Following 5th Special Session of General Assembly, HB2 Is Still Driving Away Business and Shaming the State

Let's get to the gist quickly: The city of Charlotte upheld its half of the "deal" -- repealed its non-discrimination ordinance, leaving the LGBTQ community without any job protections -- and the Republicans in the NC Senate couldn't resist adding a little side spin to their end of the "deal" at the last minute -- a long moratorium on any city in the state passing any ordinance "regulating employment practices or regulating public accommodations or access to restrooms, showers or changing facilities.”

But it really ended up that the meddling moratorium, which essentially would establish a "cooling off" period during which discrimination would still be legal, wasn't the reason the special session disintegrated into chaos. Phil Berger in the Senate could have passed whatever he wanted to pass -- he has a veto-proof majority of Republicans -- but too many Senate Republicans feel very affectionate toward their ability to discriminate against people, so they were never going to vote for repeal anyway.

And don't even get us started on the NC House, where the fiercest bigots hang out with that paragon of virtue, Jonathan Jordan, and where passage of repeal was going to be even harder than in the Senate.

All I want for Christmas is a functional state government.

Berger (and probably Speaker of the House Tim Moore) blamed Roy Cooper for the debacle (because, right! Roy Cooper has that veto-proof majority in the Senate). McCrory blamed "well-funded left-wing interest groups," because who else are you gonna blame when you're a pile of soiled laundry waiting to be shipped out for washing? Everybody blamed the City of Charlotte, which should never have tried to negotiate with these people in the first place.

But Democrats never learn about giving a toe to the crocodile.