How North Carolina became a laboratory for the GOP's subversion of democracy

[Demovictory9]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-north-carolina-became-a-laboratory-for-the-gop-s-subversion-of-democracy/ar-AANS76r?ocid=msedgntp

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North Carolina has become a laboratory to subvert democracy. Republicans captured both houses of the state legislature in 2010, then engineered gerrymandered maps that ensured power for a decade.

Then they went to work: Voter ID bills that surgically suppressed the Black vote, a brazen power grab over the state judiciary and election administration boards, an assault on academic freedom in the state university system, a 2016 lame-duck session that neutered the authority of incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. This version of political hardball provided the playbook for Republicans in other states across the country, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas and Arizona.

Many villains provided the funding and legal cover for this evisceration of public institutions and meaningful elections. But if you want to understand how North Carolina's democracy became so diseased, a former state representative named David Lewis is a pretty good place to start.

Lewis, a farmer from rural Hartnett County who chaired the legislative committee that was responsible for redistricting, became the folksy public face of the greedy GOP gerrymander and freely admitted its partisan design. Now, after pleading guilty to two federal charges related to a scheme to siphon campaign funds for personal use, Lewis is also the public face for the greed, public corruption and entitlement that's too easily bred when lawmakers benefit from districts they can't lose.

Lewis didn't draw the actual maps; that task fell largely to notorious GOP mastermind Tom Hofeller. His job was genial obfuscation. In a line that was quoted all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Lewis proclaimed that the purple state's map was was intentionally drawn to elect 10 Republicans and three Democrats — because he did not believe it was possible to stretch the advantage to 11-2.

[moose65]

1. These assholes have done their best to destroy this state

My story: I am employed at a community college in NC, so I am a state employee. I was hired in 1997, when Democrats controlled the general assembly and the governorship. We got raises every year, up to and including 2008. Then the recession hit - and it was a disaster in more ways than one. In several years since then, there has been no raise for state employees, and in others it was 2% or a flat $1,000 that in no way kept up with inflation.

In fact, 2010 was a disaster on so many levels, but chiefly because it was a redistricting year, and the Republicans, who had not controlled the NC general assembly in 100 years (and rightfully so) became drunk with power. They couldn't gerrymander or cut taxes fast enough! Ugh.

Here is a story I love to tell - from 2002 to 2008 (a 6-year period), my salary increased a total of 30% with Democrats controlling NC. During the next 6 year period, from 2008 to 2014, my salary increased a total of 4%. I know without a doubt which party cares about people like me, but getting that message out to the rabid right-wingers is difficult. I've got co-workers who are hardcore Trumpers. It doesn't make any sense to me.

In the 2012 election, Dem House candidates actually got more votes total across the state than Republicans. The Dems won 50.6% of the vote while the Republicans had 48.7%. However, the Republicans won 9 of the seats while the Dems won 4. That year, Mike McIntyre held on and won another term in District 7. In the 2014 disaster of an election, the Dems got 44% of the vote while the Republicans got 55, and that was with no Dem even running in one of the districts. That was the year that they got to 10 - 3, in an evenly divided state. Deplorable!