Keith Ellison Just Made North Carolina Politics A Democratic Party Fight

[portlander23]

Keith Ellison Just Made North Carolina Politics A Democratic Party Fight
Zach Carter and Julia Craven
Huffington Post

The wild battle over the future of North Carolina state politics became a central fight in the future of the Democratic Party on Friday, as Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) joined state lawmakers to denounce Republican efforts aimed at eliminating the political power of incoming Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

“It’s wrong,” Ellison told reporters on a conference call. “And we have to stand against it. It’s undemocratic. It’s un-Republican. It’s un-American.”

“The DNC has an election protection program and this is at the heart of their mission,” Ellison said. “It needs to step up right now to say this is outrageous, and get lawyers to oppose this undemocratic action that is happening right now. You gotta be in the fight … I will be.”

On Friday, Ellison made clear he believed the North Carolina state government had acted to further disenfranchise black voters by attempting to undermine the results of the gubernatorial election. Black voters typically vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.

[think]

1. It's great Keith is speaking out about North Carolina. The NC GOP is in the midst of stripping the

newly elected North Carolina Democratic governor of much of his powers for the office.

With special elections being held in 2017 due to the GOP's gerrymandering North Carolina should be a major focus for the Democratic party and the DNC.

[mnhtnbb]

2. Hooray!

I live in NC and I am so fu*king pissed at these Republicans I wrote a LTTE this morning.

They are worthless pond scum. Lowest of the low. Authoritarian, Ayn Randian $hitbags. I have never so wanted
to spit in someone's face or wish ill of them, but this group of lowlife Republicans really has me angry.

[Coyotl]

3. Voting Rights Roundup: North Carolina Republicans execute legislative coup against democracy itself

Voting Rights Roundup: North Carolina Republicans execute legislative coup against democracy itself

By Stephen Wolf
Saturday Dec 17, 2016 ·

.... Republicans have used the pretext of a lame-duck special legislative session—ostensibly convened for disaster relief—to advance a slew of measures that radically curtail the authority of the governor and even the high court itself. This nakedly partisan plot is unprecedented in modern state history. Indeed, you have to go back to the 1890s to find a parallel, when reactionaries violently introduced Jim Crow after a multiracial coalition of progressives briefly won power.

The scope of the GOP’s war on democracy is stunning. In this special session, Republicans enacted a new law that removes the governor’s party’s control over all the state and county boards of election. That same measure also makes previously nonpartisan state Supreme Court races into partisan contests and requires state constitutional challenges to first go before the Republican-dominated state Court of Appeals. The legislature has passed another bill awaiting McCrory’s signature that would require state Senate approval for the governor’s cabinet appointees. This bill would also slash the governor’s number of executive branch appointees from 1,500 to 425 and eliminate the governor’s ability to appoint members of the state Board of Education and the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees.

Under McCrory, Republican legislators had already put North Carolina on the front lines of the battle against voting rights. Almost immediately after the United States Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, McCrory signed America’s most sweeping voter suppression law in half a century, which included a strict voter ID requirement, the end of same-day registration, and cutbacks to early voting opportunities. Republicans literally ordered data on which voting methods black voters used more and eliminated them. The law was so extreme that a federal court said it “targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision” when it struck it down in July.

Republicans had previously gerrymandered the legislature so aggressively that they won veto-proof majorities in 2012 despite losing the popular vote, and they easily maintained them in 2016 despite McCrory’s loss. A court in 2016 struck down those maps as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders .................

[Dustlawyer]

10. Unless they have a legitimate beef with the election being rigged against them,

they need to accept the will of the people and respect the vote! They are not claiming it was rigged against them, as far as I know.

There is a line between the people's right through their vote, and partisan hacks taking it away by any means necessary. They are way across the line and without shame. We cannot let this stand!

We are going to have to fight hard for our rights during this dark period. We need to look out for each other so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, "First they came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew, then they came for ..."

[TonyPDX]

4. I back Keith 100%.

[sab390]

5. My nephew

My nephew lives in N.C. and I worry. The worst part is that it is a beautiful state with wonderful people who have had control of their state taken from them. Democrats win every election everywhere but have been blocked by evil greedy scum hungry for power and control. Somehow the people have to regain their city, county, state and the country. We need to talk to our neighbors, friends and relatives because the media is controlled. We need to speak one on one to pass the word. We need to overwhelm the hatred and lies. Even try to talk to your crazy uncle who listens to hate radio. Or your neighbor who voted for Trump (I have one of these). Evil succeeds when good men do nothing.

[littlemissmartypants]

9. ♡

TY sab390, so nice. I've been working on #GOTV, voter registration, sworn in as election judge, poll worker a little over three years now. This year a got a yellow/orange/silver reflective vest (and a florescent orange cap) to wear while standing on the roadside pushing signs into everything from sand to clay. We've got to do something. I'm going to die trying. Maybe literally.

[Skittles]

12. welcome to DU, sab390

I did a work TDY to NC and found it to be a unique combination of hick and hip - beautiful scenery, wonderful people

[lastlib]

6. If I was the NC Dem party.....

I would be pursuing a BIG lawsuit under the US Constitution's republican-form guarantee clause.....I'm no constitutional-law expert, but I think/hope there is a case to be made there. May be just wishful thinking on my part, but maybe not......

[Liberalagogo]

7. It's not "Un-Republican"

It's VERY Republican.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. I just had a premonition.

Former President Obama and family are coming to NC. To live. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to run into him getting BBQ one day...

[BigDemVoter]

11. Thank god.

This is the FIRST time I've seen this happen in years and years and years and years. Sure I've seen Dems fight but I've NEVER seen them take it TO those fucks.