JAMES ARTHUR POPE: McCRORY PUPPETEER

The tragic story of 2012 is that all the evil forces of electoral politics have come to roost like a vulture standing over the North Carolina State House. One by one, the schemes to gain power for the minority of the electorate have paid big dividends for Republicans. It has become obvious even to the politically blind. It is especially clear in North Carolina.

The first scheme, the shifting of power from individual donors to corporate money, happened with the take over of the supreme court of the United States by the Republican Party in the form of campaign for appointments of radical right wing judges. Our political ancestors never dreamed of such a thing, thus did nothing to guard against it. Citizens United corrupted campaign finance. The next scheme was to take over the house of representative by gerrymandering legislative districts. This consists of corrupting the honest formula of having one representative represent a certain number of people based on area censes. Political operatives studied maps and determined that by shaping the size and locations of certain districts they could manipulate the intent of area representation to their political advantage. The third part of the scheming used this approach to take control of State Legislatures, one state at a time. This allowed them the power to pass laws to destroy labor unions, which are a major source of money for Democrats. As an aside, Republican controlled state legislatures passed laws in three states that were overturned by popular votes so they now pass laws with provisions the prevent them from being overturned.  The fourth part of the scheme is to corrupt voting laws to prevent as many working class people from voting as possible. They know they are in a minority and know what part of the electorate vote for them and against them. The fifth part of the scheme is to get control of the governor’s chair with the power to appoint state office holders. The government appoints political operatives deep, deep into the government structure. This, along with the power over the formulation of laws, will prevent even a majority of the electorate shedding their influence.  

Case in point, Pat McCrory, Governor of North Carolina, has appointed James Arthur Pope, multimillionaire, as budget director. Pope’s money was behind turning the state legislature into a Republican strong hold after centuries of Democratic rule using the schemes just described. The conflict of interest is so obvious it is ludicrous. When the new governor was forming the State’s Utilities Commission, groups for good government objected. Why? The Commission is there to regulated utility companies of which Duke energy is a principle player. McCrory had worked as an unregistered lobbyist for Duke Energy for many years, even while he was mayor for a principle city in North Carolina. Again, the relationship of the appointees to their job is ludicrous. Now, voters of North Carolina, you know what is even more ludicrous, you actually voted for McCrory and you can never get your vote back. What saddens me is that my family and I have to suffer for your foolishness while the vultures pick the flesh off “our collective” middle class bones.