In describing North Carolina’s lottery debate, pretty much everyone uses the shorthand of“pro-lottery” and “anti-lottery” to refer to the two sides in dispute. But the sides aren’t monolithic. They are really coalitions of North Carolinians who may bring very different concerns and priorities to the debate, and whose may agree little with their teammates on a host of other issues.
For a recent speech, I came up with the following breakdown of the two lottery teams:
The Anti-Lottery Coalition
• Religious Right —These are cultural conservatives, primarily Protestants but including some Catholics, Jews, and others. They constitute a Republican-leaning voting bloc in general, though the GOP’s economic agenda is not what galvanizes them. They oppose the lottery because they view it, and pretty much all other forms of gambling, as immoral.
• Religious Left —These are, for the most part, not cultural conservatives but faith is still central in their lives. They oppose the lottery not only because gambling is wrong but also, and most strongly, because it takes advantage of the poor and minorities.
• Goo-Goos — These good-government types can be found among the ranks of universities, government agencies, nonprofits, and the news media. They oppose the lottery because it is an unreliable source of funds, an inefficient and regressive form of revenue collection, and an invitation to corruption of governments and elections.
• Ga-Gas — A term referring to “ galloping gadflies,” these are the well-meaning left-wingers of the secular variety who oppose the lottery because it preys on the poor and because they’ve heard that someone, somewhere might make a corporate profit if a lottery is created.
• The Club — These are the corporate executives, private university presidents, retired politicians, and the well-placed people who work for them in trade associations and chambers across the state. They oppose the lottery in part because, well,it is simply beneath us as a state to rely on a lottery to fund our government.Since everyone they know (fellow club members and all that) are also against the lottery, they figure that a few well-placed phone calls ought to be enough to kill the idea. Don’t snicker — so far, they are right.
• The Liberty Lobby— These are the anti-tax conservatives who oppose a state lottery because it would be a government-run monopoly that, even if successful, would merely give the government more money to waste. The argument sounds familiar.
The Pro-Lottery Coalition
• Misguided Libertarians — I don’t mean members of the Libertarian Party, most of whom oppose the lottery for the reasons listed immediately above. What I mean is a broader segment of the state’s population who don’t want to be told what to do.They believe in the right to gamble their money away if they want to. They also think that other North Carolinians will play the lottery and thus shoulder the cost of government, allowing for a tax cut. The latter is pure fantasy —lottery states have higher tax burdens than do non-lottery states, on average —and the former is evidence of faulty reasoning. Whether to allow North Carolinians the freedom to gamble is a separate issue from the idea of having the state of North Carolina monopolize gambling and actively promote its citizens to play.
• Misguided Libertines— These are the folks who actually want to play the lottery. The best I can say for them is that they lack the sense to go on the Internet and gamble to their heart’s content at better odds and with more enjoyment than they will ever get out of a state lottery. In fact, they ought to make some friends and play poker with them. All in all, a deluded lot.
• Democratic Party Animals — These officeholders and consultants believe that a lottery on the ballot means high Democratic turnout and plenty of gambling dollars to use in the 2002 campaigns. I think they are miscalculating, because a lottery referendum would likely bring out more religious conservatives who haven’t been voting lately than it would members of the Democratic base. The money issue is more understandable, though I would note that it is an obvious way to evade campaign-finance rules. Hypocrisy, anyone?
• The Blob — Bill Bennett’s old term for the education establishment, the Blob represents all those organizations supposedly dedicated to our children’s education but really just grabbing for more of other people’s money. They are putting in a shameful performance on this issue, and enraging truly principled education leaders like former UNC President Bill Friday and former State Board of Education Chairman C.D. Spangler.
• The Mob — The gambling industry views North Carolina, the largest state without a government lottery,as prime territory for its expansion. `Nuff said.
Email me if you think I’ve forgotten someone. And, yes, I know that one can belong to several of these groups at once. The idea here is to see how people can get to the same political destinations by taking a variety of different routes.