North Carolina Legislature’s Unconscionable Power Grab

Stealing Democracy

By Mildred Robertson   

As the North Carolina State Legislature convened to “allegedly” provide support for victims of Hurricane Matthew and the wild fires raging in Western North Carolina, they quickly moved on with their agenda to steal power from the rightfully elected governor who defeated Republican incumbent, Pat McCory in November. The thinly veiled power grab is not just an assault on Governor Elect Roy Cooper, but an assault on the very core of democratic rule in our state.

Recently North Carolina has become ground zero for the reinvigoration of the Southern Strategy that harkens back to the racism of 1950s and 60s. This strategy, which is grounded in racial and religious intolerance, is wielded by Republicans to motivate white racism and implement draconian laws to subjugate and disenfranchise minorities and progressive seeking truly democratic governance. We have seen the ravages of race-based politics on both the state and national level.

It is clear that the North Carolina legislature has no regard for the will of the people. In recent years it has gerrymandered voting districts, instituted backward thinking legislation such as HB2 that draws negative national attention and damages business development, and held impromptu late-night and other special sessions to sneak legislation through the general assembly. The Republican-led General Assembly is indifferent to the will of the people, the principle of good governance, and the rule of law.  

As this lame-duck governor packs his bags to vacate the Governor’s mansion, the General Assembly proposed 28 bills for him to consider prior to his departure. Among those bills are attempts to strip the incoming governor of the power to make appointments. This is particularly ironic, in that when McCory took office the Republican legislature expanded the number of political appointments he could make from approximately 500 to 1500. Now that Cooper is in office, the General Assembly passed legislation to make 1,200 of McCory’s political appointees permanent state employees, limiting Cooper to 300 appointments.  Further, they propose that cabinet appointments go through Senate confirmation which will result in the same kind of obstructionism that we see in the presidential Supreme Court nomination. 

But their assault is not limited to the incoming governor. A Senate Bill attempts to change the makeup of the State Board of Elections so as not to have a Democratic majority.  Election Boards determine which votes count. This comes on the heels of an August finding by a panel of federal judges that the Republican-led legislature used racial discrimination to undermine the power of minority voters in the state.

Hundreds of North Carolinians have gathered on Jones Street since the session began to voice their opposition to the legislature’s most recent run on democracy. They have vociferously opposed the legislative shenanigans designed to wrest power from the North Carolina electorate and disempower the democratically elected governor.

We cannot be discouraged as we witness the assault on democracy from the highest levels of national government down to our very own state legislative buildings. We must all raise our voices to let our elected officials know that we expect our government to be fair.  We expect our vote to count. We expect our voice to be heard.   We expect our elected officials to put good governance above partisanship. We expect government for the people, by the people.  We will not rest until we have reached those goals.

 THE 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: NORMALIZING MADNESS

By Mildred Robertson

As Americans attempt to sort out the chaos surrounding the 2016 election, an effort is underway to normalize occurrences that are anything but normal. In this era of political correctness, it is amazing that an amoral, racist, misogynistic  despot has acquired the most powerful position in the world. The words I have chosen to describe Trump are words frequently used to describe him on the internet.  Yet the mainstream media, deferring to the office and not the office holder, is imploring us to accept the will of the people and to give the president-elect a chance.

The problem with this reasoning is that were we to accept the will of the people, we would be heralding the election of the first woman in America’s history and not this lewd, mean-spirited huckster. At a tune of 1.7 million and counting, more Americans cast their vote for Clinton than for Trump.  My vote in North Carolina had less weight than the vote of a citizen in Wyoming or Nevada. The archaic Electoral College has literally changed history, not once, but twice in my lifetime. First, when Al Gore lost the election by several thousand votes…a bitter pill; but with that kind of margin it is a pill you can swallow.  

But this election will take much more than a spoon full of sugar to go down. Clinton throttled Trump by much more than a million votes, and yet it is his transition team that is preparing to take the White House in January. It is his team and not he himself, who will take up residence in the White House. Apparently the White House digs do not afford the opulence to which Trump and Melania are accustomed. There are no gilded toilets in the White House, I suspect.

There was so much that went wrong with this election. First, there was the beguiled media, which saw Trump as no real threat to democracy and a boon to the bottom line. Driven by ratings, they hung on each outlandish word Trump spoke. Early on he was able to establish his false narrative with very little opposition or fact-checking by the media. He garnered millions of dollars in “earned” media which is just another way to say that by being outrageous he could be guaranteed the lead on the nightly news casts and the daily headlines at no cost to him or his campaign.  By the time the media comprehended that they were being used, they had already played into Trump’s hands. Progressive media outlets began to fact-check Trump real time. But, to his supporters, it just looked like harassment.  It also helped his image as a supposed outsider.

Then there was Bernie Sanders' campaign and the other third party candidates. Bernie had a platform and a message that resounded with millions of Americans.  His campaign had an impact on the Democratic platform and gave voice to many who felt the Party did not adequately reflect their values. Bernie had every right to run…but he ran too long. Time and effort Clinton could have expended sharing her detailed platform with the American public, she spent beating back Sanders and his vociferous followers. 

And of course, there were the spoilers…Stein and Johnson, with no chance in hell of making any kind of impact on the political dialogue. Never mind that neither had anything substantive to say. Their campaigns accomplished the only thing they could accomplish…they gave the election to Trump.

Clinton too could have done things a little differently. She could have talked more about her platform rather than Trump’s lack of fitness to occupy the office of the Presidency. Frankly, that discussion should not have been necessary in that it was patently obvious that he was and is ill-prepared, emotionally unstable, and temperamentally unfit to lead the free world.

And then there was the electorate. God love them. There were poor (and not so poor) white folk who felt that all would be right with the world if only the black, brown, and yellow folk would just get out of the country. They probably don’t think they are racist.  They just believe America is for Americans.  And to be American you have to be, well…white.

There were the suburban white women who valued white superiority over gender equality. The Trump coalition also included a fringe that proudly accepts the racist banner and the ugly, hateful and violent behavior that goes with it.  And there were the ultra-progressive Democrats and the mainstream Republicans who would rather see Trump win than to vote for Hillary.

And, of course, we cannot forget the Black folks and other people of color who just decided not to bother to vote at all. This mixed bag of coo-coo resulted in an unpredictable campaign which was miscalculated by journalists, pundits and pollsters at every turn.   

For good measure, let’s just throw in Vladimir Putin and Russian espionage, Assange and Wiki-leaks and FBI Director Coomey and the email server. All of these entities tugged at the very fabric of our democracy, and we began to unravel.  And, of course, we must not forget the Electoral College, where victory is based upon whether you appeal to the urban masses or the homogenous middle country.

There was absolutely nothing that was normal about this election. The system says Hillary lost, but technically and in fact, she won.

There is nothing normal about accepting this outcome.

We have been poorly served by this electoral process. It is a problem that must be solved. It is an outcome that must never happen again.

If America really is the light of the free world, this cannot be our new normal.  

DEPLORABLES BAMBOOZLED

WHITE TRUMP SUPPORTERS MAY BE IN FOR A SURPRISE
By Mildred Robertson

Eight years ago it appeared that America had turned a corner in the road as it elected its first Black president. It was refreshing to think that this strange exercise in Democracy had matured. It seemed that the Founding Fathers had gotten it right. It appeared that they had, in fact, created “a more perfect union.” 

Fast forward eight years and we find that America has made a 180 degree turn and elected a racist, sexist, misogynist who is both unprepared and unqualified to hold the most powerful position in the world. He has done all that he can to separate us, categorize us and pit us against one another.

Two America’s seem to exist in Trump-World—“Us” and “Them.” The real test will be who actually falls into those categories when Trump-World takes shape in January. Will the millions of poor, uneducated, underemployed and unemployed white men and women who so proudly cast their vote for Trump find that they have been bamboozled?

You see those of us who recognize Trump for who he is already know that Trump-World will embrace a society built for the elite—the “Us’s” of this world.  The rest of us, the average citizen who will become one of “Them,” will be crushed by taxes, low wages, fewer health-care options, unemployment, isolationism and war-mongering.

We already know that the Republican-led Congress will institute “trickle-down” economics that never trickles down. We know that struggling families will have to figure out how to feed, clothe and shelter their children on minimum wage salaries and that senior citizens who have worked all their lives will have to fight to survive without a safety net. Folks who briefly enjoyed the security of health benefits, even the chronically ill, will be stripped of those protections…possibly never to be insurable again.

What the masses who voted for Trump don’t’ seem to realize is that they will fall, not into the “Us” category, but will become one of “Them.”  Blacks, Hispanics, other people of color, the foreign born and poor, uneducated whites will all be in the same basket. It will be a shock to many of his supporters who view the “Us and Them” equation much differently.  What they do not seem to see is that Trump has no empathy, no care, no understanding for the plight of anyone other than himself.  His goal always was and always will be his personal attainment of money and power.

Oh, he may try to assuage the wounded egos of poor white males who feel that opportunity has bypassed them by allowing them to terrorize communities of color. He may permit them to freely roam the streets in white sheets and hoods, march in formation, burn crosses and raise their hands in a salute to his sovereignty.  This comes directly from the South’s old playbook. Moneyed barons historically organized mobs of poor white men to keep the rest of those relegated to servitude in line. Then those barons pocketed the bounty from the corrupt system for themselves.

It is clear that he learned this technique at the feet of his own parents. Unfortunately, the things they did not appear to teach him was how to respect another human being; how to be fair in his business dealings, how to be honest in his discourse, how to listen and how to reason.  It is frightful that this nation has entrusted the fate of the world into the hands of such a man. I shudder to think what our foreign affairs will look like in four years.

The rise and fall of great nations has been captured in the annuals of history. In each instance, destruction occurs as a result of the careless use of power and the abuse of those least able to bear life’s burdens.

Don’t be fooled. The fact of the matter is that whether you are among the group designated as “Us” or “Them” your ultimate fate may be the same. Because when the bottom drops out of our society, the top also will surely tumble.

MEDIA FAILS: ELECTION POWERED BY RATINGS RACE

MEDIA FAILS ITS CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE

By Mildred Robertson

The 2016 election is an anomaly. The absurdity of it all could not have been better written by Stephen Colbert’s comedy writers. Our airwaves have been assaulted by everything from outlandish accusations of alleged criminality to unfettered vulgarities.  The media has ceded its considerable power to a backstreet carnival barker who has almost single-handedly plunged our political process into a dark abyss.

Now, as we stand on the threshold of an historic election that should have been about breaking barriers, national security, the right to health-care and a living wage we must instead make a choice on who scares us least…who is less likely to destroy our nation as we know it.

It is not that Hillary Clinton did not try to talk policy. If you take the time to surf her website you will find her position on raising income and restoring economic security to the middle class. She talks about how to create good-paying jobs. She is focused on closing the racial wealth gap, protecting voting rights, and fixing our immigration system. Clinton wants to fight climate change and create an economy based on clean energy, and she wants to provide quality, affordable education for all Americans. She has a plan to address global threats and her administration plans to focus on protecting American values at home and abroad.

But she hasn’t been able to talk about any of that, because the media-made buffoon is sucking up all the air in the room. Trump has turned earned media into an art, feeding off the media’s insatiable desire for ratings. Every news network has been guilty of hanging on to his every word; eager to “break the news,” regardless of how outrageous or patently false his statements or those of his surrogates may be.

The media has failed to carry out its Constitutional obligation by pandering to Trump and his surrogates and leaving the public to sort through the mile-high pile of excrement that emanates daily from the Trump campaign. Trump surrogates have regularly appeared on news shows spewing half-truths, lies and innuendos, broadcast, in many instances, as though they were fact.  It is amazing that Kelley Anne Conway can unabashedly equate Hillary Clinton’s email blunder with the alleged tax evasion, child rape and shady business practices of her candidate without being challenged, let alone led down a path that resulted in a discussion of policy. She and the other surrogates are expert at deflecting all media queries to come back to the same old script where Clinton is a demon and Trump is the savior.

To that end, media have spent the past 6-8 months reporting on the horse race as affected by one outrageous Trump statement after the other. They talk about whether his attack on a Gold-Star family, or a former beauty queen, or an alleged assault victim will end his campaign. “What do the numbers say?” Apparently that is the most pertinent question for 2016 news reporters covering the campaign.

If you have learned anything about either candidate’s position on any issue of importance to you, it is because you took the initiative to research it yourself. You will not see it on the nightly news. You probably won’t find much of it in a newspaper or a magazine. You can read about emails, tax evasion, lawsuits and FBI letters, but you won’t find much about how each candidate’s policies will affect your life.

And isn’t that the point of a free press?  Shouldn’t we be able to glean from at least the main-stream media, a clear picture of what might be our nation’s direction under a particular leader? Instead, we’ve heard of policies about a wall that will never be built, and a candidate who will never be jailed, hung or shot.

Heaven help us if this election is NOT an anomaly.

2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EXPOSES AMERICA’S DARK SIDE

Early Vote Offers Relief

By Mildred Robertson

 I live in North Carolina and I voted October 20^th , the first day of early voting in our state.  After months of mean-spirited, uninformed, raucous, political discourse, I was finally able to make my voice heard. It was cathartic. 

I exhaled; much as you do when you exit an unhealthy relationship…when you come to the end of a particularly tedious course…when you have done all that you can do and wait for the universe to dispense the final outcome.  And in so doing, I find myself now looking back over the last 18 months to see if I can make any sense of the madness. 

Order is not the stuff this election was made of; so making sense of it is no small matter. It still eludes me, how this caricature that is Donald Trump ascended to the top of the Republican Party. His rise, I believe, is indicative of a disease that is slowly creeping through the party; poisoning its very essence.  

It began with the hateful, small-minded, dogmatic rise of the Tea Party which has literally destroyed the Republican Party from the inside out. In a white backlash, the populist upstarts overtook the Party after President Barack Obama took the White House in 2008.  They combined the themes of social and political conservatism, white supremacy, and religious zeal that left little room for “otherness.” During the mid-term elections traditional Republican politicians faced a stringent litmus test based on these themes. Those who failed were unceremoniously tossed aside.  

The Tea Party’s  zeal mirrored that of Joseph McCarthy, as politician after politician was called out for not being conservative enough, not hating Obama enough, not being isolationist enough, not being religious enough. The party within the Party had no particular policy platform. They did not seem to know what they were for…only what they were against.  

They quickly became identified as the Party of “no.” And the professional politicians…those who understood the art of governing…the need to reason together and sometimes compromise; those politicians were left powerless.

The result was a deadlocked Congress that accomplished little if anything, leaving President Obama to struggle with the nation’s challenges alone. Each of his hard-fought victories only stoked the Tea Party’s resolve, and they took hating the Commander-in-Chief to an entirely new level. They disrespected him in the Chambers of Congress, accused him of holding the presidency illegitimately, and opposed every initiative he put forth…even ones they had previously supported.   

This negative agenda resulted in a nation that languished on the verge of economic recovery. Obama was able to pull the country back from a precipitous economic crash that had been fueled by economic strategies that enriched those at the top of the economic pyramid, but left the rest of the nation in dire straits. But, as much as he tried, he was unable to push through much of his agenda to speed the recovery and give relief to the middle class.  

It was this backdrop that gave rise to Donald Trump. Although of questionable political allegiance, he wooed the disgruntled white, male, conservative electorate who felt unrepresented by the Democrats and betrayed by the Republicans. He promised a nation where white males would again dominate. He represented a time when white men were kings, and women and other minorities were whatever men wanted them to be.  

Trump had no problem disrespecting hated groups like immigrants and other minorities. He had no filter when talking about the president or other political foes. He said things this group of disaffected citizens had always wanted to say, but lacked the courage to do so. He made being politically incorrect in vogue, bringing out the worst in his followers.

As such, he has shaped one of the most divisive political campaigns in my memory. He has ripped the scab off of some of America’s darkest predispositions. He has dashed all talk of a post-racial America. He has brought to light the misogyny that still runs rampant in our society.

If any good is to come from this misdirected campaign, it is that we Americans must face our true selves. While it is a minority of Americans who appear to harbor these hateful, backward opinions, it occurs to me that at least one of every four people I come into contact is likely a Trump supporter who has embraced his dark view of the world. A quarter of my co-workers, people I pass in the mall, see at the grocery store or run into in my neighborhood want to return to segregation, isolation, and back-street abortions.

 

It is a sobering thought.

 Perhaps we will look into this mirror that Trump has provided us and determine this is not the America we wish to see. Perhaps those on the right and those on the left will attempt to move toward the middle so that we can find common ground and create a government that better represents our collective needs and desires. Perhaps it will help us to rise to be our better selves. Perhaps we will realize that living in a democracy means that we don’t always get exactly what we want all of the time. Maybe we will see that through compromise, common sense and human decency, we can make a society that serves us all.  

 

 

VOTER GUIDE FOR NORTH CAROLINA

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

On November 8, 2016 we will close the book on perhaps the most brutal presidential election cycle in our nation's history. Many North Carolinians made their choice yesterday during the first day of early voting. Their votes, and those still to be cast November 8th will set this nation's course for the next four years and beyond. If you haven't already done so, make your way to polls and let your voice be heard.

Already voted?  Your work is not done. Please encourage those within your realm of influence to get out and vote as well. You can promote the need to vote at your church, in your community and among the various organizations to which you belong. There also are numerous opportunities to volunteer to assist in the Get Out the Vote initiatives in your community.

If you want to learn more about the candidates running for office in North Carolina, go to:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7nbRwpQ5VFtT1pHYjZGSDJoX1k/view?usp=sharing

Many died to protect our right to vote. Honor their memories by showing up at the polls. Give voice to our ancestors who made the ultimate sacrifice so that our voices might be heard.

Vote between now and November 8th!

Sorry, Melania: Donald Trump is NOT a Gentleman

TRUMP CONDEMNED BY HIS OWN WORDS

By Mildred Robertson

As I sat and watched MSBNC on Monday night, I was amazed as Melania Trump defended her husband by saying that she knew he was innocent of sexual abuse charges because he is a gentleman.  While I empathize with family members who are thrust into the public eye by the ambitions and/or indiscretions of a loved one, I could not come up with an ounce of sympathy for Melania.

You see, her interview did not appear to be that of a dutiful wife who is truly blind to her husband’s indiscretions and shortcomings. Her appearance instead, appears to be a calculated attempt to gain sympathy from women voters who are abandoning Trump’s campaign in droves. She decided to squander what little reputation she has to argue that all the women who have come forward to confirm the damning statements made  by Trump himself are somehow liars, or of ill-repute. The Trumps chose to take this approach even after attacking Hillary Clinton for allegedly doing the same to her husband’s accusers.  They even went so far as to parade those accusers before Hillary during the 2^nd Presidential debate.

Even the debate itself belied Melania’s description of her husband as he stalked Clinton around the debate stage.  He commented after the debate that he checked Hillary out from behind and was not impressed; clearly a statement that a real gentleman would not make. He has spent much of his campaign rating the appearance of women with whom he comes into contact on the campaign trail.

 It is also clear that public discourse during this campaign has been dragged into the gutter based on Trump’s utterances. He has demonstrated that he has no respect for women, children (including his own), the military and their families, minorities, immigrants, the physically challenged, both the Democratic and Republican parties and various of their members, religion, the media …. Must I go on? His comments about these groups are clearly not those of a gentleman.  

That a woman would “stand by her man” is not a novel concept.  I am sure Melania Trump knows exactly who Donald is. I understand it. I even have compassion for her as her family endures this very public humiliation.  If she chooses to forgive her man’s indiscretions, no matter how reprehensible, that is her personal decision to make. If she decides to discount her husband’s own words, and buy into the conspiracy theory being promoted by Trump and his campaign, I say to her “do whatever allows you to sleep at night.” But to defend the indefensible; cloak it in gentility and ask America to accept it as its own truth is inexcusable. It is an insult to all the true gentlemen in this world.

You see, in my 64 years on earth, I have never heard a gentleman call a woman a “bi..ch” or a “cu_t.”  That is not to say that I have not heard such words, though I don’t believe I have ever actually heard someone called the “c” word.  And while the “b” word is used fairly commonly, I suggest that is not common terminology for one who considers himself to be a gentleman. It is not common practice for a gentleman to grab a woman in her crotch, or otherwise, without her consent. It is not the general behavior of a gentleman to simply kiss a woman because he chooses to do so, with no indication from the woman that those advances are acceptable.  Gentlemen do not commonly stroll into a woman’s dressing room and observe her in various stages of undress without her permission.  Gentlemen do not refer to their offspring as a “nice piece of ass.” These are all things gentlemen do not do. But based upon interviews, and video and audio tapes of Trump himself, these are common practices for him.

 So I do not know where Melania got her definition of a gentleman. But I have to emphatically say, “No, Melania,” Donald Trump is NOT a gentleman!