New North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory Campaigned as Moderate

Now Talks Like a Raving Idiotic Conservative

North Carolina is a neat state, it is southern but not a true southern state like Alabama, South Carolina or Georgia.  Tolerance and progressivism have been the hallmarks of the state since North Carolina was home to some of the more visible and vocal civil rights protests.  In terms of education, public safety, transportation and culture its governance has been mainstream and effective.

But Republicans, thanks to the near demise of the Democratic party in the state have now taken over, and the state elected Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory to be the new Governor.  Candidate McCrory ran on a platform of economic growth, and never mentioned the divisive social issues that Republicans like to run on and lose on. But now that he is safely in the Governor’s seat Mr. McCrory is coming out of the proverbial conservative closet.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory - Appealing to the Worst 

The Governor is now attacking the North Carolina higher education system, a jewel of a system and something the state is justly proud of.  UNC Chapel Hill and its associated campuses have been a large part of the success of the state in the post 1960’s era.  But to Gov. McCrory they are just a bunch of elitists.  He went on an ultra conservative radio show (are there really any other kind?) and

On the show, McCrory said “educational elite” had taken over, offering courses that have no path to jobs. He said he instructed his staff Monday to draft legislation that could alter the state money that universities and community colleges receive “not based on how many butts in seats but how many of those butts can get jobs.”

And he continued his attack on the community college/technical college system in the state, which is one of the most successful educational programs in the nation.

McCrory also zeroed in on the fact that men are underrepresented in the state’s community college system.

“Most people don’t realize that two-thirds of my students are women,” McCrory said. “Most of them are either going into health care or taking junior college programs, when in fact, I’ve got a lot of unemployed men who typically go into technology or mechanics or welding or something. If they do, they can get six-figure pay right now but instead they’re on unemployment.”

Note the number of ways in which these comments are ignorant and uninformed and offensive.  The Governor is upset that there are more women in the system than men, he implies that men are not enrolled because they would rather sit at home on unemployment benefits than earn six figures jobs working (the fact that these jobs do not exist not being a factor in Mr. McCrory’s fantasy world of Conservatism).  And of course women are doing awful things in the community colleges, like just taking courses to become bed pan assistants or, horror, taking “Junior College” programs.

A state like North Carolina that had a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican Governor could do great things.  If the state turns out to have an ignorant out of touch ideologue Governor,  well, look for the Tar Heel state to join the ranks of Alabama and Mississippi.  And it sounds like that is where the new Governor is headed.