North Carolina - Republicans Gone Wild

[Nehkara]

What's the Matter With North Carolina?

Once a temperate and tolerant beacon of the South, the state is poised to enact a rash of inexpressibly awful legislation, rushed through a Republican legislature. Because the GOP has veto-proof super-majorities in the state House and Senate and a Republican governor—for the first time since Reconstruction—the party has been on a spree. Republican-controlled redistricting was fantastically effective. So much so that in the 2012 elections, nearly 51 percent of North Carolina voters picked a Democrat for the U.S. House, yet Republicans won nine of the state’s 13 House seats, as Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis recently pointed out.

Some of the gems advanced recently in the legislature include an abortion bill tacked first onto an anti-Sharia law and then snuck in through a motorcycle safety law (new TRAP regulations may shutter all but one clinic in the state). Another bill forces all educators to teach seventh graders that abortion causes preterm birth (it doesn’t). Lawmakers also enacted legislation (described here and elsewhere as “the harshest unemployment insurance program cuts in our nation's history”) that resulted in 70,000 North Carolina citizens losing their unemployment benefits. The state is one of the 15 to have refused Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. A proposed education bill would slash teacher compensation, (already ranked among the lowest in the nation), eliminate tenure, and use vouchers to reallocate $90 million of public-school funding to private schools (The school superintendent issued a statement this week saying that in light of the proposed deep cuts to the education budget “For the first time in my career of more than 30 years in public education, I am truly worried about students in our care.”) Don’t forget the embarrassing proposed resolution allowing counties and cities to enshrine a state religion. Or the proposed ban on nipples.

Indeed, North Carolina has just put in place a vote suppression regime that can only really be described as political performance art. Here is the proposed new elections omnibus bill. It drastically reduces early voting, does away with same-day voter registration, weakens the disclosure of so-called independent expenditures, disenfranchises felons and the “mentally incompetent,” authorizes vigilante poll observers, and penalizes families of college students who vote out of state.

The voter ID component of the bill is probably the most draconian in the nation. It cuts to seven the forms of permissible identification. If it passes, no county or municipal government or public employee IDs will be valid proof of voter identification. Nor will any photo ID issued by a public assistance agency, or any student ID from any college. The new voter ID rules will hit African-American voters, women, and Democrats hardest. The indispensable Ari Berman sums up the aggregate effect as follows: “According to the state’s own numbers, 316,000 registered voters don’t have state-issued ID; 34 percent are African-American and 55 percent are registered Democrats. Of the 138,000 voters without ID who cast a ballot in the 2012 election, 36 percent were African-American and 59 registered percent Democrats.” And the scourge of voter fraud in North Carolina, at which the proposed law is directed? Between 2000 and 2010 there have been two cases of alleged voter impersonation. In that period three people also ate pop rocks and died.

Discuss.

[nik-]

[Senator Clay Davis]

Republicans have to cheat, use dirty tactics and gerrymander to win elections? I'm missing something, there's a story here?

[PIMking]

I've said it before, having a single political party run everything is going to be ######ed. They may think they have good intentions but they're more interested in screwing the other party over while they have power

[DuffMan]

lolGOP

[PsYcNeT]

Gerrymandering favours Republicans?

Colour me shocked.

[Ozy_Flame]

North Carolina, go sit in the corner.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I'm so glad we decided not to move there.

Well, off to Florida! There's nothing weird about politics there right?

[tripin_billie]

I think Colin Woodard's thesis in "American Nations" is once again showing to be correct. There are two fundamentally opposed concepts of rights in the USA.

One, supported by the north east, midwest (but not Indiana) and west coast region, is the Germanic concept of Freiheit. Freiheit contends that all people have equal rights and expansion of rights is universally good and does not reduce another's rights.

In opposition is the south, greater Appalachia, and new west (Montana, the Dakotas, etc.). Here, the concept of rights is linked to the Greco Roman concept of Libertas, where rights are a zero sum. In this worldview, if a minority group is extended a right, this inherently means that another group must have lost a right. For example, freeing the slaves and giving them citizenship and voting rights is interpreted at the same time as a loss of the right for rich, white land owners to own slaves.

These restrictive voting laws just expose this type of worldview.

I do think that the country is really beginning to get past a fracture point. While it isn't written nearly as well as Woodard's "American Nations," I'm currently enjoying (and largely agreeing with) Chuck Thompson's "Better of Without Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Succession."

[Kavvy]

Can anyone post full link?

Edit nm

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...e_country.html

[Nehkara]

I'm sure this has been posted before but it seems relevant:

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Can anyone post full link?

Edit nm

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...e_country.html

The link is in the title at the top of my post and I also went through the article and linked all of the things they linked in my post.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I'm sure this has been posted before but it seems relevant:

Is Alaska really a hot bed for Jesus love? I'm sure the native populations just loved having Christianity imposed on them

[valo403]

Originally Posted by tripin_billie

I think Colin Woodard's thesis in "American Nations" is once again showing to be correct. There are two fundamentally opposed concepts of rights in the USA.

One, supported by the north east, midwest (but not Indiana) and west coast region, is the Germanic concept of Freiheit. Freiheit contends that all people have equal rights and expansion of rights is universally good and does not reduce another's rights.

In opposition is the south, greater Appalachia, and new west (Montana, the Dakotas, etc.). Here, the concept of rights is linked to the Greco Roman concept of Libertas, where rights are a zero sum. In this worldview, if a minority group is extended a right, this inherently means that another group must have lost a right. For example, freeing the slaves and giving them citizenship and voting rights is interpreted at the same time as a loss of the right for rich, white land owners to own slaves.

These restrictive voting laws just expose this type of worldview.

I do think that the country is really beginning to get past a fracture point. While it isn't written nearly as well as Woodard's "American Nations," I'm currently enjoying (and largely agreeing with) Chuck Thompson's "Better of Without Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Succession."

Also, it's full of full blown racists.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I'm sure this has been posted before but it seems relevant:

Poor Austin

[ernie]

Not going to open up the Gun control debate but earlier this summer John Oliver on the daily show had a week long series on it. The most memorable thing to me was when from the US side of things the number one priority for the politician was to get re-elected. Not to do what was right. it is pervasive through the US political system. Anything to get re-elected. Anything to get into power. Once that is done maybe they'll look at actually doing their jobs.

[Tinordi]

Just depressing

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by ernie

Not going to open up the Gun control debate but earlier this summer John Oliver on the daily show had a week long series on it. The most memorable thing to me was when from the US side of things the number one priority for the politician was to get re-elected. Not to do what was right. it is pervasive through the US political system. Anything to get re-elected. Anything to get into power. Once that is done maybe they'll look at actually doing their jobs.

Like religion, the NRA, can account for many votes, and politicians.

[tripin_billie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...d3a_story.html

At least some action against this crap.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I think this is most appropriate here. Carrying guns, and concealed weapons in bars, what would possibly go wrong?!

How is this even remotely a good idea?!

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/20...s-carry-bars-/