Nothing should be surprising since January 6, 2021, the day the American president’s plot to overturn the legitimate results of a fair election culminated in a bloody invasion of the U.S. Capitol. Still, I am appalled at the audacity of the Republican Party here in North Carolina.
They are following in the footsteps of their leaders and trying to steal the election. And if such an effort no longer seems as strange and sinister as it did before Donald Trump burst onto the political stage and swept away any reservations that still existed, it’s no surprise that it’s worth considering closely. There will be more reasons. We need to clarify the current situation. Our democracy is at risk as an election denier returns to the White House and his disciples are emboldened. That’s the moral of the North Carolina story. It’s much bigger than this state.
More details: North Carolina Supreme Court seat up for grabs on November 5th, first official vote count shows Allison Riggs, one of two Democrats on the court’s seven justices, narrowly behind It was shown that he had won re-election. margin. Her challenger, Republican Jefferson Griffin, called for a recount. Overall, three separate tallies gave Riggs a victory by just over 700 votes.
In a properly functioning democracy, with candidates and elected officials who prioritize civic order and basic decency over greed for power, that will be the end. Sigh. Griffin won’t budge. He continues to contest the results, and lawsuits are being filed simultaneously in state and federal court. There won’t be a solution for weeks.
The nature of his complaints is particularly insidious. Mr. Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party supporting him have produced no evidence of voter fraud or miscounting. They are contesting the legitimacy of more than 60,000 votes, primarily because many of the voters who cast their ballots did not have either their driver’s license or Social Security number required by law on their registration forms. Because it’s missing.
But that doesn’t mean voters did anything wrong. Some may have registered before that information became mandatory in 2004. Long after that point, North Carolina routinely accepted registration forms without information. It’s also possible that a voter provided information but the information is no longer in the state database due to administrative error or poor record-keeping.
The bottom line is that there is no reason to believe that most or all of these voters have a problem with their status or their ballots, and they have not been accused of wrongdoing. They are just pawns in the Republicans’ last-ditch effort to reverse Griffin’s defeat in any way possible.
Heath Clay, a Republican city councilman in Summerfield, North Carolina, said he voted for those 60,000 people in a recent Times article by Eduardo Medina and Michael Wines. Although he actually voted for Griffin, he acknowledges that North Carolinians “spoke” and that Griffin lost, and that Griffin’s attempts to invalidate his and others’ votes were “an act against voters. I think it’s a direct attack.
Clay’s inclusion on the list of voters whose ballots are in dispute means Griffin and his Republican allies can’t even be sure that a new tally that subtracts those votes will benefit them. It shows. But many of those votes were cast by mail-in ballots, which generally favored Mr. Riggs.
Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court’s Republican majority blocked state election officials from certifying Riggs’ victory, so Griffin joined the party, 6-1 against the current 5-5 Democratic Party. There is still a possibility that it will be advantageous. To-2. This increases the likelihood that Republicans will control the court for many years.
This is important not only in principle but also in practice. The court’s Republican majority has facilitated aggressive gerrymandering of North Carolina by Republican lawmakers, such as the current U.S. House of Representatives caucus, which is inconsistent with the state’s political complexion. North Carolina, which has a roughly equal number of registered Republicans and registered Democrats and just elected Democratic Governor Josh Stein by a nearly 15-point margin, only four of the 14 members of the House of Representatives are Democrats. In a sense, it is a paradigm of democracy without representation.
And the ruthlessness of the Republican Party. Don’t take it from me. Take Andrew Dunn, a conservative who worked as a Republican strategist and now publishes a political newsletter. He recently wrote: All are “states of emergency” against beloved institutions, “threats to democracy,” or “war.” Most of the time it’s dishonest and nonsense. Not this time. ”
Mr. Dunn added that if the North Carolina Supreme Court rewarded Mr. Griffin’s conspiracy, it would undermine its credibility.
Perhaps Richard Dietz, one of the five Republican justices, would agree. Disputing his colleagues’ ruling that Mr. Griffin’s case should be heard, he wrote: “Allowing post-election lawsuits seeking to rewrite state election rules, thereby stripping people of their right to vote in elections. It invites mischief.”
And an incredible distrust and disgust with the entire system. However, “incredible” is not the right adjective. I’m not the least bit surprised and outraged, but I’m pretty sure of this: Riggs’ fight for a seat on the court is more foreboding than an anomaly.
for the love of writing
In the Times, Billy Witts said of Pacific Palisades residents who witnessed the fire’s spread: “He watched the embers reach the house, then watched the flames spread like a finger around the jewelry box until it was engulfed.” Thanks to Kate Kavanagh.)
Also in the Times, Amy Chozick questioned California Governor Gavin Newsom’s priorities, saying, “He took the time to give a lengthy interview on Pod Save America, in which he He defended his record and response to the crisis, explaining: “There were no clear answers” from local officials. First, what should we do about Pod Save Los Angeles? ” (That nomination is from me.)
Gabriel Cohn looks beyond the fires in Elle magazine. “If we don’t confront the root causes of this destruction: climate change, capitalism, and the political meanness that enables both, we’re just planting flowers on a heap of ash.” Also from me)
At Lookout Santa Cruz, Lily Belli delves into the limited supply and high prices of grocery essentials, saying, “We don’t know if the chicken came before the egg, but bird flu came before the egg.” “This definitely happened before the egg shortage.” (Dean Gotterer, Santa Cruz, California)
Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, G. Allen Johnson praised the latest film in the British claymation series, “Wallace and Gromit: Revenge of the Dead,” calling it “an impressive feat of clay.” (Barbara Herroes, San Francisco, California)
Returning to the Times, Sam Sifton gave advice to cooks on how to make French onion soup. The climax is topped with French bread and Gruyère. “Bake until melted and enjoy with applause. It’s like running a brasserie in Montparnasse from the days when there were payphones next to the cloakroom and ashtrays on the dinner table.” (Marcia Lewis, Cohasset, Massachusetts)
Also in the Times, Maureen Dowd pointed out the distance between Trump and other American presidents at Jimmy Carter’s state funeral, saying, “Trump may be buoyed by his victory, but in this exclusive club he is largely a narcissist.” And it was Grata.” (Helen D. Muti, Seabrook, Texas)
Bret Stevens mocked President Trump’s desire to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “While President Trump is at it, how about changing the name of New Mexico to ‘Not Mexico’? Or from Arizona to ‘America’?” Or from El Paso to “No Pasaran”? ” (Pat Marriott, Wilmington, North Carolina)
And Ezra Klein, witnessing the successive capitulations to Trump, said, “Democracy does not die in the dark. ” (Helen C. Gagel, Evanston, Illinois).
Holly Peterson writes in the Wall Street Journal about the reactions of the privileged and spoiled residents of the Mar-a-Lago neighborhood, where the White House resident lives with a swarm of journalists, security guards, and petitioners seeking relief. I looked into it. Most people here report that they and their wallets are happy to know that their 45 year old will soon be 47. Indeed, no one is worried because of a headache. They move like geese, vie for rare and expensive real estate parcels, and draw daggers. Enterprising developers may soon ensure that West Palm Beach has more high-rise buildings than palm trees. That’s why rich miserables party so persistently beyond the barricades. ” (Robin Hagee, Thousand Oaks, California)
In the Guardian, Marina Hyde looked at Elon Musk and said: “We live in a muskverse now. It’s a quirk of the times that the geniuses who lead the competition to the stars are also the fools who lead the competition to the bottom.” (Brett Hauser, Laguna Beach, Calif.) Terrence Flynn, Chicago)
In the Washington Post, Ty Burr praises Guy Pearce’s performance in the new film The Brutalist by calling out Gordon Lightfoot’s hit song as “a great man of the mid-20th century, yet a man of the heart.” “There’s a smaller, meaner guy inside,” he said, citing such tragic events. The wreckage of the F. Scott Fitzgerald. ” (Tom Cosgrove of Arlington, Virginia, Dan Isaac of Rockville, Maryland, etc.)
Also in the Post, Alexandra Petri welcomed the soon-to-be addition to her family, writing, “I watch your sister walk, talk, talk about the world. I’m a year late there, but still close enough to share the view from my window for a long time. , it feels most like a window when I’m with her, through me, all the people I’ve ever known, loved, and lost, in little snippets of songs, familiar turns of phrase, and when I get nervous. “I wish I could have told them about you.”
To nominate your favorite recent passages from the Times or other publications for mention in “For the Love of Sentences,” please email us here, including your name and location.
as a personal note
For anyone who grew up in a snowy climate, or spent a large portion of their lives in a snowy climate, it’s really nice to see Southerners prepared for a few storms.
You’d think the apocalypse was coming. People are rushing to grocery stores to stock up on groceries, as if roads could be closed for a month. They preemptively exempt workers and students from showing up where they’re supposed to show up, because the uncertain threat of snow has as much sinister power as the actual reality of snow. They pile up firewood. They pull the boots from the back of the closet. They take out a flashlight from behind a drawer. Power lines may be down. It’s dramatic. Cinematic. And strangely attractive.
Also, to be fair, it’s not completely overmade. Here in the Raleigh and Durham area of North Carolina, we don’t have the massive snow plows and salt piles that we have in Minneapolis. As a result, even a small amount of snow can harden roads and turn them into dangerous straits. Of ice. On Friday evening, it made it about an inch to where I live in Chapel Hill. As I gazed out at the gleaming driveway and whitened cul-de-sac on Saturday morning, I was in no hurry to drive and crouched with joy. I had salmon fillets, chicken thighs, pasta, and (dry January sucks) lots of bottles of wine. I always do that. My own apocalypse will be well fed and properly lubricated.
And it’s very beautiful. That’s the real thrill of snow in the south. It’s a revelation because it’s an anomaly. The sight of hedges and mailboxes covered in glittering powder is astounding, as if Mother Nature had gifted us with fairy dust. There’s also some new music. The clunk of a shovel that eliminates slouch sounds as out of place in these parts as the cry of an elephant’s trumpet.
Until Friday, it hadn’t snowed in three years. With climate change and all that, I got an email from a neighbor telling me I should definitely go outside and get a taste of it. I got dressed, grabbed Regan’s leash, and set out on an adventure into a winter wonderland. But I wasn’t much of an adventurer. As if navigating a minefield, the preservation of my endoskeleton depended on paying the utmost respect to this cruel weather phenomenon, gingerly taking the smallest, most delicate baby steps. I found myself stepping out.
That confirms it. I’m a Southerner now.
