In the late 19th century, 60 German Jews made their way into the terra incognita of Old North Carolina. James “Buck” Duke had invited them here because he had the bright idea of automated cigarette rolling, and they knew how to operate the machines. It must have been quite a shock–going from a country that was then the worldwide capital of science and technology to a state of quiet, rolling hills and tobacco fields that the same families had planted since the days of Frederick the Great. But they set down roots, and Durham has a vibrant Jewish community to this day.
What, exactly, is the point of this story? Its exceptionalism. North Carolina does not have a deep immigrant history, in fact for the first three and a half centuries of the state’s existence its population remained in an equilibrium of native-born whites, oppressed Blacks, and the remnants of Indigenous civilization that European genocide had all but exterminated. Many people in North Carolina still take this social order for granted because it was what they grew up with and all they have known–and its recent destabilization by the influx of immigrants and transplants lies at the heart of the state’s bitter politics.
Republicans overwhelmingly draw from the population of traditionalist, native-born whites. The majority of them are rural and the vast majority are Christians. They take as a default the Old South, its rhythms and inequities. And many of them are in shock that the state their families had long known is being transformed into a more modern, more urban, and more diverse place with the hegemony of political conservatism no longer as secure as it has been for most of the state’s history. This upending of the status quo has caused deep fear and anger in the Republican base, which GOP politicians, some of them cynics and others true believers, have exploited to produce staggering turnout rates.
It seeps into their rhetoric–“lightly threatening” Washington politicians who would deny Trump an arrogated second term, to use the example of Madison Cawthorn. But these are not the only people who live and vote in this state. The Democratic electorate contains a large base of African Americans with roots just as deep as the GOP base and justified discontent over centuries of oppression. Their moral claims on government provide the ethical core of the Southern Democratic Party. And they are joined in this quest for dignity and validation by urbanites, immigrants (many of them people of color), women, and LGBTQ North Carolinians. Make no mistake: the outsider-oriented Democratic base relates to politics with the same elevated stakes as Republican whites who see the political process as a fight for “their” country.
Thus, North Carolina’s political divide overlaps almost perfectly with underlying social divisions. Both sides of this coin see in politics not just a clash of policy proposals or even philosophical ideas, but also as an arena for the affirmation of social dignity. One side has more just claims than the other; rural white Christians desperate to hold onto their entitlement are not comparable to marginalized groups seeking their rightful place in the commonwealth. But with voters and their representatives so deep into a contest for the character of their state, it is hard for partisans to see their opponents even as colleagues in a civic project. As a result, Duke scholar Mac McCorkle said, “everything’s a battle [in North Carolina politics].” The best thing Republican leaders could do is to reconcile their voters to a pluralistic understanding of the political community. The best thing Democratic leaders could do is fight for the oppressed.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
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