Doublin’ down on crazy

by | Dec 17, 2013 | Editor's Blog, NC Politics, NCGOP | 1 comment

First, we need to give credit where credit is due. Hats off to GOP Chair Claude Pope and Republican Senator Jeff Tarte. Pope called on Senator Bob Rucho to apologize for his ridiculous tweet comparing Obamacare to Nazis, the Soviets and terrorists. Senator Jeff Tarte, who, like Rucho, is from Mecklenberg County, spoke on the record about his follow Senator’s mistweet. It’s not easy to call out a member of your own party, but it was the right thing to do.

Now, for Senator Rucho….BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I feel like Jon Stewart when Donald Trump announced he was running for president, giving thanks to the comedy gods. Though I should really thank Senator Rucho. He’s made writing this blog soooo easy the past two days.

Yesterday, instead of keeping his mouth shut or offering some sort of apology, he doubled down. Not only did he assert that his tweet was accurate, he called anybody who disagreed with him a member of the “socialist elite.” That’s right. About half the country is a bunch of thieving socialists trying to get into his paranoid little pocket.

I could go on about how silly Rucho is but that’s getting covered pretty well in local and national press. Instead, I want to focus on the GOP leadership in general. Rucho is not a rank-and-file Senator. He’s co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. But he’s not showing any leadership. He’s just casting aspersions and handing out blame.

We’ve seen similar sentiments from the Governor. He never admits mistakes. He just blames outsiders or the press or mean nonprofits for all of his woes.

And how about Aldona Wos? In her mind, and in McCrory’s, she’s done a great job. She lost much of her senior staff, hired campaign hacks at inflated salaries and offered huge contracts to political cronies. All while watching her newly implemented Medicaid payment system crash and burn. But is she responsible? Oh, no. It’s just those mean old partisans.

Effective leaders don’t make broad generalities and they generally refrain from name calling. And they take responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately for North Carolina, much of the GOP leadership hasn’t gotten the message. Instead, they’ve given us a cast of characters who are almost caricatures of arrogant, egotistical politicians, passing the buck and making stuff up.

They might be bad for the state but boy have they made blogging fun.

1 Comment

  1. Paleo Tek

    Part of what’s amazing is that an apparently educated person has such a limited perspective on current events that he doesn’t see anything contradictory, inappropriate, or just stupid about his comments. Living in the right wing echo chamber for too long can do that. When you’re bombarded with messages of outrage that form an internally consistent tautology, it’s hard to understand how that looks to people who don’t share that worldview. In this case, the Kool-aid drinkers who watch Faux News are flabbergasted that not everyone thinks Obama is a Kenyan Marxist-Muslim who wants to take their guns and socialize Medicare.

    As you’ve pointed out before, Thomas, these guys need handlers. But I think the crux of it is that the Republican leadership of NC is inherently rural in its worldview. The suburbanites may not share all the urban values, but they at least understand them. The ruralites don’t understand or respect that urban values have changed a lot in the last three decades. Their views are quickly drifting off the mainstream radar, and they refuse to recognize that.

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