A Tale Of Two…

Well not cites but rather the cities and the suburbs.

Here in Connecticut it is the cities that carry the elections while in North Carolina it is the opposite.

Transgender Bathroom Brawl Punishes North Carolina Mayors Twice
Bloomberg
By Tim Jones
April 19, 2016

In the battle over which bathrooms transgender people may use, North Carolina’s mayors are being pummeled by both sides.

A legislature dominated by rural Republicans punishes them for setting their own anti-discrimination policies. Then, corporations and entertainers respond with boycotts that affect North Carolina’s job-producing regions -- its cities.

“The weird thing is that they’re actually hurting us at the same time,” said Jennifer Roberts, mayor of Charlotte, where Bank of America Corp. is based and Wells Fargo & Co. operates a large trading floor. “It’s really a paradox.”
[…]
The dispute mirrors battles between rural Republican lawmakers and urban Democrats in a growing number of states. While many have centered on cultural issues, taxes and economic development also have touched off clashes. In Missouri, Republicans who control the legislature have tried to revoke income taxes in Democratic Kansas City and St. Louis. Texas legislators have moved to curtail city efforts to ban oil and gas drilling, as well as restrictions on carrying guns.

We see that same battle here in Connecticut, the suburbs are mostly white and the cities are mostly minorities, the suburbs are mostly salaried and the cities are mostly hourly. The suburbs are bedroom communities with their gated compounds are mainly Republican and they see the cities as drain of their wealth, it is us against them.

“This is in the court of national opinion right now, with corporations and entertainers deciding how to respond,” Roberts said. “It’s become much larger than the cities of North Carolina versus the state of North Carolina.”

The national debate stems from local upheaval. In 2010, for the first time in 140 years, Republicans won control of the legislature. That cleared the way for stricter abortion restrictions, a tough voter identification law and private-school payment vouchers. The uproar over the bathroom ban prompted Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is McCrory’s opponent in November, to decline to defend the law against court challenges.

Look at the laws that the Republicans have passed in North Carolina, they are all centered in a class system. Whites can afford to travel to other states to have an abortion while inner-city residents are forced to have backroom abortions. While those who live in the suburbs have easy access to their birth certificates those who live in the cities are dependent on public transportation and work multiple jobs have a much harder time getting a copy of their birth certificate. In many states they make it much harder to get a copy of your birth certificate because you have to go in person to request a copy of it.

Private-school payment vouchers encourages segregation, it is those who are more affluent that can afford to pay the difference between what the vouchers pays and the tuition. It is the minorities who are left in the public schools.

“The same people who said they were sick and tired of Washington telling them what to do are now in power, and then they start micromanaging cities,” said Foy, now an assistant professor at the North Carolina Central University School of Law. “It’s really hard to extract a principle from all this.”

It is ironic that the party that says they want less government is passing laws to regulate who can go to the bathroom and what you can do to your body.

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Update 10:00AM
Meanwhile down along the gold coast they are having problems.

Crystal Coast losing bookings because of bathroom bill; Indian Beach supports
WITN Ch5
By McCrory
April 18, 2016

CARTERET COUNTY, NC (WITN) - Tourism dollars are starting to bypass the Crystal Coast because of House Bill 2, while one beach town has come out in support of the governor and state lawmakers.
Rental property management companies say they are feeling the repercussions from the transgender bathroom bill after some vacationers are backing out of their rentals.
Emerald Isle Realty told the Crystal Coast Tourism Board they have already lost between $50,000 and $80,000. Another smaller management group told WITN they have seen the same thing and worry more and more people will back out from summer rentals.

And then there is this comment from the Indian Beach town commissioner,

"We're letting a small minority of people, gays and lesbians are driving an agenda that's being pushed on us on those of us that don't believe in their agenda," said Indian Beach town commissioner Joel Fortune.

Ah yes the famous comment by the oppressor to the oppressed