Lessons of the North Carolina HB2 horror show: Republicans simply cant be trusted

[CousinIT]

Congressional Democrats better pay attention to what’s going on in North Carolina right now, with the tussle around the discriminatory “bathroom bill” known as House Bill 2. It’s an object lesson in why it’s so critical to resist the temptation to make deals with Republicans and instead to resist their agenda at every turn.

Republicans cannot be trusted. They are snakes in the grass and will renege on their half of the deal. Pretending otherwise, especially with a con artist in the White House — a guy who literally has a history of bamboozling people for money — is just foolishness.

To recap the bizarre happenings in North Carolina: In February, under pressure to align city law with federal guidelines, the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance including LGBT people in its nondiscrimination law. The GOP-led North Carolina legislature and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory retaliated by passing a law that not only nullifies Charlotte’s anti-discrimination ordinance but also makes it illegal for trans people to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender. (Although Republicans have framed this issue as being about “protecting” girls and women, in practice, this has the ironic effect of forcing men to use the women’s room.)

North Carolina faced a whole array of nationwide protests and boycotts in response to this overt bigotry and the notoriety of HB2 was clearly a factor in McCrory’s losing the governor’s race to Democrat Roy Cooper, in a state carried by Republican Donald Trump.

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/lessons-of-the-north-carolina-hb2-horror-show-republicans-simply-cant-be-trusted/