Pat McCrory was a little late on the draw with his Executive Order. Had he vetoed HB2 and issued the order, he probably could have looked like the leader he would like to be. Instead, the political rhetoric is far too heated and the battle lines are too established for the order to have much effect on the debate.
McCrory’s order may have some merits, but opponents have already set the bar at full repeal. The order gives protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity to state employees but doesn’t mandate those protections in the private sector or give local governments the authority to do so. It also doesn’t allow victims of discrimination to seek damages in court or address the totally unrelated provision that prevents local governments from raising the minimum wage.
McCrory’s response isn’t going to stop the firestorm around HB2 but, to the outside world, it will make him look like the more reasonable of the GOP leaders. Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Berger doubled down on the rhetoric of the right-wing culture warriors, still blaming the debacle on “…Roy Cooper and his left-wing political correctness mob with their agenda-driven allies in the liberal media, who will never stop trashing North Carolina until they achieve their goal of allowing any man into any women’s bathroom or locker room at any time simply by claiming to feel like a woman.”
At one time, Berger was described by that same liberal media as “a serious elected official with ambition and vision.” After his last two statements on HB2, that description no longer fits. He’s now North Carolina’s version of Donald Trump.
To his partisans, Berger looks like a hero. He’s standing up to the Democrats, the lame stream media, the corporate bozos, the gays, and cross-dressing pedophiles lurking in bathrooms. They’ll give up a few hundred jobs and a few million dollars in revenue if Berger can protect their way of life and their disappearing world view. Besides, Deutsche Bank and PayPal weren’t coming to their part of the world anyway and Bruce Springsteen certainly wasn’t playing the high school gym.
However, Berger and his culture warriors are staking out dangerous political ground. They long ago lost control of the message. HB2 is not a bathroom bill anymore. People understand that the General Assembly overreached and made the issue about broader discrimination. A WRAL poll shows support for the bill at only 38% while 61% believe the law has hurt the state, even though a majority supports the bathroom provision. Berger is pandering to a shrinking portion of the population at a time when Republicans need desperately to broaden their appeal.
With the legislature coming back into session in less than two weeks, House Bill 2 is not going away. Berger is clearly hunkering down on his position while Rev. William Barber announced plans for sit-ins by the Moral Monday movement if the legislature doesn’t repeal it. McCrory just wants it to go away. He doesn’t want to be talking about social issues heading into a statewide election but he doesn’t want to get crosswise with his base, either. His executive order wasn’t a bad idea politically. It was just too little, too late.
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 >
Charlotte lost her Village Idiot and he ended up in the Governor’s Mansion. Isn’t there a town in Texas that needs one?
Re: HB2, not sure they messed up totally on their own , d.g.
Liberty Counsel, which became notorious for defending/advising Kim Davis in Kentucky, has apparently been helping the GOP in 20 states, including NC, with the drafting/tailoring of anti-LGBT bills. See:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whos-behind-the-new-lgbt-bathroom-laws/
It’s more likely that the NCGOP erred by believing Liberty Counsel assertions that the fallout would be minimal. Note in the report that Staver believes that corporations will not follow through with cancellations/withdrawals—despite the reality that in NC, during a two-week period, it appears that at least 1000 jobs, tens of thousands of hotel room sales, and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact, business investments, and/or payroll will have been squandered.
Gee, does McCrory’s order mean that state employees will be able to use whatever bathroom in government buildings matches their current (as opposed to birth certificate) gender identity? If so, what makes state employees so “special”?
You are absolutely correct, Thomas. Had McCrory vetoed the bill based on its LGBT-related discriminatory aspects, then had urged his GOP colleagues into negotiations, he could have come off as a more centrist player and moderate politician—a perception the needs to cultivate to win in Nov given the key role played by independents in NC elections. But he signed the bill so quickly and without as much whining as he usually spews on bills he questions (but signs just the same), he was easy to target as HB2’s ram-rodder.
So now, his EO gives ONLY state workers (and not private sector employees) protection against sex orientation/gender identity bias, and doesn’t lift the state’s ban on localities promulgating their own ordinances on discrimination or minimum wage levels. And all his EO does is essentially beg the GOP-led NCGA to reverse itself on disallowing worker recourse in state courts on discrimination claims.
It’s a very lame and too tardy a response from governer who hopes to win re-election.
“Very lame and too tardy” absolutely. He looks like a nitwit stumbling over his own feet.
I finally see the truth catching up to the republican party ,first thing when he became governor was to jump on the abortion issue and sign bills against it even though he stated on channel 5 on the record he wasn’t ,and then to take and gut the people unemployment checks ,and then talk about people don’t want to work when they aren’t getting enough to feed family and look for a job, don’t tell that joke plenty of jobs, yes minimum wages .He even refused to sign on for Medicaid extension and people lost a lot of health coverage even if the federal government was paying for it years on out, how is that looking out for the elderly and the disabled?
The pressure on Gov. Pat McCrory is making him panic. He is a national punchline and the state reputation is taking a drubbing. The bad news is raining down on the state since the passage of the toilet bill. Phil Berger continues to point an angry finger at liberals and heathens., but reality is beginning to bite.
After the Deutschebank announcement in Cary and the Paypal withdrawal from Charlotte, a terrifying bit of business bad news happened in High Point in the pillar industry – furniture. The Furniture Mart reported hundreds fewer buyers and sellers coming to the upcoming market. Designers, sellers, buyers and manufacturers are opting out and planning instead to attend the newer furniture market recently opened in Las Vegas where they do not play bathroom politics.
Phil Berger and Pat McCrory will have plenty of time to pray and practice their extreme form of religious intolerance because the state is moving toward significant unemployment. The Raleigh Convention Center is begging the governor to change the law because, in only three weeks, they lost $750,000 worth of convention business. The cancellations are coming at an alarming rate. The Charlotte Convention business reported similar losses. There are calls for the NCAA to do business elsewhere, and the UNC President fears that students will not choose the University of North Carolina. Title IX money is in jeopardy as well as other federal funds.
The governor’s approval rating is now in the basement. He really had no other option, but his meager response will not satisfy the rabid right, nor is it enough to remove the stain of bigotry.
Let’s get real. The police cannot station personnel at every bathroom. The law is unenforceable. Police Chiefs, when asked, shrug and mumble about doing their best. There is no penalty in the law for violators.
It was a stupid law conceived by venal right wingers who thought they could take a shot at another vulnerable group. It really isn’t working.
“Phil Berger and Pat McCrory will have plenty of time to pray and practice their extreme form of religious intolerance because the state is moving toward significant unemployment.”
The most terrifying aspect of HB2 is as an illustration of the theocracy ruling the state of North Carolina. The Bible writes the laws now. And Franklin Graham is pulling the string of his puppets in Raleigh.
One word- UNCONSTITUTIONAL