The inevitable result of North Carolina's Republican revolution

Mark Robinson and others reflect the GOP's gullible, uneducated electorate

Before I get to my real subject, I just have to laugh at Republicans for a minute. They’ve become in thrall of a conman and grifter and now they’re his mark. He’s set up a fundraising operation that takes money out of campaign coffers and shifts them to his legal defense funds. It’s hilarious. The people who could have stopped him and should have stopped him are now paying for the consequences of all his misdeeds. They refused to hold Trump accountable so now they’re footing the bill. What a bunch of patsies.

Well, on to North Carolina where the GOP’s extremist ticket of council of state candidates is garnering national attention and worrying the business community. Rhetoric of gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson and superintendent of public instruction nominee Michele Morrow that would have been considered the rantings of the lunatic fringe just a few years ago is now part of the mainstream dialogue of the Republican Party. The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce warned that the extremism of GOP candidates could hurt the state’s business climate and Connecticut has said that it wants to recruit North Carolina businesses concerned about the direction of the state. While Morrow and Robinson get the most attention, Representative Dan Bishop has a well-documented history of cavorting with the far right and the Chamber describes Labor Commissioner nominee Luke Farley as “a far-right candidate whose two main campaign platform items were banning vaccine requirements for employees and ‘Making Elevators Great Again.’”

These candidates are the inevitable result of fourteen years of gerrymandering and amplifying the most extreme elements of the GOP. When Republicans took control of the legislature in 2011, they began remaking state government. They insisted everything was broken, even if it wasn’t, as excuse to burn it all down. They moved into overdrive after Republican Pat McCrory became governor in 2013.

Legislators introduced bills to implement a state religion and a state currency. While those measures failed, they did pass a ban on Sharia Law in an effort to ostracize Muslims. They allowed guns on campus and guns in bars and gun deaths soared. They declared war on the University of North Carolina system, firing competent administrators and replacing them with political hacks. The instituted a voucher program that they claimed was designed to help poor kids escape “failing” public schools. Then, they turned it into a massive tax cut subsidizing rich people whose kids are in private schools while cutting funds to struggling public schools. They reduced access to reproductive health, putting a 12-week ban on abortions. The list goes on and as a result, our growth, both in population and GDP, has slowed.

They locked in their power with extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression. With a compliant and politicized state Supreme Court, they gerrymandered the state to such an extreme that Republicans may win eleven of fourteen Congressional seats while losing the total Congressional vote. They’ve locked in their power while eliminating checks on their power like the executive branch and voters.

While they were passing draconian legislation and reducing democracy, they launched initiatives designed to demonize Democrats. They attacked public schools for teaching Jim Crow in ways that might offend white people. They pushed the racist replacement theory, claiming Democrats want to replace white people with brown immigrants. They claim Democrats support abortion up to the moment of birth. It’s been a long, difficult, and destructive journey.

In 2013, Charles Pierce of Esquire Magazine expressed the sentiments of so much of the country with a piece titled “North Carolina is going out of its mind.” Back then, the country was incredulous at the hard right turn the state had taken. Within a few years, Republican states across the nation had followed North Carolina’s lead, implementing legislation to impede rights and limit democracy. Hindsight allows us to see where North Carolina’s lead has taken us as country.

Today, the GOP has nominated candidates who reflect their ahistorical and anti-democratic mentality. They’ve rallied a base that believes their way of life is under attack. They are largely uneducated and misinformed, making Mark Robinson a good reflection of the GOP electorate. Robinson, Morrow, Bishop, and company are the inevitable outcome of years of GOP disinformation, unrestrained power, and regressive legislation. Let’s hope voters see them clearly.