Surprised by the legislative coups in Wisconsin and Michigan? They learned it from NC.
James Iredell, North Carolina’s second attorney general and one of George Washington’s appointees to the original U.S. Supreme Court, argued for a federal Guaranty Clause to stop tyrannous, non-democratic state governments from infecting the others. Iredell feared straying communities would “subvert the freedom of the remaining states.” We could wonder if he was thinking about future Tar Heels.
Wisconsin just elected a Democratic governor, attorney general, and secretary of state — though both houses of the legislature remain in Republican hands. As a result, lawmakers quickly called themselves into emergency session to pass statutes reducing the power of all three posts. Gov. Scott Walker signed the power grab on the way out the door. Sound familiar?
Michigan then followed suit. Faced with incoming Democratic leaders, a lingering Republican legislature passed bills turning back a minimum wage initiative and slashing the powers of the attorney general and secretary of state. The New York Times wrote both states were “following a model set in North Carolina.” The Washington Post indicated the schemes “mirrored tactics employed by N.C. Republicans in 2016.” Rick Hasen, the nation’s leading election law expert, said we’ve “set a precedent of political hardball” not seen in the country before. Making quite a name for ourselves.
After Roy Cooper defeated Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016, our legislators went into special session to deal with a storm and came out with dramatic limitations on the authority of the governor, attorney general, state board of elections, and other electorally successful adversaries. We’ve been litigating ever since. After spending millions of taxpayer dollars, much of the legislative overreach has been invalidated. But apparently we developed what Vox calls the “North Carolina playbook to undermine democracy.”
One of the central norms of democratic government, Professor Hasen instructs, is that “the loser accepts the results of an election and moves on.” Under the North Carolina (and now Michigan and Wisconsin) plan, though, elections don’t count much. As the speaker of the House in Wisconsin explained, it was necessary to curtail the new governor because he might “deploy policies that are in contrast to what many of us believe.” I assume he knows Phil Berger and Tim Moore.
When Hugo Chavez’ party lost an array of local elections in Venezuela, he stripped their powers and created alternative governing units. As Aziz Huq wrote in “How to Save a Constitutional Democracy”: “Changing the rules of the game after you’ve lost round one is a way of showing you are skeptical of democratic government.” It is hard to function, he added, “when one party doesn’t believe in democracy unless they win.”
Much of the nation has been stunned by what is now being deemed the Michigan and Wisconsin “legislative coups.” They haven’t been paying enough attention to the Tar Heel state. We’re pioneers at thwarting democracy. We have done more to disenfranchise African-Americans than any state since Mississippi in 1960. We’ve created more egregious political gerrymanders, the federal courts report, than any government in the entirety of American history. And if you beat a Republican at the polls here, don’t expect to have an office left to occupy. Democracy is for losers. Or at least that’s what N.C. Rep. David Lewis seems to say.
Our General Assembly has done plenty, over the last eight years, to wound this commonwealth. Apparently unsatisfied, they’re now taking the instruction book nationwide. And like ZZ Top, they’re “bad.” (Though not, I’d concede, in the same way.) Constitutional democracy isn’t what they’re after. Iredell would be ashamed.