Not your father's GOP

by Tom Campbell, Executive Producer & Moderator, NC SPIN, February 19, 2015.

Can you remember those car ads that tried to lure us into purchasing the new model proclaiming, “this is not your father’s Oldsmobile?” The brand disappeared, now little more than a memory. The same can be said about the traditional old-line GOP in North Carolina. The current version bears little resemblance to many of the ideals Republicans once espoused.

For years Republicans railed against the Democrats running our state, claiming government had grown too bloated, too expensive and far too ineffective. Democrats, they said, were giving away too much taxpayer money, had become too timid and weren’t listening, mostly interested in getting re-elected. North Carolina agreed, giving the GOP team a chance, with veto-proof majorities in both houses of the legislature and also by electing a Republican governor. It is too early to judge all the final results but not too early to judge their values and way they conduct business.

Republicans have always distrusted big government, believing that government works best that governs closest to the people. They cried out against a federal government that imposed itself in North Carolina affairs but, in an amusing paradox, are now exercising that same overreach with local cities and counties. Traditionally, lawmakers entrusted locally elected officials to run local government and propose needed legislation, believing local citizens would correct any errant policies by voting out of office those who exceeded or abused their authority.

Now state lawmakers are playing “Government Knows Best.” Their overreach includes trying to hijack a water system from Asheville, an airport from Charlotte, removing privilege taxes and restricting how locals how can use sales taxes, even arbitrarily reconstituting local governments and boards of education, like the current strong-arm attempt to reconfigure districts and elections for the city of Greensboro. These actions are necessary, they say, because local governments are out of control and local officials can’t be trusted, especially in such matters as extraterritorial jurisdiction of town limits and the use of eminent domain.

But their micromanaging doesn’t stop with the locals. They want to expand their power by extending control over boards and commissions, further diluting what is an already weak Executive Branch in North Carolina.

Republicans once deplored high taxes but we’ve got a Senate that has, according to their own staff, passed legislation that will raise $1 billion in new gas taxes.

For decades state Republicans vehemently protested closed door meetings where decisions were made without their input and where Democrats were unwilling to compromise. They screamed about programs that gave away tax dollars to individuals and groups. They despised the redistricting Democrats devised to keep their own in power.

What we have today is clearly not the Republican Party of Jim Holshouser, Jim Martin and Jim Broyhill. Instead of showing us how government could work more efficiently, be more transparent and more inclusive this bunch often seems mean-spirited, power hungry, arbitrary, promoting their own partisan social agenda. They make decisions behind closed doors without explanation or discussion. They have taken redistricting gerrymandering to an art form and it is pretty evident that their opposition to giveaway programs was mostly about who was receiving the money. Democrats favored the poor and disadvantaged; Republicans give to corporations and the wealthy.

After watching the current performance we find ourselves missing both the Oldsmobile and the traditional Republicans.