‘No Question There Is Politics Here’
Over the past 48 hours North Carolina Republicans have conspired to strip as much power as possible from newly-elected Democratic Governor-elect Roy Cooper, just a week after Republican Governor Pat McCrory finally conceded. Much as they did when they passed their likely unconstitutional anti-LGBT law HB2, GOP lawmakers in a special session with literally hours notice filed 28 bills, many designed to take power and authority away from the incoming governor, solely because he is a Democrat.
Several bills passed Thursday, and are now sitting before the North Carolina Senate awaiting votes.Â
Thursday afternoon and evening, as word broke of their possibly illegal act – the general public is supposed to have some amount of notice before bills are debated and passed – hundreds of protestors gathered in the state house.Â
So naturally, the Republican leadership had them removed from the House gallery, had the police arrest 16 protestors, and closed it off – possibly violating the state open meetings law.
Lawmakers in both chambers are expected back Friday to ram through more bills, but here’s how North Carolina Republican lawmakers are defending their actions.
The North Carolina Senate Republican Caucus’s official Twitter account accused the protestors of being out of state, which, according to News & Observer reporter Colin Campbell, is false.
In response to this photo posted to Twitter by WGHP’s Alex Rose:
Republicans tweeted:
Which is untrue:
Meanwhile, one Republican state representative, Jeff Collins, told the News & Observer that the reason lawmakers decided to remove power from the incoming Democratic governor is “the current power balance in state government is ‘way out of kilter.'”
“Collins,” the newspaper reports, “said the legislature should have more power because its members are more accountable to citizens than the governor. ‘They don’t get to see the governor pumping gas in Rocky Mount,’ he said. ‘Our legislators are the closest state officials to the electorate.'”
Of course, in no political system ever is the person or entity who is closest to the electorate the one with the most power. The U.S. president is far from the “closest to the electorate,” although our current president does try daily to connect with American citizens, reading ten letters sent to him nightly.
But perhaps most revealing is this exchange on Twitter between Dallas Woodhouse, the N.C. Republican Party’s Executive Director, and someone on Twitter whose bio describes him as a “Spurs fan, Tar Heel fan, snarky comment fan.”
Woodhouse, in the end, actually admits to the Republican lawmakers’ power grab, but defends it by concluding “it is a political system.”
No question at all.Â
RELATED STORIES:
Â
Image by Alex Rose via TwitterÂ
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.