Subversion Of Democracy In North Carolina

Click here for an article by Ari Berman at The Nation, entitled "North Carolina’s Legislative Coup Shows What Voter Suppression Will Look Like Under Trump," subtitled "Republicans have turned North Carolina into a laboratory for subverting democracy."

Republicans have turned North Carolina, previously one of the most progressive states in the South, into a laboratory for voter suppression and offered a disturbing preview of what’s to come under Trump. The legislative coup is merely the latest in a series of outrageous and illegal actions by the North Carolina GOP to undermine democracy in the state.

Berman makes four points. First, that the N.C. legislature resegregated the state politically in violation of the Voting Rights Act; second, that they then passed the country's worst voter-suppression law; third, that they limited early-voting hours and polling locations "... that included opposing polling sites on college campuses and prohibiting early voting on Sundays, when black churches held 'Souls to the Polls' voter mobilization drives":

The North Carolina GOP bragged before Election Day that “African American Early Voting is down 8.5% from this time in 2012. Caucasian voters early voting is up 22.5% from this time in 2012.” After aggressively using their majorities on state and local election boards to suppress votes, Republicans then took those majorities away from the new Democratic governor.

Fourth, that "... despite all of these suppression efforts, Cooper managed to defeat McCrory—the only race in 2016 where Democrats picked up a governor’s seat in a state Trump carried. But McCrory refused to concede for nearly a month, spreading bogus allegations of voter fraud that included wrongly accusing a 101-year-old World War II veteran of voting twice."

He sees the travesty in North Carolina as a preview of Trump's America:

The pattern in North Carolina is clear: When Republicans win, they suppress the Democratic vote to solidify power in future elections. And when they lose, they rig the rules to prevent their opponents from being able to fairly exercise and maintain power. This is what happens in a dictatorship, not a democracy. And it’s a preview of what’s to come in Trump’s America.

I’ve written that Trump is the greatest threat to American democracy in our lifetime because, unlike his Democratic or Republican predecessors, he has little respect for basic democratic institutions like a free press or a fair election. But Trump is also such a threat because his party, as we’re seeing in North Carolina, has displayed the same brazen disregard for the will of the people. And now it will control the White House, the Congress, the courts, and two-thirds of state legislatures.