Deep divisions produce political charades

Editorial by Durham Herald-Sun, reprinted in Greenville Daily Reflector, March 6, 2017.

Three times last week, a state Senate committee summoned Larry Hall to be vetted for his appointment to head the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Three times, committee members faced an empty table with a name card for Hall, who until Roy Cooper named him to his cabinet represented Durham in the state House.

The empty table made for good television. For Cooper and Democrats who contend the law requiring legislative confirmation, passed in the waning days of Pat McCrory’s tenure, is unconstitutional, it is a bold show of defiance. For the committee and GOP, it was a demonstration of executive contempt for legislature’s duly assigned power.

Meanwhile, across the nation, including here in the Triangle, Democratic activist groups have been staging “town hall” meetings. At many of them — like Triangle Indivisible’s meeting last Wednesday in Cary — the “invited” senators or representatives were nowhere to be seen.

In Cary, poster-sized pictures of Sen. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr were stand-ins for the candidates. (A similar meeting took place on Wednesday in Greenville.)

Typically, town halls are organized and hosted by the senators or representatives involved — like ones for Democratic congressmen G. K. Butterfield and David Price during this congressional recess.

The activists organizing the town halls featuring absent representatives know full well they will be hosting empty chairs — just as the Republicans in the legislature knew full well that Larry Hall would be a no-show for their hearings.

It was, on both sides, what one broadcast commentator called last week a “political charade.”

For many voters, it is the sort of thing that exacerbates disdain for, even disgust with, the political process. It’s viewed as “gotcha” gamesmanship, form over substance, showy dysfunction they associate with government at all levels.

Partisans on either side of the aisle are especially quick to characterize their opponents’ tactics as cheap theater — while extolling the virtue of their own events.

For a host of voters who see themselves as moderates in the middle of the road, there’s a plague-on-all-their-houses reaction.

We understand that dismay.

We also think we better get used to this. The deep divisions in our country that became apparent through last year’s long, bitter presidential campaign have grown ever deeper since the election.

Trump’s supporters salute what they see as his tough-talking, action-oriented governing style. His foes are mortified, in some cases terrified, and gearing for a no-holds-barred “resistance” for the next four years.

Some of what we see — much of what we see — may be political charades.

On the other hand, profound differences can manifest themselves in far worse ways. Charades aren’t so bad.

Durham Herald Sun

http://www.reflector.com/Editorials/2017/03/06/Foster-care-in-state-of-crisis.html