Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
Jan. 6
The Charlotte Observer and News & Observer (Raleigh) on a birthday card from Sen. Thom Tillis to President Donald Trump’s son, Eric:
There’s nothing wrong with sending someone a happy birthday wish, public or private. So why did Thom Tillis’ acknowledgment Saturday of Eric Trump’s 36th birthday elicit some social media groaning?
It could be that the senator from North Carolina didn’t merely wish the president’s son a happy birthday. Tillis invited Americans to “add your name” to a birthday card for Trump that “we’re putting together,” he said in a tweet. That birthday card, which declared the president’s son an “American Patriot” and said “We’re so thankful for Eric Trump’s work in fighting for America,” was an unusually public and intimate gesture for a U.S. Senator to make for a member of the president’s family.
It could be the timing of the gesture that prompted some eye-rolling. At a moment when the country is grappling with the unsettling U.S. assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani - a time when we’d like our members of Congress to position themselves as a thoughtful check on any president’s action - Tillis was acting more like a party planner.
To be fair, few people have an expectation that Tillis would raise questions about the president’s killing of a foreign official and the ramifications it might have on U.S. interests and foreign policy. Republicans have decided such examination is a fool’s errand, that any questioning of Donald Trump will bring backlash from his base and maybe a nasty tweet from the president himself. Tillis, who’s running for re-election in 2020, has been especially hesitant to raise an eyebrow at Trump. The senator long ago laid his political future at the feet of the president, and he’s dutifully made the rounds on television of late to declare the Trump’s impeachment hearings a sham.
So while it’s disappointing, it’s not unexpected that Tillis, like other Republicans, is declining to push for evidence to back up Trump’s assertion that Soleimani posed an imminent threat to U.S. interests. It’s not surprising that Tillis is publicly untroubled by reports that Pentagon officials were stunned Trump took the most extreme option of assassination instead of more measured, prudent approaches to tension with Iran. It’s hardly unforseen that Tillis has declined to utter a peep of protest over Trump vocal willingness to commit war crimes and attack Iranian cultural sites.
But soliciting Americans to sign a birthday card for Donald Trump’s son? Yes, such “cards” are often designed to help build databases of potential friendly voters. But the gesture showed a troubling lack of distance between a U.S. senator and a president, one that surely had some of Tillis’ fellow Republicans wincing, too. It’s also a sign to North Carolinians that as we turn the calendar to 2020, we have a clear choice ahead. Do voters want a U.S. senator who understands that it is sometimes his or her uncomfortable duty to question a president, especially one who so regularly threatens constitutional boundaries and historical norms? Or do we want a senator so consumed with currying favor from Donald Trump that he embarrasses himself and the state he represents?
Online: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ and https://www.newsobserver.com/
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Jan. 6
StarNews (Wilmington) on criticism of a law that would require voters to provide photo identification:
Of the 3.75 million Tar Heels who cast votes in the 2018 election, 55 percent supported a “Constitutional amendment to require voters to provide photo identification before voting in person.”
The people spoke, but a state constitutional amendment does not a law make.
With the constitution amended, it was up to the General Assembly to turn the new requirement into law. In December 2018, the legislature ratified “An act to implement the constitutional amendment requiring photographic identification to vote,” transforming the 13 words on the 2018 ballot into a 20-page statute. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation but the General Assembly voted to override the veto and Senate Bill 824 became Session Law 2018-144, meaning a photo ID would be required in the March 3, 2020, primary.
So when U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs blocked the ID requirement, her beef was not with the constitutional amendment voters passed, it was with the law the General Assembly passed to implement the requirement.
Citing North Carolina’s “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression,” Judge Biggs ordered officials not to enforce the law in 2020.
We are not opposed to a photo ID requirement and neither are 55 percent of the people who voted for it in 2018. It’s not a radical idea — 20 states require a photo ID to vote and 15 more require some other form of ID.
North Carolina’s 2013 voter ID law was struck down in 2016 by a federal appeals court, which found it was approved with intentional racial discrimination in mind. The court ruled there was an unconstitutional effort to “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.” The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
In her ruling, Judge Biggs said the newest version was no different than the 2013 law. Republican leaders in the General Assembly have asked the state’s Department of Justice to appeal.
It’s evident that a majority of North Carolina voters support a photo ID requirement. Many, understandably, will claim that a single judge is denying the will of 2 million voters. It’s a fair point, but voting laws are complex (that’s why it took 20 pages to implement a 13-word measure) and Judge Biggs is correct that North Carolina has a sordid history of racial discrimination related to voting.
So regardless of what the state constitution says, it’s ultimately how it’s implemented into law that matters.
It’s not clear what’s next. If the judge’s decision is appealed, a higher court could overturn the decision and another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is not out of the question.
The General Assembly has two groups to placate: the voters who passed the constitutional amendment, but also the federal judiciary, which must ensure state laws do not violate the U.S. Constitution.
It seems that the best and quickest way forward is for the General Assembly to revise the law, taking into consideration issues the courts have raised and look closely at other states with photo ID laws that have passed federal scrutiny, including from the Supreme Court.
Here’s the bottom line: North Carolina voters made it clear they want a photo ID requirement. The will of the voters will not have been met, however, until the General Assembly passes a law that can pass muster in federal and actually stay on the books.
So far that has not been the case.
Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/
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Jan. 4
The Fayetteville Observer on Fort Bragg once again answering a president’s 911 call:
When the president calls 911, the phone rings at Fort Bragg.
It is an expression some version of which we’ve all heard. We take pride in it and understandably so.
But answering that call comes with grave responsibility, and potential danger and separation, as we have been reminded so recently.
When the vast majority of Americans were ringing in the New Year, soldiers from Bragg were preparing to deploy to the Middle East in response to the New Year’s Eve attack on the United States Embassy in Baghdad. Activated were 650 troops in the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. They had about 18 hours notice. An additional 100 troops from elsewhere will join them.
“This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today,” wrote Mark Esper, U.S. defense secretary, in a tweet on Tuesday (Dec. 31). “The United States will protect our people and interests anywhere they are found around the world.”
That is not all.
Friday afternoon, news broke that thousands of additional troops from the 82nd Airborne would deploy after U.S. airstrikes on Thursday killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
The 82nd is often called upon. Back here on the home front, it means families will see their loved ones whisked off at the end of the holidays and right at the start of a new year. In the near future, uncertainty will define their days.
In the embassy attack, protesters broke into the compound, which is under heavy guard, and set fires. The attack was an apparent response to U.S. airstrikes against a militia, backed by Iran, where 24 people were killed.
No U.S. personnel were injured in the embassy attack. Later, the assailants withdrew and melted into large-scale protests outside the compound where some chanted “Death to America.”
Donald Trump’s administration has blamed Iran for the embassy attacks.
“Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,” the president tweeted in response to the attack. “They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!”
Defense Secretary Mike Pompeo said Thursday’s airstrike at the Baghdad airport was launched to head off an imminent attack on U.S. interests coordinated by Soleimani.
What role the 82nd paratroopers will play in the tense Middle East region is not publicly known.
After the initial deployment of 650 troops was announced, Task & Purpose, a military-focused website, reported: “It was unclear whether the soldiers will eventually go to Iraq, but during the lead-up to the first surge, it was common for Army and Marine Corps units to deploy to Kuwait before being sent to Iraq. However, the United States and Iraq have agreed to a troop-cap of about 5,000 U.S. service members in Iraq. The Pentagon has not said whether the Iraqi government would have to approve a troop increase above the cap.”
Amid a busy news cycle, dominated by stories of the impeachment of Trump, and numerous end-of-the-year retrospectives, the news of the embassy attack did not get the attention it otherwise might have. Neither did the initial deployment from Bragg.
The death of Soleimani and Iran’s fierce rhetoric of revenge has received much more media attention, as it appears open war may now be on the table.
But either way, we here in Fayetteville and the Bragg community stay tuned in - whether the rest of the nation does or not. And we will remember just like we remember the names of past post-war operations in Iraq where Fort Bragg answered that 911 call: Enduring Freedom (I & II), Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve.
We wish the soldiers godspeed and hope for their safe return.
Online: https://www.fayobserver.com/
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