Our deteriorating democracy

by | Mar 13, 2017 | Editor's Blog, North Carolina | 12 comments

Republicans in North Carolina have already tried to rig the electoral system to maintain power through gerrymandering and voter suppression laws. Now, they’re trying to reduce the checks and balances in our government by reducing the power of the executive branch and judicial branch. They’ve been stripping powers from the governor ever since Roy Cooper took office and bills floating through the General Assembly attack the independence of the court system.

Republicans in the legislature don’t want any accountability. Through gerrymandering, they pick their own voters, reducing the competition that essential for a healthy democracy. Through voter suppression laws, they’re limiting access to the polls of people who are likely to disagree with them. Their electoral shenanigans have created veto proof majorities in both houses of the legislature and given Republicans 75% of Congressional seats despite a popular vote that’s far closer to 50% than 60%.

North Carolina already has one of the weakest executives in the country. A veto override is only 60% of the legislature instead of two-thirds. North Carolina elects ten Council of State positions, many of which would be gubernatorial appointees in other states. The legislature is trying to diminish the position even more by limiting Cooper’s powers of appointment and redrawing boards and commissions.

The legislature is altering the judicial branch by eliminating three Court of Appeals seats because three Republicans are retiring. GOP legislative leaders want to prevent Cooper from appointing their replacements. They’ve also introduced bills to make all judicial elections partisan again. With their willingness to gerrymander districts reaching all the way down to the municipal level, expect them to redraw judicial elections to ensure only Republicans can serve on the bench in district and superior court.

Republicans in North Carolina are reducing the accountability that the Founding Fathers intended when they established our political and government systems. Competitive elections would keep elected officials responsible to the citizens of the state. The checks and balances established by divided government are intended to keep one branch from amassing too much power. Republicans in the legislature are attempting to consolidate power by weakening our electoral system and the branches of government intended to serve as a counter-balance to the General Assembly.

The damage to our system is already visible. The legislature can’t come up with a compromise bill to repeal House Bill 2 despite the damage it’s done to our economy and reputation. The Senate President Pro-tem can alter headlines on news stories and then attack the press because his district is so safe, nobody can hold him accountable. The GOP is replacing measured, responsible government with arrogance, belligerence, and extremism. Those aren’t hallmarks of conservatism. They’re indications of authoritarianism.

 

 

12 Comments

  1. Hayes mcneill

    Best General Assembly money can buy.

  2. D J B

    I guess you forgot back in the 70’s when Ramsey was the leader of the house 7 legislatures did the budget every year. I guess that was progressive also.

    • Paul SHANNON

      DJB – That was over 40 years ago. We are now in the 21st century.

      • Apply Liberally

        But apparently, DJB is not in the 21st century with the rest of us…..

        • riel metcalf

          at the rate things are going nationally and in the state, we’ll all be back with DJB in the previous century, or maybe the one before. But isn’t that what it means to be a conservative? And heck, soon we’ll be back to re-enacting the civil war, except this time it will be all the blue states leaving.. gotta wonder how the red states are going to manage with out their subsidy tho. .

          • Progressive Wing

            While I may not live long enough to see it, I think that some steady societal trends (i.e., the expanding technological and service job market, the decline in people belonging to organized religions, the sun-setting of the pre-boomer and boomer generations, the continuing concentration of the nation’s/state’s population around metro areas, and the growing Hispanic demographic) will all contribute to the ebbing of uber-conservative fortunes in NC and around the nation. The tough thing to swallow will be the long while before those factors have political impact, and Republicans, in the meantime, will continue to wreak havoc on all of society’s key institutions and democratic processes.

    • Name *Norma Munn

      I don’t care what NC legislators did nearly half a century ago. By that notion, if someone harms me, I should absolutely hit them back. If the Dems were in power and doing this, I would be objecting just as strongly. Checks and balances mean something in government, and right now the best example I am aware of as to why those precautions are essential is the power at all costs approach in Raleigh of the GOP. They lack even a vestige of commitment to democratic principals. Are there no Republicans in this state who do not share that perverted sense of government.?

    • NC Native

      The 70’s oversaw the greatest growth in North Carolina’s history, thanks to Terry Sanford and a progressive democratic legislature. So. What’s the F’n problem? Oh yea, your fucksticks ran the ACC tournament to New York City along with thousands of jobs away thanks to your moral “high ground”. Make no mistake- Your combination of carpetbagging yankee asshats and good ole homegrown rednecks are going to destroy our formerly progressive enclave. I’m a seventh generation North Carolinian. Take your hateful politics of greed and incompetence and GTF out of my State.

      • Eilene Corcoran

        Hey, hey…lots of us yankees are good people. Now, asshats I can live without.

      • Ebrun

        Words of wisdom from an articulate, erudite, native NC progressive? LOL

  3. Smartys Mom

    All true. The reason why all this is happening tho is that the electorate, whether nominally repub or dem, are voting this way, The only reason I can believe is that their fears of the threats they see as immediate are much stronger and the threats seen as much more real, than any fears of losing democracy and the very freedoms we actually enjoy. The repubs have been demonically good with the propaganda machine playing on those fears. The dems have been clueless on countering the propaganda, essentially letting it go unchallenged and totally failing to counter with any of their own. Worst, the population of this country has no clue about what it is like to live in a totalitarian state and the dems have utterly failed to paint a believable picture. They haven’t even tried. Now, when we are closer than we have been in a long time to that reality, I can’t see that they are trying. They’re still too busy squabbling over details

    • Ebrun

      I’ve been in NC since the mid-70s. The state is more prosperous today and the overall quality of life has improved dramatically, due in part to the emergence of a viable two-party system. Progressives’ gloom and doom outlook is nothing more than sour grapes because Democrats no longer enjoy unfettered political power. But NC’s economy continues to expand and net in-migration from other states and countries continues at a very healthy pace.

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