As a Biblical character, you know you’ve made it when even folks who’ve never read the Bible know who you are and such is the fame of King Solomon.  In his most famous judgment, Solomon was required to choose which of two women was the actual mother of a newborn baby. His solution, according to scripture of course, was to cut the baby in half. This revealed the identity of the true mother as she would do anything, even giving up her own child, before she would see it come to harm. I would love to see what the wise king could do with the current state of affairs within North Carolina politics.

According to information from the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, North Carolina has 6,760,450 registered voters.  It doesn’t say how many of them are active voters and it also doesn’t indicate how many are currently alive but it does provide some food for thought.  When broken down by party, Democrats make up 39.3% of the electorate in North Carolina while registered Republicans check in with 30.3%. Following closely behind are independents or as they are know in political party parlance, unaffiliated, with 29.8% of registered N.C. voters.

Given those numbers it is obvious that Republicans have punched far above their weight in every election since 2008.  The 2010 election saw N.C. mirror the country in a lurch back towards a more conservative bent and the N.C. GOP has capitalized on those victories.  With super majorities in both the State House and Senate, Republican leadership seems both drunk with power and desperate to hold onto it.

Bills placing extreme limitations on abortion (or reproductive rights if you prefer) and HB2 represent a social agenda far more conservative than most North Carolinians prefer.  I’m not arguing a position on these laws, necessarily, but merely pointing out that according to polling they don’t represent the wishes of the majority of North Carolinians.  Conversely, elected Democrats have lined up solidly in opposition to these extreme measures and like any army hopelessly outnumbered have resorted to the political equivalent of guerilla warfare.

The latest political imbroglio for North Carolina comes in the form of the Legislative special session where Republicans attempted to shift powers within state based apparently on the November election:  From the governor to the General Assembly, away from the Board of Education to the incoming superintendent, and the piece de resistance in the form of a complete overhaul of the Board of Elections.  Reclaiming “legislative oversight” pursuant to the state constitution many Republicans claimed while Democrats screamed “power grab”.

Cue the scenes which have become all too familiar to middle of the road North Carolinians.  Clamoring protests by the NAACP and other liberal groups and sweet grandmothers being arrested by Capitol police all while Dallas Woodhouse screeches in the background about the Christmas Massacre of 1976.  God bless us everyone, indeed.

With politically gerrymandered districts protecting many Republican officials it is unlikely that even the continual stream of negative court rulings will slow the tide of their conservative agenda.  Meanwhile, Democrats hold slim hope that Gov. Cooper will spend more time governing than fighting rearguard actions against the state legislature.  In his inaugural address Cooper said he refused “to spend the next four years engaging in political brinksmanship.”  Sorry Roy but that’s what you signed up for.

Sadly, if our elected leaders were presented with the opportunity to split the baby it appears that each would be more than willing to take a half.