How screwed they (we) are. This is gonna be Hell.

working on how to turn it around.

Once that boat has sailed, it will be either very difficult or impossible to get it back.

will be best, of course. We don't want them to get their hooks in there longer than that.

Insanity.

Art Pope - inherited money and couldn't get elected, so bought the state.

Disgusting.

I'm horrified, frankly. And yet, in a perverse way, I'm also impressed. The Republicans waste no time when they get power. Just like the B*sh admin in 2001, the McCrory admin of 2013 is hitting the ground running. I can only dream of a progressive Dem doing something similar, some day. Heck, when Gore won the election in 2001 against B*sh, he was too cautious to even declare it so, thus it was left to the Supreme Court to decide. This lily-livered hesitancy got Gore nowhere, just as a similar lack of spirit got the Dalton campaign precisely bupkiss in the way of votes. The NC Democratic Party is barely breathing at this stage.

And then there is the issue of guns. One might say that guns did not figure prominently into the 2012 NC election, and on the surface, one would be right (since the Newtown tragedy did not occur until well after the election). But guns have been a big issue in NC since at least the last 'AWB' of 1994, if not even earlier. I realized this during a conversation with a small-scale shiitake mushroom grower in 2004. By all rational measures, this guy was a natural Kerry vote. But he told me that he would never vote Democratic as long as 'they wanted to take away my guns.' As long as DiFi, McCarthy, Lautenberg, & co are allowed to spout their authoritarian crap about firearms and gun control, I seriously doubt that Democrats will regain a foothold here n NC. There are too many regular folks here who share the opinion of this small farmer.

I've tried to call for Democrats to support the 2nd Amendment, if only because issues of the economy, marriage equality, the environment, due process, reproductive freedom, and so many more are more important for people's day to day lives. But more often than not here at DU, I've been called a troll and a right-winger, despite the fact that I am staunchly and consistently pro-union, pro-reproductive-freedom, pro-marriage-equality, etc. Despite this fact, I plan to stick around here at DU, and advocate on behalf of all natural rights and Constitutional freedoms. I think that a consistent support of the Bill of Rights would be an effective path by which Democrats could regain a foothold in the south, and NC in particular.

-app

Here in Idaho the very same dynamics are at play. MANY, MANY folks who would vote Democratic if not for the national party's insistence on restricting Constitutional rights. Gun control just doesn't play outside the urban areas at all.

There is a strong libertarian (social liberal) element here in this state, but so long as the D-Party insists on restricting law-abiding gun owners, they (reluctantly in many cases) default to the R's, or just simply don't vote at all.

Montana Democrats have figured this out and know what needs to be done to win state-wide races. Unfortunately many Idahoan Democratic candidates insist on toeing the national party-line and keep wondering why they keep getting their asses handed to them at the polls time and time again.

Yup, Tester & many other Montanans have got it right. Yesterday, when I called Senator Hagan's office to express my opposition to DiFi's AWB proposal and Lautenberg's magazine limits, I cited Tester's position as an example worth following. The staffer on the other end of the line seemed at least receptive, if typically vague in her "I'll be sure to pass your concerns along," sort of way.

Glad that the is still room for us rural, progressive, civil-libertarian types he at DU.



-app

It's only one example of dozens of such conversations i've had. Roll your eyes all you want, votes are gained door to door, conversation by conversation, issue by issue. In addition to many such conversations i 've had over the years, I door canvassed on behalf of Obama in 2008. The gun conversations were much fewer then, since the AWB had expired and Obama said fewer stupid things about guns during that campaign than Kerry had in 2004 or Gore in 2000.

Now? Good luck avoiding the topic of guns in NC for at least the next six years or so, even if DiFi's & Lautenberg's garbage fails to pass. Now that does NOT mean I am giving up. But the conversation that goes, "Sure, many Dems are idiots about guns, but here is why you shold vote for them anyway," is a lot more awkward and time consuming than the campaign speech I want to have. I WANT to be able to ring doorbells and say, "On ALL issue of civil rights, civil liberties, and the Bill of Rights, Democrats are on your side." That's sweet, that's consistent, and that's easy for voters to understand. Unfortunately, due to proposed gun bans, ongoing extra-judicial killings, doubling-down on the failed war on (some) drugs, and too many other issues, we can't say that yet. But that is where my ideals are, and where this Party needs to go for relevance and success.

-app

The Democrats' history with gun control begins in the late 1960's at the earliest. That's hardly some bedrock tradition, nor does any gun control platform rest upon any foundation of coherent principles that I can tell. One can be against innocents & children dying at the hands of crazed crminals (I certainly am) yet seek to redress the roots of these problems in manners that do not undermine yet another piece of the Bill of Rights.

The rational consistency for which I call rests on American traditions stretching back to 1789. It may still be radical (for our Founding Fathers were indeed both liberals and radicals in their day) to demand that the Bill of Rights guide all our policies and laws, and consistently constrain the power of the state, but it's a lot more rational than speaking about Constitutional rights only some of the time, on some issues, and most particularly when an 'R' is president.

I want to see the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, & 15th Amendments enforced more vigorously than they ever have been in my lifetime. I believe that these Amendments enshrine not only Democratic principles, but truly American values. Being forceful about these views, all of the time, is a recipe for electoral success.

-app

(not starting my own thread, however) about the mess going on here in NC. The big boys are buying one or two states at a time. I watched it happening here for the past 2 years, and I was REALLY worried about how they are buying local races and grooming young kids for the future.

Only HOWARD DEAN with the Democratic party was ever....EVER....on top of what the republicans have been/are doing.

And I have seen how the democratic party is INTENTIONALLY, at the top, being passive about how we run campaigns and/or go after the republicans.

I'm sick of it.

"Citizens United" opened the infinite money tap for the Rapeuglicans.

want to see what they can do with this power. I love North Carolina and I'm so disappointed; I had hopes after '08 that we would see an upward swing so this 180 has my head spinning.

I wouldn't get too worked up about it. As soon as the repub party finishes destroying
itself, all those hacks they have/will appoint will disappear.

and Texas, etc, etc. Once the R's get their tentacles on a state they are very hard to dislodge. No matter how corrupt they are.

That's a mistake we can't afford. Out of the gate (hand hardly lifted off of his bible) the Governor started making noise about changing UNC system.

It's so easy to make a huge mess (see Dubya) but oh so hard to clean up after it.

go throw another pebble in a North Carolina pond.

And when they make policy and choices about who wins state contracts, you know every one of the winners will be a Rethuglican donor.

It's all about money and power. What's the question?

Just off WRAL's breaking news banner.

[IMG][/IMG]


2nd Update - WRAL posting the article: http://www.wral.com/lightfoot-out-at-dhhs/12078169/

to stay vocal and diligent that know they can't do whatever they want. Keep steady until '14 and we can move 'em on out.

I was born in TN, but grew up in western NC. The public education was excellent in the 70's and early 80's. I went to Governor's School twice. I had numerous friends who went to the NC School for Arts & Sciences. My parents were very liberal Republican college professors. I left NC for college in another state in 1984 and never returned. To hear of all of these negative changes, especially the disparaging of education is just sickening and saddening.

They're disgusting.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/03/3358698/override-triple-play-attempt-keeps.html

Did you know they voted to defund Governor's school? I've heard only good things from people who've attended in the past.

http://suite101.com/article/republicans-in-north-carolina-defund-education-programs-a379073

Working to keep Governor's School running:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/11/03/1614711/governors-school-reprieved.html

That is maddening.

I was fortunate to have attended Governor's School twice - once as a violinist to the west campus and once in natural sciences to the east campus.

It was an amazing experience both times. I made friends whom I am still in contact with to this day. I got training that lead to offers of various college scholarships. It was truly transformative.

I just don't understand how Republicans have become as they are today. My parents were Republicans in NC when I was a kid. Hell, most of the church I attended as a boy was full of Republicans including Jim Broyhill. He was incredibly supportive of the arts and sciences and was a close family friend.

Well, a stupid population is an easily controlled one. I guess kids today don't need a Governor's School experience. They have iPads and Google.