North Carolina is ground zero in the fight for democracy

Republicans who have been attacking democracy for 15 years now are attacking checks and balances.

Republicans in North Carolina are once again showing that they don’t really have any core values. After decades of lecturing Democrats about federalism and states’ rights, the GOP is pushing through legislation that would make the state more subservient to the whims of the federal government. This time, they are trying to restrict the power of the attorney general to oppose presidential executive orders. Instead of states rights, they are promoting an imperial presidency.

Republicans want to stop Attorney General Jeff Jackson from suing to block Trump’s actions that would adversely impact the state. Jackson has joined other states’ attorneys general in opposing several of Trump’s executive orders that they consider unconstitutional and harmful. A blanket ban on opposing executive orders cedes an enormous amount of state power to the federal government. For the party that once touted the virtues of a weak federal government, the move is a stunning, if unsurprising, reversal.

Stripping power from Jackson is the continuation of an effort to weaken executive branch agencies controlled by Democrats. Republicans passed a massive bill that took power from the governor before Josh Stein took office. They removed powers away from every council of state office won by Democrats and shifted them to offices held by Republicans or to the legislature. Taking power from the state and giving it to the federal government might be new, but the goal is the same—hamstringing Democrats.

The assault on executive branch power is another front in an ongoing attack on democratic norms in the state. For fourteen years, the GOP has been eroding Democrats’ ability to compete in elections. They pioneered some of the most anti-democratic tactics in the country.

Their gerrymandering secured veto-proof majorities in the legislature in an evenly divided state and handed Republicans ten of the state’s fourteen Congressional districts. They sought to limit access to the ballot box through restrictive voter ID laws, reducing polling places, and making voting inconvenient for Democratic constituencies. They’ve moved so far away from democratic norms that today they are trying to strip votes of voters who have legitimately cast their ballots in order to steal an election—and they might succeed.

Republicans here established what Harvard professor Steven Livitsky calls “Competitive Authoritarianism—a system in which parties compete in elections but incumbent abuse of power systematically tilts the playing field against the opposition.” They have essentially ended democracy as a means for determining legislative and Congressional seats in North Carolina. They are trying to implement laws and rules to tip the scales to favor of the GOP in statewide elections that are regularly determined by a percentage point or two.

Now, North Carolina Republicans are removing the checks and balances that could limit their power, both in the state and federal governments. Weakening the governor and executive branch empowers an already entrenched and autocratic legislative branch. Their attempt to restrict the power of the attorney general to hold the federal government accountable is an attack on federalism itself.

North Carolina Republicans are the prototype of Trump’s Republican Party, populist, anti-democratic, and ruthless in pursuit of power. They’ve abandoned their core governing principles. Their fealty is to power, not the Constitution. They want to impose their will, not win political arguments or elections.

Understanding this mindset is essential as Democrats and democrats find ways to address the rising authoritarian in the country. All eyes should be on North Carolina. The struggle here could inform strategies and tactics nationally. North Carolina is ground zero.