I pity the poor souls who monitor the status of bills in the North Carolina General Assembly. The bills are tracked by the bill numbers in the House and Senate, changes made & date, exact wording, committees involved, prior related legislation, and whether it was eventually passed and made into law (and when it goes into effect.)

Just reading a few paragraphs about tracking HB 237 was enough to make my eyes cross. A lot has been written about the actions of lobbyists (paid) and advocacy groups (volunteers) and their effect on proposed legislation. Since most people have neither the time nor the interest to show up, much less testify before a committee, these folks do most of the dirty work --- depending upon how you may interpret that. Just who does represent us?

Due to repeated conflicts after the original date and rescheduled date, I was unable to go to the Equality NC lobby day. Unless you have hundreds of people to show up or flash hundreds of dollars in front of them, I’m not sure how much good these “meet your legislators days” do. The real impact is behind doors rather than in public committees, and in secret, regardless of the public access laws. The old saying about watching sausage being made applies to the legislative process. The GOP in the past decade seems to have become more expert at shuffling things around at the last minute to prevent more public discussion in public sessions. Does that make them “better” politicians or better at skirting the law?

For more than a hundred years after the Civil War the Democrats held the reins of power and were guilty of abusing their power. The Republicans were quick learners and seemingly better in that they haven’t gotten caught as often in dodging the laws. I remember back when the Democratic Speaker of the House and the Secretary of Agriculture both ended up doing hard time.

One of the priorities of the southern states which have legislatures controlled by Republicans has been to “go after” the LGBTQ+ community, particularly the transgender folks. Clearly, they are trying to turn back the clock at least 50 years to allow for more discrimination against minorities. That also includes women and people of color. After all, women didn’t even get the vote until 50 years after people of color.

Is this just the democratic process? I hope not. Majority rule is not a license to abuse the law. When you talk about our “founding fathers,” you’re talking about white, male, property owners. No one else counted; I guess we’ve made some progress since then.

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