"I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty."
Newt Gingrich

I assume Newt is now happy. Politics? War by another name.

If only it were a harbinger, rather than part of a long-established pattern. By far the worst example in recent years is the gerrymandering of congressional districts, which often assures Republican majorities even when the popular vote is lost. This, in turn, makes it easier to do things like block Supreme Court appointees, while doing the same in state legislatures allows them to, as here, hamstring offices they may not control. Piece by piece, the system is being twisted to favour one party -- the party whose paranoid wing is wrongly convinced that the system is already rigged.

It's not only the man at the top who has a laughing disregard for democratic principles; this is something he shares with the party he represents.

It's beyond just hyper-partisanship. More like a political party wanting to set the stage for a one-party system. So much for representative government? Reminds one of the Tom Delay era when the GOP Right worked in conjunction with K Street to try and create a national one-party state. There was another time and place where this occurred with a German "paper hanger". No difference.

"...belatedly abandoning his graceless demand for a recount..."

Nice to see TE acknowledge that demanding a recount in a soundly won election is just "graceless." Maybe they should have included that in their reporting on Jill Stein?

Gerrymandering is being criticized in this article. Well, who put it in place? People who wanted to make sure Blacks can vote for a Black guy in office. Not really democratic, and we now see, such ideology-driven policies only lead to destruction of democracy.

Democracy is destroyed by voting processes like in third world countries. Why doesn't TE point out how different European voting processes are to US-American? They call racist what every other democracy sees as a given: prove who you are, where you live, and we tell you where you can vote ONE SINGLE time only.

Once again:

the biggest strategic threat to America is the Republican Party

As our president-elect says, it's rigged. GOP know better.

They could ask Mr. Putin for help too.

I fear that what has taken place in North Carolina will be replicated by other states with a Democratic governor and a Republican legislators. This is not democracy. This is one party trying to exclude the other party from the political process. This not about different political differences. This is one party trying to destroy the other political party. Republicans may want down the road is a one party state, on both the federal level and the state level. Are we doomed to become like Russia and China,a one party government at all levels?

At some point in future the gerrymandering, voter suppressing, colluding with foreign hacking, mendacious GOP, will simply be overcome by voter demographics. But not yet.

The angry, uncompromising partisanship that currently afflicts the nation comes squarely from the right in North Carolina, and in the the nation. If there really were some principled objection to the powers of the governor, the legislature would have tried passing these laws under the previous governor.

When I think of the terminal desperation of Southerners losing control of their states, North Carolina and Texas the current champions, I think of a line from Johnny Cash in A Boy Named Sue.
"kickin' and a gougin' in the mud 'n the blood 'n the beer"
It is the same response that the Southerners showed once it was clear that the North was growing rapidly, and that Dixie was not always going to run the US as it had from the start, with its slavery bonus of 3/5 of a census person per slave. Those extra votes in the House and the Electoral College were not trivial; without them, Jefferson would have lost to Adams. That result grieves me; I confess that I am a Federalist in my soul.
The South will not try to leave again. I think they know we'd probably hold the door for them this time.

Once upon a time NC had the potential to be a nice retirement destination. The Research Triangle had transformed that part of the state, the weather (sans hurricanes) is pretty good, etc.
Now NC is the laughingstock of the nation. Soon to be ex-governor has soiled himself beyond redemption, as has the state legislature. Their economy continues to take hits as companies, sporting events, etc. find more sensible venues. Voter suppression contributes to NC's terrible reputation.
I would not spend a nickel in that state.

When Senate Democrats invoked the ‘nuclear option’ and eliminated the filibuster, I thought it was short sighted. I feel the same in regards to this ploy, there may be short term benefits, but they can just as easily be used against you when the tables turn.

Nothing new about such behavior and it’s not like the NC governor had much power to begin with. However, t’s one of the few political victories the Dems can hang their hat on, so when that little trophy is tarnished it makes sense to see them raise an uproar.

I thought recounts were ‘cathartic,’ when did they suddenly become ‘graceless’??? I understand partisan leanings, but let’s at least be consistent when it comes to directly comparable actions.

‘ North Carolina, this constitutional sabotage has re-energised protesters who for several years have objected to the legislature’s reactionary initiatives on voting rights, abortion, healthcare and other aspects of policy.’

Can anyone point out a similar invective made in favor of the Tea Party??

Power. This is today's republican party. Not government. Not for the people, not of the people, not by the people. Not patriotism, not democracy, not ethics, not morals, not humanity, not honesty, not respect. Power.

No Bias with TE: TE seems to think that if it is a Democrat or another elitist wanting a recount - that is OK - but if a Republican wants a recount it is "graceless"
One has to love the establishment media trying to continue their quest to define the news in the way they want and not the way it actually happens.
This is a great case in point - singling out politics in North Carolina rather than focus attention on the petty Democratic party bickering and blame game going on nationally all because the Establishment Media (Like TE) back the Democratic Party and their war on individual freedom and individual rights..

As usual this indicates weakness rather than strength. NC Republicans are a dying breed - literally. This is their last gasp.

As I write, there are vociferous protests in the Polish Parliament against the government's attempt to restrict journalists' and cameras' access to Sejm's (Lower House) chamber, and generally to blunt the country's lively and unflattering private media.
I have just asked a Polish friend, glued to the television as opposition politicians block the Parliamentary chamber's microphone, if she has heard what is going on in North Carolina. She doesn't, and does not appear to care very much. The Republicans there will get their way, and be lauded as "forceful" for it.

And I thought it was bad when the Massachusetts legislature stripped then-governor Mitt Romney of the power to fill a Senate vacancy, only to re-instate it a few years later once Romney had left office.

This is very disturbing. Outright voter supresion and then changing the stakes when that supresion is insufficient is not just a step, but several leaps and bounds down the path towards autocracy.

The GOP Congress did their best to limit, oppose, cancel, antagonize, and crush the Obama Presidency for the past 8 years.
The NC GOP is playing the same tactics at the NC State level to crush a Democratic Governor.
The Republican Playbook: Party above People. Party above Country. Sabotage any Democrat to ruin his term and make him a one term executive.

The diagnosis of American Political and Economic decline and dysfunction for the past generation begins and ends with the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has taken over and destroyed the US Congress, the US Senate, and has paralyzed the Supreme Court.
The Republican Congress #1 Mission is to stymie President Obama: veto his initiatives, lambaste him publicly, and keeping off base with lawsuits and constant threats of impeachment.
Trump regularly praises the leadership skills of Putin, Kim Jong-Un, The Islamic Caliph, Bashar al-Assad, and the Ayatollah. (He thinks they are above Geo Washington and Lincoln!) And castigates all American presidents including Ronald Reagan.

Consider the Republican Agenda for the past 20 Years in the Newt Era (Newt Gingrich Era):

-Finding imaginary non-problems to solve such as sex crimes and hanky-panky in public restrooms. (The only sex perverts in restrooms in the past generation are Republican Senators with wide stances.)

-Restricting voter rights, voter registration, and gerry-mandering legislative districts to gain party monopoly. Making hard for the poor, minorities, women, immigrants, prisoners, and young voters to gain the vote because they are seen as hostile to a hard core conservative agenda.

-Take away medical insurance from working class by ending Obama Care.

-Denying any bank corruption and insisting on less and less banking regulation

- Decreasing taxes on the wealthy

-Making rent payments and stock options pay less and less tax

-Starving Social Security, Welfare and Medicare Funding

-Increasing upper level CEO pay and denying ordinary workers health care, child care, education benefits and a higher minimal wage

-Shutting down the government and budget multiple times as a stunt.

-Calling for free trade but de-funding trade promotion

-Promoting Coal and Oil as a necessary and unlimited resource that MUST be exploited no matter where. AND reclassifying Coal as a CLEAN ENERGY SOURCE.

-Promoting nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and using nuclear bombs against jerks.

-Ending endangered animal species protection.

-Ending all Environmental Protection-- it is Government bureaucracy, People!

-Denying Global Warming even as cities are flooded, biblical drought wracks crops, and temperatures gyrate wildly

-De-funding infrastructure and letting projects decay and rot

-Refusing to fund alternative energy and calling for more oil drilling, oil tax rebates, and pipelines.

-Bringing up worthless issues like abortion, gay rights, and transgender bathroom privileges to wage a losing cultural war, while ignoring passage of budgets and funding.

-Ignoring women’s health care needs and denying them health services to their female parts because it is ‘Non Bibilical’ and unseemly.

-Spending more Congressional Investigation Funds on Benghazi Cover up than ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syrian War policy.

-De-funding Healthcare, education, transportation and worker retraining.

-Promoting Guns, Guns, Guns as a Constitutional Right and Personal Liberty and Religious Freedom to the point of Assault Weapons carried by college students to class and mothers in department stores and commuters to Starbucks.

-Making bullying the Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Community a matter of Religious Freedom and Religious practice.

-End the NON-Epidemic of Bathroom Perverts BEFORE it be can become a problem. There is a lot of crap going on in those stalls!

-Given universal blank protection to gun makers against any lawsuit or damages.

-Starving the Supreme Court of another Justice, causing a backlog of decided cases that will paralyze the court for years. Now the dysfunction has spread from the Legislative branch to the Judiciary branch.

-Making a priority to oppose ANY presidential policy of a Democrat

-Trying to impeach President Clinton over a simple affair. Republican Senators and Congressmen do sex scandals frequently and regularly. They have been doing the same impeachment policy to Obama for the past 7 years but it has been fruitless.

-Trying to sabotage the Obama Presidency from Day One. Trying to impeach Obama unsuccessfully. Or any future Democratic President.

-Trying unsuccessfully to indict Hillary over a non-issue to derail her presidential campaign since before the 2008 Presidential Election.