The fight between the ideologues and pragmatists in the GOP is wide open. The current leader of the pragmatists is Speaker Tim Moore. Moore is a native North Carolinian who is the son of storekeepers. He knows the story of this state and the role education plays in it. He’s a product of public schools and universities and has more opportunity because of them.
In the House, Mike Hager is leading the free market ideologues. Hager is a retired Duke Energy engineer who likes expensive cars but has trouble managing his own businesses. On the Senate side, President Pro Tem Phil Berger is a strong free market utopian but his mouth piece is Massachusetts Bob Rucho, a loud-mouthed zealot with a Napoleon complex.
Moore’s budget might not be one I’d write, but it’s a far cry better than the one the ideologues want. Moore has made it clear since he became Speaker that Republicans need to show that they can govern. The free market ideologues are still trying to follow the path of Kansas and fundamentally change the face of North Carolina. And they are backed up by millionaires like Bob Luddy who believes that his $25,000 contribution to the Republican House caucus should buy him another tax break.
The difference between Tim Moore and the ideologues is that Moore is from North Carolina, understands its history, and knows that strong public institutions can help people improve their lives. The free marketeers are a bunch of folks who moved to this state, made money and now want to make sure they don’t have to help anybody else. They’re using ideology to justify selfish instincts. Their real ideology is “I got mine.”
I don’t begrudge people moving into our state and taking leadership positions. But I certainly resent people like Bob Rucho who move here and don’t take the time to learn and understand our history. I disagree with Speaker Moore on a lot of policy and political positions but I don’t doubt his commitment to North Carolina. I sure hope he wins this fight.
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 >
Long story short, who keeps voting these people into the Legislature? People keep voting ideology and dogma, not what is in their best and the States’ best interest. So the interlopers like Rucho can come and wreak havoc and after having done so, free to continue their migration. Just like locusts, they settle in, consume everything and leave.
That’s a good question: ‘who keeps voting these people back in’ to office- it seems that our vote tabulations do not reflect the will or intent of the general voters and there is an ‘urgent’ need to address the accuracy of machine tabulated vote counts. The need for paper trails is essential if we are to continue using voting machine tabulations, because the machines are easily tampered with and there is to date no mechanism in place to independently and transparently verify the accuracy of these machine tabulations – further arousing suspension is that pro-corporate/austerity for the people republikans continue winning improbable elections and holding supermajorities in state’s where their policies are anathema to the general populace. To the uninitiated, rigging elections is as old as voting itself.
Oh yes, you have reduced to writing exactly I came to conclude soon after arriving in Raleigh for my brief tenure in the House. I heard lots of accents not native to North Carolina (and North Carolina’s got many dialects– enough to fascinate any linguist). After hearing some discussion and debate of issues I quickly came to realize many serving in the body had little knowledge of our history, culture and mores. They see their mission as saving us from ourselves. They’re returning us to Rip Van Winkle status….they’ll have no idea what that is, and (metaphorically) wearing red shirts too…they ain’t gonna understand that either.
Like Moore, I am a native of North Carolina. I grew up in a mixed family: my father was a Republican and my mother was a Democrat, but both were strongly supportive of public education and our public universities. They were both proud of our beautiful mountains, beaches, woodlands, and farmland. They viewed “outsiders” with some suspicion, but as long as the new arrivals did not disparage our state and were ‘fair-dealers’, they were considered OK. Blowhard know-it-all’s, like Bob Rucho and wheeler-dealer, Bob Luddy would not be on their list of those that were OK. They are not on my OK list either, because they are wrecking the balanced conservative-progressive North Carolina that I love and are playing only to the wealthy – not to the working population of North Carolinians that have made this a fabulous place to live and work.
Thank all of you for your comments. I’m glad that people are finally starting to figure out what is going on with our public schools – not just in North Carolina, but all across the country.
Like Rucho, I am a transplanted Yankee, moving to NC from the NE a decade ago. And like him, I am of Italian heritage, and have run a small business. That’s where the similarities end (I hope!).
He is arrogant with the public and colleagues, is on a power trip, and doesn’t seem to care about what is best for the state. He is an extremist with a warped world view that includes believing that Obamacare has wrecked and is still wrecking the economy (despite the reality and all the evidence to the contrary). And, with every dumb utterance or tweet or heavy-handed parliamentarian move, he makes my skin crawl.
I still believe that the NCGA majority in both the House and Senate is doing too many things that is adversely affecting NC and its future. It is also trying much too hard to advance a social agenda that is leaving NC in the nation’s rearview mirror. Moore stands out in showing some (again, I say SOME) pragmatism, moderation, and attentiveness to the more important issues like education and jobs. Within a NCGOP fraught with ideologues, regressives, and just plain nut cases, I am glad that he’s in a leadership position and tries to temper his party’s extremist impulses to a degree.
That was so on point.
Amen.
You are spot on with this post. I couldn’t agree more. It is the health and durability of our public institutions that insure the future well being of our state. Ideologues care little about that.
I believe Moore has a fair chance of prevailing. He’s a skillful legislator.
It is breathtaking how anyone can look at the mess Brownback has made in Kansas and think it would be swell to do the same thing here. But then, ideologues are rarely troubled by facts and objective evidence that contradicts their ideology.
I agree with all of your comment except the very last word. It’s not ideology, it’s corruption. We all need to just get over it and use the correct word – because that’s what it is.