Just when you think the government of North Carolina couldn't possibly get more stupid
my state's Republican governor and Republican-led legislature prove that we have yet to explore what stupid really means.
In case you've missed the recent news about NC, after our idiotic government wrote discrimination into law with the despicable HB2, I thought we had hit bottom. I hoped we would react to the scorn we were receiving and the accompanying loss of jobs and money by repealing this awful law.
We didn't.
Apparently the U.S. government got tired of waiting, because Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Justice Department have filed suit against North Carolina over this bill. (For more on that story, you can start here or search easily enough.) They threatened not just to continue the lawsuit but to take away some Federal funding programs.
At this point, I briefly hoped that our governor would use the lawsuit as a way to save face, blame the big bad Feds for making him change, and back away from the law.
Oh, no. That would be entirely too sensible for Governor McCrory. Instead, our state sued the Justice Department.
North Carolina is in many ways a wonderful state, and I am usually happy to live here. We have our share of issues, of course, including plenty of poverty, underpaid teachers, and an education system that is nowhere near as good as it could be, to name but three. Our government could be focusing its time and resources on such challenges, but instead our governor doubles down on HB2.
HB2 denies rights to transgender people. It is thus wrong-headed, even evil.
Attorney General Lynch accurately noted, "It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had other signs above restrooms, water fountains, and on public accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference. We've moved beyond those dark days."
I'd like to think she's right, but at least some North Carolinians, including our governor, still live in those awful times.
Lynch also said, "This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms. This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them."
When we deny rights to any group, we open the door for additional similar actions, and so we hurt all of us.
I hope everyone in this state remembers this time come November, so we can all vote McCrory and the other ass clowns out of their offices.
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4 comments:
As an outsider I was under the impression the potential State vs Federal conflict was of greater concern. Not wishing to get involved with the actual cause of the conflict I thought that a lot of US citizens were generally unhappy about federal involvement in local issues. Hence the unpopularity of the FBI and the rise of domestic terrorism such as the Oklahoma bombing.
In the UK at the moment we're going through the process of deciding whether we want to escape the Federal control of The EU. This is turning into a big issue and the EU has a fraction of the control over the UK that the US Federal body has over the individual American states.
The UK has been a part of the EU only for a relatively short time. The states have spent most of their existences as part of the U.S. I don't think that the state vs. U.S. conflict is that severe for most people here.
I called this one last week. Beyond the delaying tactic, it's a win/win for them. If they win, the law stands and they become heros to the culture war crowd. If they lose, it's even better - The state gets out from under this hateful law without them taking any responsible action. Instead, they get to go on the campaign trail and say to their voters that they "fought the good fight", but lost to "liberal activist judges."
We need to kick them out.
Amen to that, brother.
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