Republicans just can’t seem to untangle themselves from House Bill 2. It started out as a bill about which bathrooms transgender people can use. It quickly became about discrimination and government overreach. Now, with companies opting out of the state, organizations moving conventions, and artists canceling shows, it’s about jobs and the economy. That’s the definition of snowballing.
Now, state Senator and Republican Attorney General candidate Buck Newton is using dog whistles to talk to his base. Yesterday, Newton called on supporters of HB2 to “keep our state straight.” Of course, Newton denies he meant anything discriminatory. He was just talking about keeping the right people in the right bathrooms.
Yeah, sure. Somewhere, some Republican political operatives are patting themselves on the back. Not only did Newton say it to the crowd, his statement was picked up in the national press, reaching his supporters and detractors. It might be good for the base, but it’s more lousy news for North Carolina’s reputation.
And Senate Rules Chair Tom Apodaca wants to put HB2 up for a vote of the people. North Carolina’s not a referendum state, though. Republicans could spend several millions dollars to put it on the ballot but all they could get is a very expensive poll of the voters. The outcome would not be binding. Really, it’s just another Republican trying to find another gimmick to get out of the debacle they’ve created.
House Bill 2 was a major strategic blunder for the GOP and the response of their leadership made it worse, not better. The damage they’ve done is long-term. We’re missing out on untold economic opportunities. Organizations have removed us from consideration for conferences scheduled for a year or two down the road. Republicans are turning North Carolina into a fly-over, or drive-through, state. Concerts and shows are going to Columbia and Richmond, skipping North Carolina.
Politically, the bill has fired up the bases of both parties. Republicans who demand “traditional values” are going to the mat. Democrats outraged by discrimination are marching in Raleigh again. The middle who decides elections will judge the bill by its impact on them. If they start to feel, or see, the economic pain, that’s bad news for Republicans. If they don’t, HB2 will remain a motivator for each party’s base with less tangible influence over the outcome of the November election.
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 >
D.g., Have you checked Target’s stock price recently. Down almost 19% in a month since they announced transgender restroom policy. Their CEO expects sluggish sales in the 2nd quarter. Wonder why?
D.g. Target stock now down 6.6 percent since their announcement of their no gender restroom policy.
$77.35? Wow, that’s the lowest it’s closed since announcement of the boycott . That’s down 7.37 percent since the new rest room policy was announced. Meantime, overall market averages are up. But once again, no need to believe your lying eyes if it makes you feel better. Just ignore it.
I am not buying any Target stock, D,g. How ’bout you? Why not put your money where your mouth is?
Nobody pays much attention, huh? Well alright then, getcha some thatTarget stock while it’s at a bargain price. Down 5.33% today, 9.23% since the start of the boycott.
Don’t like the Fox report, eh Dg? How about this report from ABC News?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/boycott-petition-receives-880000-signatures-targets-bathroom-decision/story?id=38703271
There are similar reports on CBS News, USA Today, World Net Daily, Business Insider among others. Just Google “Target Boycott” and that will bring you up to speed.
Nice try, D.g. Ignore the message, trash the messenger.
Allegations aren’t facts. You need to support your allegations with facts and concrete examples, not just your opinions, D.g. As a lawyer, you should know better.
It will reach the one million mark tonight, D.g. Here’s the link:
https://www.afa.net/action-alerts/sign-the-boycott-target-pledge/
But don’t except the petitioners names to be released. Most don’t want to subjected to harassment from LGBT bullies and their liberal supporters. It’s not unlike most who use aliases rather than their actual names to comment on this blog.
Why don’t you post under your real name, D.g.?
Are you kidding us, D.g? You constantly and consistently attack the NC Republican Party and conservative groups like the AFA with hateful, mean-spirited and opinionated lies, half-truths and disingenuous claims. And when you encounter someone who disagrees with your biased assertions, you resort to nasty personal insults and innuendo.
I don’t use my real name because, just like many who have signed the Target boycott petition, I don’t want to be harassed and subjected to reprisals by left-wing ideologues, LGBT bullies and their ilk.
Didn’t know how low you could go, D.g. Talk about a guttersnipe, you fit the bill.
If you keep blowing dog whistles, your party will fill up with dogs. Rest in peace, NC GOP. Let’s just hope we can limit the damage they do on their way out.
“Keep our state straight”, “Buck” (or can I call you by your given name, “Eldon”?)? Really? I believe that ship sailed a few decades back. No doubt this poisonous law will drive some people out of NC–quite a record to run on. Personally (my family having been here since the 1720s and having a strong strain of abolitionists and general questioners of the status quo), I intend to stay here and fight. I don’t live in your district, but I’m close enough to spend some time campaigning against you and your ilk.
Buck is running statewide this year, for Attorney General.
Discrimination is not a state’s rights issue. The Federal Government needs to step up and legislate equal rights and protections for all Americans. Voting rights too! The politicians in the NC General Assembly who are supporters of hatred and stirring up unwarranted fear should have to pay back from their own pockets our money they’ve wasted on their private agendas. They have proven repeatedly that they have only their own best interests at heart. Withholding a decent living wage and medicaid from the poor diminishes the already tenuous quality of their lives.
Well said, Brother Mills.
Buck Newton, Phil Berger, Tim Moore, Pat McCrory and some of the other uber-Republican’ts seem determined to give my beloved native state the national reputation that Mississippi and Alabama used to have.
Funny thing is, some of these good ol’ boys like McCrory and Berger are not even from North Carolina.
Nothing wrong with folks not being Tar Heels born and bred … unless they’re out to give NC a black eye.
Three years ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned fellow Republicans they “must stop being the stupid party.” But his words were unheeded. There is an insatiable appetite for idiocy within the party. Some of it is cynically offered by smarter people within the party to keep the trailer park conservatives in tow. School prayer, contraception, and the “war on Christmas” are issues clearly designed to give something to the unwashed masses. The party chieftains know that no scholar of the Constitution would allow such laws to remain on the books, but it gives hope to the unnatural Republicans, those who probably should vote for the middle class, but instead vote for the interests of the billionaires.
The inner circle of Republicans are not more religious than anyone else. They have as many affairs as poor people. They are as gay as the rest of the population, maybe more so. They have abortions at least as often as the rest of the population, and if abortion were made suddenly illegal in the United States, they would book flights to Sweden or Canada to have them. The inner circle wants a government that will not arrest them for polluting our streams or robbing our banks from within, or trading on inside information on the stock exchanges. The 1% are not a majority; they are a tiny portion of the electorate. In order to get what they want, they must toss candy at the GOP base like Shriners in tiny cars at a parade. The currency this season is hatred – racial hatred in the form of voter suppression, building fences to keep out foreign workers, hatred of gay people who seek civil rights. Hatred is cheaper than tax deductions in the budget or a jobs program. Hatred is a bottomless pit from which little will emerge. The GOP in North Carolina calculated that tossing some red meat at those hungry for reasons to hate would cost very little and shore up support for the Fall election. They could pretend to be the protectors of our children. How many cross-dressers or trans-gender people are there? Not many. They conflated a marginalized group with a false charge of pedophilia and the rabid rabble fell for it. Pedophiles looks like Denny Hastert not like RuPaul or J. Edgar Hoover in a dress. We know there are pedophiles in the Republican Party, because they have gone to jail for it.
Caught red-handed, the GOP legislature had doubled-down on stupidity and hatred. It’s getting expensive. Now their idiocy is beginning to cut deep into our economy. Stupid it as stupid does, as Forrest Gump would say.
Economic boycotts can work both ways:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/26/online-petition-for-target-boycott-gets-hundreds-thousands-signatures.html?intcmp=hplnws
Yes, Ebrun. But Target isn’t a state.
Duh. An economic boycott targeted to one company is likely to be much more effective than one aimed at an entire state, especially a state that enjoys a reputation of being business friendly.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickgleason/2016/04/27/nc-reform-record/2/#32b59411793a
BTW, over 900,00 have signed the Target boycott petition with the one million mark sure to be passed. Perhaps the NC GOP is not so far out of the mainstream of American opinion as liberals seem to think.
Yea, and all of those holier than thou North Carolinians who threatened to abandon Facebook after the company came out against HB2. We see where that went.
We’ll just all need to make sure we shop and Target, and tell them why. It can be a liberal “Buycott” in support of businesses that are in support of human rights and equal rights.
Buycott: aim straight for Target.
🙂
I meant “shop AT Target” of course.
Why not be a real hero to the LGBT crowd? Buy some Target stock, it’s a good bargain now. Down 2.23% today, around 4.8% since the boycott was announced.
Anyone can sign the Boycott Target petition. There’s no accountability. Someone could sign it several times. You don’t even have to give a valid email address.