Goin' to the North Carolina

That's going to be a "look at me your favorite president" rally, of course.  But the reason he's wanted there is because North Carolina Republicans are in deep shit now that their gerrymandering tricks have been hauled up short.

Next year, for the first time in several years, North Carolina voters will cast ballots in races with fairly drawn legislative maps that offer all voters a full voice in their future. It’s why everyone from local voting rights advocates to former president Barack Obama celebrated a Wake County Superior Court ruling Tuesday that Republican-drawn legislative maps are unconstitutional. Republicans will not appeal the Common Cause v Lewis decision.

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Today, before we look forward to fairer elections in North Carolina, let’s remember exactly what’s happened in our state the last half-decade. In their deliberate and damning ruling Tuesday, one Republican and two Democratic judges laid it all out for us. They explained how Republican lawmakers were guilty of “specifically and systematically designing the contours of the election districts for partisan purposes and a desire to preserve power.” They described, in nearly 300 exhaustive pages, how the tactics violated our state constitution’s free elections clause, its equal protection clause, and the right to free expression and assembly.

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It was gerrymandering with more precision and more scope than this state has seen, even during the decades Democrats were in power. It was legal — until Tuesday, at least — but it was essentially a political crime, a theft of votes, something far more destructive than last year’s 9th District ballot fraud that likely will send people to jail.

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Under a Republican super-majority, we became a state that once again jumped to discriminate against its residents, one that was no longer was a model for environmental programs and successes, one that occupied the headlines and late-night jokes that used to be reserved for other states.

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Not only did Republicans rig legislative and congressional maps, they did so brazenly and with the belief it was appropriate because Republicans should be leading North Carolina. It’s the kind of self-affirming blindness that comes when there aren’t enough people to tell you no.

There’s little reason to believe Republicans wouldn’t try to get it all back if they achieved a new supermajority in the General Assembly or a majority on the state Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on partisan gerrymandering. So while you should be angry about the injustice afflicted on our state, you also should be vigilant. The maps will be fairer this next election, but the stakes will be just as high.

  Charlotte Observer

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.