Evaluating Tillis's legacy--his cowardice and his contributions

Thom Tillis has faded from the news a bit, another example of just how quickly a politician can become irrelevant in our era. But I think that gives us a bit of space to consider the legacy he’ll leave next year. For such an uncharismatic man, Tillis was one of the most significant North Carolina politicians of the last 25 years. He didn’t leave many eloquent orations or inspiring moments of courage. But he helped to transform state politics in North Carolina and wielded real influence in Washington. I don’t think it’s too early to reflect on his career.

I have always had a low opinion of Tillis. I thought he was spineless and cared far more for his political career than the people served or even the principles he purported to believe in (which tended to be discarded quickly when inconvenient). But I do try not to be a partisan hack, and I will grant that Tillis’s cynicism was—whether Democrats want to admit it or not—balanced slightly by authentic contributions to the public good.

Really? I understand readers will be skeptical. But Tillis took a leading role in two of the most meaningful legislative accomplishments of the last 10 years. He defied the gun lobby—which, one may remember, endorsed him in 2014—to pass the first gun control bill since the 1990s. I didn’t love everything about that bill, because it coupled the real issue of gun violence with the ableist red herring of “mental health.” The fact is that most mentally ill people are perfectly peaceful and mental illness is not to blame for the country’s gun horrors. The fact that our society is flooded with guns is.

But Tillis still passed a gun control bill. Gun fanaticism is a core part of the GOP’s appeal, its cultural aura. The bill Tillis passed has made measurable reductions in gun violence in this country. Very few Republicans would have been willing to expose themselves to right-wing backlash to address the gun plague, and I commend Tillis for doing it.

The second genuine contribution that Tillis made to American society was the Respect for Marriage Act. One of the most destructive menaces hanging over the legal system right now is that the Supreme Court could overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and nullify the federal right to same-sex marriage. The Respect for Marriage Act provides an insurance policy against that outcome by requiring states and the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages that are valid in the state where they were performed. It’s a bit of an indirect solution that still allows red states (likely including North Carolina) to ban same-sex marriages from being recognized by their own states, if the worst happens. But this means that same-sex couples (and also interracial couples) will be protected in the event that the Clarence Thomas gets his way and the Supreme Court trashes Obergefell.

Tillis was the main Republican negotiator on the Respect for Marriage Act. Knowing what we do about Tillis the person, this was not especially surprising. But politically it was a difficult move. As I have written for years, backlash against social progress among rural whites is the principal fuel driving the success of Republicans in North Carolina. Tillis himself pandered to this bigotry by greenlighting Amendment One. So his hands aren’t spotless. But he still defied an extremely socially conservative base in North Carolina to safeguard a vital civil-rights advance that may be in jeopardy under this Supreme Court.

That all sounds fairly complimentary, more so than I’m really comfortable with. Because the main pattern of Tillis’s political career was, Be Challenged from the Right, Feint to the Center, Cave in to the Right—over and over and over again. I won’t forget that Tillis passively approved Phil Berger’s “Conservative Revolution,” voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act when the chips were down, and voted for every Trump Supreme Court Justice. He shouted a lusty “AYE!” when the roll call reached him on Brett Kavanaugh. This was a man who shelved his better instincts to protect a political career in the era of Trumpism and populist ugliness.

I think there are two things we can take away from Tillis’s career. The first is that the avenues for moderation in the Republican Party are completely closed. Thom Tillis should have been a Republican star. He turned a purple state deep red at the state level and defeated two well-funded Democrats to become his state’s senior senator. But because he made a few nods toward the center, his own state party censured him and he left politics defeated and discarded. He’ll be replaced on the GOP ticket by Michael Whatley, who has no independence from Trump.

The second is that courage matters. There were a few Republicans who sacrificed their political careers to resist Trump. Liz Cheney rightly became an icon. Even Richard Burr voted to convict in the autocrat’s second impeachment trial. But Tillis, ambitious Tillis, always caved in to the Trumpers. He could have been a great senator. Instead he heads into a quiet retirement, likely to be forgotten.