North Carolina GOP Barbecues Democracy, Serves It With Fried Pickle
Want a banana puddin with that?
Dictator Daddy may have won North Carolina, but otherwise Republicans lost bigly there this year. And hoo boy are they possum-biting mad about it! Wackadoodle QAnon school superintendent candidate Michelle Morrow lost to Maurice “Mo” Green, so how much blood Jim Carrey has to drink to get enough adrenochrome to stay youthful will not be on any end-of-grade tests.
Democrats won races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, and even flipped a state Supreme Court seat (though it’s still 5-2). And of course Democrat Josh Stein beat Mark Robinson for governor, but it was really maybe more a case of Mark Robinson beating himself. You remember that guy, self-proclaimed “Black NAZI,” Holocaust denier, fan of slavery, rhapsodized about getting peed on by his wife’s sister on a porn forum, ran a daycare with no electricity or running water, regular customer at a Route 40 wack shack? That guy who ripped off the Girl Scouts? Hates trans people but loves to fap to them in porn?
Mark Robinson Said WHAT On The Porn Forums About Loving Transgender Porn And Being A 'Black Nazi'?
And the GOP lost their supermajority in the Legislature. Which also happened in 2022, and then Rep. Tricia Cotham changed her party affiliation, allowing them to pass a 12-week abortion ban.
But you know those Republicans, “sore loser” is their brand, so they’re using the last days of their supermajority power to ram through a power-grab bill that strips the governor and courts of their power. Just look at this Axios-style list of what Senate Bill 382 does, crammed into a piece of legislation that was supposed to be about relief for those affected by Hurricane Helene:
Prevents the governor from appointing members to the State Board of Elections and gives that power to the Republican auditor-elect instead, so, the power to mess with elections forever;
Prevents the governor from appointing state supreme court justices of his choice, forcing him to appoint someone from a list approved by the political party of the departing judge, so he will be unable to appoint a Democrat;
Prohibits the attorney general from participating in any lawsuits that are “contrary to or inconsistent with the position of the General Assembly”;
Removes the seats of two county superior court judges who have ruled against election-law changes that the GOP has tried to make. Just straight-up stealing them!;
Eliminates the Energy Policy Council and prevents the lieutenant governor from chairing any energy-policy councils;
Prevents the superintendent of schools from appealing decisions from the Charter Schools Review Board;
Reduces the timeframe voters have to cure their ballots from nine days to three days; and
Makes the State Highway Patrol independent and requires the governor to get the General Assembly’s approval to appoint someone to head it.
Naturally the bill was written in secret, with no committee hearings, no input from Democrats, with no notice to anyone that this was happening until about an hour before the Senate was set to vote on it, and served doused in vinegar sauce with a side of red slaw and a Cheerwine.
Oh, and the bill gave diddley and squat to victims of Hurricane Helene. It takes $225 million but does not allocate it, and instead just moves it from one account to another. So enjoy that first snow of the season you’re having knowing that the Legislature gives no shits about y’all, you thousands of people who are still unhoused!
Governor Roy Cooper — a Democrat, obviously — vetoed the bill, and as the Senate voted to override his veto, people protesting that bullshit started hollering from the gallery, and were thrown out within minutes by the Lieutenant Governor (yep, that’s still Mark Robinson!) and King of Nude Africa.
The NC House also needs to override the veto, and it is Republican-controlled, because the state is Gerrydoodled to diddleyshit!
So, an extinction event for democracy in the state. Republicans and shamelessly corrupt power grabs, they go together like biscuits and gravy. Dale Earnhardt is crying in heaven.
Republicans do this kind of shit every time they have the power to do so.
Meanwhile we get giddy that Joe Biden was willing to be to be a norm breaking rebel by pardoning his own scumbag son.
Kind of says all you need to know about why our side is the one constantly getting fucked.
WI Republicans did all kinds of similar BS before Dem Gov Tony Evers took office, after beating Scott Walker. Since then the Dems won back a majority on State Supreme Court, got a lawsuit to minimize (R) gerrymandering, and two days ago, 60 parts of Scott Walker’s Act 10 were found unconstitutional by a judge.