To the Editor:

We cannot become immune to the dishonesty being sewn into the Republican fabric. Their repeated mantra is that only their views matter, and they can do anything they wish to prevent discussion of differences or alternative views. That is not democracy.

Their latest power grab in the North Carolina General Assembly cannot go into history without the rage it deserves. The simple fact is that Republicans presented a morning General Assembly schedule which stated that the 8:30 a.m. session would be a non-voting session. At 8:40 a.m., they called a surprise/unscheduled vote to override a Governor’s veto on the budget.

Because of the no-vote morning session, many of the Democrat representatives were attending a memorial service for 9-11 victims. Think about the immorality of the Republicans taking advantage of that situation. The vote was taken with only nine Democrat representatives present.

For years, the GOP had a supermajority and governorship in North Carolina, and they passed bigoted laws such as HB-2. They for took us from being a leader in state support for education to one that says to its teachers, “You can always work another job to make ends meet.” Faced with this crisis in leadership, we worked hard in 2018 to break this supermajority, elect a people-centered Governor and put common sense back into our government. We won, but the Republican’s view that partisanship is more important than the democratic process persists. So now they revert to a blatant underhanded disregard for procedure.

The plea here is not for the Republicans to change their deceitful practices because they will not. Rather, now that the Republicans no longer have the shield of Republican-drawn illegal gerrymandered district maps, it is time to let the majority vote rule and get rid of those who have succeeded in breaking the democratic process.

 

Peter A. Farrell, PhD

Washington Park