The rarefied air that Neal Hunt breathes
Submitted by James on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 10:28am
It is a practice so commonplace, so entirely unremarkable in our imperial government, that no one bats an eyelash. Not even the most well-connected political reporter in the state. A culture of privilege.
When state Sen. Neal Hunt, a Republican from Raleigh, introduced a resolution last month, he thought it was "a no-brainer." He was doing it as a favor for a friend, attorney Arch Allen, a former Wake County Republican chairman, whose late wife was a descendant of Holden.
He was doing a favor for a friend. A rich, white Republican friend.
How many friends do you think Neal Hunt has who are poor, black, Hispanic, or homeless? How many of those friends do you think Neal Hunt is doing favors for in the legislature?
He is not doing any favors for me. I'm not one of Neal Hunt's friends. And like all the other people in North Carolina who are not his friends, I don't matter.
Christensen & N&O
This got baked into Christensen's story as a throwaway paragraph. As I said, it is entirely unremarkable. Christensen himself didn't even notice the travesty at play here. That's because he's part of the good old boys network himself. How sad is that?
No wonder there's a class war brewing.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
I wonder how many
of those "local acts" that don't require the text to be revealed are favors for friends.