What’s Running NC Politics…
2011-04-06 - by
Cynics laugh and say no good deed ever goes unpunished and I’m beginning to think they have a point: Last year for the first time since Reconstruction voters elected a Republican legislature, which looked like a near fatal political blow to Governor Perdue but now, instead, it looks like voters may have thrown the Governor a life-line. The only question seems to be will she have the good sense to grasp it.
Since the election Republican Senate and House leaders have endorsed:
- A Duke Power bill to raise electric rates (to pay for a nuclear power plant that hasn’t been built yet);
- A Glaxo bill to give every pharmaceutical company legal immunity when it makes a drug (like Vioxx) that harms people;
- Giving the same legal immunity to every corporation that makes a ‘product’ – from mobile homes to mobile phones to mass produced chickens;
- Making medical negligence legal in emergency rooms (a blessing for insurance companies who insure hospitals and ER doctors);
- And helping auto insurers by lowering the awards they pay in car accidents.
Big business never had such a field day – thanks to Republican leaders in the legislature corporate Republicanism (as opposed to conservative Republicanism) is now an overwhelming new force in our state.
In the meantime on the other side of the aisle what or who is running the Democratic politics is Governor Beverly Perdue and the Republican realignment (as the champion of big business) may turn out to be just the blessing she needs.
Democrats have been in control of NC politics so long they’ve cobbled together a strange coalition of big Business and Teachers Unions and Public Employee Unions but, now, there’s no way she can outbid the Republicans when it comes to doing favors for big business – parts of her own coalition won’t stand for it and besides, by now, big business (unless it’s blind) has figured out it’s a lot more lucrative (and just plain profitable) doing business – in the political sense – with Phil Berger and Thom Tillis than Beverly Perdue.
Which leaves Governor Perdue in the boat with Barack Obama. It’s a politically incorrect overstatement to say all African-Americas and all liberals voted for Obama but it’s pretty close to being a fact and that gives Obama 37% of the vote in North Carolina which leaves him needing a fraction (a third) of the suburbanites and Moderates which is within reach, especially if his Republican opponent helps him a bit.
Which is exactly what Governor Perdue’s opponents are doing for her right now.
What’s Running NC Politics…
2011-04-06/
Cynics laugh and say no good deed ever goes unpunished and I’m beginning to think they have a point: Last year for the first time since Reconstruction voters elected a Republican legislature, which looked like a near fatal political blow to Governor Perdue but now, instead, it looks like voters may have thrown the Governor a life-line. The only question seems to be will she have the good sense to grasp it.
Since the election Republican Senate and House leaders have endorsed:
- A Duke Power bill to raise electric rates (to pay for a nuclear power plant that hasn’t been built yet);
- A Glaxo bill to give every pharmaceutical company legal immunity when it makes a drug (like Vioxx) that harms people;
- Giving the same legal immunity to every corporation that makes a ‘product’ – from mobile homes to mobile phones to mass produced chickens;
- Making medical negligence legal in emergency rooms (a blessing for insurance companies who insure hospitals and ER doctors);
- And helping auto insurers by lowering the awards they pay in car accidents.
Big business never had such a field day – thanks to Republican leaders in the legislature corporate Republicanism (as opposed to conservative Republicanism) is now an overwhelming new force in our state.
In the meantime on the other side of the aisle what or who is running the Democratic politics is Governor Beverly Perdue and the Republican realignment (as the champion of big business) may turn out to be just the blessing she needs.
Democrats have been in control of NC politics so long they’ve cobbled together a strange coalition of big Business and Teachers Unions and Public Employee Unions but, now, there’s no way she can outbid the Republicans when it comes to doing favors for big business – parts of her own coalition won’t stand for it and besides, by now, big business (unless it’s blind) has figured out it’s a lot more lucrative (and just plain profitable) doing business – in the political sense – with Phil Berger and Thom Tillis than Beverly Perdue.
Which leaves Governor Perdue in the boat with Barack Obama. It’s a politically incorrect overstatement to say all African-Americas and all liberals voted for Obama but it’s pretty close to being a fact and that gives Obama 37% of the vote in North Carolina which leaves him needing a fraction (a third) of the suburbanites and Moderates which is within reach, especially if his Republican opponent helps him a bit.
Which is exactly what Governor Perdue’s opponents are doing for her right now.