I’m probably not counted as one of Tom Fetzer’s friends. Something about calling to ask his campaign to remove the signs they had planted two towns away and all over southern Durham when he ran successfully to be Mayor of Raleigh in the early ‘90s.
We did become acquainted over the years, typically whenever Raleigh went “big game hunting” and insisted on manipulating Durham into expensive schemes. But I thought Tom did an incredible job as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party during the last election.
I had truly hoped his newly elected constituents would take heed to his wise and eloquent challenge the night their victories gave them control of both chambers in the General Assembly, “the tough job begins now, these people have to govern.”
But governing is not what many Republicans here and across the country are doing with the opportunity a 7% margin voters gave them in the last election.
If I were a cynic and not just an Independent, I’d say they obviously aren’t confident as a group that they will be in power long so they are trying to wreak as much havoc as possible while they can.
I’m not just talking about the US House vote to repeal healthcare legislation that was rejected by the Senate on February 2nd nor the bill four South Dakota legislators sponsored three days earlier to require all adults in that state to own a firearm and then backpedaling several days later as one sponsor claimed to a reporter that it was just a joke.
I wish the secret meetings in our legislature were joke, as well as the insane legislation proposed to strip local control of billboards and place North Carolina’s scenic fame behind seven blinking digital billboards per mile with trees swathed from the “public” roadsides to make sure your attention is drawn from one to the next.
Now a bill seeks to permit event ticket scalping and eliminate any protection for consumers that they are buying a ticket that actually exists let along many times its worth. Or congress members seeking to cut EPA’s funding so the environment is left defenseless to those eager to degrade it for a buck.
Or eliminating tens of thousands of jobs at a time when it will slow or postpone the recovery while refusing to address President Obama’s willingness to cut entitlements so they can gut environmental protection and pursue social agendas such as mural-gate or demonizing unions or taking away the right to restrict concealed weapons.
To quote Maureen Dowd, “Republicans talk fiscal policy but can’t resist social meddling.”
The kids in the candy store are looking at a big stomach ache if they aren’t following polls and trends like the analysis last week by Nate Silver illustrating that while Tea Party favorability remains as it has always been in the in the low 30s, the percentage of those unfavorable to the Tea Party, once below 20%, is now at 47% and climbing.
Doesn’t look like that enthusiasm gap that swept Republicans into power is holding.
I’m not sure but I’ll bet Tom is just shaking his head over the lost opportunity to truly govern.
As Dowd wrote a few days ago, “because Independent voters considered President Obama too partisan in his debut, they shifted their loyalties – and swept in one of the most ideological and partisan Republican caucuses in history. Now Obama will get back some Independents because he seems reasonable by comparison.”
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