SUNDAY’S POLITICAL OPINION
Chad Caton constantly reinvents himself about every 6 months. Caton can go from bully to victim in 60 seconds flat. He’s always looking for the next bus to catch, because he just made a mess on the last one he was riding.
One consistent theme in his schtick, however, is his “man of the people” watchdog reports.
Like a 2021 version of Melvin P. Thorpe (in the video clip above) Caton claims to be unselfishly “working for the people”. “It is not about me,” Caton proclaims.
His latest adventure is a potential coup of the Horry County Republican Party.
Yesterday, Caton focused his blistering diatribe at long standing, Horry County resident and local attorney Reese Boyd.
There are certain names in Horry County that we fondly call Old Horry. These names include the Hucks, the Richardsons, the Boyds, the Collins, the Sarvis, the Jones, the Smiths, the Fowlers, the Hardees, the Baileys, the Grahams, the Worleys, Jenerettes (not John – different spelling), the Cox, the Johnsons, the Rabons, among many more. Like my family, these folks have lived in Horry County since the area was first called Prince George Parish before the Revolutionary War.
My family moved to Horry County in 1767. You get to know a lot about people when you have done life with them generationally for that many years. You also learn how to work through conflict and difficult situations together.
Caton is a newcomer to Horry County politics and Horry County as well. He arrived on the political scene in 2017, effectively working to blow up the candidacy of then Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus. Lazarus certainly had it coming. It took an entire team, however, to pry him out of elected office.
Since then Caton has worked through several misfit relationships. He was fired from a local radio station after hanging out with the Proud Boys in Washington, D.C. He is constantly at war with his own local neighbors at Arrowhead Country Club, where he lives. To hear Caton tell it, his family is a victim to his neighbor’s behaviors.
His local “media” Facebook page continues to shrink in fan engagement. Like Melvin P. Thorpe, his page is high drama, every day, all the time with features that have included his “tool of the week.”
Caton is a dog that bites anyone willing to feed his huge ego.
CATON’S 2020 CAMPAIGN
In 2020, no one was more helpful in getting Horry County RINO Senator Luke Rankin re-elected than Chad Caton.
Rankin faced huge hurtles that he could not overcome alone. Santee Cooper lost $9 billion under his oversight. He consistently voted the Democrat party line as it related to guns and abortion. How could he possibly win against a true conservative in Horry County?
Chad Caton certainly helped Rankin focus his entire campaign on Rankin’s challenger.
Caton calls himself “media” online. He worked with a Greenville, NC based con man to spread lies and court protected documents (that were proven to be unfounded) so as to smear candidate John Gallman’s name.
Gallman’s ex-wife, who stated ongoing lies in court documents, was never once questioned nor put on camera by Caton. As is custom with Caton, the narrative was more important than the truth.
MyrtleBeachSC News and others have screen shot the many lies distributed and promoted by Caton during that time frame. Mr. Caton, at minimum, will have his day in court to explain his behavior.
This news outfit can already telegraph the outcome, however. Mr. Caton is most likely to walk out of the courtroom claiming the cabal is after him once more. (a common claim) Bruised and battered by his own actions, Chad will certainly play the “victim” card.
CATON’S NEW ADVENTURE
This year the HCGOP is undergoing reorganization. Caton’s mantra is that everything Old Horry is criminal, corrupt, and needs outside help to hold the locals accountable.
Caton is bringing in an entirely new group of largely unknowns from outside of the area to “fix these locals”.
He claims that the HCGOP is at the heart of all things politically corrupt in Horry County.
IS IT TRUE?
The truth, however, lies in an entirely different area. The two most powerful forces in Horry County politics for the past 50 years are:
- The Grand Strand Business Alliance – a political arm of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber.
- The Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors political PAC. Also aligned with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber.
The Horry County Republican party has neither the financial resources nor the political sway to effect elections as the two above. In fact, the HCGOP is simply a political club. It does have influence, but not activist influence.
The GSBA and CCAR, however, have worked effectively to elect and keep local RINOs in power.
Caton wants to convert the HCGOP club into an activist organization. He has connected with upstate activist Pressley Stutts in these efforts.
THE PROBLEM
Caton claims his intentions are to unite all Republicans.
Good leaders build teams that plan, lead, organize, and direct followers in creating a transformational organization. To date, all Caton has been able to accomplish is to blow up everything he touches. This includes key relationships. With the exception of one or two followers, Caton changes his entire litany of key relationships every six months.
PUTTING THOSE WHO DESPISE AUTHORITY IN AUTHORITY
The E.C.’s of the HCGOP have every right to put whomever they want to in authority within the group.
However, as Dr. Henry Cloud famously warns: PLAY THE MOVIE FORWARD.
In short, start at the end of what it means to put Caton’s group in power and then work your way back to now.
- Caton refuses to follow anyone.
- Caton does not work well with others.
- Caton blames others for his problems and rarely takes personal responsibility.
- Caton lives and dies on the access of “the cult of personality of others” rather than his own limited merits. Examples: Lin Wood and General Flynn – two men he hardly knows if he knows them at all. FYI – Two new relationships.
THERE IS A PROBLEM
Horry County is a red county with RINO leadership. This problem has little to do with the HCGOP, however, and is rather a result of a handful of coastal elites.
If the HCGOP E.C.s think Caton’s solution is the answer, let’s see how Caton’s ongoing victimhood mindset works out for the party in the long run.
A victim can only see himself as a victim. To do otherwise would require the victim to take responsibility for his own life.
Under Caton’s leadership, the HCGOP may get entirely infected with the same victim mindset for all things life that fully embodies Chad Caton.