In North Carolina politics these days, little is more certain than Republicans rigging the political process. They’ve spent the better part of the decade trying to shape the electorate and districts to make them more favorable to the GOP. Their latest gimmick is adding constitutional amendments to the ballot in an attempt to increase Republican turnout in November.
Now, they’ve found a potential glitch in their plans. The descriptions of proposed constitutional amendments that appear on ballots is written by a three-person panel consisting of the Attorney General Josh Stein, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and the General Assembly Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble. Marshall and Stein are Democrats and Coble is a Republican. Republican House Majority Leader David Lewis is worried the descriptions won’t be favorable to the amendments so he wants to change the law so the GOP writes them.
Lewis has called for a special session to rig the amendments to the GOP’s favor. You can be sure that if the legislature writes the descriptions they’ll be highly political. The whole point of these amendments is to strengthen the GOP’s hand in this fall’s elections.
So why haven’t we heard this controversy before? Well, because the state is generally conservative and doesn’t take altering the constitution lightly. We haven’t had six proposed changes to the constitution in one election in a very long time. But the GOP in North Carolina aren’t traditional conservatives. They’re radicals who want to shift the state hard to the right and consolidate their power at the expense of democracy.
They’ve spent eight years limiting access to the ballot box, redistricting local elections to give Republicans more seats, making nonpartisan races partisan, and using extreme gerrymandering to ensure that their power exceeds their support. Why would we expect anything less than the GOP legislature trying to rig the constitutional amendments to their advantage?
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 >
Look up the Stalin Constitution of 1934. Written in was one party rule. Next famine & war.
Bolsheviks didn’t like the educated very much.
The NC Republicans are counting on an Ignorant voter population , especially among the Republicans….
Chances are they will get what they want…
The NC Republicans cannot win unless they rig the game….
Rigging the game is their only survival.
One day they will lose and when that happens they will never regain power in this state again.
In the meantime North Carolinians must resist and slow the Road to the Bottom they have placed every person in our state on
Look for GOP legislative moves to make these proposed amendments difficult to understand, e.g., you must vote “no” in order to really vote “yes.” Or, vice versa. This is not the way to rewrite the North Carolina constitution even though we desperately need a new one. Call a Constitutional Convention that excludes current members of the General Assembly.
Oh those dreadful Republicans! What will they come up with next? Why the very idea of letting the citizens of our state actually vote for or against a constitutional amendment is well—outrageous and undemocratic! Better to let an elite group of high-minded intellectuals meet and decide what our state constitution should and should not include. And by all means don’t let any legislators elected by the citizenry get involved in any lawmaking.
Benign paternalism is what’s needed in today’s contentious political environment, Orwellian as it may seem. Just trust a cadre of political insiders. No doubt they can make better decisions than the body politic, right?
Ebrun, I have long suspected that you seldom actually consider, or even read, comments put forth by Democrats. Your comment proves it. At no time, have the commentators suggested taking the voters out of decision-making which can be done either through representatives to a convention or to votes on amendments. No one except the veto-proof NC General Assembly has tried to rig the system.
But Ghost, the poster I replied to called for elected current members of the General Assembly to be excluded from any Constitutional Convention. Would that not substantially limit voters choices by excluding current leaders that have been democratically elected?
Knowledgeable liberal insiders prefer to hold a convention because they know that their side would be greatly advantaged in a low turnout election for representatives to a Convention. It is much more democratic to let voters decide on proposed amendments during a general election where turnout would be much greater.
Ebrun: If a constitutional convention were called, it would probably be held at the same time as the NC General Assembly was meeting. The Delegates would also be elected from the current Senate and House districts. You cannot be elected to do both. If a current Senator or House Member wanted to run as a Delegate for the convention, they would have to resign their legislative seats. Furthermore, a con-con should be designed to encourage new state and community leaders to run as Delegates and to write a new constitution. It is long overdue.
This is outrageous. What can be done? Anything?
We have to vote. The first one to be voted out should be the dictator of North Carolina, Phil Berger. Dr. Jennifer Mangrum moved to his district to run against him. I do believe I will make a donation to her campaign. I’m sick of seeing Phil Berger’s name.
The NC Republicans are counting on an Ignorant voter population , especially among the Republicans…. Chances are they will get what they want…
The NC Republicans cannot win unless they rig the game….
Rigging the game is their only survival