Opinion | North Carolina Republicans’ power grab reveals their deepest fear

On a rainy afternoon in Raleigh this week, the North Carolina House convened in a statehouse bedecked with tinsel and lights to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that Republicans passed after losing their supermajority in November’s election. The wet weather was a grim reminder that the legislation, introduced without any public comment or debate in committee, was presented as a hurricane relief bill to address western North Carolinians’ ongoing needs following Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm in our state’s history. But only 13 of the bill’s 131 pages even purport to address the disaster. The rest of the bill is not about relief at all; instead, it amounts to a political coup.

Despite the holiday decorations, the halls of the General Assembly rang not with carols celebrating “peace on Earth, goodwill toward men,” but with shouts of protest from North Carolina citizens who sought to expose the GOP’s power grab. For Helene relief efforts, the legislation does little: It merely shifts state funds from one account to another and says that “the funds shall remain unspent until” further action by the Legislature next year.

But the bill does shift authority to appoint members of the state Elections Board from Gov.-elect Josh Stein, a Democrat, to the incoming state auditor, a Republican. The bill shortens the amount of time voters have to fix ballot errors and requires counties to report election results sooner. It prohibits the incoming attorney general, a Democrat, from refusing to defend laws passed by the General Assembly — the same lawmakers who just lost their gerrymandered supermajority.

This Christmas season, political leaders who say something pious while doing something nefarious are reminiscent of King Herod, who requested that the Magi report the location of the Christ child so that, in his own words, Herod might “come and worship him.” It was a lie. Herod did not rush to Bethlehem to honor the child; he sent his henchmen to kill every child under 2 years old in a scorched-earth effort to stamp out any potential opposition. That act of terror in the Christmas story is an awful testament to the desperation of political power, but it illumines our present political moment in a way that Christmas lights alone cannot.

Since Donald Trump narrowly won re-election in November, many have despaired that the American electorate has given up on the possibility of a multiethnic democracy. But the Herod-like action of the North Carolina Republican leadership this week reminds us that extremism is vulnerable. Yes, North Carolina gave Trump a slim majority in an election with a lower turnout than four years ago. But Republicans lost their supermajority in the House. They lost half of the statewide races, with Democrats winning all of the offices that oversaw elections under existing law. GOP extremists didn’t wage a political coup under the cover of hurricane victims because they are strong; they did it because they know they are losing ground and are desperate to hold on to power.

These are the same politicians who criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough when FEMA rushed relief to western North Carolina in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene. They ran for re-election saying they are “pro-life” and claiming the mantle of Christianity, but they abandoned the ethics of Jesus and gave western North Carolina a bag of coal for Christmas. Though they may go home and sing “Joy to the World” in their church services, their actions proclaim that they do not know joy; they are, in fact, consumed by fear. The song of the season says: “He rules the world with truth and grace.” But with this legislative coup, North Carolina’s Republicans have have joined to perform a twisted version of the carol that essentially declares, “We rule the state with lies and greed.”

We join the chorus that sang out in protest at this political coup, but we do not despair. This vote actually reveals the weakness of America’s anti-democracy movements, and those of us working toward a Third Reconstruction of this nation remain unshaken in our conviction: The glory of justice and righteousness and the wonders of love as the foundations of the republic will endure beyond our present troubles. Even when we endure a temporary setback, we pledge to never retreat from moving forward together, joyful that we chose the right side and confident that right will come back stronger and ultimately emerge the victor.