RENEE ELLMERS, TEA PARTY, AND NORTH CAROLINA

Something strange happened on TV. This story is a bit convoluted so will take a little effort to outline why a political ad on TV was strange. The ad attacked Republican State Representative Renee Ellmers for her vote on a bill supporting the Import-Export Bank of the United States; apparently, she voted to support funding for the bank. It sounded strange that the radical right-wing Club for Growth would be asking her to oppose something people would normally expect Republicans to support and Democrats oppose. The bank opens up international markets to U.S. businesses by financing and insuring the sale of U.S. exports when private sector financing is prohibitively expensive or simply not available. Nearly 90 percent of Ex-Im’s transactions directly support U.S. small businesses. Why would Republicans attack an elected representative from their party for supporting legislation they would normally support? It turns out what they are doing is equivalent of the “radical” Tea Party challenging a “normal” conservative candidate for office as happens in primary elections where voter turnout is low, which allows a minority to elect a candidate with an unpopular position. This objective is the same; however, the circumstances are different. They want to drive the Republican Party further to the right. They are acting as if they had a solid radical Tea Party majority in her district, which is strange because they don’t have that majority. Renee Ellmers has been the U.S. Representative for North Carolina's second congressional district since 2011. She is a member of the Republican Party. In that election, Ellmers defeated seven-term Democratic incumbent Bob Etheridge in 2010 by 1,489 votes, (0.8%) confirmed after a recount. In other words, she is holding on to her seat by a thin margin. The ad was paid for by the radical extreme right-wing Club for Growth, a 501(c)4 organization with an agenda focused on cutting income tax rates to guarantee a continuation of the national deficit. They want to repeal the estate tax to make it worse. They support a Balanced Budget Amendment, so we as a country cannot pay our bills. They want to save money by entitlement reform, which means destroy social security and public schools. Mainly, they want to deregulate, which is what the government is there to do so that big business can lie, cheat, and steal. The problem they have with the Import-Export bank is that it takes $40 million dollars of taxpayers money to back that operation; your tax dollars at work. These are all positions that favor the rich and damage the working class but the Tea Party supports. If successful, they would destroy the “government of the people” and replace it with a plutocracy. Like the Wild West of old, the tough guy on a tall horse and with the biggest gun is in charge and not the people; however, in modern society, if they destroy the government, then the one with the biggest bank account will be in charge, Sheldon Adelson, and Koch brothers for example. I went to the internet and found maps of the legislative districts for North Carolina. They look like the infamous Psychological Hermann Rorschach Inkblot Test used to reveal your personality. There are 13, but I need only two to make the point, the first and second district. Renee Ellmers district is the second district. Clearly, the state legislature created or gerrymandered the districts. The first district concentrates as many black as possible into the district but leaves the whites in the majority in the second district. The now Senator Thom Tillis, when he was Speaker of the N.C. House, destroyed the honest government in our state by suppressing the minority vote, gerrymandering districts, and appointing boards of election. No one but a Republican Supreme Court Judge or the guy who owns the Dollar Stores can look at these and see anything fair. These inkblots reveal the personality of Republicans; they want power, not fairness. The sad thing is they are vicious in achieving their objective. They will sacrifice Renee Ellmers to achieve their goal, but the truth is they will sacrifice you as well. I m not suggesting we help Renee Ellmers, but I am suggesting liberals put up and support a winning candidate. I live in the second district so do not feel represented in government. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated