Tar Heel State Distress

Dispatch from the State Where Wilbur and Orville Mightily Tried to Take Off: A couple of recent developments have roiled the citizenry here in North Carolina, and that doesn’t even include Bill Belichick’s tenure in Chapel Hill. I’ll try to keep it brief, as y’all come to this site for politics and current events like guys go to IKEA for simplicity and serenity. 

The state legislature voted this week to redraw the Congressional district map, in lockstep with the Big Orange Oaf’s directive for Republican-controlled states to do so to maintain, if not increase, the GOP’s narrow hold of the House of Representatives. The current map is already tilted to give Republicans ten seats and Democrats four; the new map is likely to give Republicans an eleventh seat and take away one Democrat rep. It just so happens that the rep is Black, and the redrawn districts split up the African-American constituency. 

This wouldn’t be a big deal if state legislative maps weren’t already gerrymandered to hell and back. North Carolina is essentially a purple state. As recently as 2022 the Congressional breakdown was seven Democrats and seven Republicans. Vote totals in all Congressional races combined are generally within a few percentage points one way or the other. Yet Republicans hold super-majorities in both the state House (71-49) and state Senate (30-20) – thanks, further gerrymander! – and two years ago re-drew the Congressional map for the current 10-4 advantage. 

The legislature has also done its darnedest to kneecap the Democratic governor (previously Roy Cooper, now Josh Stein) to do anything beyond voice strongly worded opposition. Democrats may sue to overturn the map, but in a dandy little turn of self supervision the Republican-controlled State Supreme Court ruled a couple years ago that the Constitution doesn’t expressly prohibit partisan monkeying with voting districts and that courts cannot force change or alter maps, that only the legislature can do so. 

The message to Dems, as Marco the Albanian said to Liam Neeson in “Taken” – Good luck. Meanwhile, more than a year after Hurricane Helene ravaged areas of western North Carolina, state and local officials are still waiting for Federal funds promised by FEMA. 

According to a Washington Post story, millions of dollars in cleanup and recovery funds are hung up by bureaucratic delays and obstacles, which has forced the state and various counties to assume much of the costs so far and stretched budgets beyond their capabilities. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, has said that the review process and further scrutiny are needed to root out waste, fraud and abuse. In a statement to the Post, FEMA said that it’s prepared to support states with critical disaster needs, but that its Disaster Relief Fund “is not infinite.” 

Coupled with President Bone Spurs’s remarks earlier this year about possibly shuttering FEMA, and states and local governments taking more responsibility for disaster recovery in the future, folks in North Carolina and elsewhere are a mite skittish about whether the Feds will pony up. Staff cuts to the Federal workforce, FEMA included, have further slowed and complicated the allocation process. Also, Noem, who I wouldn’t trust to oversee cleanup of a garage never mind a multi-billion-dollar disaster, has to sign off on any expenditure over $100,000, and such requests also now go through a DOGE vetting process. 

The Post also reported that so far the Federal government has covered only 10 percent of the damage from Helene, compared to 70 percent of the damage caused by storms such as Katrina, Sandy and Maria. All of which leans into an evolving notion of “You’re On Your Own.” It’s a curious addendum to the current regime’s campaign mantra of “America First.” If the wealthiest nation on the planet is going to slash foreign aid and pull back from alliances and concentrate on matters within, then what parts of America and which Americans come first? To be sure, there are indicators, many of which aren’t promising for those of limited means and influence. Depending on one’s level of discouragement, it might be enough to hop on one of Wilbur and Orville’s machines and take off for distant shores.