If you’re inclined to believe the protestors who descended on Raleigh this past Saturday, North Carolina is in serious social and economic trouble. Yet just a couple of weeks ago, North Carolina got a rare moment of national commendation when the state’s unemployment rate dropped faster from July to November than that of any other state.
Given these two opposite portrayals of North Carolina’s situation, either we’re talking about two different North Carolinas or someone is getting it all wrong — or everyone is wrong. In politics, it’s a pretty safe bet that everyone is wrong, just in different ways.
Due to legislation passed by Republicans this past session, the unemployed will be eligible for at most $350 per week for 19 weeks. For comparison purposes, UNC estimates that room, board, health insurance and personal expenses will cost the average student around $13,000 during a period of nine months, or about $360 per week.
One theory on how this relates to the drop in unemployment is that the thought of living like a student, or losing the benefits altogether, led some of the unemployed to take jobs they were overqualified for — the proverbial English major flipping burgers. State Republicans cloak this argument with the rhetoric that the fear was the kick in the pants that the unemployed needed to shape up and get a job.
The GOP would like to believe that cutting benefits directly led to a drop in unemployment. The problem is now there doesn’t seem to be a reason to have unemployment benefits at all. The lack of a limiting principle doesn’t really matter, though, as it fits into their broader narrative.
The need for narratives is the reason we’re in this mess — and by “this mess” I don’t mean the GOP’s supposed war on women, war on teachers or war on other reliable Democrats. Rather, I mean that narratives tend to leave out contrary evidence. For the Democrats to convince voters to give them back control of state government, they need to prove that Republicans haven’t fixed our economy like they said they would and destroyed everything else that worked.
The unemployment numbers don’t fit that narrative, so alternative arguments pop up. At their essence, these arguments about labor force participation rate and draconian benefits cuts are intellectual window dressing for complaining about the historic electoral beat down voters delivered to Democrats in 2012.
Likewise, Republicans can now point to this unemployment drop as evidence that they’re in fact fixing the economy, despite their dreary economic record so far. All of a sudden last spring’s intensely divisive legislative session was a success that’s creating jobs for North Carolinians.
At the grassroots level, though, these narratives are reality. That’s why they’re such useful political tools. And that’s why some North Carolinians are marching in the streets while others are laughing at them. There aren’t two North Carolinas, but as long we believe so, there might as well be.
