The Republicans stacked the US Supreme Court through a series of tricks in the US Senate. They overturned Roe vs Wade after 50 years of precedents, and they got justices who feel they can hob-nob with billionaires and not recuse themselves when applicable cases come before them. Anita Hill was pilloried, but she probably was telling the truth. When you have no ethics rules for members of the court, they enjoy exceptions not found in any other branch of government. When you have the wife of one of the justices supporting an insurrection, what’s the limit?
The North Carolina General Assembly hasn’t been able to pass a budget that’s 7 weeks overdue because they’ve been too busy meddling in social issues. It’s not just the standard anti-LGBT, anti-abortion, voting rights, and interfering in educational institutions, now they want to stick their fingers into almost every aspect of society. They want to let three people fire a school superintendent, let a handful of parents of students challenge administrators and teachers on how to do their jobs, and dictate who the UNC System Schools can hire. They haven’t moved the Systems office to Raleigh yet, but they’re trying. They want to just cross the street and not bother with having to go to Chapel Hill to meddle. Talk about political patronage!
On the other hand, I guess that we’re lucky. We’ve only had a decade of one-party rule, while Texas has suffered from 30 years of it. Of course, if the elections are rigged, that’s what you get. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the Alabama maps, but they let the North Carolina redistricting maps stand. Of course, the NC Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the previous Democrat court. The Democrats obviously share the blame in that they’ve been running poor campaigns. ‘Almosts’ don’t count.
“Republicans in North Carolina are proposing to take over the State Board of Elections by changing the way the board is appointed. Currently, the governor appoints three members of the board, and the General Assembly appoints two members. The Republicans’ proposal would change this to a 4-4 split, with each party appointing four members. This would give the Republicans control of the board, as they currently control the General Assembly.”
Wake County is one of six counties in North Carolina with consolidated schools into one district. Forsyth County and New Hanover are two urban counties without consolidated districts into just one district. The Republicans see an opportunity to stack public school boards in rural areas and gain control of the educational system.
They’ve already been successful in promoting charter schools to the detriment of funding for public schools. Although 70 charter schools have closed in the past 20 years, there are still 203 schools still operating. Of these, 16 are religious charter schools that include multiple faiths. Some ask why these tax-exempt organizations can receive taxpayer funds? Of course, the same could be asked of private universities in the state that receive millions of dollars in federal grants.
P.S. Bard/Google was useful in researching statistics, but the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.
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