{"id":18888,"date":"2019-01-07T15:56:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T21:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=18888"},"modified":"2019-02-21T17:57:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T23:57:04","slug":"is-north-carolina-the-most-toxic-state-in-the-union-ctd-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2019\/01\/07\/is-north-carolina-the-most-toxic-state-in-the-union-ctd-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Is North Carolina the most Toxic State in the Union?, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers who are aware of the Republican Party dishonorable hijinks in North Carolina will be interested in the report<\/a> from Mark Joseph Stern of Slate<\/strong><\/em> on their latest delaying tactics concerning the elimination of gerrymandering<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

GOP lawmakers devised a rather startling theory: They\u00a0alleged\u00a0<\/a>that the plaintiffs were attempting to force North Carolina to violate the Voting Rights Act, the 14th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment\u2019s Equal Protection Clause, and the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment\u2019s bar on race-based voter suppression. How, exactly, could an effort to remedy partisan gerrymandering wind up disenfranchising minorities? Republicans argued that if the current map were invalidated, either the North Carolina Supreme Court or the General Assembly would have to draw new districts. And, they insisted, neither could do so without trampling on the voting rights of racial minorities. The argument\u00a0implies<\/a>\u00a0that both legislators and the justices are\u00a0too racist to be trusted<\/a>\u00a0to redraw the maps in a way that wouldn\u2019t violate the Constitution.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan rightly\u00a0tossed out<\/a>\u00a0this embarrassing Hail Mary, sending the case back to North Carolina court. Flanagan noted that she would explain her full reasoning in a later opinion, but it\u2019s easy to see why she kicked out the case: It has no business in federal court, it is built upon a strange and offensive legal theory, and it is obviously just a delaying tactic\u2014a bid to run down the clock so that new maps cannot be drawn before the 2020 election. Flanagan, a moderate conservative appointed by George W. Bush, had no desire to become complicit in the North Carolina GOP\u2019s undemocratic machinations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And that puts it back on track to end up in front of a Democrat-dominated state Supreme Court, with time to actually redraw the boundaries. Will North Carolina Republicans continue to squall about how redrawing the boundaries in any way but the one that keeps them in power?<\/p>\n

And just how did North Carolina Republicans fare in the mid-terms? From Ballotpedia’s<\/strong><\/em> report<\/a> on the NC Senate results:<\/p>\n

Republicans<\/a>\u00a0maintained their majority in the\u00a0North Carolina State Senate<\/a>\u00a0in the November 6, 2018, elections, winning\u00a029<\/b>\u00a0seats to\u00a0Democrats<\/a>‘\u00a021<\/b>. Democrats, however, broke the Republican supermajority in the chamber by keeping them below 30 seats. All\u00a050 Senate seats<\/b>\u00a0were up for election in 2018.<\/p>\n

Heading into the elections,\u00a0Republicans<\/a>\u00a0had a 34-15 majority. The seat previously held by Republican\u00a0David Curtis<\/a>\u00a0was vacant.\u00a0Democrats<\/a>\u00a0needed to win six seats to break Republicans’ three-fifths supermajority, the margin necessary\u00a0to override gubernatorial vetoes<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the NC House<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Republicans<\/a>\u00a0maintained their majority in the\u00a0North Carolina House of Representatives<\/a>\u00a0in the November 6, 2018, elections, winning\u00a065<\/b>\u00a0seats to\u00a0Democrats<\/a>‘\u00a055<\/b>. Democrats, however, broke the Republican supermajority in the chamber by keeping them below 72 seats. All\u00a0120 House seats<\/b>\u00a0were up for election in 2018.<\/p>\n

Heading into the elections,\u00a0Republicans<\/a>\u00a0had a 75-45 majority.\u00a0Democrats<\/a>\u00a0needed to win four seats to break Republicans’ three-fifths supermajority, the margin necessary\u00a0to override gubernatorial vetoes<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus forcing the Republicans to reconsider their extremism, now that they are not the supreme political force in the State. The governor is held by Democrat Cooper, and the judiciary, to the extent that it is political, has a Supreme Court mostly containing judges elected under the Democratic banner.<\/p>\n

The Republicans are far from being discredited to the extent that they must reform, but a step has been taken. Now there’s pressure on the Democrats to be wise in the governance they can exert.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the corruption which potentially occurred in District 9, in which Republican Mark Harris had apparently beaten Democrat Dan McCready for a seat in the Federal House Of Representatives, but then a controversy arose concerning absentee ballots being illegally collected and discarded by a Republican operative, and the election board refused to certify the election result – unanimously. That corruption may spark more resentment towards the dominant Republicans, leaking away their support among the independents on which they depend.<\/p>\n

An exciting, if frustrating, election result, if you’re a North Carolinian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers who are aware of the Republican Party dishonorable hijinks in North Carolina will be interested in the report from Mark Joseph Stern of Slate on their latest delaying tactics concerning the elimination of gerrymandering: GOP lawmakers devised a rather startling theory: They\u00a0alleged\u00a0that the plaintiffs were attempting to force North \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24176,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888\/revisions\/24176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}