Pope has done a lot of damage, but it's a mistake to drop everything in his lap. The NC GOP has elevated dozens of austerity-loving lawmakers to positions where they could punish the poor with shameless impunity, and we forget those henchmen at our peril. It takes a village (of assholes) to accomplish what they have done, and it will take a concerted effort to fix it.
TAKE NOTICE S&P, Moody’s, Fitch. #NCGA presiding officers clandestinely fired its award-winning, nonpartisan, 14 FTE statutory program evaluation staff on 2/2021 without filing a bill to repeal law creating the staff and its joint oversight committee. #NCPOL#DefendWatch
Make no mistake, this is a pivotal week for UNC. The Board of Trustees could respect the integrity & judgment of the faculty & administration, or it could let politics rule. Choosing the latter would be damning to an already damaged reputation.
As I commented elsewhere, this should be a no-brainer. The UNC BOG coughed up $2.5 million to a handful of Confederate nutters to "settle" a lawsuit that had not even been filed yet. Making this right won't cost the Trustees a dime.
Last week, I contacted eleven past chairs of UNC's faculty.
I asked each of them if he or she could remember an instance during his or her tenure when the institution's board of trustees didn't accept a recommendation for tenure.
This is SOP for the GOP: Take credit for stuff that is good, even if they actively worked against it. It's a never-ending spin-cycle that will make you dizzy just watching.
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