I’m no Tim Moore expert, but some speculation about him strikes me as mistaken. By promising to focus on jobs, he has sown hopes among some that he’s a moderate. For now, I would be cautious about  that assumption.

Start with how he got nominated as Speaker. Early on, it appeared he might have a Tea Party challenger. Mike Hager was mentioned as the likeliest candidate (besides Tim Moffitt, who in the words of Commissioner John Burns is Speaker of His Own House). It’s telling Hager was happy enough with Moore to pass up a Speaker’s bid. Ultimately, Moore’s main challenger was Leo Daughtry, who scored lower than him on Civitas Action’s conservatism rankings. And Moore easily dispatched his less conservative opponent.

Moore himself seems to corroborate Civitas. In a letter touting his candidacy, he hails the following as “sensible conservative reforms”:

-Large tax cuts for the rich and corporations

-Sweeping deregulation

-School vouchers

-The nation’s harshest voter-suppression law

-Amendment One.

To be fair, he omitted the “Motorcycle Abortion” bill from this list. Also to his credit is that he called their teacher pay policy “one of the largest teacher pay increases in state history,” rather than falsely declaring it the biggest. Still, he endorsed every other major part of their agenda, including social-conservative pet rocks like vouchers and marriage discrimination.

And a rhetorical focus on the economy doesn’t necessarily make you a pragmatist. Moore’s statements betray a right-wing perspective. His post-nomination comments promised a fifth-straight round of “regulatory reform.” Further, in a TV interview he declared his belief in Supply-Side Economics, a repeatedly disproven hypothesis that  tax cuts for the rich increase government  revenue. That Moore invoked supply side theory in response to a question about the coming revenue shortfall, which was caused by top-bracket tax cuts, suggests a mind governed by strong ideological commitments..

It seems to me the best we can hope for is that Moore will keep a lid on the true loons–no more State Religion bills.Otherwise, he looks like a staunch  Movement Conservative and that should guide his agenda. The Counterrevolution proceeds apace.

Alexander H. Jones

Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.