The Diminishing State: Death by the Legislature

The state of NC is working itself out of a job.

States are becoming increasingly irrelevant, largely through their own actions and arrogance, which is creating space for non-state actors, non-governmental organizations and individuals to grow in importance. But there’s a considerable chasm between what- and whom- the state is dropping and what others are able to pick up. This has long term consequences that are even more critical than the urgencies immediately in front of us. What do we do with the opportunities, gaps and ramifications of the diminishing state?

By way of background-

· The Courts Can’t Save Us. The Judiciary is increasingly partisan BY DESIGN, starting with the legislature’s move to force judges to declare party and to fund raise instead of maintaining semblance of independence. Despite the SCOTUS ruling in May that NC Voter discriminated against black citizens with “surgical precision”, the NCGA is busy working on a new, similar voter ID law but by NC Constitutional Amendment to avoid the courts altogether. Despite a court ruling last August demanding the NCGA redraw districts, the NCGA has refused.

· The Executive Can’t Save Us. Despite an executive order for an additional session to redraw districts, the legislature has refused but somehow made time to try to gerrymander the court districts. A series of power grabs by the legislature, to weaken the executive in December is worth reviewing-

· The Legislature Won’t Save Us. In an interview with Senator Jay Chaudhuri last week, he candidly stated he’s not sure any of the increased civic engagement post-election is reaching most of the legislature. There are the notable few, including Senator Chaudhuri, Senator Jeff Jackson, Senator Terry Van Duyn, Representative Graig Meyer, and others- going out of their way to inform their constituents, and be informed by them. But he majority of the NCGA has no incentive to listen. 90% of their districts are essentially incontestable due to the gerrymandering.

All of this is part of a much greater erosion of government and faith in institutions, since the 2000 presidential election. I won’t debate the merits of the electoral college here — there are some and I’m not in favor of simply getting rid of it- but the end result was that the electorate voted in a way that did not align to the popular vote- a scenario that was supposed to be next to impossible, and yet had just happened again less than 20 years later. Whatever your opinion, whomever got your vote, undeniably a few million Americans justifiably concluded their votes didn’t count. They didn’t, and those are the ones who actually got to vote. The “hanging chad” fiasco in Florida, reports of malfunctioning and hacked voting machines, and the states who subsequently decided that paper was somehow more secure than the voting machines’ software that hadn’t been updated in years… these things have an impact, true or not, verifiable or not, and it leaves the American people with a growing sense that our government, our democracy, is broken.

If the system is rigged, broken, stacked against you, and so on, it’s only logical to decide to go around it, outside of it. It makes sense, and yet in doing so, we’re further eroding the confidence of the American people and strength of American (and international) democratic institutions. Likely this is an unintended consequence most times- the long-term consequences that are unseen and ignored in favor of a more urgent need. Like using a home equity line when you lose your job, and hoping, maybe, you can figure out how to pay it off later. You need the house- and the vote- now.

The outside-of-the-system methods range from benign to violent, effective to ignorable, but each one, regardless of efficacy, further erodes our democratic institutions. I realize that’s our problem later, but it’s an enormous one we can’t afford to ignore.

So what can you do?

1. Campaign finance reform

2. Break the super majority in the NCGA (yes, that requires campaign financing)

3. Run a Zero Dollar Campaign (and win)

4. That successful campaign requires the use of advanced analytics

5. Form a strong coalition and clearly define what we are FOR

6. Demonstrate what we can provide for ourselves

7. Demand the state start working for the people

I’m a massive proponent of campaign finance reform and advocate for severely limited caps- it’s considered pretty radical even among leftists who maintain they cannot outspend the far right, and yet continually try to at least minimize the gap between their funding and the Super PACs’. With that being said, there is no appetite for it among the current General Assembly. And so it pains me to say that we must turn at least four seats in the GA in order to break the super majority.

If that cannot be done based on a level playing field (no funding caps, non-gerrymandered districts, no voter suppression), then the only viable strategy is to spend whatever it takes to turn those seats in the immediate. Next to nothing can be done with a veto-proof majority. This is where a lot of Democrats are hyper focused, but it’s not enough.

Someone must run a zero dollar campaign and win or come very, very close. Until someone proves it can be done, no one will stick a neck out to even attempt to legislate this kind of reform. The primary way the zero dollar campaign can win is through use of advanced analytics- embracing the same strategy that the Trump campaign did, but in a different, hopefully more honest, way. The Trump campaign moved beyond demographics (where the Democrats were still stuck) and were able to target individuals and their nuanced identities beyond race, age, socio-economic status and so on. Perhaps the most famous example of someone you would not reach based on demographic information is “The Liberal Redneck” Trae Crowder. Through globalization and the internet, our identities are increasingly complex. We now have gay, black Baptist ministers. We have transgender women who believe in traditional gender roles. And there are a whole lot of folks willing to spend $6 dollars rather than $4.50 on a latte if the coffee company hires at-risk or differently-abled employees. These are the nuances of identity that cannot begin to be understood by demographics alone.

And so to law Professor Dr. Richard L. Hasen’s point, NGOs are critical, but so are individuals. A group of data scientists, voter advocates and consultants are all coming together in NC, completely voluntarily with no budget outside their own pockets, to analyze the publicly available voting data. Low-tech tactics like going door-to-door and connecting human-to-human are still critical, but when you can’t hit every house, the analytics will allow you to choose the right ones. Even that sticks in my craw; I believe everyone should be engaged, but it’s a reality. You cannot do everything, so we have to find ways where we can do more with very little, just like every family in the shrinking middle class has had to do.

Assuming we’ve gained the four seats, and run the zero dollar campaign, those are only door openers so the next steps are critical. It’s clear to most what the liberals are AGAINST, but where we lose independents and moderates of all parties, is that it sure as hell isn’t clear what the Democratic Party is FOR. If we were able to band together as a coalition in which a plurality of common issue-based advocacy and agreement was all it took to belong, the far right would no longer be able to use our diversity against us. Instead of arguing that the Women’s March didn’t support women who are against abortion rights, we’d be able to spend our time working together on the 70%+ of other issues we do firmly agree upon- starting with caring for the children already in the world. The Democratic Party must form a coalition, define its top 12 Issues, lay out steps for each one, and include all communities who work on those issues- even if it’s only 1 of the 12. This is an identity challenge that absolutely can be overcome when we begin to practice the inclusivity we preach.

But so far, it seems the Democratic Party, NC at least here in NC, is not getting that. As I said, the NCDP has maintained its hyper-focus on fundraising. Turning those seats is imperative, but then what? The countless email solicitations I get every week are unable to tell me WHY the NCDP needs my money, WHAT they’re trying to achieve and HOW they’re going to do it, and how they’ll measure success. They do not even explain the criticality of breaking a veto-proof super majority. I’ve reached out to numerous times to folks in the party, offering strategy consulting, help bringing groups together under the umbrella and thus far it’s been met — albeit nicely worded- with the arrogance of those accustomed to money and in the system too long- “nah, we’re good.” NCDP- you are NOT good. You are poised to lose. Again. Only this time it will be at the highest price point ever.

And so, for me, it’s beginning to look a lot like it might be a completely outside-the-system solution. I have mixed feelings about that but the predominant one is fear because there is no enforceable check on that kind of power except apathy and state and military suppression. And outside-the-system system could grow to that level of complexity, but then it becomes susceptible to the same inertia of the one we’re currently fighting. But I see a day coming soon when the NCDP raises $23M for a candidate who doesn’t win (much like Ossoff in Georgia) and a few people get together and do the math, as I did, and determine that we could do for the same price:

· Deliver 3.2M Meals on Wheels

· Provide 88.5 million diapers

· Send 383,000 kids to school for a year (via IRC)

· Feed and house 1150 homeless people for a year

· Fund NC State’s portion of the Legal Aid budget for the NEXT 11 YEARS

So we do. We raise the $23 million and that’s how we spend it, or we fix our own roads or our own “Go Fund Me” healthcare pools, and suddenly people start to question exactly what it is our state is providing for us, why we even need them. This is the epitome of tribalism, and it’s not without its own dangers, but it certainly puts the people back in a position of bargaining power.

We’d then be able to say to the state, “these things we did we now expect you to do with our taxes. But now we also demand you do it right, prepare a completely transparent quarterly report for us, and present the achievements, failures and remediation plans.” We put the legislature back to work for us. If they don’t want to, we will have already proven we can and will do it without them.

This is an extreme end state, and a difficult one to achieve, but smaller pieces of it can be accomplished quickly. It starts with recognizing our identities and values outside of, or even within intersecting demographics. The individualism that runs rampant in the US has no choice but to decrease. There will be pockets of folks who bury their guns and MREs and take the extreme individual position, but even they will be forced to trade with other like-minded individuals forging their own tribes (and tribal warfare becomes more probable). We will learn collective action again, just as many of our ancestors did from early humans to American work and sacrifice during the two World Wars of the twentieth century.

Some of my friends are already doing this- raising chickens, giving away eggs to shelters, restaurants doing charity fundraisers, shares in co-ops… The neighborhood chats with free this or that, or can someone help me refinish a table, build shelves, etc, and that’s all putting money into the local people’s hands, which truthfully doesn’t always get to the state tax coffers. We’re building communities, we’re strengthening our tribes. And as we become more used to it, more reliant upon them, our reliance on government decreases, for better or for worse.

I do not advocate abolishing state institutions. I am keenly aware of its dangers, up to and including revolution and civil war. But if the legislature, the NCDP as is, and others do not realize that failing to represent the people is making their positions irrelevant, well, I think we owe it to ourselves to point it out. We cannot begin to fix what we don’t acknowledge and name. Many will choose to guard their power in their tower for as long as it lasts. But they shouldn’t be surprised when a flat structure is built next to the tower and the people go there for their needs instead.

Ultimately, the one thing we all engage in is not civics; it’s consumerism. We pay taxes to buy services from the government and in return we give up a percentage of our power to them to do it. A state’s failure to provide services, or acceptable ones (BCRA), mean we will find someone else who will, or do it ourselves.