Democrats Up Against the GOP’s Steamrollin’ Coup

When Roy Cooper won as governor of North Carolina in 2016, the Republic legislature was waiting with a dish of disempowerment. They served up a similar dish to Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. Tony Evers got the same from the GOP cooks in Wisconsin.

Voter suppression, intimidation and outright theft of votes is how the GOP keeps winning. Add a highly successful gerrymandering game and the Republicans will have dominance in state and national elections for a good while. That slops over to majority governance.

The North Carolina Republican-dominated state legislature passed a package of bills that stifled incoming Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s legislative promises. This included not being able to make key cabinet appointments without legislative approval, drastically cutting the size of the new administration, and changing the Board of Elections so that Republicans would control it in the future. By the scope of the bills, it was apparent to the trusting Democrats that the coup had been in the works for a while.

Governor Cooper now spends a lot of time in defense mode—vetoing bills only to have them repealed by the state legislature and then having to file lawsuits. This is no way to govern.

Did the Democrats learn any lessons from the GOP punch in the gut of democracy? Apparently not.

I’ve often criticized the Democratic Party for being sleep at the wheel. One big area where there is little or no aggressive offensive is to stop red gerrymandering. That’s what North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin all have in common.

Wisconsin Governor-Elect Tony Evers fell victim to the GOP lame duck muck. The not-so-sneaky power grab could be crippling for Governor Evers and his new Attorney General Josh Kaul if outgoing Governor Scott Walker signs off on it.

Evers has called the power play a “hot mess.” The progressive platform that he ran on is being sabotaged, like stopping the Republican’s legal challenge of the Affordable Care Act.

The power grab is taken out of the GOP playbook in North Carolina. There Democrats were ambushed by a special session called by the Republican governor during the lame duck period.

Democrats won every statewide contest in Wisconsin’s 2018 midterms. Yet Republicans were able to keep control of the gerrymandered state legislature. The GOP received just 45 percent of the vote overall but will control 63 of 99 seats in the Assembly. Well played, Republicans.

Getting Democratic voters out in the future will become more difficult if their efforts still result in Republican rule. Until there’s a serious strategy implemented by Democrats, we’ll continue to see red figuratively and politically.

By now, it should be indisputable that the GOP is all about power for themselves. By any means necessary. Their actions have absolutely nothing to do with God, country, the U.S. Constitution, the flag or any other symbolism thrown in our faces to justify its unfettered seizure and abuse of power.

The two-party system is slowing turning into a one-party dictatorship. The checks and balances in the three branches of government—Executive, Legislative and Judicial—are methodically disappearing.

If one party winning an election still means that the other party is running the show because of politricks, then the People must rise to save ourselves and the country.