They got Tom Ross. Now, they are going after Scott Ralls.
Under the Dome noted that Ralls, President of the North Carolina Community College System, is interviewing for a job as head of a college in Northern Virginia. Regardless of what he says publicly, my guess is that he is being pushed out. Republicans are in the process of purging Democrats and Democratic appointees from all levels of government and Rawls came to power before they were in control.
The legislature made a mess of firing Tom Ross. Their hatchet man, UNC Board Chair John Fennebresque, couldn’t give a good a reason for dismissing Ross and lost his credibility when he denied politics had anything to do with it. They don’t want a repeat as they move to take over the community college system so they are quietly easing Rawls out.
Rawls is an educator. He was president of Craven Community College before he became president of the Community College system. That might be the right background for students and faculty, but that’s not the right experience for the free-marketeers.
No, the emphasis on education has shifted from students to dollars. Instead of looking for ways to better educate people, we’re now looking for ways to provide services as cheaply as possible. If the quality of education suffers along the way, then that’s the cost of efficiency.
In 2013, the Republicans looked drunk with power, introducing crazy legislation that made North Carolina a national laughing stock. Now, they appear much more sinister. They’re making systematic power grabs to insure ideological purity, stifle dissent and eliminate competition at the ballot box.
In addition to firing Ross, Republicans gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts to minimize competition while consolidating their control. They passed one of the most onerous voter suppression bills in the nation to make voting more difficult for people who might disagree with them. They’re redistricting local governments to show voters and local officials who is really in charge. And they’re taking powers of appointment from local officials and giving it to the General Assembly.
These aren’t your small government Republicans. These are the authoritarians.
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 >
Those who signed the Taxpayers Protection Pledge abrogated their oaths of office as they transferred their loyalties to a lobbying group, aimed at denying operating funds to the government they pledged to uphold and defend. If Roy Cooper was serious he could charge them as State Attorney General. Call them, the State DOJ Chief of Staff and complain for there is vulnerability under the law, if only it were observed. Senators like Burr and Tillis that signed the letter to the Iranians to weaken the negotiations of the Executive are doubly vulnerable, and complaints to the DOJ do matter in this, as it is a discretionary matter for the Attorney General. I seriously have spent time making the calls. This is a time that demands hardball plays for power. Knocking over CSA monuments like Silent Sam would bring things into sharp relief. It really is the CSA against the USA for they really don’t like a Black President, and will push racism with all their might when Black and White labor is in the same boat.
We are entering a much more dangerous phase of rule by the GA. They are in the process of consolidating power absolutely and will change our democratic process. This is not a joke and we should be very afraid and angry. We better get involved and quickly.
Stop slurping the Kool-Aid, fellas. Once the hangover wears off, maybe you’ll come to your senses.
If the measure of worth is weighted against the realities of today, then the faster the better. Undoing the old gerrymandered state for the new gerrymander allows for new opportunity. Wake, Guilford, Mecklenburg, it’s all for the better.
Not quite sure how Wake County was gerrymandered before. Seems that when the Republicans had the majority on the commission, it was still a countywide election even with the Democrat’s controlled the GA. Can you explain how that was gerrymandering?
Excellent point! And further, what was wrong the the university system or with community colleges or with teachers and state employees being paid fairly or the whole income tax (except for minor revisions). What was so darn wrong with NC that it needs such a complete overhaul. Oh – I know – there was no dictatorship or ALEC or Art Pope or white men in charge that had that syndrome that afflicts them all.
I agree, Pat Ferguson….our state is being ruined.
Yeah, because it wasn’t like that before 2010….sheeesh. It’s about time that the entrenched folks who don’t have the best interests of the state, and more importantly are not reflecting the will of the people, are shown the door.