Well, the results are coming in and they’re not looking good for the GOP. work force is shrinking while our population is growing, they’ve screwed up every crisis that’s come along from Medicaid to coal ash and the only people who are really benefiting from their policies are rich folks and big business.
The GOP majority roared into Raleigh in 2011 promising that they would get the economy moving again. They slashed taxes and cut services to create a leaner, meaner government and to give people more spending power. When the state didn’t recover as fast as the rest of the country, they doubled down in 2013 with more tax cuts for the rich, kicking people off unemployment insurance, denying people health care and cutting education. And nobody’s feeling like the gain has justified the pain.
So how are the Republicans responding? Either denial or spin jobs. Art Pope writes a rosy op-ed that shows how out of touch the GOP is with average families. He claims everybody is keeping more of their paychecks, but most people aren’t making enough money to notice a difference. What they notice is that local school boards are talking about cutting budgets or begging already strapped county commissions to subsidize teacher salaries to stop teachers from leaving.
But if they aren’t trying to put lipstick on a pig, then they are in all out denial. House Majority Leader Skip Stam says the crisis in teachers leaving is overblown. He needs to get out of his own bubble and start reading the local newspapers. Schools are in trouble. Administrators know it and parents know it. And no amount of denial is going to change that.
Republicans have been blaming all of the state’s woes on past Democratic administrations. That may have worked for a term, but no more. They’ve been in control for three years and we’re lagging behind the rest of the country economically and chasing Mississippi educationally and culturally. It’s a crying shame.
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 >
But yet the Republicans keep getting elected. Why?
Redistricting, primarily. In 2012, a majority of votes went to Democrats for Congress and yet the GOP has a 9-4 majority. In state house and senate races, the vote was evenly split but Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both houses.
Obama and every national democratic organization fell asleep at the switch in 2010. Karl Rove didn’t and they’ll reap the benefits until 2020. Maybe this time around we can realize how important it is to have key governorships in 2018?
Article posted in the N&O this afternoon has the GOP response to Wake County Schools announcement )about a heightened teacher exodus). The GOP throws blame for it everywhere. Gov. Perdue, the Dem-led NCGA, Wakes Schools & Common Core all get tarred. They even give credit to McCrory for his 2012 1.2% teacher pay raise, forgetting (or maybe just not mentioning) that he wasn’t in office yet. What a bunch of charlatans! No action to help teachers and making harsh cuts to public ed since 2010, and they lay blame elsewhere..
An insighful piece and a tragic narrative to the state of affairs we currently find ourselves living every day.
Well said both Mick (my fellow Mike) and mr mills. Waiting for geek to right a novel in response.
Write* thanks Siri…
Amen, Thomas Mills! While one could provide an additional litany of NCGOP failures, but they would only underscore the essence of your points. What I will add is the sad effect the post-2010 GOP takeover has had on the best, brightest and most dedicated of staff in state agencies, and thus, by extension, on the effectiveness of those agencies.
I retired from state employ in January 2013. I had many contacts and working relationships with personnel in such agencies as DENR, DHHS and the Department of Cultural Resources. As I happen to meet/see them nowadays, in quiet asides, they lament the exodus of key and talented staff (without adequate state funds or approved job lines to refill those positions); their strapped operating budgets; very low staff morale; and how careful they must now be in what they say, do, propose, oppose, or encourage in work settings, lest they risk losing their jobs. They view the leaders of their agencies, as appointed by McCrory, as unqualified politicos more driven by ideology than the noble missions of their agencies.
These staff seem well aware of, and more depressed by, the reality that any positive change in their agencies’ lot could be many years away, given the 2013 tax code changes resulting in diminished state revenues and consequent spartan state budgets for years to come.