Politics and Evolution
2009-12-08 - by
There’s an old folk tale about a group of Confederate soldiers sitting around a campfire during the winter of 1862-63 arguing about Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
A British war correspondent – arguing in favor of evolution – waxed eloquent then resting his case leaned back on his elbows, and one of the Confederates drawled, Well, I don’t know about you, and I don’t know about me, but I know General Lee didn’t descend from no monkey.
Applying Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – very loosely – to North Carolina politics should logically lead us to the conclusion Governor Perdue’s election last fall was the result of years of progress by Democrats in state politics.
Now hardly anyone would argue that Governor Hunt is the Godfather of modern Democratic politics. Like Harry Byrd or Huey Long or Gene Tallmadge politically Hunt towered over his contemporaries and during his 16 years as Governor managed to give Democrats a lock on just about everything that moved or breathed in North Carolina government. And as Louis XIV the Sun-King warned the Dukes and Marquises of France, Hunt might have warned when he retired, After me – the deluge.
Bev Perdue or ‘Dumpling’ (as Democratic kingpin Marc Basnight used to call her in their days in the Senate together) settled in New Bern about the time Jim Hunt was elected to his first term as Governor. Over the years she served her apprenticeship in the Democratic Vineyards, working her way up to State Representative, then State Senator, then (the year Hunt retired) to Lt. Governor.
Now a fellow with as much power as Jim Hunt had to be careful he didn’t abuse it and to Hunt’s credit by and large he was. There’s a story about one of Hunt’s Highway Commissioners joking about the connection between political donations and road building and saying, Well, boys, if we’re going to be prostitutes we ought to be smart about it – but, in fact, Hunt knew where the line was drawn between the politics of ‘you scratch your back and I’ll scratch yours’ and outright corruption and if someone crossed the line Hunt didn’t have much tolerance for fools.
Under Hunt’s successor, Mike Easley, the lines disappeared. The Governor’s wife ended up with an $850,000 contract to work for NCSU and about all anyone had to do to get the Governor’s attention was make a contribution or provide a free airplane flight.
Then ‘Dumpling’ ran for Governor, outspent Pat McCrory by $10 million and with McCrory helping by refusing to run an ad critical of Perdue – Perdue won.
After the election Perdue filled her administration with Democratic standard bearers and high-powered lobbyists. Next the lobbyists went wild passing out $250 million in no bid contracts and one of Perdue’s Cabinet Secretaries landed in hot water for leasing $2 million in automobiles his department didn’t use.
And the state budget fight turned into open warfare between special interest groups that had supported Perdue – with the Governor, initially, declaring she was going to cut spending and not going to raise taxes, which led to the Teacher’s Union attacking her, which led to Perdue changing directions and endorsing a $2 billion tax increase.
In the end the legislature raised taxes a billion dollars and Perdue took Stimulus Money meant to pay for health care and spent it on other things – so when the smoke cleared the Education Lobby had triumphed and the lobbyist heading DHHS had passed out so many no bid health care contracts to his friends and former clients there wasn’t enough money to pay for medical care for poor people on Medicaid. – a problem her Cabinet Secretary solved by declaring the elderly patients don’t really need the care.
Which proves one thing: Darwin’s theory may say for thousands of years men have been evolving or progressing – but you couldn’t prove it studying our politics.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Democrats
Politics and Evolution
2009-12-08/
There’s an old folk tale about a group of Confederate soldiers sitting around a campfire during the winter of 1862-63 arguing about Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
A British war correspondent – arguing in favor of evolution – waxed eloquent then resting his case leaned back on his elbows, and one of the Confederates drawled, Well, I don’t know about you, and I don’t know about me, but I know General Lee didn’t descend from no monkey.
Applying Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – very loosely – to North Carolina politics should logically lead us to the conclusion Governor Perdue’s election last fall was the result of years of progress by Democrats in state politics.
Now hardly anyone would argue that Governor Hunt is the Godfather of modern Democratic politics. Like Harry Byrd or Huey Long or Gene Tallmadge politically Hunt towered over his contemporaries and during his 16 years as Governor managed to give Democrats a lock on just about everything that moved or breathed in North Carolina government. And as Louis XIV the Sun-King warned the Dukes and Marquises of France, Hunt might have warned when he retired, After me – the deluge.
Bev Perdue or ‘Dumpling’ (as Democratic kingpin Marc Basnight used to call her in their days in the Senate together) settled in New Bern about the time Jim Hunt was elected to his first term as Governor. Over the years she served her apprenticeship in the Democratic Vineyards, working her way up to State Representative, then State Senator, then (the year Hunt retired) to Lt. Governor.
Now a fellow with as much power as Jim Hunt had to be careful he didn’t abuse it and to Hunt’s credit by and large he was. There’s a story about one of Hunt’s Highway Commissioners joking about the connection between political donations and road building and saying, Well, boys, if we’re going to be prostitutes we ought to be smart about it – but, in fact, Hunt knew where the line was drawn between the politics of ‘you scratch your back and I’ll scratch yours’ and outright corruption and if someone crossed the line Hunt didn’t have much tolerance for fools.
Under Hunt’s successor, Mike Easley, the lines disappeared. The Governor’s wife ended up with an $850,000 contract to work for NCSU and about all anyone had to do to get the Governor’s attention was make a contribution or provide a free airplane flight.
Then ‘Dumpling’ ran for Governor, outspent Pat McCrory by $10 million and with McCrory helping by refusing to run an ad critical of Perdue – Perdue won.
After the election Perdue filled her administration with Democratic standard bearers and high-powered lobbyists. Next the lobbyists went wild passing out $250 million in no bid contracts and one of Perdue’s Cabinet Secretaries landed in hot water for leasing $2 million in automobiles his department didn’t use.
And the state budget fight turned into open warfare between special interest groups that had supported Perdue – with the Governor, initially, declaring she was going to cut spending and not going to raise taxes, which led to the Teacher’s Union attacking her, which led to Perdue changing directions and endorsing a $2 billion tax increase.
In the end the legislature raised taxes a billion dollars and Perdue took Stimulus Money meant to pay for health care and spent it on other things – so when the smoke cleared the Education Lobby had triumphed and the lobbyist heading DHHS had passed out so many no bid health care contracts to his friends and former clients there wasn’t enough money to pay for medical care for poor people on Medicaid. – a problem her Cabinet Secretary solved by declaring the elderly patients don’t really need the care.
Which proves one thing: Darwin’s theory may say for thousands of years men have been evolving or progressing – but you couldn’t prove it studying our politics.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Democrats