The tribalism affecting our politics has harmed the process as much as it has skewed the issues. Republicans in control of government are using any means possible to rig the political system while reducing accountability. Nowhere do we see this more than in North Carolina.
The News & Observer’s Rob Christensen has done an excellent job of pointing out GOP efforts to rig the system for political gain with measures that will likely make our government more partisan, less fair and possibly more prone to corruption. Last week, he highlighted Republicans’ haphazard efforts to make our court system more partisan. He noted that the last overhaul of the system was the result of an extensive study of the state’s courts and a decade long debate to establish a system that was more fair and efficient and less corrupt. The Republican goal is purely to put more Republicans in control of the judiciary despite the need for more impartiality, not less.
Before that, Christensen laid bare the politics of making local elections more partisan. North Carolina leaders made a conscious effort to remove partisan politics from municipal elections to reduced corruption and cronyism. As Christensen notes, they wanted to make running our cities and towns more “businesslike,” a goal that should be shared by the party that’s made a slogan of wanting to “run government like a business.” But that’s not what the Republicans controlling North Carolina want at all. They want power and they’ll adopt Big Government authoritarianism to get it.
The GOP has been working to rig elections in the state ever since they came to power. They pushed through a massive voter suppression bill clearly designed to make voting more difficult for people who disagree with them. They passed the most egregious gerrymanders in the country. Now, they’re trying to make election oversight less effective by combining the ethics and elections board with an even number of members. A similar set up at the Federal Elections Commission has made the FEC a toothless entity unable to enforce election laws.
At the national level, Republicans who once warned the Russians and Vladimir Putin were existential threats now impede investigations into allegations that they interfered in our elections. Among Republicans, Putin’s favorability has increased significantly. They’re more interested in protecting their political gains than protecting the integrity of our elections.
And while the Trump family uses the Office of the Presidency as a marketing tool for the Trump brand, no Republicans in Congress are willing to hold them accountable. Some of these same Republicans called for impeaching Bill Clinton for letting big political donors sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom. Somebody should be willing to hold the family accountable. We’re starting to look like a Banana Republic.
Republicans are attacking the process, not just the issues. We should be arguing about taxes, regulations, crime and spending, not trying to reduce access to the polls or disenfranchise voters through gerrymandering. Republicans who were Never Trump should find their voice again and defend investigations into Russian interference and let the chips fall where they may instead of defending people like Rep. Devin Nunez and, now, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr for impeding progress.
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 >
TY, FYI, I have considered the electoral college an outmoded aspect of the Constitution since my senior year in high school in rural southern Georgia. The high school debate subject that year required an extensive knowledge of that aspect of our electoral system. I found it to be understandable at the time the Constitution was written, but concluded that all votes should count equally, which also meant that the packing of districts to favor a party was unacceptable as was the obvious disenfranchisement of “Negro” voters. I have not changed my mind on any of those points. (PS. Perhaps winning the statewide debate competition junior and senior years gave me the impression that small town and rural areas could clearly think and have an impact. I still also believe that geography matters less than being willing to learn and think.)
If we actually got some useful information about the political bent of judges up for election it would be great that no party affiliation mattered or was listed on the ballot. I would myself be more inclined to vote for a Democratic Party affiliated judge, and have in fact missed the marker.
When I was vice chair I got more responses, but the responses I got from even a Democratic Party preferred judge were of the cowardly “say nothing” variety. No straight question is ever to given a straight answer.
Like you said Tom, politics is for the rich, not for anyone else to play.
Democrat or Republican, what rich people do is look down their noses at people who work.
Working people blame themselves for their poverty while those who are rich, blame themselves for their riches, when most rich people are rich due to inheritances the working classes never get a chance to secure.
WHAT??? Overseeing elections by an evenly-divided board or commission? Shouldn’t the liberal party control how elections are run? After all, aren’t liberals the honest, fair-minded and tolerant politicians and conservatives the personification of evil? No doubt Democrats could find a way to suppress conservative ideology if they could only gain control over all of the regulatory powers of big brother government.
Just another attempt here by Mr. Mills to employ high-minded sounding rhetoric to disguise what is nothing more than sanctimonious, partisan BS.
I don’t like censorship – of viewpoints. But I think it’s entirely appropriate for the sarcasm, veering into a personal attack, that we see here. In most every other forum I’m aware, Ebrun’s comment would be deleted, he would be warned, and repeated violations would cause his posting privileges to be revoked.
You are correct that the personal attacks would result in being dropped from many blogs. After a few attempts, I gave up and will not provide whatever pleasure Ebrun receives from the constant nastiness by bothering to respond. I guess that is its own form of censorship.
Calling out someone’s rhetoric as “sanctimonious, partisan BS” is mild compared to the personal insults and name calling that are routinely directed at conservatives and those who challenge liberal orthodoxy on this blog. My goodness, liberals sure like to dish it out but inevitably play the victim when presented with a mild rebuke.
Posting privileges should be “revoked?” Wow, that’s a pretty crude way to stifle dissent from those who challenge liberal dogma. It would certainly mimic leftist regimes in places like Cuba, Venezuela and China and is taking hold on many U.S. campuses. Wouldn’t be surprising if some left wing bloggers resorted to blocking contrary opinions.
And yet, it was someone expressing your values,, not Ebrun’s, who firebombed local Republican offices last year.
Dis, that isn’t me. TY THOMPSON is another Conservative commentator.
Let’s see TY, who was it that burned the Reichstag?
By all means, let’s dispense with anything “high-minded” or intelligent. We are, after all, merely mammals.
This blog addresses why I have lost all respect for anyone who will admit they are Republican and/or that they support the GOP legislative agenda at the state and national level. Their aims and hypocrisy are appalling.
They care more about ideology, party, staying in power, and rigging the system in their favor than they do about what the state or nation may need or about what would benefit the common good.
Agreed. I think that old slogan “The South shall rise again.” is their mantra. I keep telling myself that they have to gerrymander in a way previously never seen to maintain or win the state elections, and that Hillary Clinton actually won 3 million more votes than the orange bully. But it gets harder every day to hang on to any optimism.
Speaking of bullies, that’s why the popular system isn’t used in this country, otherwise, California and New York would call the shots and the rest of us wouldn’t matter. Having said that, it’s misleading to say that Hillary won the popular vote when she actually lost the popular vote within more states than she won. People don’t elect Presidents, States do. That’s how the country was set up.
As I recall, there was no complaining by anyone about the Electoral College until November 8th. In fact, I seem to recall Robby Mook highlighting the fact that his team had the Electoral edge, the Blue firewall as he called it. The system didn’t fail, it just failed one side. Like it always has. And since when does being “antiquated” equate to being automatically bad? At what point in history did our established rules of government suddenly become not desirable, and why?
Yes, d.g., and thanks. That regressive pontificating needed to be challenged.
His ilk likely thinks that Trump’s first 100 days were an enormous success, and that every move by the NCGOP to block and hamstring the new governor and to ensure their own future in power are good things.