Abusive conservatism lives! Late Wednesday night, the Senate Republicans restarted their artillery barrage on our government. It was all there: shredding of democratic norms, mean-spiritedness, political payback and mind-boggling recklessness

Knowing their plans would be controversial, the Senate grandees shut out the public. They released the budget after most journalists had gone to bed, so they could “review” the document under a cloud of general ignorance. Yet even this hearing was merely a Kangaroo affair, as the Senate planned final votes within seventy-two hours. Our rulers had their way with us.

The policies are as ruthless as the Shermanesque tactics that cleared the way for them. In order to pay for what their chest-thumping leader proclaimed the biggest teacher raise in state history, the Senate plans to fire a staggering 7,400 very poorly paid teaching assistants. But that’s not all! They schedule Elizabeth City State, an historically African-American college that employs many people in a poor region, for total closure. And, proving that the N&O should go ahead and change its name to the The Onion, they’d “cut elderly, blind and disabled from Medicaid rolls.”

Punishing the powerless wasn’t enough. For committing the high crime of speaking his mind, Roy Cooper gets the DOJ’s budget cut by 59%. The pettiness and recklessness of this move is amazing. The Justice Department is North Carolina’s leading law enforcement agency. To harm the Attorney General, they’re willing to endanger the public, too. *Don’t you dare cross us.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. as the socialist weenies say. For the fourth straight budget, the state Senate has proven it’s a thuggish and politically dangerous group. No objective person could conclude otherwise.

Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.