It looks like the North Carolina Senate will ram through its version of a state budget sometime early Saturday morning under the cover of darkness. It will be an apt time for this dreadful piece of legislation. The bill was crafted in secret so it makes sense that it will be passed by the right-wing lawmakers who put it together (a few of whom may have even read it) while most of the rest of the citizenry sleeps.

But, of course, it is much more than just the way the budget bill was put together that marks it as one of the worst proposals in North Carolina history; it is the destructive substance of it. At its heart, the Senate budget is about destruction — about the latest assault in an ideologically-inspired blitzkrieg against the core public structures that knit together a middle class society. The North Carolina Senate has gone all-in with the Grover Norquist-Rush Limbaugh-Tea Party crowd that believes that government and public servies are inherently evil.

There are many descriptors that fit the Senate plan — especially the hyper-cynical proposal to steal money from everyone else in order to give teachers a raise (a raise predicated upon their surrender of the right not to be fired arbitrarily): “The Divide and Conquer Budget,” “the Blackmail Budget,” “the Extortion Budget,” “the Blood Money Budget,” “the Robbing Peter to Pay Paul Budget,” “the Art Pope-Koch Brothers Fantasy Budget.” Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue rightfully likened to Senate plan to a proposal to burn down the schoolhouse in order to give teachers the insurance money.

Whatever one calls the darned thing, though, one thing is crystal clear: Right now, all that stands between North Carolina and the prospect of being reduced to some kind of bizarre Ayn Randian lab experiment is an ambitious conservative U.S. Senate nominee and a hapless and mostly disinterested governor who has yet to show any real ability to influence the lawmaking process. Dark days, indeed.

If there was ever a time for average North Carolinians to stand up and fight back, now is that time. One good opportunity will take place next Monday at 5:00 pm on Halifax Mall when the Moral Mondays-Forward Together protesters return to the Legislative Building. Hope to see you there.

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