In his commencement address at Elon University on Friday, David Gergen said that North Carolina had been taken over by the “forces of political extremism.” He was, of course, talking about the legislature and the governor. That’s harsh criticism coming from a Republican who grew up in North Carolina and has served as an advisor to presidents from both parties.
Gergen is right that “suddenly, without warning, dark clouds arrived” and “gave way to a new, angrier, extremist politics.” And he’s right that those forces have damaged the reputation of our state. And he’s also right that it’s time for everyone to stand up and “raise our voices against this darkness.” But he’s wrong when he says it’s not Democrat vs. Republican. Unfortunately, right now, it’s exactly that.
Republicans in the state have stood silent while their leaders in state government have fomented division and winked at discrimination. They cheered when the GOP passed voter suppression laws that make voting more difficult for the poor and the elderly. They stayed silent when the UNC Board of Governor’s embarrassed itself and the state, firing Tom Ross for no apparent reason other than politics. So far, not one prominent Republican in the state has stood up and called for repeal of House Bill 2 no matter how bad the publicity gets.
Democrats may be far from perfect and occasionally prone to hyperbole and hysteria, but they and their allies are the only people in the state standing up to the “darkness” that Gergen describes. The Republican Party in North Carolina has been taken over by ugly, regressive forces and no one within its ranks can muster the courage to call them out. Maybe there are leaders who can’t see the truth, but if that’s the case, then the blinders are of their own making. As Gergen made perfectly clear, the rest of the country sees exactly what’s happening.
The Republican Party today is a scary place. They’ve nominated a demagogue and con man as their presidential nominee. Here in North Carolina, they’re using fear, division, and discrimination as campaign tactics. Much of America can’t understand what’s going on in a state that was once a paragon of moderation and stability.
For sons and daughters of the South, though, the language and the tactics are all too familiar. The forces driving Trump and the GOP in North Carolina ruled the region for most of the 20th century. For those of us who are natives, we understand that the battles we’re waging today are the continuation of a war that we thought we had won.
And that’s what David Gergen knows. He’s right that the battle should be between moderates and extremists, not Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. Unfortunately, there seem to be few moderates left in the Republican Party and those who remain have lost the courage of their convictions.
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 >
I respect David Gergen and partially accept his analysis, but to my mind the “extremist voices” in North Carolina are ALL on the right. Where or who are the “extremist voices” on the left? I don’t think there are any. Sure, there are liberals including some Sanders supporters some of whose positions may be to the left of mine but are well within the normal bounds of political discourse. The Republican Party leadership in North Carolina is dominated by a toxic mix of “small businessmen” who nothing about governance and racist right-wing “Christians” who just want to impose their medieval religion on everyone else. These folks have overwhelmed the “moderates” in the Republican Party (Gov. McCrory?, Jim Martin?) who never speak out. Today, NC Republicans ARE the “extremist voices” in North Carolina — who needs the KKK? — and I don’t accept any notion of “equivalency” between right and left that may be implied by David Gergen.
Rev. Dr. William Barber and the “Moral Monday” movement have been making a nonpartisan moral critique of the state legislature’s vicious, ideologically driven idiocy for several years now. Independent of both parties, “Moral Monday” calls out the extremists and offers a broad, ecumenical argument for a social and political ethos grounded in love. It transcends the language of right v. left and Democrat v. Republican and asks what kind of policies would respect our highest moral values, whether we come to them out of our many faith traditions or out of ethical reasoning. David Gergen made a good practical argument that would move us in the same direction. It is true that he and Rev. Dr. Barber ignore the current differences in the two parties, which is a reasonable point to make, but both hope to offer some common ground to Republicans alienated by the seizure of their party by extremists. In Rev. Dr. Barber’s case, the movement he started in 2005 began by critiquing the Democrats for their neglect of public education and the plight of the most poor and vulnerable among us even though the Republicans were then and remain now much worse. The Democrats seem to have had a real awakening but we shall see if they remember their values when they get back in power. In the meantime, the movement is mobilizing people to vote in November, and it is pretty clear whom they will NOT be voting for.
Maybe if we Democrats had done a better job when in power the extremists would not have so much support. I think Gergen is right when he says it is not about Democrats v Republicans; it just seems that way to us. Framing the problem as Democrat v Republican is counterproductive because it encourages an irrational “us versus them” stance which in turn encourages non-negotiation on issues. A democratic government must function with compromise if it is to function well. Treating the other side as “the bad guys” hampers compromise.
Not all Republicans are extremists. Gergen himself is an example for that. Framing the fight as “Democrat v Republican” pushes moderate Republicans to support their extremist brethren. Focusing on issues has a better chance of pulling the moderate Republican support away from those extremists. The moderate Republican can support the same side of an issue as the Democrats without supporting the Democratic Party. He can even say that the Democratic Party is supporting his position rather than the other way around.
Thomas, you don’t think that Mr. Gergen has “lost the courage of [his]…convictions,” do you? He is still in the Republican Party, isn’t he? Don’t you think there are bound to be more Republicans like him that we can reach out to on issues, setting aside the Democrat v Republican framework?
David Gergen doesn’t live in North Carolina. I’ve been looking for a single GOP leader inside the state who would make the statement Gergen made. I haven’t found one. We shouldn’t have to “reach out” to people to condone discrimination. They should come to that position themselves.
I hope you meant “condemn discrimination”. “Condoning discrimination” is what we have a legislature for. It shouldn’t be that way, but sadly, it is.
Gergen is smack on, as is this blog.
Finally, a commencement speech that said something! David Gergen may have started a trend in which you actually tell the graduates what they face in life and its real problems ahead. Spare me another “golden road” with challenges, goals, opportunities so many graduation speakers tread down.
Of course, if you have ever given a commencement address, then you have wrestled with rising about the cliches most graduations generate.
Gergen did it…good for him.