Republicans are struggling desperately to spin the damage they’ve done in passing House Bill 2. It’s quite clear now that they have cost the state jobs and money. Companies like Pay Pal have decided not to expand here. Several conferences have moved venues and Bruce Springsteen canceled his show in Greensboro. Economically, that hurts, not to mention what it does to state pride.
We’ll probably never know the true economic impact. Companies that are in the early phases of looking for sites are likely marking us off before anybody knows we were being considered. The type of smart people who start businesses based on ideas and innovation aren’t moving here because they don’t want to live in a place that’s inhospitable to certain groups of people.
Republicans, though, are creating their own realities. They are making up excuses clearly divorced from reality. It’s hard to know if they actually believe their own spin or if they’re just flailing, trying save face.
Their rationales come in several forms. The most common one among elected officials is just denial. US Senator Richard Burr told reporters that the bill wouldn’t impact the state because he was talking to companies that were still coming here. And that was after the Pay Pal announcement.
Then there are those who beat up on the companies for leaving. Pay Pal is getting blasted for also doing business in countries that have harsh LBGT laws. That’s holding North Carolina to an awfully low standard. And Senator Mark Walker called Springsteen a bully while praising, get this, Justin Beiber—you know, that Canadian juvenile delinquent who frequently gets arrested for being obnoxious. To hear them tell it, by skipping out on North Carolina, these businesses and performers are only hurting themselves.
Republicans like Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore are trying to blame Charlotte. If Charlotte hadn’t passed that bill, they reason, then the General Assembly wouldn’t have had to pass that overreaching bill and harm the reputation of the state. That’s like the alcoholic blaming the distiller for getting him drunk. Nobody’s buying it and they look silly saying it.
But the kicker is the victimization one. It’s not that House Bill 2 is so bad; it’s that the leftist spin machine has fooled the world and made the poor Republicans out to be the bad guys. That one assumes that corporations can’t read the bill and virtually every news organization in the world has been fooled by lefty talking points. If that’s true then the Republicans are so incompetent that they should all be sent packing. HB2 has been a public relations disaster of the highest order and the party that controls every branch of government in North Carolina has been outmaneuvered by a bunch of leftist activists. Pathetic.
In reality, Republicans thought they could get away with beating up on gay people to motivate their base and used the Charlotte bathroom ordinance as an excuse to roll back local anti-discrimination policies and reduce worker protections. They got caught and found out that the world changed while they weren’t looking. Companies do care about how their employees are treated by the larger society and they believe that progressive social policies are good for their bottom lines. All the excuses in the world won’t change that.
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 >
They thought they could push the bill through in a couple of hours & no one would notice it as has happened with other bad legislation they’ve rammed through. They don’t think transparency is a good thing. I doubt the sponsor himself even read it thoroughly before presenting it. They keep talking like they haven’t read it yet. It was probably written by ALEC & doesn’t even mention religious conviction as a reason for discrimination as other states have (let’s try this without religious overtones … yeah, about that). In fact, no one needs any reason to discriminate with HB2.
It was a straight up power grab from the cities, especially Charlotte who had already beaten the NCGA over control of Charlotte Douglas airport. Other NC cities already had anti-discrimination legislation on the books without prompting a special session.
Keep acting & talking like 4 year olds who got caught. Maybe, at least, Republicans will learn that North Carolina is not their fiefdom to rule as they please & that the world is watching. Hopefully in November things will change.
The North Carolina Republicans suffer from a shared grandiose delusion that they have the power to spin their way out of a serious miscalculation. They mischaracterize their dilemma as a form of persecution by those who are not as moral as the GOP. While they concoct preposterous reasons for their discriminatory legislation, they have become a national laughing stock. The leadership of the NC GOP are now a punchline for talk show hosts, comedians and political skits.
The NC GOP have misused their majority to take the state in a wrong direction. They have declared a state religion, a state prayer, deterred blacks, elderly and young people from voting, decimated the schools, undone environmental protections, cut taxes for the rich while raising taxes on the middle class, and, much more. They have gotten away with it for the most part. They are zealots on a mission, fueled by very deep, very secret pockets in New York and Kansas. Outside the legislature on Mondays, black people, poor people, school teachers and similarly disenfranchised have been protesting these actions for years. The GOP have written off thousands of demonstrators as insignificant to their peril.
They have gone one bridge too far. Rather than acknowledge their abuse of power, they plan to power through the dissent, claiming it is coming from the radical fringe. It is not. The Republicans are the radical and ethical fringe. Their racism and prejudice are taking a toll on the state. They brought a knife to a gun fight.
House bill 2 won’t “deter more companies from moving to the state,” The News Observer reported. “It’s a state issue,” Burr told the Observer. “You need to talk to state legislators. I’ve still got companies talking to me about moving to North Carolina.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we’ve done that will deter people from moving to North Carolina,” Burr said.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article70813197.html#storylink=cpy
“HB2 has been a public relations disaster of the highest order and the party that controls every branch of government in North Carolina has been outmaneuvered by a bunch of leftist activists. Pathetic.”
slow clap …