NCGOP Attempts To Make Bank Failure a Culture War Issue

 

Dale Folwell

Republicans are trying their best to make recent bank failures just another sub-category in their culture wars, claiming that "woke" attitudes toward fairness and diversity caused the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. The NCGOP used that line in attacking Wesley Harris, the Democrat serving a Mecklenburg County House district who has also just this week announced he's running for NC Treasurer. The current Republican Treasurer, Dale Folwell, may step aside to run for governor. (It's been rumored.)

“NC should reject #Silicon_Valley_Bank-style leadership for the NC Treasurer’s Office,” appeared on the NCGOP Twitter feed. (Never seen underscores used in a hashtag before, so what's up with that?)

But ... oops. The news came out very soon after this GOP attempt at issue-mining that under Dale Folwell's administration, over $17 million of the state's retirement fund was invested in Silicon Valley Bank and also in the other failure, Signature Bank. Folwell's spokesperson Frank Lester sounded desperately forlorn: “We are unsure at this time” if the money will be recovered, he said.

Republicans are supposed to be soooo good with money. They're terrible at understanding irony too.