NCGA’s Brody: The Coming Republican Party Showdown
[Editor’s Note: The author is a Republican member of The North Carolina House of Representatives representing Anson and Union counties in House District 55. He formerly represented North Carolina on the Republican National Committee.]
Once again, our Republican US Senator, Thom Tillis, has created a “disturbance in The Force” that has had many in the NC Republican Party looking at each other with astonishment and trepidation.
His support for the Inflation Reduction Act (which was nothing more than another deficit-busting borrow/spend scheme) followed immediately by his ‘stop the spending’ rhetoric made many a Republican head spin in exasperation.
Now, his support for the “Respect for Marriage Act”, has created an issue that must be resolved at our next state Republican Party Convention.
Basically, Senator Tillis’ action puts our state Republican Party in a predicament. His vocal support of the Respect for Marriage Act along with his vote to move it forward in the Senate, in direct opposition to both the national and state Republican Party platforms, force the issue to the forefront.
DO WE, AT CONVENTION, VOTE TO AFFIRM THE LONGSTANDING PLATFORM’S ASSERTIONS ABOUT MARRIAGE AND SANCTION TILLIS OR VOTE TO CHANGE THE PLATFORM?
National Platform (pages 31-32):
Our laws and our government’s regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society.
NC State Platform (Article 1, section 2):
Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a civil society.
We recognize and honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the many burdens of parenting alone, even as we affirm our support for traditional marriage.
That’s right, we need to address this obvious contradiction and settle the matter in the appropriate forum, the NC state Republican Convention. There not have been many times in our party’s history that such a “foundational” issue has come before us (maybe only second to the fight against slavery).
The United States Congress, with the support and leadership of our own Senator Tillis, will vote to “Institutionalize” a direct and unequivocal prohibition by God, the Creator referred to in our Declaration of Independence.
Senator Tillis will vote to “institutionalize” a sin against God’s Law!
I am well aware there are many people in the Republican Party that will support Senator Tillis in this issue. That is their prerogative. I am also keenly aware that there will be an effort to silence the debate so we don’t appear to have a major disagreement in the party.
I’ve held public office as a Republican for a decade. Party unity is very important. Even the appearance of disunity can have political consequences. But this time, Senator Tillis has taken on an issue that is so fundamental and contrary to the deeply-held beliefs of so many of the Republican Party faithful that it warrants a response.
I am not the person creating an issue here. Senator Tillis is. If we, as Republicans, want to change our Platform to conform to Senator Tillis’ views and beliefs and the new Woke agenda, then we must do it in our open forum Convention.
Having elected legislators flagrantly violating the Party Platform without any consequences undermines any sense of party unity. Senator Tillis has taken the critical vote to move this legislation in the Senate by contributing to the 60 votes needed to bring the Act to the floor.
Most of his fellow Republicans voted opposite Senator Tillis. Now only a majority vote in the Senate is needed, which the Democrats have, to pass this Act. The nation at this point will be fundamentally changed. To Senator Tillis, it appears, God’s laws and Party Platforms have become mere suggestions that can get flagrantly violated without consequence.
Many people who do not believe in the teachings of the Bible or attribute no authority to the “Creator” referenced in our founding documents may not feel as passionate as I do on this subject.
Those who do understand that we, as a nation, will have taken a step too far. I, for one, will not stand idly by while our misguided Senator leads the charge to change our Republican platform without an open debate and vote.
Once elected to the North Carolina House, I began using this platform to challenge the Democrats and their radical ways. One of my top goals was to help return our state and nation to their God-fearing status that was established at their beginnings. Never did I suspect that I’d have to fight fellow Republicans as hard as, if not more than, the Democrats.
I think that is why God tells us to “fight the good fight” and leave the war to Him.
Remember that God will deal with everyone’s individual sin individually. He gives everyone a lifetime to repent but judges a nation in real-time where we all will suffer the same consequences.
The Respect for Marriage Act is playing with fire. It and Senator Tillis must be dealt with at the Republican Party Convention.
This showdown is long overdue.
One really wonders which bathroom Tillis uses and which pronouns. He is a true wokester and we do not need that poison in our party. Tillis needs to be taken out in the next primary and replaced.
We also need a new NC House Speaker. Tim Moore is as woke as Tillis. That is somewhere Mark Brody could make a difference. He stood up for principle as a National Committeeman, something I really wonder about with his successor. We need a conservative challenge to Tim Moore, and also to Phil-ith Berger.
Unfortunately, the Republican Caucus will use its significant resources to prevent conservatives from being elected. Very few Republicans get elected to the State House or Senate without Moore’s or Berger’s approval. That problem has to be solved before there will be any movement in the NCGA towards conservatism. I’m not sure the conservatives have the votes or the motivation to make it happen. We think we’re in the majority, as Reagan and Limbaugh preached, but if we are, we’re not voting. There have to be some drastic changes. I’m not optimistic that they can or will happen. I will never give up my conservatism. I will never become a Democrat. However, I’m questioning my involvement with the NCGOP, which is the local actor for the RNC and the personal platform for Whatley to sell himself. The future for conservatives in NC is not bright. We have to stop blaming “election integrity” for lackluster performance at the polls by conservatives.
Local parties are supposed to be the ones recruiting and vetting our legislative candidates, not operatives in Raleigh. One thing that is essential is to get our local parties back asserting their authority in this regard and calling out Raleigh publicly if they try to interfere in our local legislative recruitment and primaries.
Thank you Thom Tillis for representing all NC residents, not just the right wing haters.
degenerate immorally is nothing that anyone should love in society…. same sex relationship are an attack on all of humanity
This issue does NOT need to wait until the NCGOP State Convention. I would call on all 100 GOP County Chairs and 14 GOP District Chairs to immediately vote to censure Senator Tillis and notify the NCGOP Executive Director of their votes. These votes could be taken at a called meeting or at their county conventions. IF there is an attempt at the NCGOP to censure Tillis for violating the GOP Platform, it will NEVER see the light of day. This happens at EVERY convention. The resolutions are punted until the final day and NONE are ever heard! Burr was censured at a specially called NCGOP Central Committee meeting and then we watched the NCGOP Chair walk it back in every interview.
The extra benefit of censuring Tillis, this will block him from attending any GOP events during the term of his censure. This makes it really hard to run for Governor!
Tillis has long ago abandoned the platform and principles of the party. He needs to be censured immediately! A call needs to come from the grassroots leadership within each and every county, as the NCGOP will NEVER go against Tillis.
Do you really think that the majority of county chairs would do anything that would take guts??? ….. I mean maybe the executive committee made up of regular people might but but even then during past meetings they have been led astray so easily that they end up voting acclamation to someone instead of censure
There is an NCGOP executive committee meeting on Dec. 17 near Charlotte, a perfect time to put some daylight between the NCGOP and Groomer Tillis with a resolution of censure. Don’t forget his many other misdeeds besides his funny boy support. There are some hoops to jump through like having printed copies to hand out, and you will certainly see Whatley trying to run out the clock to stop the resolution with his insane list of useless “reports” like he did at the last excom meeting. I think there were more reports in that one meeting than in the entire last decade of excom meetings put together. I understand he played the same game at the central committee meeting.
I absolutely agree Michele!!!
I aint voting for any of these rinos in any upcoming elections. I dont care anymore how distasteful the dayum D might be. Is Tillis married to a man? He sounds like it. Never again.
Brody is a bigot and a right-wing nutjob. Full stop.
If “God” was intended to be involved in our laws in America, the founders would surely have included the word at least ONE TIME in our sole founding legal document. But they didn’t. Please feel free to run your life as you think your imaginary sky daddy wants you to, but leave the rest of us out of your nonsense.
Marriage equality was Constitutionally protected through Obergefell in 2015. Love is love. Sorry you feel so threatened by it.
Marriage is One Man One Women no matter what the law says…. And the USA is a Christian Nation the USA was not founded to be secular https://youtu.be/sm8oGUXomHc
Also George is this you ? “George “fill it, buster” Ladshaw ” https://mobile.twitter.com/SmallJohnny
Cause everyone should see your tweets if this is your account and if it is everyone can realize what you say about Mr. Brody has no relevance to this conversation
Love ain’t love, groomer.
https://reports.americanprinciplesproject.org/
Michelle Woodhouse’s comments offer a blueprint for how to move forward. Equally important is a succinct explanation by Brody about what is at stake w the passing of the bill. Not the typical gobbledygook coming out of the GOP but bulletpoints about what this bill is all about. Our disengaged, timid populace needs a quick, brutal education.
Where are the religious leaders in this state???
Brody needs to consider this plan, rally his troops to censure that demon Tillis.
If not now, when??
In 2015? That means it was never constitutionally protected until that moment, which also means the Supremes legislated something into existence. Obergefell should be removed from the law because it’s even more constitutionally flawed than Roe was.
Mr. Ladshaw, I almost never comment on these posts, but attacking the character and integrity of Mark Brody forces me to make an exception.
I’ve known Mark for over ten years and he and I don’t agree on every issue. Case in point… I disagree with him on this very post he authored. However, he is one of the finest, most authentic elected officials I’ve ever met. He goes about the work of NC and the people of his district with honor and dignity and to suggest otherwise is simply false.
So for the record you support relationships that violate how God created humanity to behave ??? yes or no
The Declaration of Independence said that “We are endowed by our Creator (God)…”, with Life and Liberty. Please note that nowhere in the Constitution does it give any branch of the government authority to redefine words. The reasoning in the Obergefell decision was based on an assumed redefinition of “marriage”. So it was an unconstitutional ruling, similar to Roe vs. Wade. There is a solution here. The government can bestow legal benefits on any 2-people relationship that does not meet God’s definition of marriage (a covenant, lifelong, committed relationship between a man and a woman), by simply using a different term, e.g. civil union.
so one guy could enter into a civil union with a whole cheerleading squad and the goverment should then extend them the same benefits of marriage just not call it marriage ??? So if one calls a polygamy a civil union then all would be OK for society ? Is this what you are saying.
Drop the hammer on that two faced bum.
Nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing
We must also remember that Tillis is doing much more damage to the Republican brand in North Carolina with his liberal ways than Burr ever did. Both of them voted liberal, which was damaging enough, but Burr usually did it quietly while Tillis gushes about his liberal positions in the media and in public, and thus voters pick up on it more. That raises questions in voters minds about the GOP being two faced. The only defensive thing the GOP can do is to publicly repudiate Tillis and his liberalism. We need to do that ASAP to stop the bleeding.
Tillis’s total betrayal of the GOP’s Christian voter base and conservatives in general is absolute proof he has no intention of running for re-election. He will become a high-paid lobbyist and line his pockets with millions from the special interests. This is why he is playing footsie with the Democrats and the old GOP establishment types. He is the biggest slime ball ever elected by the voters of NC.
Blatantly doing things that cause part of our base to stay home hurts the entire ticket, and that is what Tillis is guilty of. The party should not tolerate that behavior.
It is like that pair of special interest sellouts Tim Moore and Phil Berger working to repeal HB2. When the GOP legislative team held firm on HB2 in 2016, against heavy Democrat spending on that issue in 2016, we held our own and even gained a seat or two. After Moore and Berger sold us out to the special interests, in the next election Christian conservatives stayed home and we lost our supermajority. There is an old saying in politics that “you don’t piss on your base” something the GOP establishment seems to have never learned.
” if you can’t say something good about somebody, don’t say anything at all” ( my loving mother) many times many years ago.
Fast forward. In the summer of 2011 I and several others, AT HIS REQUEST, met with Rep Tillis in Currituck County for a get to know each other sit down. At present I am searching ???good???good???good????????????? I better shut up.
What will our duly elected new senator say about this?
Has he commented?
Will he denounce?
OR does he fall in line with this nonsense and NC’s weak GOP?
I hate to say it, but it seems Ted Budd has gone into hiding. Either he doesn’t want to be associated with the antics of Tillis and Burr or he is simply afraid to call them out for their treachery.
Folks, we have a state executive committee meeting Dec. 17 with this treachery by Tillis fresh in everyone’s mind. A well written resolution offered by someone with the stature of Mark Brody would have a good chance of adoption. Also, if Rep. Brody was the sponsor, it would make it a lot more difficult for Whatley to try to deep six it. I think this could pass.
I would like to see the resolution use some of the “no confidence” language used in parliamentary systems and to put Tillis on probation, making him persona non grata as GOP functions for a year with his record to be reviewed for the excom at the end of the period to determine if that should be extended or ended.
I moved to NC from CA in 2006, having been a $$ supporting Republican in Orange County until my move. Recruited as an Asst Precinct Captain I helped flip a County Commissioner seat, found myself elected the Craven County Chair for almost 2 terms and then Chairman of District 3 for two more. One of the political oddities I have always questioned is why there is not a closer alliance between the NCGOP and our State and National elected officials. It as if they are two separate teams which they should not be. Several dozen state legislators play prominent roles in the state party affairs but most do not, I guess the exception was the ExCom in Winston Salem where Chairman Hayes marshaled them to quell an potential uprising that they knew little about. Fast forward to our current problem…from the Chair of a District which has chastised and officially Censured both of our Senators for specific actions we felt were to the detriment of the NCGOP, NC and America. Perhaps it is time to re-examine the 17th Amendment as well as enforce the 10th. I am thankful for Brody, Speciale, Sanderson, Hanig and others Let’s Roll!
I am so disappointed in Tom Tillis. He is breaking God’s laws by pushing this gay marriage bill. He is not representing the majority of the citizens of NC by voting for this. He is also pushing abortion in our state. I will not vote for him again! I don’t feel as if I have any representation in our government now.
Same here.
Sanction Tillis! He needs to go! He doesn’t even come close to representing the multitude of conservatives in North Carolina.
A correction to my post: Although it will not change the purpose of my original post I have to correct that Sen. Tillis did not vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.