A progress report on the “veto-proof” “conservative revolution” in Raleigh
Prior to the 2022 elections, we were told the GOP legislators could run right over the top of Democrat governor Roy Cooper – IF IF IF – they got that magical veto-proof majority. With the help of Tricia Cotham’s party-switch, the dream became a reality.
Here we are one month after a state budget was due and there is still no agreement between the House and Senate. To most folks, that is amazing — since both chambers’ majorities belong to the same party with the same small-government, conservative platform.
Instead of getting more of that smaller government, we’re getting Medicaid expansion. Special deals for BIG contributors. We’re getting even more spending: $25.9 BILLION for 2021-2022, and $27.9 BILLION for 2022-2023. (Still waiting on 2023-2024.)
The budget negotiations are being carried out by Speaker Timmy, uncle Phil, a handful of cronies, 
and some of ol’ Roy’s crew. It makes one wonder WHY we even bother to send the other 160-some folks to Jones Street every two years.
We’re already being told The Parents’ Rights Act is deader than Josephus Daniels. You mean to tell me we can’t get a veto-proof majority of Republicans to agree that parents’ wishes for their kids trump anything bureaucrats come up with?
We’ve got some other veto overrides out there dealing with (1) protecting minors from transgender grooming, and (2) keeping tranny boys out of girls’ sports. Do you mean to tell me we can’t get a veto-proof majority to agree that kids need to be protected from the transgender ideologues and groomers?
But there is plenty of time and there are plenty of votes, apparently, for casinos. Lots of pockets have been lined, or are scheduled to be lined. *Protecting kids from groomers doesn’t pay nearly as well.*
(I’d like to talk to these Republican pro-gambling types a few years down the road after the SEIU and other “hospitality unions” have moved in to control those casinos and work against the NCGOP. )
Out here in the grassroots, the debate is all about conservatism. In the professional political world, it’s all about “getting onboard.”
“Get on board the Trump / Robinson / Tillis Train.” Issues don’t matter. Someone with an (R) next to their name holding that seat is what matters. *He’s “better” than a (D), right?*
*Right? (Um, right?)*
The problem is the culture dominating our politics. Just like in DC, Raleigh has been reduced to two crime families fighting over how to split the cash they’ve, um, confiscated from us. It’s not Ds vs. Rs. It’s Corleones vs. Sopranos. 
The system is so aggravating, so stinking corrupt and incompetent that the people we really want to have in power want nothing to do with government service. Instead, we get stuck with the people who really want that $13,000 per year legislative seat. Those are the scariest.
Voting for the other party is not going to help. You’re simply handing the key to the cash drawer over to the other gangsters.
The system enables the crooks to stay in power. In most workplaces, if you are a month late — 
without excuse — delivering on your most important job task, you’re as good as fired. Yet, Tim Moore is leaving Jones Street as a hero for either higher office or a lucrative lobbying career. His cronies who have helped stage-manage this mess are all competing to replace him as speaker. Elevating the accomplices will not fix the problem. It just puts the abuses on life support. Keeps them going.
There have got to be some good people out there who still believe in public service. Legislative service can be reformed to allow for someone to work a private job and provide for their family while serving the people of North Carolina. Some states have legislatures that meet for only a quarter or so at most. Why can’t we do that? Why isn’t more work being done online or via live-streaming?
Forcing 160-plus elected honorables to sit and twiddle while Timmy, Phil and Roy work out a deal in secret is undemocratic as hell. All 170 people got elected to do a job. Let them do it.
It is the swamp with Southern accents! What an absolute disgrace! For 2 years everyone of them campaigned on “we must have a veto-proof super majority.”
We give it them with a little help from Cotham and this is what we get!
NC better be very careful or we are going to wake up next November BLUE from top to bottom & the ones holding the bag will be Whatley, Moore & Berger!
EVERY Republican candidate should be blowing up the phones on Jones St demanding they get to work! Demanding the end of Medicaid expansion, medical marijuana and casinos! Demanding every veto is overridden immediately! Even the 25 year old Democrat Party Chair has enough sense to know this!
I’m OK with everything you typed, except the silly notion that the biggest boogeyman in the room is Marijuana being prescribed to veterans with ptsd. Just stop it with that bs. No veteran should have to break the law for relief from this crap and people who continue to smile in our faces and thank us for our service to the country should realize that we can see right through their fake little routine everytime they open their outs about the subject of MM. You’re welcome.
The REPEALED bathroom bill HB2 and the force feeding we got with the Green New Deal HB951 was my sign. I have not read Mark Levin’s book American Marxism yet. Don’t think I need to.
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The repeal of HB2, the bathroom privacy law, was the major U-turn by Berger and Moore where they threw in with the “woke” corporations and special interests against the grassroots Republican activists in our state. It has been downhill ever since, and keeps getting worse – Green New Deal, Obamacare Medicaid expansion, casinos, etc. Moore and Berger are our Schumer and Pelosi.
We badly need to get our legislative leadership back working for principles instead of chasing special interest favor. It is clear that this cannot be achieved with Moore, Berger, or any of their close associates. We need new and principled leadership in both houses from outside the calcified existing leadership structure to take our Republican legislative delegattions back down the path of principle. If your local legislator is up to that, get behind him or her. If not, seek a principled alternative in the primary. We are going to have to get to work to back the good guys and throw the rascals OUT.
Go Browny. Mark’s book is good.
Whatley, Berger, and Moore are causing–no, driving–good people to leave the GOP. They drove me out. Too bad there’s not a Conservative Party in North Carolina!