One-Party Rule
April 30, 2013 - by
Raleigh has never seen this kind of one-party control.
Hold on, you say – especially my Republican friends: Democrats had one-party control for over 100 years.
No, not like this.
For most of those years, the Democratic Party was two parties. Think Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake. Or Jim Hunt and Jimmy Green.
After 1972, when conservatives began moving to the Republican Party, Democrats were constrained by their own moderate sensibilities and by practical politics. Marc Basnight and Tony Rand squelched some liberal initiatives from their own caucus because they feared the ballot-box consequences. They caught hell for it sometimes. So did Governor Hunt.
That’s not the case today. Only in the most extreme cases – say, establishing a state religion – have Republican leaders squelched their extremes. (If that bill had gone to a vote, most Republicans probably would have voted for it.)
So, as Carter has noted (see “Worrying About Primaries” below), Republicans in the legislature aren’t worried about ballot-box retribution from moderates across the board, they are worried about retribution from the most far-right elements of their party.
That’s a bad way to run government. I wouldn’t trust things to the most extreme elements of my party. And, in fact, Democrats didn’t.
If Republicans don’t rein it in, their reign will be short-lived.
One-Party Rule
April 30, 2013/
Raleigh has never seen this kind of one-party control.
Hold on, you say – especially my Republican friends: Democrats had one-party control for over 100 years.
No, not like this.
For most of those years, the Democratic Party was two parties. Think Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake. Or Jim Hunt and Jimmy Green.
After 1972, when conservatives began moving to the Republican Party, Democrats were constrained by their own moderate sensibilities and by practical politics. Marc Basnight and Tony Rand squelched some liberal initiatives from their own caucus because they feared the ballot-box consequences. They caught hell for it sometimes. So did Governor Hunt.
That’s not the case today. Only in the most extreme cases – say, establishing a state religion – have Republican leaders squelched their extremes. (If that bill had gone to a vote, most Republicans probably would have voted for it.)
So, as Carter has noted (see “Worrying About Primaries” below), Republicans in the legislature aren’t worried about ballot-box retribution from moderates across the board, they are worried about retribution from the most far-right elements of their party.
That’s a bad way to run government. I wouldn’t trust things to the most extreme elements of my party. And, in fact, Democrats didn’t.
If Republicans don’t rein it in, their reign will be short-lived.