Eating their lunch

by | Feb 17, 2017 | Editor's Blog, HB2, NC Politics | 12 comments

Rarely has one piece of legislation caused so much consternation for one party. HB2 is so stuck on Republicans that they can’t get rid of it. They passed it in a special twelve-hour session of the legislature a year ago and then-Governor Pat McCrory signed it in the middle of the night.

The former party of Lincoln thought it would be good politics, driving out their base while driving a wedge between Democrats. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, it alienated more moderate Republicans in urban areas, energized the Democratic base, and brought national scorn to the state.

The GOP has tried to pass the buck for the damage. They started out by blaming Charlotte, but nobody’s buying that. They called the session, they drafted legislation that was broad and discriminatory, and they passed the bill. Blaming Charlotte just made them look silly.

After the November election, Republicans realized the law played a big role in costing them the gubernatorial and attorney general elections. They needed to get out from under it. Roy Cooper helped broker a deal that would have put the matter behind them before the 2017 legislative session began. Charlotte rescinded their ordinance and the legislature was supposed to repeal HB2. Unfortunately, the GOP couldn’t hold its caucuses together so they reneged on their end of the bargain.

Since the legislative session began, Phil Berger has been saying that it’s Roy Cooper’s job to offer a compromise bill to end HB2. It’s another attempt at passing the buck. The party of personal responsibility doesn’t want to take responsibility for its own actions.

Even though Cooper had no obligation to respond to Berger’s request, he called their bluff. Republicans claim that HB2 is not about discrimination but about protecting women and children in bathrooms. So, Cooper offered a compromise that would remove the discriminatory parts of the bill while adding real protections to women and children by stiffening penalties for assaults in bathrooms and locker rooms. But the GOP rejected the deal because their caucus won’t buy it.

For the second time in two months, Republicans asked for a compromise and got one. Both times, they’ve been unable to get the votes they need to pass it. All they’ve done is reinforce that HB2 is their problem and the damage is their fault.

The whole debacle lays bare some political truths.

First, the Republican House and Senate caucuses are held hostage by their right flanks. Members are more scared of primaries from their right flanks than about costing the state thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. That’s the epitome of putting politics before people.

Second, HB2 really is about discrimination, not protecting women and children. Berger makes clear that he’s more interested in denying transgender people access to public restrooms than resolving the issue.

Third, Dan Forest has more influence than any lieutenant governor since Jimmy Green. He’s leading the fight against any repeal and, so far, his side is winning.

And finally, right now, Roy Cooper is eating the GOP’s lunch. He’s showing a willingness to compromise and gaining support from the media and business leaders. He’s making sure the blame for fallout over HB2 stays with the legislature.

 

12 Comments

  1. Norma Munn

    I think my Mother’s comment to me when i was more interested in feeling myself “right” than in actually getting a result applies to the Raleigh GOP. To quote” That is cutting off your nose despite your face.”

    They will not repeal HB2. It will stay as long as they stay. Unfortunately.

  2. Cornsticksnothushpuppies

    Please, please someone in the media ask Dan Forest why, if HB2 is so critical to protecting public safety, why does it not contain any sort of enforcement mechanism or any consequences whatsoever for violating it? And when Dan claims that the Governor’s proposed compromise is really a “Look but don’t touch” bill that is somehow going to lead to men ogling women in bathrooms, ask him if he’s aware of the existing Peeping Tom laws that have been on the books forever.

    • Ebrun

      “…Kenneth V. Lanning, a 40-year veteran law enforcement officer who specialized in sex crimes for the FBI at Quantico for 20 years, explains the problem with “gender identity-based access policies” for sex-specific intimate facilities.

      Lanning says “the problem with potential sex offenses is not crimes by transgendered persons,” but rather “offenses by males who are not really transgendered but who would exploit the entirely subjective provisions” of such policies “to facilitate their sexual behavior or offenses.” Lanning explains that:

      Allowing a man, based only on his claim to be [a] transgendered woman, to have unlimited access to women’s rest rooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, showers, etc. will make it easier for the type of sex offense behavior previously described to happen to more women and children. Such access would create an additional risk for potential victims in a previously protected setting and a new defense for a wide variety of sexual victimization.”

      An FBI veteran who specialized in sex crimes. No doubt he will be vilified as a “religious bigot ” by the radical left.

  3. Jay Ligon

    So the Republican legislature is demanding that the governor write a law to repair the obvious HB2 problems? It’s like saying: “We aren’t good at our job.” Proposing legislation and voting on bills is the only real job the legislature has. How will the legislators fill their days if the governor’s office does their job for them?

    This is passive-aggressive governance. Afraid to make any decision, the Republicans want to snipe at decisions made by someone else. Easier to complain than to do something. The problem, of course, is that the Republicans, so reluctant to make decisions, hold a super-majority.

    Incredibly, the governor obliged by writing a law which, predictably, the legislators didn’t like. Well, there’s always the option of doing your job over there on Jones Street. Give it shot, Republicans.

    • Troy

      Once again, you’re spot on Jay. They’re not.

  4. willard cottrell

    When will the NCAA make its decision? That will probably register with the right-wing. The length of the ban 5 years (is that the #) will surely have a large $ amount attached to it. Glad to see the NFL doing the same to Texass. It is bigly sad that we occupy the same esteem as that other state.

    • TY Thompson

      NCAA and NFL both enjoy special statuses, tax-wise. Amazing that they’re going to risk all that just to be pro-sexual predator.

      • Jay Ligon

        Did they endorse Donald Trump? That’s terrible.

  5. willard cottrell

    When will the NCAA make its decision? That will probably register with the right-wing. The length of the ban 5 years (is that the #) will surely have a large $ amount attached to it. Glad to see the NFL doing the same to Texass. It is bigly sad that we occupy the same esteem as that other state.

    • cornsticksnothushpuppies

      I hope that the NCAA’s decision might swing some Rethugs around to the repeal side, but I’m starting to have serious doubts. They hate the cities anyway, and Greensboro in particular has already suffered tremendously from the NCAA and ACC reactions to HB2. All the big sporting events just highlight how progressive and prosperous the cities are compared to the rural-weighted, gerrymandered, safe districts these legis-critters inhabit. Losing the big events hurts and infuriates the cities, and anything that hurts the cities actually makes these clowns and their base happy. Also, like most everything else that is a part of Southern politics, I believe there’s a racial element here as well. Although we claim to be a hotbed of college basketball, how many Republican legislators have really ever been to a basketball game and watched mostly African American players show their skills on the court? How many of their base voters give two hoots about ACC or NCAA basketball, let alone the NBA All Star Game? I’ll bet you there’s snickering that will go on this weekend about how thankful certain folks are that we “don’t have that NBA trash here.” With the backlash against Colin Kapernik’s protest this season, I don’t think even the mighty NFL is immune to the rejuvenated racism that the Republican party and their “President” have stoked for years. As Dadgum Roy might say, “time for a burbun and colar…”

  6. Arthur dENT

    Could we please stop calling present-day Republicans “the party of Lincoln?” As of 1964, they became the party of Goldwater and have been slithering to the right of that version of conservatism ever since.

    Ted Cruz said last week that the Democratic party was the party that created the KKK. Also not true in any way that is relevant to current politics. Relevant to southern Democrats in the Reconstruction years? True about the Democrats aka Copperheads? Yup. Both shameful legacies, but entirely contrafactual to the present day.

    • L'Homme ArmÉ

      Even “The Party of Goldwater” isn’t accurate. Goldwater warned against letting the Religious Right take control of the Republican Party. Goldwater warned against letting belief that government isn’t the best guarantor of help for the disadvantages slide into the belief that the disadvantaged are undeserving of help. Goldwater was pro-choice and against discrimination against gay people. Simply put, Goldwater would want no more to do with today’s Republican Party than Lincoln would.

      Republicans are the Party of Limbaugh, the Party of Hannity, the Party of Trump. That’s their holy trinity. I’d say they are the thought leaders of the Republican Party, but of course “thought” isn’t the right word. They are the Knee-Jerk Emotion Leaders of the Republican Party. Because these days, Knee-Jerk Emotion is what passes for thought among Republicans.

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