(The Center Square) – Belief in control rather than democracy is seeded in protests of the State of Union address on Tuesday night, says a North Carolina Republican hearing of plans by multiple Democrats.
“Democrats and their media allies are planning to boycott a sitting president’s joint address, rejecting a tradition that has stood through the most divisive moments in history,” said freshman U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan from the state’s 10th Congressional District. “Leaders once understood that showing up wasn’t about endorsing the speaker but preserving the institution. A party that only participates when in power doesn’t believe in democracy, it believes in control.”
Several Democrats have indicated they will not show up as a form of protest. They include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.; Rep. Don Beyer, D-W.Va.; and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is the House minority leader and encouraged a “strong, determined and dignified” presence. Others are bringing former federal workers who lost jobs when the Trump administration began operating the Department of Government Efficiency.
Harrigan’s statement coupled with a number of events tied to North Carolina continue to paint an unflattering picture for what was once the most popular party in the state. State Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, in mid-December said the North Carolina Democratic Party has “sent angry mobs,” “wasted more than half a million dollars” to defeat him in a primary and seeks “a seat warmer who does nothing, sacrificing their own community’s needs for the desires of the wealthy and white Democratic elite.”
That was about the same time even mainstream media acknowledged cover-up of then-President Joe Biden’s decline in health.
Saying Democrats “picked the wrong chick” to try and control, state Rep. Tricia Cotham on April 5, 2023, said she was switching her affiliation to North Carolina’s Republican Party.
“If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you,” she said. “They will cast you aside.”
When Democrats in the General Assembly didn’t follow the lead of former Gov. Roy Cooper, it was predictable a primary would follow for the incumbent.
The collapse of domination by Democrats in the state has been nothing short of stunning. Republicans in 2010 won both chambers of the General Assembly at the same time for the first time in 140 years, since Reconstruction following the Civil War.
The wins were against redistricting maps they said were gerrymandered against them, and the Grand Old Party hasn’t lost either chamber since. Economic measures have surged for the state. In less than 15 years, an inherited budget deficit between $800 million and $1.2 billion has turned around roughly $6 billion to a surplus of $5 billion.
On Jan. 1, 2004, Democrats had 47.6% of the state’s more than 5 million registrations, Republicans had 34.4% and those unaffiliated only numbered 17.7%. Through Saturday, blocs are 37.6% unaffiliated, 30.9% Democrats and 30.5% Republicans.
Republicans have only dropped 4%-5% since, hitting 29.8% at the 2018 midterms and this past November’s 29.9%. They got as high as 34.7% on April 1, 2006.
Democrats have steadily fallen, dropping below 40% for the first time on Nov. 8, 2016. Unaffiliated registrations climbed above 20% in 2008, above 30% shortly after the 2016 presidential election, and today are at an all-time high.
