Just go to WRAL.com (our local Raleigh news station) and look at the NC politics articles over the past year. We have a Republican-majority legislature in both the state House and the state Senate. Our governor, Pat McCrory, is a Republican who ran as a moderate (yes, I voted for him - sigh)... but he turned hard-right after the election. This crowd has cited "what a great job Brownback is doing in Kansas" and attempt to emulate him. Since elected this crowd has basically cut taxes for the top 10% of the population while taxing the bottom 90% more heavily, cut social services / unemployment / education / etc. to the bone. Removed teacher tenure (tenure is not what you think, it merely means that a K-12 teacher can appeal their firing if they were fired for political purposes, it does not protect against being fired for low performance. "Tenure" was put in place in our state to stop teachers from being hired/fired for political patronage.). Since their actions and despite their promises that lowering taxes would greatly increase state revenue, the state revenue has sunk and now is at a $455M shortfall from projections (can these people not do basic math?). Despite their promises that privatizing state services to companies of their friends would save money - the spending on these programs have increased greatly. Despite their promises to fix the state IT problems, they have gotten tremendously worse (the ACA website looks like a brilliant success compared to our state IT mess). Despite their commitment to not interfere with local government, they have passed all sorts of laws restricting the rights of property owners and local government (to support big business such as fracking). Despite their commitment to not focus on social issues, they spend an inordinate amount of time removing abortion rights, smacking-down gays, and trying to stop evolution from being taught in schools. Despite their promises to be transparent they have hired hundreds their donors as state government consultants at $300 to $500 per hour rates. Somehow in just two years they have managed to steal more than the Democrats were able to over the past 20 (is this the new definition of efficient state government?). Don't even get me started on how McCrory's former employer Duke Energy has been dumping coal ash in all our rivers and getting a slap on the wrist for it. Standard old-style Republicans (like me) who simply want efficient use of our tax dollars, while understanding & supporting the need for public education (who wants to live in a state with an bunch of dummies), seeing the need for a short-term social net, and wanting a proper business environment - are all appalled at this mess. Who would have thought what should have been a turning point in our state's history when the crooked Democrats were kicked out of power in 2012 after 100 years - would have turned into a complete disaster in a mere two years with the approval ratings for the state legislature reaching record lows of 18% in our state. Sadly, when voting... we simply are stuck now with choosing between the worse of two evils. An article with some good background - How North Carolina Turned So Red So Fast http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-north-carolina-southern-progressivism.html
Wow, gwb, that is a shocking and surprising story with the ring of truth, thank you for posting it. Your comment re the state IT situation is very weighty, coming from you--must be bad. I'll have a look at the sites you recommend.
A microcosm of what's going to happen whenever the Federal government (likely Repubs) tries to trim back on the "unsustainable/unaffordable" social programs and subsidies. The ne'er-do-wells have already been given waaayyyyy too much in the effort to buy their vote. They want even more, and any cutbacks are unthinkable. America is down for the count, and Odumbo is doing all he thinks he can get away with to hasten our demise.
Show me where i said anything was wrong with any of those, maybe you ought to ask the leaders of NC why any of those aren't happening.
Nothing is wrong with them, except that they're vague and therefore cannot be refuted. Who wants "excessive taxes"? No one. One guy thinks they're too high, but another guy doesn't. And so on down the list. For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. - H.L. Mencken
I would agree that the devil is in the details. So given that they cannot be refuted because they're general principles, why do idiots like Spike call them out as if they're radical?
Nice attempt to backtrack. You put them out there and drew attention to Lucrum as if they were a big negative. As for NC, I don't know the situation there. But there are a good deal of examples where republicans are just as dumb as democrats, and just as corrupt. It is quite possible that, if there is a situation in NC, the politicians there are simply corrupt and need to be removed - regardless of party. So do you support all of those principles on that list of Tea Party beliefs?