To the Charlotte Observer, about calling out Gov. Pat McCrory and House Speaker Thom Tillis for not agreeing with Rucho’s concept of tax reform and then resigning as co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. The money quote:
“People will say it’s because you didn’t get your way,” Rucho says, sitting in his office. “I say no because there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. And if you don’t stand on principle, why should you be up here representing the people?”
It’s nice to see that Rucho has principle and all. But this isn’t really about principle. It is rather about intellectual arrogance. Rucho apparently believes that he and he alone has all the answers, even on a subject as complex as state tax policy. To Rucho, it seems, there is no such thing as an honest disagreement, or a recognition that there are many different avenues to tax reform. To the degree that Thom Tillis or Pat McCrory don’t embrace his vision, it must be because they have sold out to special interests and thus are weak leaders; it cannot be that they (or anyone else, for that matter) could have a legitimate complaint against Rucho’s vision, for it is ideal. At least in the mind of Bob Rucho.
