Staying on a dangerous message
Published August 8, 2016
by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, August 8, 2016.
You’ve got to give the leaders of the North Carolina legislature credit. They’re staying on message, even if that message is damaging to our country and our democracy. Donald Trump has been setting the stage for his loss in November by falsely claiming the electoral system is rigged. Governor Pat McCrory, Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore claimed the same thing when the federal court threw out their voter suppression bill.
Their claims are Orwellian. The system is, in fact, rigged. Just not like the Trumpists would have you believe. The system is rigged because gerrymandering ensures that even though Democrats won a majority of Congressional votes in 2012 in North Carolina, they only won four of 13 Congressional seats. Nationally, Democrats also won a majority of Congressional votes but Republicans wound up with a 33 seat majority.
Republicans have put together a comprehensive program to ensure they maintain control of government even if they lack the votes. In North Carolina, they used the most extreme gerrymandering of legislative and Congressional districts in the country. They then passed the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the nation. Even principled conservatives admit what the GOP is doing.
Trump and the GOP leadership are preparing their base to reject the outcome of the 2016 election. Our country has survived because of the peaceful transfer of power. Now, Trump, McCrory, Berger, and Moore are telling their supporters that the government is conspiring against them. After 30 years of demonizing government, the story is believable to the mob of angry, uneducated voters who have been left out of the system and form the core of Trump supporters.
While conservatives and responsible Republicans across the country are struggling with the Trump candidacy, the North Carolina Republican Party is falling in line. They’re using the same divisive tactics, demonizing government and the system (the same one they’re trying to rig), to enrage their supporters and erode trust in our democracy. Trump, McCrory, Berger, and Moore are harmful to our country and state. They’re more interested in maintaining power than bringing our divided country together.
http://www.politicsnc.com/staying-on-a-dangerous-message/
August 8, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Richard L Bunce says:
"The system is rigged because gerrymandering ensures that even though Democrats won a majority of Congressional votes in 2012 in North Carolina, they only won four of 13 Congressional seats.'
Irrelevant Mr. Mills, US House members elected by their US House District, not by their whole State. One parties candidates may get more national US House and US Senate votes as well but still have a much lower percentage of representation in those bodies... and a Presidential candidate may get more national votes but not more EC votes... because we elected the President by the EC, not the irrelevant national vote. Next column... shoot for relevant.
August 8, 2016 at 8:34 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Is this ANOTHER case of whining libs?
How does it feel now that the shoe is on the other foot?
For decades libs ruled state houses. They did virtually as they pleased. They used gerry to their benefit. For decades. How did lib editorial writers, media allies of libs, and various other lib whiners, respond? Silence! Utter silence.
Now that gerry is working against whiny libs, guess what they are doing. Whining. It is their default response when they don't get their way, so is anyone surprised that libs are whining now?
The voter ID case WAS mishandled by the courts. The ruling makes NO SENSE. In essence what the court said is that black voters in NC are less competent, less educated, less sophisticated than any other person any other place in the country. And for some reason libs who claim to be color-blind, are celebrating that lib courts are being racists. Libs are now being MORE racist than what they CONSTANTLY whine about Republicans being.
Wa-Wa-Wa! The lies coming from libs are as old, tired, and painful as the whining! Are libs capable of changing their tune? Whine! Lie! Lie! Whine! Repeat as often as you like. Cuz your media allies will carry every whine you utter. Which means it's a non-stop job for your allies. Good thing most of your supporters are low-information types. As soon as your supporters start to educate themselves, they'll stop voting for yous.
