Berger is being stubborn in a changing Raleigh. He needs to go.

Senator Phil Berger is frustrated. Accustomed to bulldozing any resistance to his permanent Conservative Revolution, the swaggering caudillo was unable to impose his will on the North Carolina House. Rather than compromise, he ended the legislative session and drove home to Eden, presumably listening to Fox News, as is his wont. This strongman could not compel obedience.

Berger came into the legislature with clear, familiar goals. He wanted to pass an inflammatory social agenda to appease his angry voters, and enact the latest rounds of tax cuts as part of his long-term effort to end North Carolina’s state income tax. The House rubberstamped his bills targeting immigrants, suppressing free speech, and isolating and terrorizing trans people. So far, so good. But on the component of Berger’s agenda most central to the man’s vision for our state—a large, budget-busting cut in the income tax rate—House budget writers refused to comply. Berger left Raleigh with his tax-cutting agenda left unaccomplished for one of the few times since he won control of the legislature years and years ago.

Berger tried to force House Republicans to submit with his typically savage machinations. He positioned himself on the hardest, hard-right edge of the political debate. Berger has long won intraparty debates by seizing the most conservative ground available and making his rivals come around under ideological pressure. Strikingly, the House stuck to its more moderate positioning. Unintimidated by Berger’s fiery bluster, the House didn’t let the Senate’s chief ideologist exploit their party’s fervor to force them to follow his commands. The tactics that have worked for Berger since 2013 finally failed.

The fact that Berger “lost” this negotiation represents a remarkable departure from 14 years of legislative business. But the context in which he failed to impose his will was equally striking. Unlike the solid one-party monopoly that has ruled the legislature in past years, the House approached this negotiation united in a bipartisan bloc. House Republicans even attracted some (at least implicit) support from Democratic Governor Josh Stein. Berger has grown comfortable and smug as the dictator of legislation in North Carolina. But his emerging rival, Speaker Hall, branched out not only beyond party lines but outside the typical legislative-branch supremacy to confront Berger from a much stronger position than previous Speakers have managed to do.

We are on the verge of a more constructive, collaborative era in North Carolina politics. The Republican House has been willing to include Democrats in chamber business—bipartisanship not seen in the legislature since the “co-Speakership” of Republican Richard Morgan and (disgraced) Democrat Jim Black. But Berger has been hidebound. Showing the arrogance of a leader too-long enthroned, Berger has been unwilling to adjust to the new style of politics emerging in Raleigh. Stubborn, angry, and ideologically ardent, Senator Berger tried to replicate his long-held dominance and failed.

Berger’s intransigence reveals something important about who he is. As long-time observers have noted, Berger seemed to transform into a more aggressive and right-wing Republican after becoming Senate leader. Some speculated that it was an act, that Berger was still a reasonable fellow from the countryside who was affecting radicalism to appease the party’s base. But the Republican majority is clearly secure—and House Republicans have moderated as they’ve grown more comfortable. Berger is still throwing punches, and always from the right, because that is who he has become. Berger is not a mild-mannered Main Street attorney anymore. He loves his power. And, like conservative icon Margaret Thatcher, he’s not for turning.

He’s increasingly an outlier in a changing political culture. With comity between the House and the governor, our state’s politics are coming to more closely resemble the divided government North Carolinians have been voting for for almost a decade. Berger wants to maintain the undemocratic monopoly of power that he has long hoarded in the face of contrary judgments from the voters. I’d like to see North Carolina voters have their wishes honored. To see the democratic promise reciprocated, we may not to dispense of the raging bull from Rockingham County.