NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, November 28, 2021
341st Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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Covid data 11/28/2021 1:00pm EDT
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USA NC Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths New Deaths Total Recovered Active Cases
1,524,078 18,676 1,466,246 30,036
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Please jump the fold for links to stories I hope you find interesting, useful and timely. The floor is yours.
Ruthless and relentless: NC GOP election rigging continues apace with new voter suppression bills
NC Policy Watch, Rob Schofield, 11/23/2021
You’d think at some point the folks who lead the North Carolina Republican Party might experience just the tiniest twinge of sheepishness.
Indeed, one can at least imagine a conversation in which, upon being presented with the latest demand to draft yet another voter suppression bill, a still marginally idealistic young aide might muster the gumption to speak up.
“But Senator,” the aide might offer, “I know what President Trump’s been saying, but we really haven’t been able to find any credible evidence at all of voter fraud in North Carolina. I mean, we won almost everything in the state in 2020 and we’ve already redrawn the maps for 2022 to guarantee even bigger margins in Congress and the legislature. Don’t you think people will say we’re pushing things just a little too far?”
At which point, the leader would likely look down for a moment to gather his thoughts and then, flashing a quick and patient grin, look up and say: “I hear you. And I used to have such feelings, but then it finally dawned on me that there are only two kinds of politicians in this world: those who are accumulating power and those who are losing it. Our supporters don’t give two hoots about how we get this done; they just want to win and so do I.”
Rob Schofield, Director of NC Policy Watch, has three decades of experience as a lawyer, lobbyist, writer and commentator. At Policy Watch, Rob writes and edits daily online commentaries and handles numerous public speaking and electronic media appearances. He also delivers a radio commentary that’s broadcast weekdays on WRAL-FM and WCHL and hosts News and Views, a weekly radio news magazine that airs on multiple stations across North Carolina. rob@ncpolicywatch.com 919-861-2065
NC REPUBLICANS ARE BECOMING THE PARTY OF BIGOTS, INSURRECTIONISTS, AND THE COWARDLY WHO LET IT HAPPEN
BlueNC, 11/28/2021
“This is not who we are.” Six relatively simple words. Why won’t North Carolina Republicans say them — or, better yet, act on them? North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the state’s highest elected Republican, again made abhorrent remarks about LGBTQ+ people at a sermon in Winston-Salem on Nov. 14. In the sermon, which was posted to YouTube, Robinson said heterosexual couples are “superior” to gay couples and compared being gay to “what the cows leave behind” as well as maggots and flies.
And just last week, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn praised a Wisconsin jury’s acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, a then-17-year-old white vigilante who shot three men, killing two, during a protest in Kenosha last year. Cawthorn offered Rittenhouse an internship and told his followers to “be armed, be dangerous and be moral” on Instagram Friday. Of course, that’s hardly surprising from Cawthorn, who reportedly helped plan the events of Jan. 6 and warned of “bloodshed” if our elections “continue to be stolen.” What do North Carolina Republicans have to say about that? You can probably guess: nothing. Actually, they are just starting to criticize Madison Cawthorn, but not for the reasons they should. They're angry he won't stay in his own lane, and angry he does what all Republicans do, bash his potential opponents with innuendo and hyperbolic, nonsensical bullshit. His fomenting of violence and sedition? That's just fine. The GOP only polices its own when party loyalty is at stake. https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article256035372.html
Thanks for reading and contributing, I hope you have a safe week.
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