Well, my cautious hope that maybe North Carolina could climb out of its toxic hell has been dashed.This is in connection with the NC GOP’s determination to override Governor Cooper’s budget, as noted earlier, Business Insider provides the basic story:
Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives stunned their Democratic colleagues on Wednesday by holding a surprise vote and passing a controversial budget while many of its members were absent.
The Republicans overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget with a 55-9 vote, while colleagues were absent from the floor during a 9/11 memorial ceremony.
To override the governor’s veto, the Republicans needed to secure a three-fifths majority vote among those present. Local news outlets reported that Republicans in the state had been trying for months to override Cooper’s veto and seized an opportunity on a morning typically set aside to honor the 2,977 people killed in the 9/11 attacks 18 years ago. …
Democrats also said they were tricked by Republicans into believing there would be no vote in their absence. House Minority Leader Darren Jackson said at a press conference that the House rules committee chairman told him the chamber would hold no recorded votes on the floor until 1 p.m.
No doubt, the NC GOP is congratulating itself on its cleverness. But there are always consequences to doing mischief, and a reader sent me to the Charlotte Observer’s, in which the editorial on the matter says it all:
NC Republicans’ shameless theft of democracy
Another reader sent me this link to a video of North Carolina educators reacting to the GOP’s maneuver.
The NC GOP seems to have either made a bet with itself that handing a barrel of tar and feathers to the NC Democrats is not dangerous, or they simply executed this risky maneuver because they’re fixated on their goal of overriding the veto.
And why is it risky? These are at least two-fold:
- They’ve signaled that they are untrustworthy in future politics. Why should the Democrats try to work with them when they become the majority party? And why should the citizenry of North Carolina consider them to be an honorable party, even the Republican voters? The date of 9/11 has been made into a virtual sacred national day, like it or hate it; the use of it in this underhanded way brands every North Carolina GOP legislator who voted for it as dishonorable and untrustworthy.
- They may think they’re pro-business, but their very underhandedness signals to the business world that they cannot be trusted. Sure, some businesses will approve, but those businesses run by wise professionals who have a holistic outlook on the future will take one look at this maneuver and write North Carolina off their list of probable places to work.
The North Carolina Republicans seem to be startlingly blind, which, I am forced to admit, marks them as a bunch of second- and third-raters.
Which is a phrase I use depressingly often for one of the country’s major political parties.
[h/t Arts Editor, RWK]
