Ambition, cronyism and hypocrisy
Published July 19, 2013
By Thomas Mills, Politics North Carolina, July 18, 2013.
Right after Pat McCrory got elected, he like to say that government was going to treat citizens like customers. Now, we see what kind of business he’s running, or at least helping run. It’s one that treats it’s employees like crap and only serves “customers” who can afford the entrance fee.
The voters of North Carolina threw out the Democrats in a fit of frustration over a stagnant economy and frustration over a bureaucracy they perceived as riddled with cronyism. They were looking for a fix-it crew. Instead, they a wrecking a crew.
Little did they know, they elected a combination of personal ambition, ideological zeal and intellectual laziness. Thom Tillis quite obviously spent the session trying to strike a balance between moderating his caucus enough to keep him viable in a general election and paying off the crazies he will need to get through a Republican primary. Berger, on the other hand, drinks too much Tea, believing the key to everything is cutting taxes and government programs. And McCrory? He’s just a nice guy who will say anything to anybody and doesn’t seem to have the gray matter to understand what’s going on in government around him.
Instead of cleaning up cronyism, they’ve embraced it. McCrory appointed a bunch of plugged in donors with obligations elsewhere to run his cabinet. Secretary of Public Safety Kieran Shanahan is still plugging his law firm, where his law partners have benefited from their association with the Governor–one’s on the banking the commission and another’s husband got a sweet promotion in the highway patrol. And his Secretary of Commerce, Sharon Decker, gets paid to sit on the boards of Coca-cola, Family Dollar and SCANA, the parent of PSNC. No chance any of those groups might have business with the state of North Carolina.
And now it appears Thom Tillis is selling memberships to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. We know, we know. It’s total, utter coincidence that these appointees gave tens of thousands of dollars to the Super-Pac dedicated to electing Tillis to the U.S. Senate. But like I said, it appears Tillis is selling those memberships.
North Carolina voters elected Republicans to clean up government, in large part, because that’s what the GOP said they would do. They campaigned criticizing North Carolina Democrats for corruption and cronyism. Now, they’re engaged in the same practices, making them not only guilty of the same charges but also of hypocrisy.
July 22, 2013 at 10:30 am
Thom Allen says:
If we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people and if the government is suppose to be the servant of the people, then the government should treat the people as though they are masters not merely as customers.
July 22, 2013 at 2:12 pm
dj anderson says:
if the government is suppose to be the servant of the people, then the government should treat the people as though they are masters not merely as customers. -- COMMENT
The public could be called master in the sense of all the people via democracy, but I would not try being the master of the cop pulling you over or even the clerk at DMV. The 'customer' concept is one of service and implies the customer could go elsewhere to do their business, which doesn't work. The public servant title fits, but doesn't bring with it "master." The public remains just another citizen within the public.
When Lincoln said "of the people, by the people and for the people" he was referring to the whole of the nation as the people. While the south thought they were able to have a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" too, but just those in the south, and not including slaves. Some folks think it should end, "...for the individual."
