Listen to the public debate on most any issue and you would conclude there are only two sides, the left and the right, but a new study released by Public Policy Polling indicates that moderates are growing both in number and influence in our state.

The study defined four age groups: 18-29, 30-45, 46-65, and over 65. Conservatives outnumber liberals in each of the age groups but the data confirms that younger people consider themselves more liberal and the older people get the more conservative they become. Those of the moderate persuasion actually outnumber either liberals or conservatives in the 18-45 age range, falling only five percentage points behind conservatives in the 46-65 group and trailing by ten points in the over 65 group.

You can hear the liberal or conservative positions advanced on the 24-hour news channels, the Internet, print, or over-the-air broadcasts of radio or television, but we seldom hear from those in the moderate middle. Some mistakenly believe that moderates have no opinions. They do, often as strong as either liberals or conservatives, but their positions don’t follow the predictable patterns often found on the extremes. There is no political party or dominant spokesperson articulating the moderate stance. Moderates tend to voice their opinions at the ballot box or with their feet or pocketbooks and seldom realize how powerful they are in making conclusions.

For example, let’s attempt to determine the moderate position on the current budget debate going on in the North Carolina legislature. Moderates would tell lawmakers that they do not support draconian cuts to our state budget, especially where it affects children in classrooms and human services for those unable to help themselves. They would just as quickly say they are convinced there is waste, inefficiency and duplication in government, and also plenty of programs being funded that might not be our highest priority in this recession. Moderates emphatically do not believe our leaders have done a sufficient job of identifying and cutting government. If they did become convinced that a good job had been done in reducing government they would support tax increases if needed, but they would insist these increases not benefit one income segment or particular special interest over others.

Overall the moderate endorses some liberal and some conservative viewpoints, often coming to different conclusions than either. These same approaches would be taken on positions like health care reform, bullying, public education and other of today’s hot-button issues.

Lawmakers and leaders would be well advised to shut out the noise from the left and right, while discarding the pressure from interest groups and lobbyists and listen carefully to the moderate voice. If they fail to do so they will likely hear it loud and clear come election time.

Moderates rule….even if they don’t know it.

Tom Fetzer, the newly elected Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party is one of the most astute politicians in our state, charged with trying to resurrect the Grand Old Party following the 2008 rout they suffered at the ballot box. To be sure Barack Obama was the deciding factor, but in 2008 state Republicans were outspent, outmaneuvered, out-messaged, and out of step with the majority of voters.

Problem number one for the new Chair lies within his own ranks. The most vocal Republican supporters are demanding a return to the good-old days when Republicans railed against abortion, gays, and gay marriage. The further to the right the better these folks like it. In his acceptance speech Fetzer promised a return to those times. It might make them feel good but that dog won't hunt. If you want bag the big donkeys you go where they are. In politics that's toward the middle, not he far right.

Republicans have a major image problem. We know what they are against but few can articulate what they stand for. Republicans can’t be just a bunch of angry white men if they want to make inroads in 2010. Newt Gingrich energized national and state Republicans in designing the Contract with America. The state GOP must develop a compelling platform of what they want to do, then begin a major message campaign on TV and radio wooing voters. This can’t be accomplished overnight and Republicans can’t wait til 2010 to begin their message campaign. While Fetzer is a master of the media another problem stands in his way.

The state Republican Party doesn’t have the bucks to wage a media war in the heat of the campaign season, much less firing a strong early salvo to improve their image. There are big money Republicans in our state but they will sit on the sidelines until they see a plan they think puts them back in the game with a chance to win.

Even staunch Democrats will agree we need a healthy two-party system in our state. Debating and deciding public policy should not be a one-sided game. Our republic and our state functions most effectively when we have loyal opposition, regardless of thr. So we wish Tom Fetzer well in his new task. The smart money would bet against Tom Fetzer being able to make Republicans competitive again, but others have bet against the former Raleigh Mayor before…and lost. He’s got a big job a little more than one year to produce success.

This week was one of the most unusual and newsworthy in some time. Let’s try to summarize what we learned.

We learned that people in power have no hesitation seeking favors or privileges for family and friends. The e-mails released this week prove that former Governor Easley had no reluctance to request a job for his wife at NC State University. Those in power appoint, hire, and reward those related to them, those who contribute to them or those who help them.

We learned that people in power have no problem granting favor to other people in power. Power recognizes and rewards power. The administrators at NC State didn’t have any problem granting the Governor this favor. It happens all the time, regardless of the field.

We learned that people in power will do anything, including lying and other nefarious acts, to remain in power. Once gained, holding onto power is the ultimate goal.

We learned that people in power rarely get in trouble for what they did but for what they do to cover up what they did. People in power frequently tell the truth as a last resort rather than as a first response. The web they weave when first they practice to deceive is often what snares them. What NC State officials did in giving Mary Easley a job was not illegal but it is sad when a federal Grand Jury subpoena forces officials to finally reveal the truth to us.

We learned that people in power are willing to scare, intimidate, and even threaten us in order to take the action they know they need to take in the first place. For weeks leadership in our state House has been scaring the beejesus out of parents, teachers, mental health advocates, the poor, the disabled and the rest of us, threatening draconian cuts of $4.6 billion from the state budget. The co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee was on TV bemoaning all the pain that was going to be caused by these cuts. Based on past experience it is hard to believe this was little more than a ploy designed to whip up support for raising taxes. We elected them to do the right thing not manipulate us into begging them to do the right thing.

Yes, we already knew most all these things but this week was a startling and disappointing reminder how people in power often behave.

What we have yet to learn is who really has the power. It is you and me. We hold the real and ultimate power, but either don’t realize it or are unwilling to exercise that power. The government we get is the government we permit, just as it is in business, religion, and every other aspect of our lives. When we get concerned enough to demand better we will get better. The one thing people in power are afraid of is us when we become riled enough to take action.

Let us awaken to that reality and rise up to demand better of our public figures.

Now we know what a puppet feels like. The House carefully and artfully painted the doomsday picture of the devastating budget cuts to vital programs they were about to make. Because of the economic recession they were going to be forced to cut more than $4 billion from the continuation budget. One House subcommittee after another came forward with the bad news. Appropriations chair Mickey Michaux solemnly talked about the pain that was sure to result in the budget cuts the House was making. Then House Democrats waited for the outpouring of reaction they knew would follow.

The campaign was as well designed as any battle plan and, it now appears, highly effective. Isn’t it a bit interesting that suddenly, from out of the blue, House leadership put forth a tax increase plan that included a quarter-cent hike in sales taxes, increased taxes on services, and income tax increases on high income citizens? A pretty comprehensive plan that raises $940 million in new revenues.

While none of us wants our taxes raised, it’s not the tax increase that has me so bothered. I have said all along that lawmakers couldn’t cut their way out of this budget mess. By the way, do not for one moment think this means that I favor higher taxes. We are in much the same spot we were in when former Governor Jim Martin, a Republican who campaigned on a “no new taxes” platform, came to the conclusion that there was no way to resolve the budget crisis and brokered a “temporary tax increase” with legislators.

Were it not for the pain that would be caused to so many it would be good to let lawmakers stew in this pot they created. But if they are going to sell this plan to us as the best solution I, for one, want to hear legislative leaders tell me two things. First, they have learned the lessons from years of piling on new and expanded programs without ever seriously reducing or eliminating older and out-of-date programs. They should own up to the fact that they just cannot continue to increase the size and cost of government with no accountability to us who pay for it. And, most importantly, they  should pledge they are going to change the budget process;  they are going to return to the days of zero-based budgeting where every program comes under the microscope on a regular basis to determine how effective and valuable it is. There is waste, duplication and inefficiency in government but you can’t find it when you aren’t looking and across the board cuts are a lazy man’s way out of budget problems.

No, the part that angers me is that I we have been jerked around, much like a puppet. It feels like this was part of a carefully scripted play, a drama in which the outcome was predetermined. Maybe I’m being too cynical but if true we, the citizens of North Carolina, deserve better than this.

It wasn’t surprising that James Oblinger had to resign as Chancellor at NC State University. He was a very fine man and had done a great job as Chancellor. But he forgot, as do so many, the first commandment of public figures: How will this look on the front page of the newspaper or the 6 o’clock news?

The second commandment is to fess up and tell the truth when asked questions you’d rather not answer. Too many believe they are smart enough or clever enough to prevent the truth from coming out. It always does. The third mandate is a corollary that says when you’ve dug yourself in a hole, stop digging.

We now know that Governor Easley, Chancellor Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielson all lied. It didn’t come as a surprise to many. After all, Mary Easley was the wife of a sitting Governor. And, at some level, the Governor had some control over the NC State budgets and their jobs. What would have happened if Oblinger and Nielson had come clean when the questions first started? We will never know, but we know now that the former First Lady’s hiring at NC State was politically orchestrated and the lame attempts made to convince us otherwise only piqued the interest of reporters to dig deeper when the Mike Easley scandals started surfacing for real.

The public owes a debt to News and Observer investigative reporter Andy Curliss and others who have bird-dogged this scandal. But while we praise them for sound reporting we have to ask why it took so long to begin the digging. After all, that is the role of the fifth estate isn’t it? Don Carrington with The Carolina Journal first started asking questions about some of the Easley transactions two years ago. The answers he got about the Easley Southport home remodeling, cronyism, sale of the Southport Marina, Canonsgate and other circumstances led a reasonable person to suspect cover-ups and half-truths. Carrington shared all this information with several mainstream media reporters at the time but nothing resulted from his information until federal investigators started nosing around the stories.

This is a sad chapter in North Carolina history, but we need to get all the dirt out and hear whatever there is to hear. Then we need some leadership to step up and not only promise to clean things up but to take whatever action is needed to do so. We once were known as the Good Government state and it is time to return to those days.

There’s no denying we live in a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” culture. There’s nothing wrong with people helping people, but the line can be crossed when people resort to bribery, kickbacks and other such illicit dealings. Especially in the public sector.

We count on people to do the right thing in their dealings. There are many (we hope most) who do so, but unfortunately there are too many who don’t. Either these breaches occur more frequently today than in times past or we are better at uncovering them. One reason many laws are passed is that too many didn’t do the right thing.

North Carolina has had too many who were supposed to be public servants using places of privilege and influence for personal gain. We, as a people in this state, need to decide whether or not this is acceptable and, if not, what needs to be done to rectify the situation.

Over recent years we have had an Agriculture Commissioner, a Congressman, a legislator and even the Speaker of the North Carolina House caught and convicted. Our legislature reluctantly passed ethics reform laws that, while good, didn’t go nearly far enough to set out clear guidelines for their own members and others in public positions to follow. It now appears our former Governor, along with family, friends and associates may have crossed that ethical line, revealing once again the “pay to play” culture that has crept into the public sector.

North Carolina has had too many who were supposed to be public servants using places of privilege and influence for personal gain. We, as a people in this state, need to decide whether or not this is acceptable and, if not, what needs to be done to rectify the situation. Here’s one place to start.

We limit the amount of money that can be given a politician to $4,000 per election, but have no limits on what an individual, business or PAC can contribute to a political party. So large sums can be accumulated, by legislative campaign committees, for example, and donated to the party. These large contributions can and frequently are earmarked for a particular candidate as an “in-kind” contribution, a classic example of pay-to-play politics.

In the 2008 election, for example, one coastal Senator received more than $300,000 from her party, a direct earmark from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. Badly outspent, her opponent lost.

Now this legislator is very smart and knows where the money came from that helped ensure victory. When the time came to vote for leadership in the Senate guess where her vote was cast? Further, guess how she is going to vote when measures come before the Senate? Lest you think us picking on one legislator this isn’t an isolated incidence. So the same leadership stays in power for too many years and runs roughshod over the way business is conducted. Nobody raises a voice in opposition. They are bought and paid for.

It is time for the next round of ethics reforms. Doing nothing is doing something. Our legislature needs to show us they recognize the pay-to-play culture and fix it. Otherwise, they are telling us clearly they see nothing wrong with the way things are going today. Do you?

It ain’t easy being Governor Perdue. A Public Policy Poll released this week shows that 51 percent of those surveyed don’t approve of the job she is doing as Governor. The most disappointing news to Perdue is that Democrats have turned on her. Only one out of two Democrats think she is doing a good job. Just 29 percent of teachers and 36 percent of other state employees think she’s doing a good job.

They are not at all happy about the one-half of one percent pay cut she gave them in the form of a furlough.

What is so curious about this result is that Governor Perdue did the least she could have possibly have done to make the state budget balance. She could have (and many believe should have) done much more. These state workers all kept their jobs instead of being fired. They kept their hospitalization insurance and retirement benefits. Theirs was a minor individual sacrifice for the benefit of all. But they obviously don’t see it that way and turned on Perdue big time. One has to wonder just how much worse she would have polled had she had cut them 5 or 10 percent or, worse yet, ordered all state agencies to fire a certain percentage of their employees?

There are thousands in our state who would gladly trade places with these unhappy state employees because they don’t have jobs.

Face it, government is a service business and the largest single expense is payroll. It is highly likely that the legislature is going to be far harder on state employees than did Perdue. By the time the new budget is passed they may come to understand Perdue has been their real friend, not the enemy.

It isn’t so curious is that 60 percent of independent voters gave Perdue an unfavorable rating. Despite her frequent admonitions that she’s a big girl and can make tough decisions we suspect many don’t believe she has been bold enough, either in dealing with the deficits in the current budget or in her proposed budget for next year.

But the one lesson the Governor should take away from this all is that governing in recessions isn’t easy, so you just have to do what is right and best for everyone in your state and let the chips fall where they may. Forget about popularity contests. There are times in which you just cannot win. Governor Perdue is in that situation now.

Alamance County’s Representative Cary Allred is a misunderstood victim of partisan politics, of a vicious news media and of the N.C. Highway Patrol. The good representative was in a hurry to get to Raleigh Monday night to vote on important issues of state. The urgency of these matters prompted him to be just a little lead-footed. In fact, when the state trooper stopped Allred he was driving 102 in a 65 mile-an-hour zone. Allred flashed his legislative ID card to the trooper and was given a warning to slow down. The poor trooper just didn’t know who he had stopped since Allred was so inconsiderate as to not to be driving his car with the State House license plates.

“He wanted to verify that I had a good reason for going over the speed limit,” Allred told a reporter. Perfectly explainable. Most people going 102 in a 65 wouldn’t have a good reason. Why is the media badgering Allred?

After such a disturbing confrontation with the trooper it is easy to understand why Allred would have sought the comfort of a warm embrace and kiss on the cheek from a teenage girl who was a family friend serving as a page for the legislature. Various legislators, lobbyists, and staffers encountered Allred during the evening and speculated that he might be intoxicated. Not so. He was high on life after his reunion with this wonderful young woman

No doubt all this put Representative Allred in a fowl mood, which certainly explains the argumentative attitude he displayed to his seatmate and the House Speaker during the evening session. He is often the subject of criticism, he says because he speaks his mind.

But the tipping point came when someone forced the Highway Patrol to issue a speeding ticket to Representative Allred. Someone is obviously going to great lengths to embarrass this paragon of virtue. Allred says it is a case of reverse favoritism and he intends to hire a lawyer and challenge the ticket. No way would any other citizen have been cited five days after the fact for exceeding the speed limit by 37 miles per hour.

Cary’s momma would be proud of her boy for standing up to these bullies. But no prouder than the citizens of Alamance County who elected him. Show your patriotism, Representative Allred. Don’t you let them make you a victim.