Hypocrisy is generally not a concept that is recognized by political types — the job, particularly as its practiced at the highest levels, requires too much situational fluidity for any consistency of conviction.
But the case in North Carolina is exceptionally galling.
Remember, this is a state that’s successfully marginalized its majority through gerrymandering, its General Assembly demonstrating that it’s not interested in assessing the needs of all North Carolinians, but only those who vote for the candidates of the dominant party.
That the GOP was able to deliver the state to Trump is an exceptional victory for the party, achieved in part by legislation designed to deter Democratic voters from the polls, but also tapping into a strong dislike for Hillary Clinton and, ultimately, mining dissatisfaction with President Obama.
Yet at the same time, the top of the GOP ticket in North Carolina ran on its Carolina Comeback, flaunting tax cuts, a budget surplus and a raise in teacher pay — all of which is technically accurate, but in reality somewhat underwhelming — all the while insinuating that these gains came despite policies from the federal government and not because of them.
Reduction of the deficit and job gains under Obama are a matter of record. But the blows to North Carolina’s economy came by its own hand: the disastrous HB 2 “bathroom bill” that may have cost McCrory the election — that one looks headed for the courts.
The biggest gain of the night for Democrats came in the Supreme Court election, which is technically a nonpartisan race, but c’mon.
Judge Mike Morgan’s victory gave Democrats a 4-3 advantage on the court.
Now the scuttlebutt coming from Raleigh says that a special session scheduled for the end of the year, ostensibly to help the parts of our coastline ravaged by Hurricane Matthew, will have a proposal tucked into it to expand the court to nine seats, the two extra to be appointed by McCrory before he steps down.
Because rules, it seems, are for suckers, even for the party of law and order.
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When you’re sending out your email blasts, how about you not state something that is merely conjecture as a fact? After all, you are in the news business. Saying voters saw DT as the lesser of two evils is not a fact. It’s an observation. Saying NC voters chose him because of this is not a fact; merely an observation. These are not times when a respected publication like yours needs to jump on any bandwagon – DT or otherwise. You may have been wiser to state many folks in NC voted for DT and other candidates besides HRC but here in Guilford and Forsyth, the majority voted in favor of HRC. Now that’s a fact.
As the person responsible for the email blast and the author of the cover story it referenced, I’m happy to respond. Look, almost to a one the voters I interviewed who went for Trump told me they considered him the “lesser of two evils.” That’s not conjecture. It’s reasonable to look at the results (Trump won) and then examine what people who voted for him actually said about their choice to explain why he won. You suggest that I should have said that voters in North Carolina favored Trump, while voters in Guilford and Forsyth favored Clinton. What I did say is more or less the same thing — North Carolina moved to the right, Guilford and Forsyth moved to the left. With due respect, this is fact-based reporting and straight-up analysis without editorialization. We’re not jumping on the Trump bandwagon. If you have any doubts about our stance, you should look at our cover last week showing Trump with the ghosts of Hitler, McCarthy, Wallace and Helms.
If a reader wants to do something about this latest Republican power grab, you should call Sen. Phil Berger’s office (919-733-5708) and Rep. Tim Moore’s office (919-733-3451) and Gov. Pat McCrory’s office (919-814-2050) and tell them that you are opposed to the idea of the General Assembly changing the composition of the state Supreme Court in the upcoming session.