On State Politics

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s rarely good news when my state makes national news. So let’s just dive right in.

In between defunding public education and relentlessly gerrymandering the state all to hell, North Carolina’s Republican legislators have tackled a bold new issue: banning masks in public, including for medical reasons. For aforementioned gerrymandering reasons, the bill just passed the state senate.

To be clear, Democratic legislators did bring up that chemotherapy and immunocompromised people wear masks in public in order to… Let me check the old notes here… “CONTINUE LIVING.” To which their GOP counterparts responded, and this is a paraphrase, “Nah.”

Proponents of the bill (literally every Republican state senator), claim it’s to crack down on masked protesters and criminals. To which opponents of the bill (literally every Democratic state senator), suggested amending the bill to apply specifically to hate groups like the KKK, who under the law now, can petition to wear masks. To which their GOP counterparts responded, and again this is a paraphrase, “Yeah, but nah.”

A cynical person would say it’s a cheap ploy to score points with anti-maskers years after masking has been a widespread phenomenon because it’s an election year. And I am that cynical person, hello, nice to meet you. It’s not enough to loudly proclaim that they have the right to not wear a mask to protect others’ health. They’re going to outlaw the practice entirely. But hey, it’s hard to remember who has which rights when your definition of freedom is “whatever I want to be allowed to do, and only that, forever.”

On another note: Hey, if you live in NC, please vote.