GOPe hasn’t learned ONE THING from 11/6. (Where do we go from here?)
DC Republicans lost their House majority. So, how did they respond? They elected Kevin McCarthy (R-California) as their leader for the next session of Congress. Yep, the same ol’ Kevin Mac who lead them through the disastrous Boehner regime and right up through the 11/6/18 debacle. It’s like hiring the captain of the Exxon Valdez to pilot your new cruise ship.
McCarthy is literally one of the last few surviving Republicans in California — elected or 
otherwise. According to Conservative Review, McCarthy’s conservative rating was a big fat F (36%) — down there in Thom Tillis territory. Time for McCarthy to do for the national GOP what he’s done in California?
I had to shake my head in dismay over comments from a House Republican source defending the election of McCarthy:,“He’s got great connections with all the big donors.”
*Nice.* (*And how close of a second is his devotion to smaller government?*)
In Raleigh, things are not much better. Dallas and his homies are still at the wheel of the state GOP. Super-majorities are gone on Jones Street. So, Darren Jackson, Dan Blue and Roy Cooper can kill anything remotely conservative passing either chamber.
It appears Tim Moore will still be speaker — albeit without top henchman Nelson Dollar. (Though, I am hearing super-hot off-the-record and on-background talk about a certain member of the current House leadership feeling out his fellow caucus members about a possible challenge to Moore.)
You haven’t heard the Democrats talking about compromise. They’ve fought everything the GOP tried tooth-and-nail. SO, what is the GOPe talking about in the wake of 11/6? That’s right, compromise.
You’ve heard the old saying about sticking with who you brought to the dance. The GOP went from freak-show after-thought to serious contender to political force in North Carolina around 1972 — thanks to a message that appealed to middle-class conservatives alarmed by what they saw in Orange and Durham counties and various college campuses.
The suburbs. The suburbs. The suburbs. The political chattering classes across Raleigh 
are babbling about the importance of “the suburbs.” Here’s what I have to say about that.
Most people are in the suburbs because they are fleeing the leftist nonsense that is wrecking our biggest cities as we speak.
As I’ve told you before, I worked for the late Senator Jesse Helms. During that time, I had the chance to meet with voters and constituents from all walks of life and all four corners of North Carolina. A common refrain I kept hearing?
“I don’t agree with the senator on everything, but I respect the fact that he respects me enough to actually DO what he told me he was going to do in Washington. You don’t have to wonder if he’s lying to you. He’s a man of his word. He does what he says.”
Hmmm. Doing what you promised. Kinda like if your constituents say they don’t want toll roads, you tell them you’ll fight toll roads, and then do nothing as toll roads get rammed 
down their throats.
I can imagine it makes voters mad when you campaign on smaller government and less spending, and then pass a budget BIGGER than last year’s. (Or claim you’re cutting taxes, while instituting all kinds of new “fees” and other instruments to suck more money out of our wallets.)
And going after Roy Cooper’s ethics on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline? I agree. It was a dirty deal. But the GOP majority has the gall to put some of the most ethically-challenged 
individuals in Raleigh out front leading their ethics and good government charge. If you’re going to holler about the crooks on the other side of the aisle (or in the governor’s office), get your own house in order FIRST.
STOP accepting the premise that the only good government is the one that SPENDS MORE. It’s easy and fun to be Santa Claus. (At least, until the bill comes due.) Everyone loves to get stuff. The GOP campaigns on smaller, more efficient, wiser management. Why not actually give that a try?
It galled me to see all of the GOP candidates for the General Assembly bragging about how they spent so much more on public schools than Democrats ever did. I didn’t hear much about how some of the worst school systems in the country — Los Angeles, NYC, DC, 
Baltimore — have the highest per-pupil spending in the country.
The GOP-controlled General Assembly set us up for even more borrowing, more debt. We were told they need to pay for MORE stuff. Yet, we heard nothing about cutting existing spending. You could cut most all of the stuff on this page and NO ONE would miss it. (And that is just a start.)
These guys are THIS CLOSE to completely blowing all the good that was done in 2010. They’re still swigging that case of beer and driving that Oldsmobile convertible at 120 MPH toward that “Bridge Out” sign.
One thing they need to learn is the old political truism “never piss on your base”. Pissing on their base, the conservative Christians, is what cost them a series of narrow defeats in Mecklenburg County. This was ground zero for the bathroom privacy issue, and the highest profile issue of all to conservative Christian voters there.. The GOP stood firm on that issue in 2016 and held its ground in House and Senate elections. The conservative Christians were motivated to go out and vote for the GOP legislative candidates.
For 2018, they caved, and GOP legislators in Mecklenburg were in the half of the caucus that voted for the bill that repealed HB2. Conservative Christians felt betrayed in 2018 and stayed home, and those legislators lost. They did it to themselves when they knuckled under and surrendered on this issue to Roy Cooper.
How significant is the conservative Christian vote in Mecklenburg County? Although a moderate himself, Brad Hayes, who was Governor Jim Martin’s political consultant, regarded them as the source of thousands of votes for the GOP, and that was the reason he was extremely attentive to the suggestions of Mecklenburg conservative Christian leader at the time Rev. Joe Chambers and his Concerned Charlotteans organization.
It is unfortunate that we did not have a strategist of the skill of Brad Hayes advising Berger and Moore. That pair screwed the pooch on their HB2 repeal blunder which cost the GOP thousands of its base staying home in Mecklenburg.
Most of those conservative Christians are themselves in the suburbs and when they stay home, it tilts the electorate going to the polls there to the Democrats.
If there’s new leadership at the top they’ve got to be more competent and have their ear to the ground. There may be but only one house member that stands out that has the charisma and competence to lead. Long Leaf Politics just wrote that the state GOP has a pretty weak bench. Let’s hope he’s proved wrong!
The GOP leadership connived in compelling voters for the GOP candidate for the NC Supreme Court and for one of the NC Court of Appeals races to choose on the ballot between TWO Republicans on each race, thereby bleeding off votes for the primary Republican candidate, and thereby causing BOTH Republican candidates to loose their seats. It is a massive outrage, and both the legislative leadership (that brought this about) and the NC GOP leadership (that failed to alert voters adequately) need to experience a complete house-cleaning.