North Carolina House Republicans made the national news with their sneak vote to override the budget veto of Governor Cooper. Republicans in control of the House told democrats they would not hold any votes on Thursday, September 11. Therefore, democrats attended a 9/11 memorial service. The Republican leadership changed its mind, and the House voted to override the Governor’s veto because not enough democrats were there to vote.
The main question is, “When did Republican leaders change their mind?” The history of the Republican takeover of the state legislature tells us that they “changed their mind” long before September 11. NC Republicans are known for their strategies aimed at gaining political power–voter fraud, extreme gerrymandering (which they brag about), and voter suppression laws–to name a few.
Now it goes to the Senate. To complete the override Republicans need one Senate Democrat to vote with them. I plead with Democrats to take the following strategy:
- identify three Democratic Senators to convince Republican leadership they will vote to override the veto.
- Then, when the vote is taken, every one of them can say, “I thought I was going to vote to override, but I changed my mind.”
Republicans do whatever gets them what they want because their highest value is self-interest. How do you like your democracy, now?
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Virtues that I was taught from childhood (e.g., tolerance, compromise, civility), I’m learning are not universally valued in today’s American democracy. I’m beginning to wonder if democracy itself is valued.
The angry shouts of the democratic legislator who attended the session included something to the effect that, “You cannot do this to our democracy.”
And a standard counter is “We are a republic, not a democracy.”
Republicans and OAPers (obnoxious academic posturers) like to point to this distinction. Yes — there are differences. When people say “democracy” to describe our government, however, we all understand that the person is describing our government, which uses majority rule (democracy) to elect representatives. Furthermore, legislators use majority rule to pass legislation. Therefore, we use majority rule (democracy) to get representatives and the rule of law (a republic).
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