The contrast in headlines was stark. The Washington Post read, “Britain issues warning for LGBT travelers visiting North Carolina and Mississippi.” WRAL said “Berger says HB2 won’t be repealed.”
Two things are clear: North Carolina is now an international embarrassment among western nations; and Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger doesn’t care.
Berger and McCrory are still blaming the media and liberal activists for the negative press. “My job is not to give into the demands of multimillionaire celebrities pushing a pet social agenda, liberal newspapers like The New York Times or big corporations who have every freedom to set whatever policies this wish under this law,” Berger told reporters. Offering protection from discrimination to the LGBT community is a bit more than “a pet social agenda.”
North Carolina just got lumped in with Mississippi as being backwards and intolerant. To most people, that’s a bad thing. To certain Republicans, it’s irrelevant. Berger and his allies are sure people will come to North Carolina if we make the state cheap enough. Cut taxes and regulations, volunteer to let polluters have their way with us, and they’ll come flocking to North Carolina to make a buck. They won’t care about a little discrimination here and there.
Berger and company are wrong, of course, but a lot of people from North Carolina will suffer while they find that out. They don’t seem to care. Instead of trying to remove or fix the offending law, they’re still looking for scapegoats to blame for the damage they’re doing.
House Bill 2 is ripping the state apart, hurting business, reducing revenue and making North Carolina an international laughingstock. Phil Berger is standing on principle—the principle that it’s not the government’s role to tell people not to discriminate. It’s a battle we’ve been fighting for the most of our history—with women, with African-Americans, with immigrants of all stripes and now with LGBT citizens–and Berger’s side will lose.
People may want government to leave them alone generally, but they also want government to protect people from being treated unfairly. Right now, the rest of the world believes North Carolina is not offering those protections. We’re all suffering for Berger’s narrow-minded obstinacy.
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 >
Bless your heart, Connie Headrick–there is an option to unsubscribe included in every issue of “Politics North Carolina”: you can actually take action personally if you don’t want to receive further information from this site.
(I’m not going to patronize you by walking you through the process: if you can read the posts that you find so offensive, you should be able to locate, read and follow the information on how to unsubscribe. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist…. But if you find yourself still stumped, you can always use the “Contact” option to send an e-mail to Politics NC.)
It is unfortunate that I am not an International Attorney. However I did look at the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It essentially gave legal status in Int. Law to Eleanor Roosevelt’s Declaration of Human Rights.
From my reading of the Covenant, which the US did sign, it looks to me as if NC is in violation of International Law.
The single largest master planned development, Chatham Park, has been approved in Pittsboro, NC with over 22 million square feet of potential commercial space.
This project along with the certified “mega site” in Siler City could create tens of thousands of new, good paying jobs for our region and state.
HB 2 makes the pitch about NC a harder sell and translates into “selling uphill” against other locations and states in America.
It is a self-inflicted economic development wound that is unnecessary and frankly very poor public policy.
The Town of Pittsboro understands this vexing problem and passed this resolution at its meeting on April 11, 2016:
REPEAL OF HOUSE BILL #2
WHEREAS, on March 23, 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly passed and Governor Pat McCrory signed into law, House Bill #2, which adversely affects municipal governance; and
WHEREAS, HB #2 severely limits or eliminates the rights of citizens to bring civil actions for a claim of discrimination in employment or public accommodations; and
WHEREAS, HB #2 pre-empts the rights of local governments from offering these protections to their residents; and
WHEREAS, HB #2 pre-empts the rights of local government from regulating places of public accommodation, reserving such regulatory authority for state government; and
WHEREAS, HB #2 prohibits local governments from providing protection against discrimination in employment practices and related conditions as part of local contracts with vendors; and
WHEREAS, HB #2 prohibits local governments from establishing a local minimum wage for private-sector employers; and
WHEREAS, the Pittsboro Town Board of Commissioners agrees with the North Carolina League of Municipalities’ that “Placing limits on local decision-making authority ultimately is a limit on the political power of local residents”; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Pittsboro is a community dedicated to the principles of equality, nondiscrimination, and full inclusion and engagement by any resident, visitor or guest in the civil rights, benefits, and privileges of all citizens; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Pittsboro is a municipal corporation of the State of North Carolina enabled and entrusted by the General Statutes of North Carolina to preside over the health, safety and welfare of its residents, and local control over its own affairs should not be superseded by the General Assembly;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:
SECTION I .The Pittsboro Town Board of Commissioners reaffirms its support for protecting and advancing its citizens’ rights and political power and urge the repeal of House Bill #2, otherwise known as Session Law #2016-3, this the 11th day of April, 2016.
SECTION 2. The Pittsboro Town Board of Commissioners asks the Town Clerk to send copies of this resolution to Governor Pat McCrory, Speaker Tim Moore, President Pro Tern Phil Berger, and members of the Chatham County delegation to the General Assembly.
Impressive. I hope it has an impact.
Wow. You go Pittsboro! And good luck…
In all likelihood, HB2 has already cost the NC GOP the governorship (although I doubt that McCrony could have held on anyway). Let’s see if it can cost them the state senate, as well! Can you say, “Peel away allies?” This will cost the GOP support on the coast and in the mountains, where good jobs are hard to come by, and tourism puts bread on the table.
The cities are lost to the GOP for the foreseeable future. How will HB2 play in the suburbs? Not very well, I suspect. As John Wynne noted last week, we’re watching a re-alignment of political bases. The creative class and the suburban knowledge workers cringe at the NC GOP. Berger and his allies are playing to a rural base whose values haven’t changed in fifty years, and whose economic prospects are grim (face it, I won’t be hiring any rednecks anytime soon). The Koch Brothers, Art Pope, and their ilk have funded them, and promoted positions outside the mainstream. They’ve got power, now watch them struggle to hold on to it after losing the middle class.
Our country has a history of flirting with ideologues, and dumping them when it becomes obvious how damaging their ideas are. McCrory’s done. The GOP will lose senate seats, but probably not enough for a Democratic majority. How unhappy will this make Berger’s caucus? Probably not enough to dump him. But it will be entertaining to watch.
Too bad they’re doing such damage to the state I love.