They own it
Published December 23, 2016
by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, December 22, 2016.
The GOP continues to bring shame to the state of North Carolina. Last week, they stripped power from the newly elected Democratic governor and gave it to themselves. Yesterday, they spent $42,000 of the people’s money just to go into session and come out with nothing. In the process, they proved they can’t be trusted to hold up their end of a bargain and they left HB2, the discriminatory law that’s cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, intact.
Before any argument about who is to blame for yesterday’s debacle, remember a few points. The GOP passed HB2 and the governor signed it into law. The GOP has super-majorities in both houses of the legislature and can repeal it anytime. Charlotte upheld its end of the bargain and repealed its ordinance in its entirety. Roy Cooper is not the governor. Pat McCrory still is.
In 2002, Secretary of State warned against an invasion of Iraq, telling George Bush, if you break it, you own it. Republicans should have heeded this advice when they rushed to pass HB2 in a hastily called special session of the legislature last March. Yesterday, they broke it more and they will still own it.
As usual, Republicans are blaming everybody but themselves for the debacle. They can’t trust the cities. Roy Cooper is a meany. The Senate Democrats didn’t go along when the GOP moved the goal posts again. The liberal media, blah, blah, blah. The only person they didn’t blame is Pat McCrory, the guy who lost his seat because of the bill they passed.
If Republicans really want to blame somebody, they should be pointing the finger at Lt. Governor Dan Forest who was actively trying to scuttle the deal. Forest urged social conservatives to vote against the bill. After Charlotte repealed its ordinance, he put out a statement that said, “If HB2 is repealed, there will nothing on the books to prevent another city or country to take us down this road again.” After that, President Pro-tem Phil Berger added his moratorium on allowing cities and counties to enact non-discrimination ordinances. That move effectively broke the deal. Why would anyone believe the GOP would lift the moratorium as long as they’re in power?
The GOP has the power to end HB2. More importantly, they have a responsibility to do it. Unfortunately, they’re held hostage by extremists in their caucus who believe that governments should be able to discriminate against LGBT citizens. North Carolina will continue to pay a price and the GOP will continue to get the blame.
