north carolina democratic party

The General Assembly on Jones Street continues to churn out legislation that fails to nourish the state’s people, but rather serves them up a starvation diet while the GOP serves their corporate masters at ALEC the laws they want for maximizing corporate profits. The GOP on Jones Street has fifty card carrying members of ALEC among its numbers, and they serve Tarheels only a future prepared for them in the corporate blender which no one wants to drink.

Gary Pearce was kind enough to let me guest post on his blog. I wanted to share it here and gain your thoughts.

http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ArticleView/mid/36...

“Gary called for a Democratic Moses recently. It is an apt comparison because we are in the desert as far as the eye can see. Every time I see a key legislative debate it feels as if Senator Josh Stein and Representative Deborah Ross are largely alone in offering a counter narrative. It is disconcerting that we also have little infrastructure in place to allow Eric Mansfield, Cal Cunningham, Grier Martin, and others the ability to offer their response to the current actions of the folks on Jones Street.

It's beyond lunacy, but it's in the process of happening. The NC General Assembly (our esteemed legislature), under GOP domination, is about to approve legislation denying health insurance coverage to 500,000 North Carolina citizens.

Not only would NC taxpayers NOT be charged extra for this coverage, but it would bring in a half-BILLION federal dollars to the NC economy in 2014 alone. Hospitals, especially rural ones in the toughest economic status, are desperate for this help.

So: Humanitarianism, check; economic rationality, check. But not Ideologically Correct for the radical right ideologues who currently drive state policy.

From the Independent Weekly piece by Bob Geary:

"I won't belabor how much trouble the Democrats are in, but a few things are worth mentioning.

One is the virtual certainty that the General Assembly will end the state income tax check-off for political parties. That's the system that allows us to assign $3 of our taxes to the state Democrats or the state Republicans. Democrats get far more from it—upward of $600,000 a year and sometimes twice that—while Republicans consider it welfare for politicians. Consider it gone.

Also, the Republicans are shameless about taking contributions from companies and individuals who want something out of state government, the very "pay to play" tactics they denounced when the Democrats were in charge. Expect these "transactional donations," as Voller calls them, to set records on the Republican side but be scarce for Democrats.

I just heard that Eric Mansfield is stepping out of the race for NC State Democratic party chair. I strongly support Randy Voller for NCDP Chair and I urge you to support him as well. He will be a strong leader and we North Carolina Democrats need to come together, get organized, and win!

I know that Eric Mansfield's supporters must be disappointed, but I hope that they will give Randy Voller a chance. As a business owner in Chatham County, I have gotten to know Randy well and I admire what his organizing efforts accomplished in this past election. I can honestly say that in 2012 when I was feeling incredibly discouraged by the NC state Democratic party, Randy's work organizing Chatham County was a true bright spot. Chatham County had the highest voter turnout in the state--more than 76%! Voller had a plan and carried it out. He can do great things for our state party if we all decide to come together.

--Amy Tiemann, Chapel Hill & Pittsboro

I guess we won't be getting any lists of Obama volunteers - they are too valuable for Axelrod, Messina and Plouffe to sell to corporate America to advance their corporate, er, the President's agenda!

I guess now we know why a certain candidate for NCDP Chair has been pumping his intention to bring Messina, Plouffe, and Axlerod to "train" us how to activate our grassroots.

Funny thing is - the Democratic Party already teaches folks how to become leaders from the grassroots up. But we also allow these folks to think for themselves and then they get to contribute to the creation of the Party Platform. I have to question the goals and motivation of any corporate-funded non-profit to train "leaders". Aren't they just training people to become better-motivated "followers"?

So the question we have to ask ourselves as Democrats is: do we really want to become an adjunct of some corporate-funded non-profit pushing the President's agenda?

What does the North Carolina Democratic Party stand for?

After being in power for a hundred years, the last two have felt like a whirlwind. Republicans are moving (backwards) on a number of different fronts and they are doing it quickly. After a hundred years of sitting on the bench they knew exactly what they wanted; Amendment One, Women’s Right To Know, Fracking, dismantle public education, etc. Even if what they stand for is hate, sexism and shortsightedness, they at least stand FOR something.

On the other hand, for the last two years Democrats have been pushed against a wall. All we can do is try to slow down the attacks to public education, women’s rights, the environment, ec. The biggest thing in the Governor’s budget? A temporary extension of a sales (read: regressive) tax hike...not exactly New Deal stuff.

Not a lot of time for some very important decisions:

The State Executive Committee of the North Carolina Democratic Party will meet on Saturday May 12, 2012 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons Joseph S. Koury Convention Center located at 3121 High Point Road, Greensboro, North Carolina 27407.

Did anyone else get this today?

http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0dca4115622a4b266ea3c43bd&id=8dd9619...

Fellow Democrats,

It's time for a change in Raleigh. The party of Jim Hunt, Terry Sanford, Henry Frye, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson is at critical place in North Carolina. My top priorities are winning back both houses of the General Assembly, keeping the Governor’s chair in Democratic hands, and electing Democrats at the local level. Now more than ever we need to keep our eye on the ball and get to work. That is why I am running for Chair of your Democratic Party.

We are at a very critical time of the year; candidates are filing for offices all over the state. Primary elections are right around the corner and as an officer of the Lenoir County Democratic Party, I feel it is important to try and communicate to the public who we are and what we believe and where we stand on the issues.