Cooper Joins the Dark Side

by | Nov 19, 2015 | 2016 Elections, Carolina Strategic Analysis, Features, NC Politics, NCGov | 46 comments

Roy Cooper is getting a lot of flack from progressives for largely taking the same stance as Governor McCrory on the refugee matter. Actually, flack is not a good word. More like anger, disappointment, fury. Cooper’s support for a “pause” on importing refugees is in complete opposition to what appears to be progressives’ view on the situation, which is that in the wake of the Paris attacks we shouldn’t hit “pause” but should instead hit the accelerator and bring in as many Syrian refugees as possible, as soon as possible.

Regardless of the morality or the soundness behind such a position, progressives should realize they’re in the minority on this issue. Before the Paris attacks, there was already some skepticism on accepting refugees. Now, the Overton window on this issue has shifted to the right. On the far-left are those who think we should continue the refugee program as if nothing happened (Obama). On the far-right are those who think it’s time we scrap the refugee program entirely and “take a look at” mosques (Trump).

You can disagree with their stances but right now McCrory and Cooper’s positions are probably in line with the median voter in North Carolina, and nationally. I don’t know where Cooper “really” stands – it could be that he’s a true progressive but has to take the position he’s taking for political reasons. Regardless, a pro-refugee position would put him to the left of Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Democratic governor who’s running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. For someone running statewide in North Carolina, not wanting a “pause” is not a tenable position.

He’s in a tough spot – the decision as to what position is best politically isn’t so tough, but it’s still a no-win situation for him. If he takes the “anti-refugee” position he arouses the wrath of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. But if he takes the liberal position, he risks alienating a huge segment of North Carolina voters before the campaign even begins while sending the McCrory campaign a gift. In the end, the Cooper people decided to go with Door #1 – better to anger the activist left than to have McCrory and co. depict him as the Social Justice Warrior from Nash, an Attorney General recklessly unconcerned for the safety of the state’s citizens.

With anger from activist liberals brewing, the Cooper campaign might be tempted to “clarify” their position in order to mollify the base. That would be precisely the wrong thing to do, playing right into the hands of Team McCrory and getting him stuck with labels of “flip-flopper.”

Cooper’s staked out his position. Now he has to stick to it and hope it fades as an issue. And while progressives might be angry, Cooper’s stance is in line with the views of the vast majority of North Carolinians. If progressives continue to be angry, they might guarantee McCrory’s reelection with their demands of ideological perfection from their candidate.

46 Comments

  1. Smartysmom

    I do believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion and have a right to speak their mind. What I totally fail to understand is how people whose opinions are out on the fringes think, in a democracy that their fringe opinion should be the policy? That is not how a democracy works.

    As for the commentor who wanted to “see the poll” supporting the anti-immigration opinion, how could he have missed the last election??

  2. JC Honeycutt

    “Those who forget (or do not know) the past are doomed to repeat it.” Most–if not all–of those opposing acceptance of Syrian or other Moslem refugees are either ignorant of their own family histories or just plain ignorant, period.

    My Quaker ancestors faced much less persecution in England than the current victims of middle-East terrorism face; but we all–with the exception, or course, of African slaves–came to America for freedom not only of worship, but for the right to be accepted as individuals, not simply members of a specific church, ethnic group or class; and many of us came just a few jumps ahead of violence, prison or worse. Every time an American tries to deny the rights s/he enjoys to another because of their nationality, religion, race or class, s/he denies and dishonors our founders, our immigrant ancestors and those who not only accepted and tolerated newcomers to America, but welcomed, hired, taught and befriended them.

    Unlike Europe, which by and large has open borders, we live on what’s essentially an island; and our government has an extensive, complex process for immigrants. Of course, our island includes Canada: I’m not certain why there isn’t an outcry to close our border with Canada, but if I had to guess, it would be that we think of them as being “like us”–that is, by and large, white and English-speaking: an assumption that is not much more accurate than the idea that all refugees from the Middle East are a) Moslem and b) religious fanatics and current or potential jihadists.

    I’ve been considering offering space in my home to an immigrant family; and every time I read some of the ignorant and/or hate-filled comments in the news and/or forums like this one, it seems like a better idea. (I come from a long line of folk whose response to “You can’t do that” was frequently “Oh yeah? Watch me.”) Anyone know if there’s a mosque between Edenton and the Virginia border?

  3. Troy

    “The Donald” is quite largesse with his ideas and how everything should benefit those who are just like him. He’d love to have a database for everyone who is not just exactly like him. Yessiree, if you are different from Donald in any shape, form, fashion, or economic status, you need to be on a list. Not being of that status makes you less than a person/citizen, not worthy of the title “American”.

    And it really shouldn’t surprise you (and it probably doesn’t) that there are any number of groups and individuals that wield substantial power and influence not to mention cash, that are and have been pushing this nation as being a “Christian” nation. And by “Christian” they mean Protestant, and by Protestant, they mean fundamentalist.

  4. Randolph Voller

    The Governor and the NCGA would not expand medicaid and help nearly 500,000 citizens, so where do they stand on the national database idea Trumpeted by the Donald?

    The chair of the DNC had this to say on that topic:

    “Donald Trump’s openness to special identifications and a database for Muslim-Americans is beyond shameful, embodies the exclusionary culture of today’s Republican Party, and is a dangerous mindset our Greatest Generation fought and died to defeat seven decades ago. Mr. Trump should be ashamed for proposing that America could be a place where masses of humans are gathered and classified by their religion. We cannot let our political process be driven by fear.”

    • Matt Christie

      There the national chair of the party goes again, being all “Godwin’s Law” instead of “common sensical” and stuff.

  5. Randolph Voller

    The two current leaders for the GOP’s nomination for President have “jumped the shark” on this issue and Mr. Trump is trying to walk back his comments on “national databases” etc.

    Trump and Carson both spoke to the NCGOP at different events during their convention last June in Raleigh. Simply ask the democratic candidates for Governor about their views on the comments from Carson and Trump on this issue and query Gov. McCrory as well.

    My guess is that Spaulding and Cooper will ace the test and the Governor will either be defending an indefensible position or distancing himself from Dr. Carson and Donald Trump.

    It is a no win scenario for the Governor.

  6. Chris C

    “I appreciate the comment, and in my best Aaron Sorkin fantasy would probably suggest starting with the Constitution.”

    Matt, you would lead off a refutation of a Tea Party inspired Syrian refugee rant by bringing up the Constitution? That’s not throwing fat in the fire, that’s more like throwing in a full can of WD-40. I can already hear the commentaries on the 10th Amendment, and the inside scoops about how the Reconstruction Amendments were not really ratified, and so birthright citizenship is a fake.

    But this goes right to my (and Troy’s) point: for progressives and anyone else who has the wits to see through shocking examples of opportunistic bigotry, there is an obvious and important stand to make. But there’s also a real danger for progressives of being just as taken in as those who are cheering for McCrory right now.

    If the Governor’s real objectives right now were truly centered around stanching an imminent influx of Syrian refugees, if he and his enablers really cared about forcing a change in Federal policy around this, then raising hell would be imperative.

    But the very flip-flops you point out show that this is a PR stunt, not a real push for a change in policy. This is about shifting the focus of news coverage. For McCrory and his supporters, on this issue bad publicity literally cannot exist. Everything that keeps this issue in the limelight is good for the Governor.

    Stirring the pot, as my sister would call it, is not a means for them, it is their end when it comes to this. If Pat McCrory should find a way to make this the most prominent issue of the entire election, then, even if his answers to opponents are thinly veiled gibberish, he will be governor for another four years, and NC Republicans will look back on 2016 as an even better year than 2010.

    Why? Because McCrory will have made the election about who will fight terrorism the best. Any Democrats who hope that people in the voting booths use that question to evaluate candidates are, in Molly Ivins’ phrase, dumb as a box of rocks.

    Anyone who wants 2016 to be a good year for NC Democrats needs to recognize that Syrian refugees–and rural teachers and coal plant neighbors and so many others–need everyone to stop feeding the yell-fest and, when the blathersphere has moved on to another crisis du jour, settle down to push for sane policies on refugees that address the state’s real role on this issue: setting up the social and educational infrastructure to ensure that newcomers are not merely tolerated but set up for success.

    I’m not that old, and I really want leaders who are passionate about this country’s true ideals. What is more, I want those leaders to get elected.

    • Matt Christie

      Well the suggestion was a little tongue in cheek. That’s why I called it a “Sorkin fantasy.” The ACLU is right on the facts, however, and that’s a serious debate worth having.

      I’m glad you brought up Molly Ivins. She died nearly 9 years ago, and her voice has been sorely missed.

      It is especially missed at moments such as these. I agree with her political calculus and impatience with “beltway wisdom” now, more than ever.

      I think we’re in another Obama-wave type cycle, and average voters are sick and tired of the “War on Terra” this decade more than ever, and that they see this cheap, nostalgic Cold War framing as both failed policy and distraction (from affordable health care, living wage jobs, environmental and economic sustainability; i.e. the things that prevent terrorism in the first place).

      For example, just last night…you may have noticed, Louisiana elected a Democrat for the first time since 2008, conclusively defeating a Republican who was busy fervently “warning voters of a terrorist threat posed by the state’s 14 Syrian refugees. He went as far as to allege (falsely, it turned out) that one of the refugees had gone missing. It didn’t work.” (Mother Jones)

      In fact, it wasn’t even close.

      As a result roughly one quarter of a million people will be getting health care, in one of the poorest states in the nation. How’s that looking for McCrory?

      …………………………………….

      Here’s Molly Ivins from back in 2006. I hope everyone will forgive the lengthy cut-and-paste, but it really couldn’t be more germane to this entire conversation:

      “Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo and her gross pandering on flag-burning are just contemptible little dodges.

      The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

      If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy—rough, tough Bobby Kennedy—didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

      What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55%) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65%) of the American people want single-payer healthcare and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86%) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60%) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66%) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

      The majority (77%) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87%) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. Who are you afraid of?

      I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway (“First, you have to win elections”). Can’t you even read the damn polls?

      Here’s a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, “There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008.”

      This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened by “a string of bad news from the Middle East … into calling for premature retreat from Iraq,” against those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.

      Oh come on, people—get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war—from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily.

      You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I’m telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven’t got enough sense to own the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

      Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I’m serious as a stroke about this—that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who’s ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: Embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.

      Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were “German dogs.” They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The minute someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless “string of bad news.”

      Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican lite. If the Washington-based party can’t get up and fight, we’ll find someone who can.”

      Molly Ivins, Jan. 21, 2006

  7. Tom Hill

    For once I agree with disgusted. And I would change Republican Wynne’s descriptor from “dark side” to “common sense”. Both the far right and the far left could use a good dose. BTW, I think that John is putting us on.

    • Matt Christie

      I don’t suppose you are the Tom Hill who got creamed by both Mark Meadows and (ahem) Cecil Bothwell in 2014 and 2012, respectively, by any chance?

      Any other advice, in addition to equating Nazi-lite with “common sense?”

      • Chris C

        I guess Godwin’s Law had to kick in sooner or later.

        Tom, there are some common sense points to keep harping on:

        1) Arguments about the state’s role in the Syrian refugee crisis are like arguing about whether Pella or Anderson makes the best screen door for a submarine.

        2) There is nothing rational about worries that there will be an ISIS operative posing as a Syrian refugee involved in the next mass shooting in the US, or the next seven mass shootings in the US. Betting odds are that the next crazy person to make the news like Dylan Roof and the Chattanooga gunman did will be, like them, a US citizen.

        3) Progressive voices, for the most part, simply do not have access to the “news” sources that are read by the people who are listening to Pat McCrory. And vice versa. Because of the trend toward reading mainly the news sources that are more in harmony with one’s outlooks, it’s hard to find a way for the two sides to have a real argument on this: what looks like common sense to each side looks like nonsense to the other.

        Case in point. In a few days, I will be eating turkey and stuffing with a bunch of people who have been reading shared Facebook posts, forwarded emails, and retweets that paint a completely different picture of this situation.

        To those people (also known as my beloved family) calling McCrory’s position “Nazi-lite” would be impossible to make any sense of, even if they calmed down and tried.

        These people are kind and mindful that they are descended from refugees and immigrants themselves. More relevant to this thread: at least half of them, if they lived on this side of the Smokies, would be representative of the swing voters Cooper has to win, if he’s going to get elected.

        Twenty years ago, I would have been only too happy to indulge in a rollicking, table-pounding Thanksgiving political brawl about this that would last until the time came when SEC football and tryptophan took hold. Nobody’s mind would have shifted an inch. Now I wonder how much of the fire involved on my side would come from an inability to restrain just outrage, and how much would just be to make me feel better about myself.

        If this topic comes up, I intend to keep very calm, cite a lot of statistics, and untangle complex policies until my sister demands that we talk about something else.

        It’s not that satisfying, but it makes it a lot easier to get the conversation shifted to something that they and I can actually talk about. For that one reason, I commend my method to fellow progressives, Matt.

        • Matt Christie

          “If this topic comes up, I intend to keep very calm, cite a lot of statistics, and untangle complex policies until my sister demands that we talk about something else.”

          I appreciate the comment, and in my best Aaron Sorkin fantasy would probably suggest starting with the Constitution.

          Cf. top post currently at ACLU dot org on “Governors Threats to Exclude Syrian Refugees are not only Fear-Mongering – They’re Unconstitutional”

          Fair warning, there’s a bit of (gasp) history in there.

          As for Godwin’s Law, perhaps someone should notify Donald Trump (and then ask the question that naturally comes first: why are southern Governors falling over themselves to sound like him, when he’s only trying to disqualify himself in the most lazy fashion for a job he never wanted in the first place?)

          But of course family is special, life doesn’t imitate Aaron Sorkin quite so simply, and some people are not reachable with liberal lectures about “facts” and “history”. Unless perhaps you present them with a mutually-agreed-upon villain like a comic book…the big banks, say, and go from there.

          Is groupthink a national and global disorder? Of course, though in a way that’s always changing and subtly shifting. And though it’s hardly an excuse, nor do people’s online personas so cleanly match their real-world forms. Lots of liberal read broadly, and engage with conservative and Tea Party lines of “argument”–it’s good practice. I’m sure a few conservatives still do the same. So let’s not over-simplify or over-state the case, as a way of excusing ourselves.

          Some argue the “swing voter” is largely a myth. In any case the people–and our national discourse–deserve an honest argument, not one between a shameless, vapid ideologue enabling the worst and someone trying desperately not to offend (for fear of losing, yet again), when more recent political history shows precisely the opposite approach can work–that optimism, moral fortitude, honesty, and talking to people like adults, takes hard work, but especially given recent demographic changes–can carry states like North Carolina, with enough effort on the ground.

          I guess what I’m saying is that most people aren’t cut out for politics, in the best sense of what is really possible with hard work. And when the barrier to entry is set at enormous private wealth, and the reward for intelligent, educative, honest service is so relatively minor, it’s not surprising we often get the mediocre, poll-subservient, ahistorical souls we do.

          But people also like to be lifted to a better place, and a part of something that is larger than themselves, and sincere, and it’s up to our leaders to actually lead them there.

          So call it naive, young and self-satisfying if you must. Winning is certainly important. But the driving spirit of politics has always been about ideals, and right now, with timid, out-spent and bullied-senseless liberals, we have a race to the bottom. And a whole terrain of ideals and exigent, contemporary economic and moral passion (that rightfully, historically, belongs to the left, with people on both left and right practically begging for it) left open for the opposition to play on and define the rules of the game after their own image, or rather that of their purely selfish owners and handlers, free of charge.

  8. Troy

    Reading across this thread, it appears to me that some of you are correct; the more you harp about Syria, over which McCrory et al has nothing to do but plenty to say, the worse it’s going to get for Cooper.

    I realize that his stance isn’t popular with some of you. Bear in mind that a stance you prefer is unpopular with a majority of voters. If you doubt that, turn your head toward Raleigh and explain what is going now and how those people got to be in control. But as several of you have opined; it’s a moot point to begin with. Immigration is a matter for the Federal Government, not State Government. Here, it’s just a way to move and motivate people or alienate them.

    Progressives have to, must appeal to a majority of voters again. We’ve discussed this before here. There is a dynamic here among voters not often found in other places. Some choose to think that Republicans have a better message and are getting it out better. I’m telling you that voting motivations lie much deeper in peoples’ psyches than that and the Republican message matches those convictions better. Democrats must find a way to appeal to people, not convince them of things they hold a fundamental distrust of. If not, Berger, McCrory and their legions are going to sit in Raleigh and we are going to continue to lament this outcome.

    • Matt Christie

      “If you doubt that, turn your head toward Raleigh and explain what is going now and how those people got to be in control.”

      Gosh, that’s tempting. Gerrymandering, vote suppression, Koch/Pope money, right-wing populism in an age of mounting income inequality and a near-complete absence of any real economic democratic alternative, and negative campaigning that manufactures ignorance and fear, perhaps? I’m just spit-balling here.

      • Troy

        However you care to categorize or classify it Matt, it’s working for them. Case in point.

        WITN out of Greenville is currently running a poll asking people if the Governor should re-consider withdrawing from a lawsuit with other states that reverses the President and his policies on deporting illegal immigrants. 536 people, when I looked at the website had taken that poll. 91.45% or 495 people said “No” he shouldn’t re-consider.

        Some way, some how, in some fashion, we’ve got to break that hold because no matter how hard you try with the truth, or facts, or reality, nothing seems to be breaching that barrier.

  9. Chris C

    This is a good moment to refocus the discussion on some facts.

    In terms of North Carolina political calculus, the attacks in Paris have been an almost incalculable windfall for the governor. All the news that he hated seeing on the front pages (prison contracts, UNC administrative turmoil) has been pushed deep inside the papers.

    If these attacks had not happened, the leading news stories would be all about committees in the legislature grilling Pat McCrory’s friends and appointees and making him look even more hapless, incompetent and ineffectual. Thanks to these attacks he has immediately been able to recast himself as Our State’s Defender Against Those Who Hate Our Freedoms And From A Federal Government More Concerned With Political Correctness Than With Our Citizens’ Safety.

    What’s such a win for him is that it is completely irrelevant whether Syrian refugees are actually a threat to Panthers football, or even whether he is claiming powers he does not actually have. What matters is that, without looking silly, he gets to put on his Leader-in-a-Time-of-Crisis face and talk all day, every day about Taking A Stand and Protecting Our People.

    Suddenly, the governor matters. This time, legislative big shots like Sens. Berger and Apodaca can’t ignore him or push him to the sidelines; for now, they have no choice but to act as the governor’s cheering squad on Jones Street.

    The fact that many in and out of North Carolina are loudly expressing passionate outrage (see comments above) can only be filling Pat’s cup of political joy even fuller. This is just the sort of debate he needs right now: it fires up a base that has been very lukewarm about him, and it swings a lot of independents his way.

    Best of all for the governor, it has landed Roy Cooper in a cleft stick: he had to choose between standing with his most passionate base and against the vast majority of North Carolina voters or standing with the latter and therefore with Pat McCrory against those most passionate supporters–and President Obama, all of the Democrats running for president, and all of the remaining NC Democrats in Congress. If Pat McCrory has any capacity for irony–it’s possible–he had to be snickering as he read Roy Cooper’s tepid, weak, and low-key call for a “pause.” Sidelining the the Attorney General in the most prominent public safety debate of the year qualifies as a good week’s work for Pat.

    Roy Cooper’s week has been about as bad as Pat’s has been good. If he wasn’t edging away from the spotlight on the Syrian refugee question, he was getting hammered by his primary opponent for his stand in the second most prominent public safety debate in the state this year–whether or not to retry the Randal Kerrick case. And North Carolina progressives couldn’t keep themselves from helping his opponent’s campaign, one way or another.

    How? Every column inch in the N&O, the News & Record, or the Observer that has been devoted to Chapel Hill’s warm welcome to Syrian refugees and every editorial attacking the governor on this issue has crowded out stories about prison contracts, UNC chancellor raises, teacher salaries, I-77 toll lanes, support for political donors, and so on. In short, this story has been like an algae bloom for the topics that hurt the governor’s chances, depriving them of the oxygen.

    On reflection, that algae bloom is actually a useful metaphor for this whole refugee debate at the state level: it’s toxic, it often happens when there’s too much crap, and the only way it stops is when it lacks the very crap and the hot air it thrives on.

    Intelligent, reasonable, principled people–be they David Price, John McCain or Walter Jones–should be fighting the governor and others who are, at best, acting out of craven political opportunism–at best, because it is actually far more troubling to think that Pat McCrory and others in positions of high responsibility are so stupid as to honestly believe in what they are saying and advocating.

    But for the current progressive strategy on this issue to make practical sense, progressives would have to believe that most North Carolinians, if given the chance, will put aside bias and gut emotions on this issue and form opinions based on reason, logic, and data. Would any of them bet that way?

    Progressives in this state need to realize that this controversy will not go well for them as long as the terms “Syrian refugees” and “terror threat” keep appearing in the same sentences on major news outlets. Until these subjects start getting reported separately again, the best option for those who would help the refugees is to imitate President Obama and Roy Cooper: be as boring and technocratic as humanly possible when commenting on this situation. Talk about this in a way that makes people ready to watch anything else–bowling tournaments!– whenever this comes up on CNN or Fox.

    Going head-to-head, meeting passion with passion and trading jibe for jibe might feel good, but it can only feed the notion that stories about the terrorist potential of Syrian refugees sell papers, attract page views, and push up ratings. As long as potential for terrorism is what’s being discussed about the refugees–whether to inflate it or to dismiss it–the discussion will go badly for them.

    And the odds will increasingly be in Pat McCrory’s favor.

    • Matt Christie

      “But for the current progressive strategy on this issue to make practical sense, progressives would have to believe that most North Carolinians, if given the chance, will put aside bias and gut emotions on this issue and form opinions based on reason, logic, and data. Would any of them bet that way?”

      It’s absurd, isn’t it? The notion that something less cynical-like “hope”–could ever win an election. Silly Progressives. Glad to see the concern trolling has extended to advice for candidates for governor to make themselves less interesting than bowling tournaments. Talk about a galvanizing GOTV strategy!

      • TY Thompson

        “progressives would have to believe that most North Carolinians, if given the chance, will put aside bias and gut emotions on this issue and form opinions based on reason, logic, and data.”

        Highly improbable unless progressive memories are short enough to forget the 61% of North Carolina voters who supported Amendment One.

      • Chris C

        Look, the more the discussion about Syrian refugees is centered on whether or not they are terrorists, less chance there is that they will get any meaningful help. It would be great if, right now, there could be a fact-centered, serious, and spirited debate on welcoming refugees to North Carolina that could win over current policymakers to do the right thing and declare to the world that this is still the same Old North State that has been welcoming the displaced and desperate for centuries, from Moravians and Quakers in the 1700s to Montagnards in the 1970s and will be ready to offer shelter and assistance to those fleeing Syria as well.

        Unfortunately, those policymakers are the very ones framing the debate in terms of fear and xenophobia. Therefore, the best hope for people fleeing Syria to receive a welcome here is to get rid of some of those policymakers. The most likely one to get rid of is Pat McCrory.

        The more Pat McCrory can conjure ISIS boogeymen that he can fight with valiant executive orders and stirring tweets, the more he can distract attention from the real parade of horribles he has visited on the state: the gutting of unemployment insurance, or turning DNER and DHHS into travesties like Cherie Berry’s Labor Department, for example.

        My point is not that McCrory isn’t wrong on this (he is) or that Roy Cooper has taken an attractive stance in response (he hasn’t). My point is that it’s hard to see how Cooper could be playing the hand he’s been dealt any better right now. If some are still mad at him for missing the chance to say something that would be of small practical value but would make for attack ads that write themselves, they need to drop a few tears in their oatmeal porters and move on.

        • Matt Christie

          Let’s put all of this in some more context. McCrory is the most obvious, flip-flopping political opportunist running from real scandal here at home, and Cooper should have take this opportunity to point that out. From NCPolicyWatch:

          “Gov. Pat McCrory appears to be all in on creating fear of Syrian refugees that he can exploit for political gain.

          As Taylor Batten with the Charlotte Observer pointed out in a recent editorial, McCrory was asked last Friday about possible security problems with the refugees coming to the state and his office brushed aside any concerns, pointing out that “prior to being given refugee status, an extensive security screening is conducted on each individual.”

          By Monday, after the Paris attacks, McCrory had changed his tune and joined a chorus of Republican governors demanding that Obama Administration stop allowing the Syrian refugees into the country.”

          From SouthernStudies:

          “Lagging in polls and fundraising against his leading Democratic challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper, the McCrory campaign appears eager to tap what the head of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) called an “increased xenophobic streak” among the U.S. public.

          A recent survey by the group found that 46 percent of Americans say immigrants are a burden on the country while 56 percent believe the values of Islam are at odds with American values. Republicans in particular have issues with the foreign-born, PRRI found, with 66 percent of GOP respondents saying immigrants are a burden.

          The PRRI poll also found that Americans’ perceptions of Islam have grown more negative over the past few years — and it was conducted before the Paris attacks, which have sparked an outpouring of anti-refugee sentiment.

          In Florida, for example, two mosques received bomb threats over the weekend and a Muslim family found bullet holes in their garage door, while in Texas someone splattered feces in front of a mosque along with pages torn from the Quran. In North Carolina, an Uber driver reports being beaten and threatened by a passenger who used anti-Muslim slurs. The driver is an Ethiopian immigrant and a Christian.

          Of the estimated 3.8 million Syrians who have fled their country’s civil war, 1,854 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the U.S. since 2012. Of those, 59 have settled in North Carolina. They include people like the Al Haj Kasem family, who fled Syria after the bakery where Hussein, the father, worked was ransacked in the fighting. The family settled in Greensboro, and Hussein got a job in a nearby Ralph Lauren packaging plant.

          McCrory may think that closing his state to people like the Al Haj Kasems will help him win an election, but it’s drawing condemnation from human rights advocates. The N.C. Justice Center said McCrory’s move “sends all the wrong signals — both to refugees here, and to people overseas who may perceive this move as hostility toward helping Muslims, even those in the most desperate of situations.”

          The Southeast Immigrant Rights Network said that, given that only the federal government has the power to admit refugees, “it is clear that these governors are exploiting the horrible tragedy in Paris to instill fear and hatred at a time when we most need to welcome and reach out to our sisters and brothers from Syria who are seeking refuge and risking everything in order to save their loved ones.”

          Human Rights Watch also issued a statement condemning the governors’ anti-refugee reaction. “Resettled refugees from Syria have fled persecution and violence, and undergone rigorous security screening by the U.S. government,” said Alison Parker, co-director of the group’s U.S. Program. “The governors’ announcements amount to fear-mongering attempts to block Syrians from joining the generous religious groups and communities who step forward to welcome them.”

          Another voice speaking out against the governors’ anti-refugee reactions is that of Farris Barakat, whose brother Deah was shot to death in Chapel Hill earlier this year in what appeared to be an anti-Muslim hate crime. Barakat is the son of Syrian immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1980s, and his family is currently helping relatives who are refugees settle in Europe.

          “I think it’s really important that they understand that the reason these people are seeking refuge in this country is because ISIS destroyed theirs,” Farris Barakat told Buzzfeed. “We’re fighting the same enemy.”

          France, meanwhile, has announced that it would honor its commitment to take in more refugees, with President Francois Hollande saying it is his country’s “humanitarian duty.”

        • Matt Christie

          This much of your point is well taken: McCrony’s certainly milking the fear, shamelessly, so he must not have anything more constructive to do.

  10. Steve Ivester

    This refuge flow looks to me like a Saudi funded invasion of the West. We do not have to be goats, as Angela Merkle appears to be. Saudi and the other Gulf States and Turkey should be able to handle these Moslem refugees until things settle a bit. It is clear this is externally funded, you do not destroy $20,000 inflatable boats with every group of refugees unless there is a banker. I understand that Saudi Arabia has yet to accept a single refugee. I think Mr. Cooper is being prudent.

  11. Margaret Parker

    Compassionate acts usually involve some degree of risk. If we are looking for a risk free world, there will be little compassion. While others are pandering for political purposes, I was hoping Roy Cooper would be brave enough to be a leader and guide the narrative in the direction of compassion. I am disappointed.

  12. Linda Coltrane

    I will be stopping my support for your campaign.

  13. Christopher Lizak

    What’s the actual news here?

    Cooper has never been a Progressive, and it is very unlikely that he will ever become one. He is a legend in his own time for political timidity and weather vane politics.

  14. Dave Connelly

    Truly, if Cooper thinks that Republican-Lite is his path to the Gov’s mansion, then both he and we will be sorely disappointed next Nov.

  15. Smills

    You got it wrong there Morris. Progressives support the rights of minorities across the board. I have no special agenda to support the rights of Muslims, not more than I do for African Americans, Latinos, LGBT people, Asians, or left handed people. I support the idea of government without a tyranny of the majority. I also support the right of conservatives, whether they are Christians or Muslims or whatever, to practice their faiths and live their lives as they want to. The only criteria is that they give others their rights as well.

  16. Frank McGuirt

    It matters not what Cooper or McCrory think. This is a federal issue.

  17. Morris

    What I fail to understand as I am neither a Democrat or a Republican is the strong support of those of the Muslim faith by progressive Democrats.
    Most of the “platforms” that Democrats profess to stand on are the complete antithesis of what Muslims believe. Gay marriage, other LGBT causes, abortion rights, gender equality, separation of church and state – all are opposed by the Muslim faith. Many of these progressive platforms are “offenses” that are punishable by death in some Muslim counties.
    Yet this faith is a favorite of progressives nationwide. Strange to say the least.

    • Christopher Lizak

      It’s called supporting religious freedom.

    • A. D. Reed

      As Christopher said, Morris, freedom of religion is the liberal position. We liberals, we progressives, believe in the Constitution of the United States. The so-called “christian wrong” and the entire GOP loathes the Constitution except for the 2nd and 10th Amendments.

      As an atheist and humanist, I don’t give a damn what religious people of any stripe believe; but I do give a damn that they be able to believe it and act upon it–whatever it is–in their own lives. But neither the Muslims nor the Christians (nor anyone else) has the right to force me to believe as they do, or profess belief, or succumb to their belief, or support their belief-based programs.

      As an independent, you should certainly understand the determination to let people choose for themselves.

      • Morris

        Of course I agree with freedom of religion. But surely you’ve noticed many (I did not say most) Muslims definitely do not – especially in other parts of the globe. That was part of my point both of you obviously missed.
        Certainly Christians and other religious groups have persecuted people of other faiths over the centuries. But here we are in 2015 and Muslim extremists are executing people around the globe because they are of a different faith – including the “wrong” Muslim sect. Happened this am in Mali. Recite from the Koran and you can go free. That is not “religious freedom.” As an atheist, you’d be killed by ISIS should they get the chance.
        And I am NOT an independent. As a Libertarian I certainly understand the determination to let people choose for themselves. Please remember that when you want to decide what I can read, say, hear, drive, buy, sell, etc.

        • A. D. Reed

          Morris:
          I didn’t miss the point you made about the fact that many Muslims oppose freedom of religion. I just consider their opposition irrelevant to my support of it. I cannot oppose freedom of religion for them just because they oppose it for me, or I would be completely untrue to my principles. Yes, they would probably kill me if they caught me; and no, I don’t want to be at the mercy of those who would do that. But that’s still irrelevant: America, guarantees that freedom to all, no matter what one’s particular beliefs, and diminishing it for one group diminishes it for the rest of us. Believe me, there’s no shortage of American “Christians” who attack–verbally or physically–non-Christians in schools, workplaces, or in drive-by shootings. Growing up Unitarian in Asheville, I was raked over the coals quite enough times by self-defined “Christians” who couldn’t bear that I didn’t believe in their divine Jesus.

          Bottom line: your original claim, that liberals support Muslims (or Islam) is incorrect: we support the right of people to make their own choice about that or any other faith.

          “I may hate what you say, but I will defend your right to say it” is a position long espoused by real civil libertarians. Do Libertarians (party members) not agree with civil libertarians about the real meaning of freedom, or is it just a catch-word to justify Libertarians’ desire to be left alone while reserving to themselves–a la Rand Paul and others–the right to discriminate against others: deny women freedom for abortion, deny some people the right to marry whom they wish, give merchants the right to bar people of color from their businesses, etc.?

  18. Elizabeth M.T. O'Nan

    Roy Cooper disappoints me. This is not a good or kind position.

    • TY Thompson

      Like it or not, Paris just defined next year’s election and if Cooper doesn’t thread the needle on this one, it’s welcome back McCrory in 2017. That is just the brutal reality of it because the rest of America don’t think progressives either have a survival instinct or a sound grasp of reality.

  19. robert

    Cooper should have taken Door 3#
    “i have been asked to comment on the Syrian Refugee situations and their possible relocation of a few families in NC. I think these refuges from the terror of ISIS should get the highest national concern of the United States. We have always shown compassion to refugees in terms of the Montegnards of Vietnam and Somalis and Lost Boys of Sudan which were relocated in NC. That said the safety of American citizens is of highest national order. It is a national issue and a United States issue. North Carolina’s governor does not make immigration policy and should not misrepresent that he does to the voting public. the question of admission into the country of refugees is a decision of the Immigration Service,Homeland Security,FBI and State Department. Not the Governor of NC or any political candidate.It is hypocritical to say we will fight ISIS and at the same time turn our backs on their very victims. We reject the victims and ISIS has won. We will have then proved to them that they scare us.We are better than that.

    • John from Chatham

      Nicely put.

      And the fact that he didn’t take Door #3, either because it didn’t occur to him, or he was advised not to, is deeply concerning.

    • Matt Christie

      This comment clearly wins the thread. Well put.

  20. larry

    Mr Wynne if your lot were not so dangerous you would be hysterically funny. Yes lets put keep them out or better still intern them should they get here. Not unusual to hear all this crap …we have before. Interring Japanese and OTHERS during WW II. Then in my lifetime your hero Jesse Helms wanting to quarantine all gay people offshore(hopefully somewhere like Duck) during the 80s AIDS horror. And the last hysteria in 2014 (also during a political campaign season)EBOLA!!!!! Then lest we forget the granddaddy of them all decades of Jim Crow . The shame of all this is that small narrow bigoted minds seem to always scream and hollar the loudest. So if Cooper thinks he wants to join those ranks he can begin to also count less votes he will need to put an end to the fool or who you refer to as the current governor of this state. As to being in line with the median voter that in no way shape or form gives the position any moral standing whatsoever.

    • Morris

      Interring the Japanese-Americans was a done under FDR, a Democrat, by the way. Pretty much the opposite of Helms.

  21. Matt Christie

    “right now McCrory and Cooper’s positions are probably in line with the median voter in North Carolina”

    “Cooper’s stance is in line with the views of the vast majority of North Carolinians”

    Please show me the polling data that supports these strong claims.

    “progressives’ view on the situation, which is that in the wake of the Paris attacks we shouldn’t hit “pause” but should instead hit the accelerator and bring in as many Syrian refugees as possible, as soon as possible”

    Please show me one person this claim refers to.

    Then again, if all you have is decades worn-out tropes about the “angry left” in lieu of actual or contemporary analysis, I suppose this philistine genre of concern trolling is all one should expect.

  22. Smills

    I appreciate good objective analysis of the political situation. Claiming progressives’ view is to “hit the accelerator and bring in as many Syrian refugees as possible, as soon as possible” is utter bull. Its not true and it is poor commentary. I’d expect to see such outlandish characterizations of the other side on Fox News or, yes, MSNBC

  23. john

    What are you afraid they’re going to do? Shoot up a church or a school or a movie theater? You must have them confused with Americans.

  24. Progressive Wing

    Come on, John! Don’t be putting your rightist words in progressives’ mouths!

    Your saying that “progressives’ view on the situation, which is that in the wake of the Paris attacks we shouldn’t hit “pause” but should instead hit the accelerator and bring in as many Syrian refugees as as soon as possible” is partisan baloney. It certainly is not my position at all, and I’ll bet not that of many other progressives.

    My stance is that the feds should make very clear –to the public and the states– just how long, extensive and in-depth the screening process already is, and then allow the process to proceed as scheduled. And there should be open communication between federal and state agencies about the settlement program. But there should definitely not be any speeding it up by hitting any sort of procedural “accelerator,” nor any slowing it down. It already would take 1.5 to 2 years for a refugee to get through US screening. Any “pause” would simply be de facto barring refugees from timely escape of their sad and inhumane situations.

    Many so-called patriotic Americans sought to bar Jewish refugees from settling here as the Nazi war machine was ramping up in Europe. It wasn’t the American thing to do then, and taking action to delay/deny a relative handful of refugees safe haven now wouldn’t be either.

  25. john

    This isn’t a progressive or conservative issue. It’s an American issue. I’m ashamed of this country today. 750,000 refugees have settled here since 2001 and not a single one has committed a single act of terror. Pants-wetting, un-American, un-Christian bigots in this country are a far greater threat to refugees from Syria than they are to us.

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