Another two years have flown by, and with that, another midterm election is in the books. Though the years have progressed, our politics certainly have not. If anything, this midterm election has taught us that much of North Carolina is okay with and even encourages our retrograde politics.
North Carolina made some strides by getting rid of the supermajority in the General Assembly and voting in Anita Earls to the state Supreme Court, but the resulting message from the midterms is clear: North Carolina is not a progressive state.
The context of this election alone gives us a clear scope of how backward our politics currently are. After being declared unconstitutional by a panel of three federal judges, North Carolina politicians continued using our flawed congressional district lines for this election. As a result, the 13 seats in the House of Representatives that we have were overwhelmingly won by Republicans, with the party enjoying a sizeable 10-3 split. To make the voting process even more undemocratic, Republican lawmakers added a voter ID referendum to the ballot this year for citizens to vote on. The measure was voted in by a 55%-45% margin.
There is a certain aura of stubbornness in the decision to keep voter ID laws that is reminiscent of efforts in the 20th century to keep African Americans from voting. While the intentions of voter ID laws may be more subtle than a literacy test, the end result of the legislation still carries a similar effect: poor, minority voters are disenfranchised.
Similarly, the hotly contested race in North Carolina 9 shows another level of returning to the old days rearing its head in our state. The victor of that race, Mark Harris, is the perfect example of the retrograde politics North Carolina is in inching closer to. He is a product of older generations hell-bent on retaining their status in the ever-changing social hierarchy we currently live in. Harris illustrates the close-minded, ignorant thinking that many Americans desperately want to hold on to.
The former First Baptist Charlotte pastor makes it clear on his campaign website that he is a firm believer in “traditional values.” As such, Harris has proven himself to be an enemy of the LGBTQ+ community. He proudly boasts that he led the 2012 initiative to keep heterosexual marriage as the only type of marriage recognized in our state. Harris also, unsurprisingly, wears his transphobia on his sleeve like it is a badge of honor. The congressman-elect laments that restrictions were not placed on transgender people choosing which bathrooms they would like to use in public.
Harris does not attempt to refrain from discussing his sexist viewpoints of the world either. In 2013, Harris gave a sermon questioning if pursuing careers was the “healthiest choice” for women. Just a year later, Harris gave another sermon discussing his perception of what the Bible says about women. This time, Harris stated that women are to always “submit to their husbands” because it is a “message” from the Lord.
Between the radical right-wing politics of Mark Harris, the discriminatory voter suppression tactics and blatantly unfair congressional districts, North Carolina is reaching a level of retrograde politics that we have not seen since Jesse Helms was in office. The results of this midterm election are simply an homage to those days.
It is easy for us to lose sight of the broader picture of politics while living in the liberal bubble that is the triangle. NC State may not be as liberal as our triangle counterparts, but for many of us, these election results came as a surprise. We must realize that this is not a new phenomenon, but merely a return to what has always been dwelling in our state. It is a return to the bigotry, sexism, homophobia and undemocratic policies of our past. It is a return to what North Carolina truly is.
