A status quo election (with one very big exception)

The Bottom Line from NC Newsline

Voters file into Chavis Community Center in Raleigh to vote. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

This week’s election in North Carolina was what might be properly termed a “status quo election.” Republicans continued to dominate the presidential contest, and Democrats returned the favor in the governor’s race.

Meanwhile, most of the other races for statewide offices were pretty much evenly divided and all decided by a point or two. And thanks to egregious gerrymandering, Republicans won most of the congressional and legislative races even though the vote was, as usual, about evenly split. But, of course, all of this normalcy is overshadowed by one deeply worrisome decision that was made, effectively, in other states – namely, Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.

Absent some big policy flipflops by Trump, North Carolinians– should prepare themselves for several destructive changes – to their healthcare, the environment, the economy and quite possibly, to their basic personal freedoms.

The bottom line: North Carolina voters may have acted in a normal fashion this year, but the impacts of the election, sadly, promise to be anything but.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield