Why Are
North Carolina Liberals So @&%*! Angry?
The burning heart of liberal activism and
indignation this summer can be found, of all places, in the charming capital
city of the Tar Heel State. On Monday, for the 11th week in a row, thousands of
protesters descended on the copper-domed Capitol denouncing the policies of a
Republican Party that for the first time since Reconstruction controls North
Carolina's governorship and legislature. Some 800 agitators have been arrested
for disrupting the legislature. By all accounts, these "Moral Monday"
rallies, though peaceful, are growing in size and volume.
The rallies have caught the eye of the
national media, with some referring to Raleigh as the "Madison of the South."
Madison, of course, is the famously liberal capital of Wisconsin that turned
into a political frying pan in February 2011 when the state's Republican
lawmakers reformed union collective-bargaining rules.
Thom Goolsby, an outspoken GOP state
senator, has jokingly dismissed the protests in Raleigh as "Moron
Mondays" and predicted that they would fade in the weeks ahead. Perhaps,
but the stated goal of the organizers is that these rallies evolve into the
same kind of political tour de force on the left that the tea party has become
on the right. Moral Mondays may be coming soon to a state capital near you.
So what are liberals of all stripes so
angry about in North Carolina? I put that question to the organizer of the
Moral Monday movement, Rev. William Barber II, a loquacious, likable and
politically shrewd preacher and leader of the North Carolina NAACP. (Think
Jesse Jackson, but with charm and genuine conviction.) He preaches "civil
disobedience" and trains peaceful demonstrators on how to get arrested. He
is also a master at political theater.
After a near-five minute sermon about how
Republicans have made the state a "crucible of extremism and
injustice," it became clear the answer to my question is he and his
followers are mad as hell about, well . . . everything. The list of grievances
is long but includes unemployment-insurance cuts that took some 70,000
recipients in the state off the rolls, state lawmakers' refusal to sign up for
ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion, a proposed voter-ID law, and of course
"tax cuts for the rich."
This past Monday
marchers were waving signs that read "Justice for Trayvon Martin," "Stop Fracking in
North Carolina," and "Vouchers Destroy Public Schools." In
recent weeks, demonstrators were out in force demanding abortion rights. On
July 2, the state Senate passed a bill requiring health regulations and
certified doctors at abortion clinics, a requirement that has been denounced by
pro-choice activists as an assault on women. Gov. Pat McCrory has said he would
veto that bill, and the state's House of Representatives has since passed a
revised bill that will now head back to the Senate.
Mostly, however, these
protests are about money. The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank in
North Carolina, recently published an analysis of the financial statements of
the left-wing groups sponsoring these rallies, such as the Community
Development Initiative and the Institute of Minority Economic Development. It
found they have collected about $100 million in state grants, loans and
contracts. No wonder they're enraged over GOP lawmakers' attempts to rein in
spending.
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