North Carolina as exemplar

For all those who argue that people should accept the results of an election and support the winner, let me point to North Carolina.  A state which is possibly the most successful example of a republican takeover that is probably going too far.

Clearly the biggest problem democrats had was a failure to contest local elections in many states.  This led to a couple of things, one of which is the ability of State legislatures to redraw Congressional districts to deprive certain minorities a equal voice in Government and to place restrictions on voting to achieve the same goal.

North Carolina was either so good at this or so bad that the courts recognize the racist motivations and have ordered the same group of racists to redraw them.

Of course besides being racist they are also bigoted and made their mark last year by passing discriminatory laws that led to a national outcry.

So in the state wide Governor's race, the democrat won, not by a lot but by enough.

So now in an emergency session the state legislature and the lame duck Governor have passed restrictions on the incoming Governor designed to prevent him of many of his traditional powers.

So while North Carolina continues to set itself above the pack, its not all that unique in this country. We see state after state where the legislatures are under republican control gerrymander congressional districts and try to restrict minority voting rights.

The problem is that while this is getting some attention now, its a bit like a team that keeps losing wondering why when they consistently failed to make good draft picks over the years.

It just seems like the democrats focused too much on big national issues and ignored the local ones that eventually control the outcome.

There is no magical fix to this problem, at best it would have to wait until after the next census if somehow, despite the redrawn districts we can win back some of the states, like North Carolina and fix the districts.

But every local election between now and then is important and if we don't pay attention we will be left shaking our heads for another decade.