The socialist playbook is easy to recognize, but sometimes difficult to push back against.
Think all the way back to the George W. Bush administration. The president wanted to enact bipartisan education reform that would help children. He even worked across the aisle, involving Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The liberal hero of the Senate was happy to help get the bill passed. But once it was in place, he immediately pivoted, demanding the administration spend more.
For Kennedy, passing No Child Left Behind wasn't about helping children. It was about enacting a partially socialist law, then using that as the starting point to demand further moves to the left.
For some, and I'm looking squarely at the entirety of the Democratic congressional body and more than a few uni-party flavored GOPers, "reform" always means more government power and less individual control. And you can bet that is true in North Carolina. Literally.
Under a law passed this year, North Carolina legalized wagering on sports, both professional and college, at sportsbooks within 1.5 miles of professional sports facilities. There are eight of those scattered across the state. The state already allowed wagering at tribal casinos.
The goal is to regulate wagering so it doesn't get out of control or become dominated by criminal elements, and to tax it so the state can make money off something that people want to do anyway.
But before the ink is even dry on this law, and before anyone has actually placed a bet under its procedures, some are pushing to expand gambling even more in North Carolina. They want to open new casinos (in addition to the ones on tribal lands) and allow video gaming terminals at gas stations, restaurants, and convenience stores.
There are several reasons for North Carolina to be cautious. For one thing, once video gaming machines are installed, they are difficult to get rid of.
For example, if you've bought gas in Virginia in recent years, you've probably seen people in a corner of the convenience store, hunched over various wagering machines. They are there for hours at a time playing so-called "skill games," even though such terminals are suppose to be outlawed.
That's right. "Virginia banned the slots-like betting machines typically found in convenience stores, truck stops, sports bars and other businesses," a Richmond TV station explains. "But an ongoing legal battle has blocked the commonwealth from enforcing the ban, leaving the devices in a largely unregulated space."
As with No Child Left Behind, once in place, the terminals are difficult to dislodge. By moving slowly, North Carolina can avoid a similar fate, ensuring that any skill games that they do deem to be appropriate are adequately screened and vetted.
A second concern is the way laws are enacted. Transparency is a great disinfectant, and people should be able to watch their legislative representatives at work. North Carolina's entrance into the sports betting world went through an extensive legislative process, and lawmakers discussed it for many years before passing it.
This time, they are looking to slip further expansion into an unrelated budget bill, seemingly fueled by considerable sums of special-interest political donations.
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), American Principles Project, and a slew of other conservative and family values-oriented groups have warned that North Carolina moving forward with this special-interest giveaway could have serious implications for the Republican Party, both locally and nationally.
"If the governor and the legislature want to add new gaming in the future, they must have hearings, allow for expert and community input, and come to a decision that benefits the many, not just lines the pockets of a few," they wrote in a letter to the North Carolina statehouse.
"The draft legislation would permit wagering in locations specifically chosen by lobbyists who wrote the bill in the back rooms of Raleigh. The language also severely limits who can operate a casino — not surprisingly, only those companies who have paid the lobbyists to sneak expanded gambling into a massive budget bill would get a license."
That is exactly the sort of trickery that public hearings can help prevent.
Is that what Republicans in North Carolina want? To have their supermajority linked with stink and corruption? To have the public believing that the Republican Party is the party of lobbyists rather than families? That's in no conservative's interest, locally or on the national stage.
This is especially true when considering that North Carolina is considered by many to be a battleground state for the 2024 presidential election. The Biden campaign already has big plans to turn North Carolina blue. Linking Republicans to corruption is one of its preferred methods.
As Carolina Forward put it, "Over the last decade of Republican rule in the North Carolina state legislature, corruption scandals have become a more and more frequent feature of state political news. News about bribery, embezzlement, influence-peddling and more mundane self-dealing like reimbursement 'double-dipping' have sadly become commonplace."
As a result, "79% of both Republicans and Trump voters, as well as 65% of Independents and 58% of Democrats, see corruption as a 'major' issue," which "suggests a lot of dissension in the base for the GOP."
Helping the left in the state to label the Republican Party as the party of the wealthy and well-connected by advancing this backroom gambling bill will play right into their hands, helping to secure another four years in the Oval Office for a man who seemingly struggles to aggregate thoughts and/or convey them clearly.
No Child Left Behind is long gone. But Ted Kennedy helped ratchet education policy to the left, and there has been no going back. North Carolina shouldn't be racing to make a similar mistake with gambling.
It is always good to digest a meal before you sit down to eat again. North Carolina should wait and see what the outcomes — positive and negative — of the 2024 gambling expansion are before it enacts policies that would allow more wagering in more places. There is no hurry.
Julio Rivera is a small business consultant, political activist, writer, and editorial director. He has been a regular contributor to Newsmax since 2016, on both its web pages and television network. His commentary has also appeared in The Hill, The Washington Times, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Toronto Sun, and more. Read Julio Rivera's Reports — More Here.
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