I realize how fortunate I’ve been to live in a state that has been governed so well for most of my life. For the most part, Democrats got it right. While they were in control, I certainly had my problems with them, but they were mainly from the left, not the right.
I thought the Democrats were a little too pro-business and I wished they’d have spent a little more time looking at some of the root causes of poverty. And if they were in power today, I’d probably have the same complaints. But these disagreements are matters of degrees. I never thought I would live in a state where the government has such blatant disdain for its poor people and such ideological reverence for the unimpeded free market.
The party that loves to cry “Class warfare!” just launched an all out assault on the middle class and poor people. This is a government that decided how much money it wanted to give to rich people before it figured out how much it would take to adequately fund the government. They assumed they could make their cuts to public schools, public universities, early childhood education, community colleges and health care once they had taken car of their wealthy benefactors. Talk about priorities.
In this war, we saw the right’s ground troops yesterday at the laughable “Thankful Tuesday” rally. The Pope-funded group, Civitas, likes to profile the Moral Monday protesters by accessing their public but personal information and publishing it on the web. A simple photograph tells you all you need to know about the Thankful Tuesday folks. They’re angry white people who willingly, no enthusiastically, or even fanatically, vote against their own economic self-interests to protect themselves from imaginary threats to their freedom and liberty.
The rightward shift is borne of an ugly coalition of opportunistic greed and irrational fear of demographic changes and economic uncertainty. We’ve seen these forces throughout North Carolina history. At the turn of the 20th century, they turned us into a racist, one-party state. This time, though, there are more of us than there are of them.
If they really want class warfare, bring it on.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Tuesday was classic astroturf (cough) Dallas Woodhouse (cough). If the evidence of thirty years of failed “trickle-down” “voodoo economics” culminating in spectacular global financial melt-down doesn’t convince Republicans that their ideas are toxic then I am sure that your truthful, thoughtful essay, Mr. Mills, is water on stone. Think of the Grand Canyon…
I can’t believe you had the nerve to bring up “Pope” after your groups take money from Gas Chamber, Nazi George Soros, the man who stole his money from shorting currencies and ruining countries and people’s lives, the man that OWNS the Dim party. You’re an ignorant ass hat. Two corrupt Dim NC gov’s and you’re crying in your mom’s breast milk about McCory. Shut up and grow some you blathering douch bag.
Thomas…I’m not angry, as your article espouses. I just wish the left would stop putting people in groups. Rich vs Poor, White vs Black. The last time I checked we’re all Americans. I wish we would get back to Constitutional governing. It’s not greed that I want, as you say in your article, it is for the government to stop picking winners and losers.
If there were more of you than of us, you would not have lost control in 2010 and yet even further in 2012. It is very typical of the left to view themselves in a heavenly light while anyone with different beliefs is out to damn the world. I think that it is funny you mention the Democrats were too pro-business……the truth of the matter is that the Democrat “pro-business” model was so good that more businesses left North Carolina and/or stopped operating in North Carolina in the 2000’s than any other state in this country. Please stop the spread of misinformation, for once, give the people the truth and don’t try to sway their mind instead just give them the FACTS and let them decide. Oh! My apologies, they have decided.
Yep. We lost them in textiles, furniture and other manufacturing due to free-market trade policies. On the other hand, the Research Triangle Park, which never would have happened under the current Republican philosophy, and Charlotte have among the fastest growing job markets in the country, inspite of, not because of Republican policies.
They also gave us the Global Transpark. As you say above, Democrats were not all good. Republicans are not all bad, although this groups has done some truly stupid things. They will do some things that have a positive impact though. Are you open minded enough to recognize that?
Sure, Kirt. I haven’t seen much right yet. I hope their transportation restructuring works and, while I’m skeptical, I’m willing to see what happens with restructuring Commerce. But cutting public schools, public universities and early childhood education while giving a massive tax cut to the richest 5% and shifting the tax burden onto the poor and middle class is bad policy.