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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen I Said North Carolina Wasn't a Democracy, People Called Me Crazy
Theyre not saying that anymore.By ANDREW REYNOLDS December 08, 2018
In December 2016, I wrote a column for the Raleigh News & Observer stating that North Carolina could no longer be classified as a democracy. It went viral and global. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued. The majority of feedback was positive, but in some quarters, I was described as a queer-communist-anti-American, and received scores of visceral email and voice messages to that effect and worse. Campus security were concerned about the specificity of some of the death threats.
The column was based on an analysis of the crumbling machinery of democracy in my state, drawing on my expertise as a professor of comparative politics at the University of North Carolina. I noted that a neutral expert scoring of North Carolinas electoral integrity had placed the state on a par with pseudo-democracies such as Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. Partisan gerrymandering and targeted voter suppression drove the score lower. Combined with that, the General Assembly had targeted the LGBTQ community for discrimination (you may remember the push to force transgender people to use the restroom for the sex listed on their birth certificate), and Republicans had sought to curtail executive powers after losing the governorship in the 2016 elections.
Two years later, the quality of democracy has declined further, and the decaying system has created a monster.
The North Carolina GOP is not particularly interested in what the voters think because they dont have to be: They have effective detached themselves from the electoral accountability that underpins democracy.
The most egregious example of this is exploding now. There is a wealth of evidence that Republicans in North Carolinas 9th Congressional District systematicallyand with malicious forethought and planningstole the election.
The column was based on an analysis of the crumbling machinery of democracy in my state, drawing on my expertise as a professor of comparative politics at the University of North Carolina. I noted that a neutral expert scoring of North Carolinas electoral integrity had placed the state on a par with pseudo-democracies such as Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. Partisan gerrymandering and targeted voter suppression drove the score lower. Combined with that, the General Assembly had targeted the LGBTQ community for discrimination (you may remember the push to force transgender people to use the restroom for the sex listed on their birth certificate), and Republicans had sought to curtail executive powers after losing the governorship in the 2016 elections.
Two years later, the quality of democracy has declined further, and the decaying system has created a monster.
The North Carolina GOP is not particularly interested in what the voters think because they dont have to be: They have effective detached themselves from the electoral accountability that underpins democracy.
The most egregious example of this is exploding now. There is a wealth of evidence that Republicans in North Carolinas 9th Congressional District systematicallyand with malicious forethought and planningstole the election.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/08/north-carolina-9th-district-democracy-222853
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When I Said North Carolina Wasn't a Democracy, People Called Me Crazy (Original Post)
workinclasszero
Dec 2018
OP
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)1. If one-person, one-vote is a vital aspect of democracy, NC is far from alone.
Yeah yeah, I know, the US is a constitutional republic.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)2. We need to outlaw gerrymandering
Or the tyrannical anti-democracy GOP will never willing give up power in this country.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)3. And get rid of the Senate. And the electoral college. Not holding my breath.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,379 posts)4. and have better election monitoring
End gerrymandering, enable voting (automatic registration, etc.), outlaw electronic voting, enable public monitoring of paper ballot counting