Editorial: NC's Bishop achieves dysfunction he's fostered

CBC Editorial: Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023; editorial #8880

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

No one should be misled or snookered in to believing the disingenuous words of protest over the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy coming from North Carolina Republican congressmen Dan Bishop and Greg Murphy.

By their votes last week against the now former House Speaker’s legislation that averted a federal government shutdown – they as much as the 11 Republicans who teamed up with 207 Democrats voting to oust McCarthy – are responsible. Bishop in particular, set up McCarthy’s fall. Truth is, regardless of Bishop’s vote Tuesday, he’s been pressing for McCarthy’s ouster since the end of May.

A dysfunctional government he wanted but didn’t get. What Bishop DOES have now is chaos in the House of Representatives. What he really did is put House Democrats in control.  The united Democrats – imagine that – will let the bickering among Republicans continue while exploiting opportunities to forge small alliances if anything is to get done.

How could Greg Murphy rationalize shutting down the government when Marine installations Camp LeJeune, New River and Cherry Point air station are in his district. Jeopardizing their pay and sustenance is no way to show support for our nation’s defense, those in the military services or the veterans who have served.

What Bishop shows his constituents in the state’s Eighth Congressional District is that a fringe ideological agenda is more important than upholding the nation’s security, health financial integrity and Constitution. For someone who says he wants to be North Carolina’s attorney general – the top law enforcement job in the state – he doesn’t demonstrate much respect for the rule of law.

Bishop’s ideological self-interest should come as little surprise. He is after all, the originator of notorious House Bill 2 – the so-called bathroom bill passed in 2016 and eventually repealed in 2017. During the short life of Bishop’s bill, the state lost $3.76 billion in lost job creation, tourism, convention and sports championship venue business.

Tragically for those in the district Bishop serves – as well as his colleagues in Congress, the people who serve our federal government and the people of this nation – he has little interest in doing the job voters entrusted him to do.

Obstruction and confusion are not the stuff of public service.

With two votes in less than a week Bishop has, again, shown his personal ideological agenda is more important than the critical needs and best interests of North Carolina and the nation.

Bishop is a key player in creating the dysfunction in Congress and the nation suffers for it.

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