RALEIGH – What a week to take a vacation.
My sons finished their academic year just before Memorial Day, so for the past week I’ve been pulled, tugged, challenged to a basketball shoot-off, sunburned, defeated at Risk, chased down the beach, suckered into buying new sneakers, taught several new video games, and tasked with cleaning up random messes at our Raleigh abode and at the Hood getaway in Brunswick County.
While I was away, there was no vacation in the world of North Carolina politics. Former Sen. John Edwards was indicted on felony charges of campaign-finance violations. Gay-rights protesters got themselves ejected from the floor of the legislature, while NAACP protesters continued to fume about getting ejected from the gallery the previous week.
The leaders of the North Carolina House held a Republican caucus meeting but didn’t realize they were speaking into a mike feeding their blunt comments into the legislative press room – so they proceeded to, among other things, call Gov. Beverly Perdue “incompetent.”
Perdue and the Democrats continued their Edu-scare campaign, with major assistance from the teacher’s union, the news media, and much of the rest of the political class in Raleigh. According to their talking points, a difference in spending of around $200 per student (against a base of about $9,000 in spending per student) will determine the future existence of public education and the very survival of North Carolina as a viable political and economic entity.
Or something like that.
I’ve been surrounded by kids for more than a week, so I’ve heard so many declarations of doom – that the world will end unless they get what they want right now – that these claims are all starting to run together in my head.
Outside of the political bubble in Raleigh, North Carolinians aren’t talking much about the latest legislative intrigues or the nefarious influence of shadowy corporate interests. They aren’t talking about how great the state’s business climate is, how wonderful our schools are, and how best to keep North Carolina on its current course.
In short, they aren’t so easily bamboozled.
North Carolinians know very well that the state’s business climate is lousy, that our unemployment rate has been far too high for far too long, and that our state’s schools aren’t making the grade.
If they are talking about “corporate interests” at all, the topic of the day is how North Carolina can get more corporations to take an interest in our state and create jobs here rather than somewhere else.
So, as I return to the fray, the issues haven’t changed. The rhetoric has only gotten more foolish. And speaking of foolish, John Edwards has returned to the headlines.
Oh, well. Might as well keep my gloves on and my cleaning supplies at the ready. The kids haven’t worn themselves out yet.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.