I will go out on a limb and suggest that Larry Pittman does not actually think Lincoln was akin to Hitler. I will go further out on that limb and contend that he doesn’t really want abortion doctors to be publicly hanged. And finally, clinging to the branch by my finger tips, I will even insinuate that there’s a part of Pittman that knows Common Core is not a Fifth Column.
I say this because Larry Pittman is not merely an extremist, he is a troll.
None of his legislation remotely serious. Some “crazy bills” represent the genuine intent of deluded wingnuts, such as Austin Allran’s attempt to enforce domestic non-bliss. But Pittman has been at this long enough to know better. Even someone with his rather eccentric understanding of the Constitution must know that the Establishment Clause is inviolate. And the same goes for judicial review. By introducing these bills, Pittman is trying to piss people off and cause headaches for leadership.
As the saying goes, there are workhorses and show horses. But Pittman doesn’t quite fit the profile of the latter. A true show horse seeks to communicate a principled message. Think Ted Cruz, or Dan Forest at the state level. Pittman is more like an r/Trump “provocateur” with no serious principles, and a ravenous appetite for spiting his enemies.
Does that excuse any of his behavior? No. Should he be kicked out of the Republican caucus? Yes. Should he resign? As of yesterday. Should he be taken seriously? Not in a million years.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
What saddens me is that, despite more than 50 years of bipartisan state governments’ determination to provide a good, solid, free education to every child in North Carolina (a half-century that abruptly ended in January, 2013), there are still tens or hundreds of thousands of Tar Heels who are so ignorant, so uneducated, so gullible, so disturbingly dense that THEY VOTE FOR PEOPLE LIKE PITTMAN. [sorry for the all-caps, but I can’t emphasize with ital. or boldface. 🙂 ]
Maybe it really is time to require people to pass a citizenship test to vote. If every citizen, in order to register, had to pass the test required of new immigrants to our country, we could soon find ourselves with a dimwit-free legislature. What a relief that would be!
Maybe he does Alex and maybe he doesn’t. His bias could be completely clouding his view of reality with a preposterous distortion aided by like minded individuals who likewise view the world with a very short and very narrow point of view. That distortion causes him to open his mouth and spew utterances that are completely preposterous to anyone listening or reading other than those of like mind and persuasion. It also causes him to take up typing bills that portend to know more than a group of nine justices who have spent their lives in the pursuit of the law. Yet, Larry and a few other ‘special’ people around the legislature think they know better.
Frankly, Larry should follow the old parable, “Shoemaker, stick to your last.” I just hope he’s better at ministry than he is legislation.
This is what you get with extreme gerrymandering. When districts are drawn as they are in NC representatives no longer have to represent anyone except for their own quirky self interests which are often far from the norm. Democracy is the biggest loser in this process. Rather than attempt to solve the common problems of our state, representatives create a mockery of the legislative process and accomplish nothing.
This is ridiculous. Although I may not agree with everything he’s said or done, he certainly has principles, and is one of just a few in Raleigh who really seem to understand the Constitution.
Well, he sure has one hell of a time understanding history. I believe the Constitution is more complex than the origins of the civil war. What’s ridiculous is defending stupidity at that level. Maybe for an elementary student but NOT a legislator. Which, then leads to trying to figure out what you’re defending?
Odd, Mr. Horn, that you seem to misunderstand the Constitution as thoroughly as Mr. Pittman. What part of “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof” don’t you understand? As every court for generations has found, that prohibition extends to states and all other official government entities (cities, counties, towns, school boards, water and sewer authorities, boards of elections …), and it means that not only is it utterly prohibited for any American governmental body to favor one religion over another, it is also impermissible to allow legislators to base civic laws on religious tenets. In fact, most of Mr. Pittman’s arch-conservative TeaParty colleagues would consider doing so Sharia law if it were based on the tenets of any other religion than their own.
Second, it has been the law of the land since Marbury v. Madison in 1802 that Supreme Court rulings ARE definitive, and that they are the law of the land whether dimwitted legislators like them or not. In other words, that the ruling of Obergefell DOES control what the NC lege is permitted to do, and that therefore Mr. Pittman’s bill that would ignore Obefgefell is A) unconstitutional, B) written out of malice or, at best, ignorance, and C) unprincipled to the Nth degree.
I trust that in the near future you’ll learn more about principles and about the Constitution.
Oh, he has principles alright. Just like his Republican colleagues, he’s practicing his principles of being another opportunist. With Trump and national RWers in charge, this is the perfect time and, thanks to McCrory, the perfect place to gain some notoriety and hope for some deeper pockets to put that Art Pope/Koch Bros. cash in.