I had an uncle old enough to be my grandfather who cleared land, cut lumber, and built the home on his Tennessee farm with his own hands. As visitors approached, he warned them not to use the steps on the side of the porch. “Those are Republican steps.” he would say, “They look solid but if you trust them they’ll let you down.” Since handing over the legislature and the governor’s office to Republicans, a lot of North Carolina voters are learning what he meant. Republican candidates said it was time for a change after generations of Democratic control, pointing out numerous scandals and sloppiness in governance by one party. Republicans promised openness in government, less intrusion on personal liberties, lower taxes, improvements in public education and more jobs. Governor McCrory ran a campaign based on economic development and less intrusive government. Sadly, their actions don’t resemble their promises.

The actual Republican agenda appears to have three themes. First and foremost, hold on to power, even if that requires depriving citizens of their rights. The second theme is to financially reward supporters and punish opponents. The third is to impose the social and religious values of their extreme base on all North Carolinians.

Republicans are cementing their grip on power. By gerrymandering our districts they won 69% of North Carolina congressional seats with 49% of the votes. Now they are proposing laws designed to discourage voting by citizens they think are likely to support the opposition. They have proposed laws to:

• Take away the $2500 per dependent tax credit from parents of college students who vote where they go to college (and live for most of the year).
• Eliminate early voting on Sundays, which is especially popular among African American churches.
• Cut back early voting to one week.
• Restrict the number of early voting locations.
• End the practice of registering and voting on the same day.
• Pass a voter ID law, designed to deter voters who don’t have a driver’s license.

Republicans propose to financially reward supporters and penalize opponents. They want to cut corporate taxes, estate taxes, and income tax rates and pay for the cuts by expanding the scope and amount of the sales tax. By taxing food and other necessities then cutting taxes for corporations and those with higher incomes they can redistribute income from the working poor to the Republican base. There are proposed laws to reward generous Republican contributors by legalizing sweepstakes cafe gambling and payday lending (sponsored by our own Senator Tillman).   They passed a law allowing hydraulic fracturing for natural gas while severely limiting the liability of companies for pollution of ground water and land, even if it is caused by intentional violation of safety regulations.

Then they punished the poor – perhaps with the notion that most poor folks either don’t vote or vote for Democrats. They reduced unemployment compensation for the long term unemployed and raised college tuition, making upward mobility for those with low incomes even harder than it was before. Their funding cuts increased financial problems for our public schools. Their solutions include allowing charter schools to hire uncertified teachers without even doing background checks (Senator Tillman again). They rejected $15 billion dollars of federal money to pay for Medicaid expansion through 2019. That punishes the poor who need health care along with the hospitals and doctors who are required by law to provide emergency services whether they are paid or not. The Medicaid expansion would create 25,000 new jobs, mostly in the private sector. Do Republicans think voters won’t miss those jobs or notice that we still have to pay our $15 billion in federal taxes? At one time we were fighting a “war on poverty”. Now it feels like Republican leadership is fighting an undeclared war on the poor.

The third element of the Republican agenda has been to impose the social and religious values of their extreme conservative base on the rest of the population.   Randolph County’s own Allen McNeill co-sponsored a bill to exempt North Carolina from the US Constitution and allow government establishment of an official religion. You can find it on the legislature’s website or just Google “HJR 494”. One proposed imposition on personal freedom is a requirement to provide written notice to a spouse two years in advance and attend state approved counseling before filing for divorce – even in cases of domestic violence. There is a bill requiring doctors to get written consent from parents before providing pre-natal care to a pregnant minor or answering questions from minors about STDs or birth control. And one of the first acts of the Republican majority was to encourage a constitutional amendment which prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex marriages or unions – even those performed in states where they are legal. Soon they will be spending our tax dollars to defend that useless amendment in court.

As candidates, Republicans promised less intrusion on personal liberties, lower taxes, improvements in public education and more jobs but they are delivering something quite different. Like my uncle’s porch steps, they looked reliable but they are letting us down.