April 7, 2013 by David K. Sutton
North Carolina Legislators Prove Republicans Love Big Government
Hey North Carolinians, while you were busy living your life, your state decided to go all tyrannical on your ass.
A proposed law called the “Health Marriage Act” would alter existing divorce law in the state, extending the time a divorce can be final from one year to two years. Republican legislators want you to think long and hard before you finalize that divorce and they think government is the perfect tool to enforce that belief. But that’s mild compared to other recent proposals.
Conservative North Carolina legislators also believe it’s past due for an official state religion. After all, the first line of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution couldn’t possibly say this: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” North Carolina Republicans believe their state is not subject to the laws of the country. No word yet on whether they will reject all the federal dollars pouring into their state from blue states. Yes, GOP lawmakers in the “Tar Heel State” think their religion, Christianity, should be imposed on all citizens within the state borders. I guess they aren’t thinking ahead. What if a majority of the state’s elected officials were not Christian? I know it seems like that would never happen, and yes it’s really beside the point, but the country is becoming more diverse with every passing year, so nothing should be ruled out. So if these lawmakers make Christianity the official state religion, setting a precedent, why couldn’t a future legislature do the same, only for a different religion? Of course, we don’t even need to entertain hypotheticals because this proposed law is clearly unconstitutional and therefore it’s dead on arrival.
But North Carolina Republicans didn’t stop there. They know their party is dying. They know the Republican Party is increasingly becoming a regional party instead of a national party. But what to do about this? Give up their antiquated beliefs? Nah, instead they are going to make it as hard as possible for Democrats to cast their vote. Specifically, they want to make it harder to vote if you are a college student. Since young voters are more likely to be Democratic voters, this is just the latest in a series of Republican voter suppression efforts. A new proposal would link student voter registration to the taxes of their parents. Students are already allowed to register to vote at the address of their college and this proposed legislation would hike the taxes of parents whose children do so. Specifically, parents could no longer claim their children as dependent if their children register to vote at college, resulting in a tax increase. Yes, you read that correctly. That is today’s WTF moment.
North Carolina legislators prove Republicans love big government.
