Voters need to blow the whistle on NC Republicans

One of the most annoying things in sports is watching referees call double-technical fouls on basketball players when there is a clear instigator. Taking the easy way out and calling offsetting penalties incentivizes the instigating team to continue its behavior and weaponize it.

In politics, there is ample room to criticize both the Republican and Democratic parties. However, when we continue say without nuance and false equivalency “both parties are to blame” and seek to add a Republican candidate over a strong Democrat primarily for perceived “balance,” we are incentivizing continued Republican technical fouls at the expense of us all.

In 2008, North Carolina, a purple state that traditionally voted Republican for president and Democratic for state legislature (with a Democratic or moderate Republican governor) broke the pattern by going blue for President Obama, a radical concept in the South. In 2010, amid the Tea Party Movement and progressive complacency, North Carolina voters subsequently elected a Republican state legislature for the first time in over a century, and the first since the Southern strategy party switch in the 1960s that followed the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

I’m sure corporations and the elite like what Alexandra Sirota of NC Budget and Tax Center estimates to be $12,000,000,000 in lost revenue or government handouts they’ve received under Republicans, including Senate leader Phil Berger. Unfortunately, average workers, children, and families are being shortchanged. After 10 years of far-right rule without willingness to negotiate with Democratic colleagues, our Republican General Assembly can defined by:

▪ Reckless corporate giveaways leading to underfunded schools that are hemorrhaging teachers to surrounding states including South Carolina;

▪ A voter suppression scandal based on racial gerrymandering and voter ID laws with racial intent deemed by the Supreme Court to be designed with “surgical precision”;

▪ HB2, a discriminatory law that destroyed the state’s reputation and business prospects while it was in play;

▪ Rising income and wealth inequality throughout the state exacerbated by tax policy even before COVID-19;

▪ One of the nation’s worst healthcare situations due to a partisan unwillingness to expand Medicaid, even with a global pandemic hitting our state.

Despite statewide backing of over 70 percent for Medicaid expansion, Berger and House speaker Tim Moore refuse to bring the possibility to a vote, preventing 500,000 people including uninsured children, early child professionals, those working in nursing homes, and other essential workers from having healthcare and leaving them disproportionately at risk for healthcare-induced bankruptcy. The lack of GOP pushback to its leadership is broad, despite Medicaid expansion’s ability to produce significant economic and job growth and protect rural hospitals. Nearly 80% of the U.S. has expanded Medicaid, including Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence’s home states, while Berger and Moore’s GOP colleagues have blocked Gov. Roy Cooper’s relentless efforts to get it passed.

Their political malpractice is protected through gerrymandering as state Republicans have carried multiple election cycles with maps designed to keep them in office. In 2018, Democrats received more votes statewide for both the state Senate and House, yet Republicans maintained solid control of both. Bob Phillips, of nonpartisan Common Cause North Carolina sued to fix maps that allowed Republicans to take 10 of 13, or 77 percent, of North Carolina’s Congressional districts despite only earning about half the votes.

Theoretically, bipartisanship sounds good. However, it only happens when electees must earn their votes, not be drawn into office. Bipartisanship happens when “moderates” respond to what citizens want and vote against extremist opposition versus falling in line. North Carolina desperately needs expanded healthcare, increased school funding for safe re-entry, worker support, and leaders who don’t suppress democracy. Phil Berger’s decade of GOP rule has shown that’s not his agenda or his party’s. It’s time to blow the whistle and call foul on N.C. Republicans, sit them on the bench, and challenge Democrats to learn from their mistakes and serve the people.

This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 1:42 PM.