North Carolina remains a fishbowl view on corrupt politics – and an echo of the national stage. Via NC State Senator Jeff Jackson (D), WRAL.com reports on the recent statements of state Representative John Blust (R-Guilford) during a debate on an agricultural bill:
“This bill is moving like this because we’re taking sides in a dispute,” Blust said. “We know better than the court. We know better than the facts. We know better than the law. We’re going to protect one litigant, and we’re going to say to the other, ‘You don’t matter. You don’t count.’ It’s because the one side has the ear of the powers that run this institution.” …
“We accuse the courts of being biased and wicked and bad and [making] bad decisions. What about the way we operate?” he asked. “Is it right that one side gets to appear and pack the galleries and nobody from the other side gets any notice?
“We callously take away that right [for people to persuade their legislators], and then we criticize courts for being unfair,” he continued. “We sound like me after Carolina loses to Duke or State – it had to have been the referees. Our side lost this lawsuit, so it must have been a bad court. That’s a weak excuse.” …
“The way things are handled is pertinent to this bill,” he responded. “We’re the people’s house and the people’s legislature, and we ought to do business in a deliberative fashion that befits the trust that’s been bestowed on us by the people. That ought to be an ironclad guarantee that we take seriously at all times.”
One of the keys here is that, according to Senator Jackson, Representative Blust is not running for re-election. As has been noted in the press of late, if you’re a Republican ambitious to enter onto or remain on the national stage, you keep your mouth shut about the fundamental problems besetting the Party. But if you’re retiring, if you no longer depend on the Party or the base for your job, then just maybe you open your yap and start telling it like it is. At the national level, Gowdy, Corker, and Flake are just three names that have dared to contradict the official Party line on various GOP talking points.
The problem, of course, is that party members do their organization no favors by waiting until they’re leaving the profession before discussing the profound shortcomings of the culture of the GOP. In fact, it’s a disservice, since their influence is now on the wane.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the North Carolina legislature in the next election. It’s not clear to me, being rather afar, if the folks in North Carolina know of the ways of the GOP, or if they approve of them.
