Clarissa's Blog

Two articles in today’s paper leave the same unpleasant aftertaste. One is titled “Democrats Had a Knife, and the G.O.P. Had a Gun” and makes a comparison between the outgoing NC governor McCrory and Obama. The author hopes to defend Democrats in the article, but the McCrory fellow comes out as a fierce, dedicated fighter who never quits and Obama comes out as somebody who quit fighting before the fight even began.

The second article is titled “What’s the Matter With North Carolina?” and it informs us that 

After a vicious governor’s race in which the Democrat, Roy Cooper, squeaked past the incumbent Republican, Pat McCrory, the state General Assembly drew up and passed a series of bills that greatly restrict the power of our incoming chief executive — bills that Mr. McCrory has signed.

The author expects us to be scandalized by McCrory but it’s hard to do so given that few of us would not feel profound relief if Obama managed to do something to “greatly restrict the power of the incoming chief executive” of the entire country. 

Later on in the piece, the author complains that NC Republicans

have operated as thieves in the night, presenting bills crafted in midnight sessions to their Democratic colleagues only a few hours before a vote is to be held.

Again, this is a weird – albeit not an uncharacteristic – way of defending Democrats. Republicans are presented here as intensely driven and hard-working while Democrats are described as pouty slackers who whine that they are made to work too hard.

This is what one always hears as an explanation of Democrats’ failures. It’s because of gerrymandering! It’s because of Comey! It’s because something is the matter with Kansas! It’s because of racists! It’s because nobody understands our profoundness! It’s because we “play by more genteel rules“! It’s because Putin!

And hey, Comey, gerrymandering, racists, Kansas and Putin are all true. But isn’t it time we start gerrymandering, Comeying and Kansasing right back? They had the FBI, OK, but we had the CIA. Why didn’t we make use of that asset? I’m tired of losing and hearing that it’s because we took the high moral ground. All of these “dirty tricks” that the linked articles enumerate are actually what politics is all about. If you believe that working through the night to spring surprise legislation on your opponents is beneath you, get out of politics!