DEMOCRACY IS SHREDDED IN NORTH CAROLINA!! The Tea Party is in charge and Democrats won elections but have power taken away.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/14/1611242/-North-Carolina-GOP-shreds-democracy-acts-to-strip-power-from-new-Democratic-governor-and-high-court

North Carolina Republicans lost the governor’s mansion and control of the state Supreme Court last month, but instead of accepting defeat, the GOP is mounting an eleventh-hour power-grab to curtail all potential sites of Democratic power. The scope of the Republicans’ effort to nakedly shred democracy so as to thwart the will of voters and desperately cling to power is breathtaking.

The GOP-led legislature convened a special session that was ostensibly aimed at dealing with relief efforts for Hurricane Matthew, which struck North Carolina in October. Instead, Republican legislators have introduced a set of bills that drastically change the structure of state government. The idea is for outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who lost his bid for re-election in November, to sign these bills in advance of Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper taking office next month.

The bills would limit Cooper’s power to appoint and direct state officials. They would cut the number of state employees and managers whom he can replace from 1,500 to 300, curtail his control over the state Board of Education and the Boards of Trustees of the University of North Carolina system by shifting some of his appointment powers to the legislature, and subject his Cabinet appointments to confirmation by the Republican state Senate.

The GOP also plans to strip Democrats of the majorities that they were set to gain on the state Board of Elections and on all county election boards. Under current law, the governors’ party gets a majority on elections boards. The GOP proposal would divide all boards between the two parties. While bipartisan boards might sound good in theory, they could in practice benefit Republicans by fomenting gridlock and blocking expansions of voting opportunities.

In fact, Republicans have benefited from just this dynamic in Indiana, where a new law established bipartisan election boards that require unanimous agreement to set up new early voting locations. The sole Republican on the board in heavily Democratic Indianapolis was then able to block proposals to open more than one early voting site in the state’s biggest county. 

The boards’ chair would rotate, with the bill effectively providing that on the state board and most county boards Democrats would only hold the chair in odd-numbered years, while Republicans would hold the chair in even-numbered years, when all elections for president, House, Senate, governor, and legislature are held! 

And we haven’t even discussed the state Supreme Court yet, where Democrats are set to take a four-to-three majority after winning a key election last month. Rick Hasen notes that Republicans are moving to limit the state Supreme Court’s ability to review constitutional challenges, which would have the effect of empowering judges on lower courts, which are stocked with Republicans.

We’re not done yet, because the GOP still has not ruled out introducing legislation to outright pack the court in the coming days. They would expand the court by two members, whom McCrory would get to appoint, meaning Republicans would sneak their way into a five-to-four majority.

Democratic legislators have said that they will file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the special session, but guess where such a case would likely wind up? That’s right: the state Supreme Court, which could have two additional Republican members by the time it hears the matter.