [Mark] Harris said. He met Dowless in 2017 at a local furniture store in the 9th District, and the two, along with other Republicans, sat on couches in the store’s showroom so that Dowless could describe his absentee-ballot operation.
Harris, the Republican candidate, and Baptist preacher, who tallied more votes than his Democratic opponent, today testified that he now believes the public has no confidence in the election’s outcome, and that a new election should be held. That’s good. And the Lord surely loves a sinner come to Jesus, no matter how lately the sinner decided to seek deliverance from evil. But the Lord also loves he who resisted sinning in the first place, he who was smart enough not to trust in good ole boys. If Mark Harris is on the ballot again, voting for him would be sinful enough to send a person to a place hotter than heaven, a place reserved for those good ole boys for whom sinning is a heavenly pursuit.