The Thin Reed of Hope in North Carolina

By GENE NICHOL

Donald Trump takes all the air out of our politics. It’s hard to think anything else merits one’s attention when a former, and perhaps future, president is being tried for scheming to overthrow the American form of government. I’ll concede all political sins pale compared to those of the 45th president.

That means talking about the N.C. General Assembly can seem to be punk, two-bit. I get that. Sometimes I think our Republican lawmakers benefit from a comparative invisibility; and perhaps a less vicious, but more efficient and long-lived, crusade against democracy and equality. So, as the legislative session begins to wind down, maybe a few words can be forgiven.

It can be spectacularly demoralizing to contemplate our Republican legislative hegemony. Super-majorities re-appear and wound. Time and again, they pile onto the disadvantaged. They seem to revel in a barbed ascendancy. And their adversaries (my friends) are often incapable of meeting the challenge. Though challenge we must, if North Carolina is to have the future it deserves. One that matches its often impressive past and its stubborn, ennobling, affectionate, future.

Can there, in truth, be a basis for optimism? Or will we, indeed, out Mississippi Mississippi?

My reed of hope is a thin one. But at least it’s grounded in information, in the drumbeat of consistency, in relentless, repetitive performance. In short, by 2023, there can’t be any doubt what we’re in for. Most people, unlike me, aren’t obsessed with politics and policy. They’d rather ignore the ruckus and the altercation. But North Carolina’s brand of Republicanism is, these days, patently set in stone.

Our GOP is, by record, first and foremost, relentlessly anti-democratic. Its most consistent goal is to slant the playing field in its favor, democracy be damned. You know the list – redistricting, voter suppression, ballot manipulation, legislative process tampering, outlawed power grabs, the list is endless. They cheat to amass power. Then they cheat again.

Next, it’s unpleasant to say, our nearly all-white Republican legislative caucuses repeatedly use their authorities, intentionally, heinously, to burden and disadvantage Black Tar Heels. The case reports of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals prove it so. They don’t like it mentioned. But it is what it is.

Third, North Carolina lawmakers treat women and LGBT folks as second, or perhaps second and third, class citizens. Think abortion restrictions, gay marriage bans, licenses to discriminate, HB 2, and the brutal targeting of transgender kids and adults. Bullies show their stripes.

Fourth, our Republican lawmakers loathe poor people. They’re convinced impoverished folks are unworthy. So stepping on their necks is the moral high ground. Over the last 13 years, we’ve done it more self-righteously than any other state.

Fifth, Republicans live to destroy public schools. They don’t admit it. They just do it. Day in, day out. They won’t stop ‘til the doors close.

Sixth, they hate professors. Well enough. But they carry out their antipathy by destroying universities. And that crushes a commonwealth’s future. They’re doing it now. This day.

Seventh, like their apparent presidential nominee, NC Republican leaders detest the rule of law. It gets in the way of their ever-aggrandizing quest for power. Judicial independence, by definition, cramps their style. Autocrats won’t put up with it. They never do.

Eighth, these folks are the opposite of environmentalists. They worship extraction and bristle at regulation. Climate change is a hoax, like a Trump indictment. Just turn up the air-conditioner. Everything will be fine. Take their word for it.

I don’t think this undeniable octet is North Carolinian. That’s my hope.

Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and in 2015 started the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund after the UNC Board of Governors closed the state-funded Poverty Center for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2023

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