CHARLOTTE – When the Queen City won the bidding for the 2020 Republican National Convention in which Donald Trump will be nominated for reelection even the Democrats who run the city were happy to host what promised to be a YUGE convention and a chance for Charlotte and North Carolina to show out. Many anti-Trump forces in our state protested, but Democrat Mayor Vi Lyles waved off the criticism and welcomed the potential economic benefits of President Trump’s reelection MAGA party.
Fast forward to present day, about two months into a pandemic panic that has thrown everything one can think of into some degree of chaotic limbo, and Democrats in the media are openly salivating upon the realization that the current state of affairs give a Democrat governor the power to spoil the party. The state of affairs, in this regard, is best viewed through the existing State of Emergency; Stay-at-Home orders, business closures, and crowd size limits decreed by Governor Roy Cooper and wreaking havoc on livelihoods.
Exhibit A from POLITICO:
“The Southern Democrat with the power to shut down Trump’s convention
Up for reelection this fall, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has to decide whether to allow Trump’s coronation to proceed amid a pandemic.
North Carolina Roy Cooper has got a doozy on his hands.
He’s a Democratic governor, up for reelection in a Republican-leaning Southern swing state, pushing a go-slow approach to reopening the economy as protests intensify and neighboring states move quicker.
But that’s just the start: How the first-term governor handles his state’s reopening will likely dictate whether President Donald Trump and the Republican Party can forge ahead with a full-fledged convention in Charlotte this summer.
“Between the governor and the mayor of Charlotte, who is also a Democrat, they really do control whether or not [the Republican convention] will happen,” said David McLennan, director of the Meredith Poll, a statewide public opinion poll of North Carolina voters.
Some Republicans have pushed Cooper to accelerate statewide reopening measures as other Southern states such as Georgia, Tennessee and neighboring South Carolina are doing in the face of skyrocketing unemployment and economic stress.
But what makes Cooper’s situation unique is the authority he wields over the other party’s national convention. Trump has been adamant about having a full-scale in-person convention, but as those plans forge ahead, Cooper will have to walk a fine line between protecting and alienating his constituents.
The governor could ban such a large gathering outright. Or he could limit the number of people allowed to gather in any given place. But any moves to curb the convention could inflame Trump and his base — and prove politically costly to Cooper in November. […]”
Despite the economic devastation directly attributable to Governor Cooper’s arbitrary decisions to shutdown the state, he sports healthy approval numbers for performance during the exacerbated crisis among Democrats and Republicans. However, with North Carolinians patience and ability to hang on under lockdown drawing very thin, those numbers are likely to take a dive if the phased reopening does not release the First in Freedom State expeditiously.
Most North Carolinians, according to polls, think the State should open back up by June, but the convention isn’t scheduled until August. If the governor hasn’t moved to lift his authoritarian dictates by midsummer; and the issue of COVID-19 contagion is, well, not an issue; then, many will move against the governor. Fewer will wonder if he’s abusing the state of emergency powers to suppress political opposition. After all, the Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Forest will have a big stage at RNC 2020, and he’ll be amplified by Trump himself.
In this way, any move to restrict or depress the RNC under the guise of coronavirus will be suspect. Yet, Cooper is just as likely to do it based on his record. He has consistently erred on the side of arbitrary and singular control to suit his ends, whether it be the Atlantic Coast Pipeline slush fund he orchestrated for himself, or anointing himself a unitary authoritarian on when North Carolinians can be responsible for their own lives.
By August, many of the restrictions will be lifted, but many will remain. That means even if Cooper doesn’t cancel the convention, he will probably use the panic to justify restricting crowds and forcing modifications to the events.
Read of the the Left’s open brainstorming on how they can sink Trump here.
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