Democrats in North Carolina say they could have defeated a bill to repeal renewable energy subsidies on Wednesday if Republicans had not pushed it through committee without counting the votes. The state Senate Finance Committee debated the bill to end the state’s 6-year-old renewable energy…
Are the culture wars really over?
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in the latest Democracy:In 1943, Allied forces achieved a hard-fought victory in the North African campaign, captured Sicily, and began to fight their way up the Italian peninsula. Victories in places such as El-Alamein, Salerno, and Anzio gave America some confidence that the Allies would ultimately prevail in Europe. That confidence allowed the American public to shift more of its attention to the Pacific Theater. Popular magazines such as National Geographic began to publish more maps and articles about the Pacific because Americans suddenly wanted to know a lot more about Saipan and Leyte Gulf. The same sort of shift is happening now for the left in America’s long-running culture war. From the 1980s until the birth of the Tea Party, most of the action was in the Social Theater, in which the religious right and the secular left waged an existential struggle for the soul of American society. Issues related to sexuality, drugs, religion, family life, and patriotism were particularly vexing, and many people over 40 can recall the names of battlefields such as Mapplethorpe, needle exchange, 2 Live Crew, and the flag-burning amendment. But the left won a smashing victory in the 2012 elections, including the first victories at the ballot box for gay marriage. These triumphs, combined with polling data showing the tolerant attitudes of younger voters, give the left confidence that it will ultimately prevail on most issues in the Social Theater. The power base of the religious right is older, white, rural Protestants, a group that immigration, demography, and urban renewal have consigned to play an ever-shrinking role in American presidential elections.Continue Reading… … Read More
North Carolina kills bill to establish a state religion
North Carolina’s Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis killed a bill on Thursday that would have allowed the state to establish an official religion, WRAL reports.From the Huffington Post:The bill, which was drafted by state Reps. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) and Harry Warren (R-Salisbury), was intended to address an issue in Rowan County, where the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the county commission in an attempt to block commissioners from having a Christian prayer at the beginning of meetings. The North Carolina measure responds to the ACLU suit by declaring that each state is “sovereign” and no federal court can prevent a state from “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” Though Warren, one of the bill’s authors, told HuffPost Live that the measure was not seeking to create a state religion, the drafted legislation would clearly allow for such an action.“Each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion,” the bill says.Continue Reading… … Read More
Forget the theocracy, North Carolina
On your knees, North Carolina! On Monday, state lawmakers moved to declare an official state religion. The bill seeks to block any of those pesky federal restrictions laid out in First Amendment.As WRAL first reported, the bill is a response to a move by the ACLU last month against the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. The ACLU says the board “has opened 97 percent of its meetings since 2007 with explicitly Christian prayers,” a stunning, defiant number. The new bill proposes that “Each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion” and that “The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” Shorter: nyah nyah nyah — you can’t make us stop talking to Jesus at government functions.Continue Reading… … Read More
Immigrants say North Carolina’s plan to mark driver’s licenses ‘stigmatizes’ them
Immigrants rights advocates are criticizing North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) plan to mark driver’s licenses for two-year visa recipients with the phrase “NO LEGAL STATUS.” The Charlotte Observer reported on Sunday that the licenses will be issued to participants in the…
North Carolina stirs controversy over special licenses for undocumented immigrants
North Carolina will begin to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants who have been granted “lawful presence” in the country — but North Carolina is drawing criticism for how it will issue those licenses, reported Fox 8. Licenses will be available to those who fall…
