A Lesson In How To Not Talk To Your Constituents

A North Carolina State Senator went on Facebook tirade Sunday calling constituents "morons" and "liberal cry babies."

This is North Carolina State Senator Thom Goolsby, a Republican representing New Hanover county.

Goolsby penned an op-ed published Friday on the Chatham Journal's webpage titled, "Moron Monday shows radical Left just doesn't get it."

In his piece he refers to those participating in the Moral Monday protests as "hippies" and "Loony Liberals." He also says the protestors are "mostly white" and "angry." It is worth noting these protests have been organized, at least in part, by the NAACP.

Goolsby is right about one thing, people are "angry." The current legislature has been extremely polarizing, introducing and/or passing bills that are wildly unpopular among the citizens of the state, including trying to establish a state religion, repealing the Racial Justice Act, and making it harder and harder for college students to vote. This is just a very short list of many issues people have with the legislature, and a recent poll done by Public Policy Polling shows that the NC legislature has an approval rating of just 41 percent with the Republicans faring even worse at 37 percent approval.

As one can imagine, many people did not take too kindly to Goolsby's column and took to his public Facebook page to take issue with his words. It should be noted that while all of these interactions were left up for a good 12 hours, as of midnight last night he had deleted most of them.

Thankfully with the power of technology I was able to screenshot most of the offensive interactions and a sampling of them follow below. I have also reached out to Goolsby's office by email, with Sen. Harry Brown, the Senate Majority Leader, and Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest's offices copied. In the email I included the screenshots of the interactions included in this piece. As of this writing I have yet to hear from any of the offices, but will update if/when I do.

While not one of the more offensive posts, Sen. Goolsby assumes those who are participating in the Moral Monday protests are neither taxpayers or voters. He's sadly mistaken.

Here, Sen. Goolsby calls a constituent a "liberal cry baby" because yes, that's how you address the people who pay your salary.

Anyone who dares to disagree with his position is called an "angry liberal."

When someone brought his bullying tactics to his attention he got super defensive and insinuated this woman was "mean or stupid" with his "look in a mirror" comment.

The Senator and I had quite the back forth and this is only part of our interaction.

I'm not sure why he spent so much time engaging in a back and forth with me (most everyone else received one rude comment and he moved on), but as someone who likes to rock the boat, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My original post, which is not seen here, commented on how the only "morons" at the State Capitol on Monday were the ones inside it, not those protesting. It was admittedly snarky, but I achieved my goal of actually having an interaction with Goolsby. Sen. Goolsby commended me for my "adult" language (you know, the same "adult" language he based his entire column around) and then continued to deny he called anyone a "moron" even after presented with his own quotes, showing he absolutely did. He also accused me of not being able to read, because ad hominem attacks are where it's at.

While there have certainly been more volatile and famous social media meltdowns in the past, this is worth bringing to light.

Goolsby is a member of a very unpopular state legislature and has shown how entitled he thinks he is and how out of touch he is with the people of his state. Engaging in bullying tactics whenever challenged by people who disagree with you is not how someone in public office should behave.

If Sen. Goolsby shows this kind of poor judgement when it comes to social media I shudder to think what his judgement is like when it comes to issues that really matter in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Again, I have reached out to Goolsby's office for a comment or clarification to his comments and have yet to hear anything. If that happens, I will update this post.

UPDATE:

I just heard from Kelsey Crum, Director of Constituent Services for Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. She wrote, "Dear Jamie, Thank you for taking the time to send this email and for sharing your concern."

That's it. Still waiting to hear from Sen. Goolsby and Majority Leader Harry Brown.