There is an ever growing sense that our democratic process is broken, that it's impossible for an average voter to have her voice heard, that no matter how he votes or how loudly he protests the politicians in power are going to take whatever actions they want, the will of the people be damned. This is why voter turnout is so low and why people feel like voting just flat-out doesn't matter. The Republican members of the General Assembly this week seemed hell-bent to show the voters of North Carolina that the impotence of public opinion is not simply a "feeling," it is absolutely a fact. The GOP showed us precisely how broken our democratic process is.
Our General Assembly meets for regular sessions once per year. The "long session" in odd years runs from January-July and the "short session" in even years from April-June. These are the only times that your elected representatives are generally called upon to pass laws. This year, the General Assembly met in 4 special called additional sessions. The last time the general assembly held that many special sessions was 1898 as it moved to cement the passage of Jim Crow Laws, not exactly a proud moment in our state's history and certainly not a time we should seek to emulate now.
Special sessions allow the Legislature to respond to public emergencies, events like the historic flooding in coastal communities following hurricane Matthew in October. The Governor's special called session to pass a disaster relief bill was the ordinary and proper use of that constitutional provision. What happened next was anything but ordinary or proper.
On Wednesday after both houses passed the disaster relief bill, the Republican members of the assembly shocked their Democratic colleagues by adjourning the special session called by the Governor and immediately convening a new special session called by the General Assembly itself. The Democratic members of the assembly were given no notice that the session would be called, or afforded any opportunity to contribute to the formulation of the bills to be drafted and considered. Introducing legislation in a special session called in secret deprives the public of the opportunity to fully vet, understand and respond to new laws. It was a move carefully designed to ensure that as few people as possible would have as little time as possible to understand and comment on the impacts of the new laws.
Over the following 2 days, the Republican's introduced and passed legislation that made drastic changes to state government.
SB 4 completely redesigns the state's election oversight system. It combines the current Ethics Commission and State Board of Elections; changes the composition of the county board of elections in all 100 counties; changes the terms and operations of the Industrial Commission; adds an en banc review procedure to the state Court of Appeals; and makes our appellate court judicial races partisan.
HB 17 strips the State Board of Education of virtually all power to run the state's education system, vesting its previous authority in the newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mark Johnson. The bill also strips the incoming Governor of nearly 1,100 appointments he would have made to the administrative agencies he oversees. This bill hasn't been signed yet by the Governor and if you are itching to make your fury heard, calling the Governor at (919) 814-2000 and urging him to veto the bill would be an excellent way to do that.
Look, I'm not saying that all of these measures are bad just because they were introduced by Republicans. I'm saying they are bad because they did not follow a process that allows for Democratic representatives to contribute to the formulation of important state policy and they deprived the public of the opportunity to offer meaningful input. It would have been really nice to have had an opportunity to consult with the State Bar about the impacts of changes to the appellate review process, for instance. With super majorities in both houses, Republicans were unwilling to have thoughtful, deliberate discussion about these measures with their Democratic colleagues, simply because they didn't need to. Those Democratic colleagues represent millions of North Carolinians. Refusing to engage or compromise with them essentially tells those 3.5 million North Carolinians that the GOP really doesn't give a rip about their opinions, and that is just wrong.
As the public got word of what was going down in Raleigh, they flooded the General Assembly with thousands of phone calls and emails and they showed up in person to let their representatives know they did not have the support of their constituents. But the response of Republicans on the house floor was to discount the emails by saying the vast majority were from out of state (they weren't), and that protestors didn't deserve to observe the proceedings because they were not being properly decorous. None of the Republican comments responded to the outpouring of citizen opposition. Instead they cleared the chamber and began arresting the public and even the media for trying to be present to make their opposition heard. The protestors were not from out-of-state and they weren't paid to be there. They were North Carolinians who were furious with the heavy-handed governing of a general assembly completely unwilling to engage with them or respond to their concerns. Instead, our state government arrested elderly women, a mother who had her child with her, a combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, a member of the press, and even Santa.
That is why our current democratic process is broken-because our representatives are no longer willing to engage in debate, find common ground, and compromise with one another. They feel no need to respond at all to dissatisfied constituents. In this year's presidential election, North Carolina broke 50% Republican and 46% Democratic. So, despite the fact that the Republican legislature has managed to gerrymander districts to give themselves a 3/4 majority in the legislature, the citizens they represent statewide are practically evenly divided between conservative and liberal ideologies. We are a moderate state and our elected representatives should represent that moderate make-up in drafting, introducing and considering new laws. The only way they can do that is if the Republican members are willing to reach across the aisle, even when they don't have to, to engage their Democratic colleagues in the process of drafting legislation and directing the future of this state. We absolutely have to stop saying that the other side is wrong, simply because they are on the other side. And if Republican members are truly interested in representing the people of this state, they have a duty to respond to legitimate concerns about their tactics and their proposed policies, to put their policies forward and open them up to public criticism and then defend and justify them, and perhaps even modify them so that they are more reflective of the views of the entire state.
Finally, if you are mad as hell about what went down this week in Raleigh, its time to get involved and stay engaged. Many members of the general assembly are likely to be up for election this year in special elections ordered by the court. Contact your local Democratic Party and sign-up to volunteer. Consider running for office or encourage a friend or neighbor to run. Ladies, if you've ever given even a passing thought to running, contact Lillian's List and attend one of their upcoming trainings. Use NC Megaphone to email legislators about issues important to you. Better yet, figure out who your individual representative is and email only their office. Representatives are far more responsive to emails sent only to their office than to emails sent to all 170 members. Even though its frustrating and you may feel ignored or discounted, its important to keep making your voice heard. The day we stop believing democracy can work is the day is lose it.
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