Quirks of Our Political System

We came close to a train wreck to our economy with the debate over raising the debt ceiling. This is a minor artifice compared with the Constitutional requirement of the Electoral College. The Democrats have twice lost Presidential elections in spite of millions more popular votes. The College was set up in fear of the underclasses and how some demagogue would inflame the masses. With Trump, the exact opposite was the result. A deranged man used the media to get a few thousand votes in five states that were enough to get him elected.

Those who claim to be strict “Constructionists” of the Constitution seem to think that we’re still living in the same rural society of 1781. While the framework is still solid, a couple more amendments may be needed to bring us into the 21st Century. In addition to doing away with the Electoral College we need to set term limits for Congress. It’s just a tradition, but the filibuster is an archaic rule of the U.S. Senate that was used for decades to block Civil Rights Legislation. Now just the threat of a filibuster is all that’s needed to doom progressive legislation.

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Protect Kids Not Guns

Although there are no reliable or complete statistics for the nation, the data supports the need for gun control to reduce the violence. Statistics aren’t that an effective messaging tool anyway. Mass shooting, school shooting, suicide, homicide - it doesn’t matter how you break it down. We have a pandemic that is out of control. We are awash in guns, and they are commonly available regardless of a person’s mental health or criminal status. Stricter regulation laws would help but would not provide a solution. The issue isn’t gun sales; we already have more guns in circulation than there are people in the U.S. Until we reduce the total number of guns and restrict their availability, we will continue to have a major public health problem.

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NC Medicaid logo

After more than a decade of delays, it appears that North Carolina finally will join most other states in expanding medical insurance coverage for poor people. These are folks who don’t even have enough money to qualify for the regional private insurance markets established years ago.

Data estimates vary between 500,00 and 600,000 people who may qualify in the state for the proposed coverage. The North Carolina General Assembly passed bills, but they will not take effect until the new biennial budget for 2024-25 takes effect. When that may occur is open for debate. North Carolina passed a budget last year on time for the first time in many years. But there are other contentious issues in the hopper, such as Medical Marijuana for certain categories of diseases and illnesses. Then there is the proposed “Don’t Say Gay” copycat bill. Other southern state legislatures have taken a hard lurch to the right with the Republicans in control. Since the losses in federal elections 2020 and 2024, the Republicans have focused on the states and the courts.

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