North Carolina Republicans - A Disgrace To Democracy

The reprehensible crew in charge in the North Carolina legislature, far-right billionaire Art Pope's Republican lackeys, have once again disgraced themselves, this time with a sudden attack on the democratic process in the state.

“This is why people don’t trust us. This is why they hate us,” said Democratic Representative Darren Jackson.

A few days ago, Republican governor Pat McCrory finally admitted defeat in the recent elections; the governor-elect is Democrat Roy Cooper. The Republicans called a special "emergency" session of the legislature and introduced 28 bills designed to limit the new governor's powers. Not only that, but the state Supreme Court is an elected body in N.C., and measures are being proposed that will meddle politically with that in hopes of benefiting the Republicans. An article in the Charlotte Observer by Craig Jarvis and Colin Campbell, entitled "Lawmakers look to limit Cooper’s power as governor," says:

Lawmakers want to hobble the incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, before he takes office Jan. 1 by making his Cabinet appointments subject to approval by the state Senate and cutting his ability to appoint members to UNC schools’ boards of trustees.

According to an article in The Atlantic by David A. Graham, entitled "North Carolina Republicans Try to Curtail the New Democratic Governor's Power":

Among the bills introduced on Wednesday are measures that would make Cabinet appointees subject to state senate approval, remove the governor’s power to appoint trustees of the University of North Carolina system and the state board of education, and eliminate other gubernatorial appointments.

Another bill would overhaul the state’s elections boards, the latest in a long series of steps Republicans have taken to alter the voting process in the state, many of which have been turned back by federal courts. Others steps would slash currently required environmental reports and reduce regulation elsewhere.

It’s a brazen and unabashed attempt to undercut Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor-elect, in the wake of a hard-fought election that spilled well into December when Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, refused to concede and challenged results in several counties. Voting on the bills will start Tuesday, though it’s unclear whether all of them will move forward. Republicans hold large majorities in both houses of the legislature, making it difficult for Democrats to stop the bills. Even if only a few are passed, it will be the latest trick from a legislature that has proven to be one of the most ingenious and powerful in the country since a Republican takeover in 2010.

Click on the link for more detail on the underhanded maneuvers designed to severely limit Cooper's powers (the house and senate remain in firm Republican control). For example, the previous (Democratic) governor, Bev Purdue, was able to appoint 400 people to state positions. The Republicans expanded that number, allowing McCrory to make 1,500 appointments. The proposed new bill would limit Cooper's appointments to 300.

The deregulation bill includes an olio of measures, from eliminating car-emissions testing in some counties to ending some state environmental reports. In lieu of packing the court, another bill would remove the ability to make a direct challenge on a constitutional matter to the state supreme court, sending them first to a state appeals court. Legislators also want to make state supreme court elections, which are currently nonpartisan, into partisan races, apparently in the belief that Mike Morgan, a Democrat, would not have defeated Justice Robert Edmunds, a Republican, if he’d had a (D) next to his name.

Other proposed bills would change the composition of state boards in the Republicans' favor.

Until the Republican takeover in 2010 of the state Art Pope bought, North Carolina had been a shining light in "The New South," leading the way to a progressive future. This shameful episode is just the latest in the long list of abusive acts passed by the Republican legislature since taking power. (Charlie Pierce at Esquire frequently refers to it as "the newly insane state of North Carolina.")

The article in The Atlantic goes on to say:

North Carolina Republicans have taken every opportunity they can to tinker with the state’s voting rules. In 2013, they passed a sweeping overhaul of voting laws, described by some experts as the most aggressive in the nation. It required voters to show ID when voting, cut back sharply on early voting, and eliminated same-day registration, among other measures. They cited the threat of voter fraud, though repeated efforts have failed to show widespread fraud. But a federal court struck most of the law down in July, saying the law had been designed to disenfranchise minorities.

Another article in The Atlantic, also by David A. Graham, entitled "North Carolina's Deliberate Disenfranchisement of Black Voters," quotes the ruling of the federal appeals court:

“Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans,” Motz wrote. “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist.”

Protests are scheduled; voting on the proposed measures is to take place next Tuesday.

See an article on the subject by Taniel, at Daily Kos, entitled "North Carolina GOP shreds democracy, acts to strip power from new Democratic governor and high court."