How NC Republicans wage war on the working class: An interview with Gene Nichol
Gene Nichol, the Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, has written extensively about the war Republicans have waged on ordinary people.
Professor Nichol, why should working class citizens in North Carolina vote for Democrats?
Most Americans describe themselves as middle class. But many don’t have enough savings and assets to navigate the hardships that a health crisis or injury can put in their way. They don’t have the security that they will need to educate their kids and provide for their retirement.
Democrats direct their energies towards the middle class and those striving to be middle class. The goal is to promote good jobs, high paying jobs. They strive to make work possible and productive and to provide affordable healthcare, housing, and childcare. It’s important to secure work and the tools that make it possible to support your family.
NC Democrats are known for championing issues that can help those in poverty, such as Medicaid expansion. How do the policies of NC Dems help the working class?
The great signature programs — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act — are all Democratic programs, usually opposed by Republicans, and they’ve had a huge and beneficial impact on working folks as well as those threatened by poverty. Without Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, for example, a high percentage of seniors would be living in poverty. That said, I want to push back on the assumption that Democrats have done a lot for people in poverty in North Carolina. North Carolina has some of the highest levels of child and adult poverty in the country.
Does the Working Class benefit from the lower taxes that Republicans have passed over the past twelve years?
NC Republicans’ major claim is lowering taxes. But that hasn’t been the case for all North Carolinians. Republicans have lowered taxes for the very richest Tar Heels, but they have raised the taxes of the bottom 40% by raising sales taxes and expanding sales tax to services which are disproportionately used by working and middle class citizens. The Justice Center has reported that taxes have decreased for the top 25% of earners and increased for the bottom third.
Are there specific fiscal policies NC Republicans have put in place that hurt the working class?
North Carolina is the only state in America to repeal its Earned Income Tax Credit, a credit designed to give low wage earners a tax break. By their repeal, Republicans have effectively raised the tax bill of working families making about $40,000 a year. What this means is that the legislature has increasingly shifted the tax burden from the wealthy onto the backs of the working class.
After Republican cuts, North Carolina’s unemployment compensation has become the stingiest in the country.
Republicans brag about low unemployment rates in North Carolina. But North Carolina has one of the highest rates of poverty-level jobs in the country. People work two jobs and still don’t make enough to make ends meet. At the same time, Republicans have repeatedly decreased the taxes of the wealthy and out of state corporations.
How is the working class affected by cuts in education, childcare and healthcare?
I have spent many years interviewing hard-working, low-income folks in NC, many of them working two jobs. They’ll commonly say: “I work hard. I believe in working hard, but I can’t make ends meet.”
NC Republicans refused to continue childcare subsidies for workers after Covid and until last year refused to expand Medicaid.
Democrats believe that a $7.25 minimum wage must be raised. Working full time for $7.25 an hour is living in poverty. Not only have NC Republicans opposed raising the minimum wage; they have made it illegal for cities in NC to raise it.
The cost of higher education, which places such a burden on working and middle class families, is being addressed by President Biden’s forgiveness of student loans, relieving the burden of starting life with overwhelming debt at a time when earnings are few and obligations are many.
NC Republicans seem to think that helping our sisters and brothers hurts North Carolina. If people are going to successfully work, they need the infrastructure of affordable childcare, healthcare and housing.
What will keep working class voters home, and what is the best way to encourage them to vote?
During my interviews I have asked people if they vote, and many of them have told me, “Why would I vote? No good comes to me.” I encourage them to vote Democratic, the only way of fighting back in this Republican war on the working class.
Gene R. Nichol is the author of Lessons from North Carolina, Race Religion, Tribe and the Future of America (Blair, 2023), Indecent Assembly: The North Carolina Legislature’s Blueprint for the War on Democracy and Equality (Blair, 2020), and The Faces of Poverty in North Carolina: Stories from Our Invisible Citizens (UNC Press, 2018). He has served as the President of William and Mary; Dean of the Law School, University of Colorado; Dean of the Law School, UNC; and Director of the UNC Poverty Center.