Big Business Has Gone Hard-Right in North Carolina
The legislature's bill to ban limitations on gas stoves is little more than a juvenile exercise in Berkeley-bashing. Following 20 other red states, the General Assembly has peevishly introduced a proposal to preempt our state's local governments from requiring...
Remember when Republicans liked less government?
I liked the Republicans more when they were the party of limited government. Of course, I probably liked them because they were also in minority back then. Still, they used to oppose government interference in our lives and institutions. Their adhered to the saying...
Ten years
PoliticsNC is ten years old this month. I didn’t know where it would go when I started writing. I’m just glad that we’re still standing today. We’ve been through a lot together. Thanks for reading and sharing. Back in the spring of 2013, Republicans had taken control...
The explainer
Yesterday, my friend Gary Pearce wrote a blog titled “Jeff Jackson’s Bank Shot.” In it, Pearce calls Jackson “the best political communicator in North Carolina.” I read his piece and immediately emailed Gary to let him know that he had pre-emptively stolen...
Mark Robinson can run, but he can’t hide
Republicans chose Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson to give the rebuttal to Governor Roy Cooper’s State of the State address. Since the response is usually given by a member of the legislature, Robinson’s speech is an acknowledgement that he’s the front runner for the...
The Right’s Shameful War on Drag Queens
A man dancing flamboyantly, caked in makeup, and wearing gaudy jewelry and a brightly-colored dress is called a drag queen. She tends to have an overwrought stage name like Pandora Danger and an individualized persona. And she, like all drag queens, holds a beloved...
A letter to the small towns and rural counties across NC
Dear Rural and Small Town North Carolinians, We need to talk. You’ve been voting for Republicans steadily for the past decade or more and it really hasn’t worked out very well. It’s time to reconsider your choices. Since Republicans have taken over the legislature,...
Calling out Tucker Carlson is not courageous
On Monday night, Tucker Carlson aired a distorted view of the Capitol Riot, calling it a mostly peaceful demonstration. Carlson, of course, was gaslighting his audience, convincing conservatives that what they saw happen that day didn’t really happen. After years of...
Republicans in North Carolina haven’t built anything
Editor's note: Every time I hear some Republican rewriting history to claim credit for making North Carolina an economic powerhouse, I'm writing one of these columns. I'm not giving in to fairy tales or lies. Republicans claiming that they’ve made North Carolina an...
Ruining Chapel Hill
Today, I’m writing more of a local post, though it might be of interest to people interested in zoning and growth problems. It’s in response to threads I’ve been reading over on Nextdoor, the social media platform that could get as toxic as Twitter if it’s not...
A week of bipartisan progress for NC
Damn, what a week for North Carolina politics. Instead of the normal partisan divide, we’ve seen movement on important bipartisan bills that are good for the state. The state board of education also seems to have come to consensus on teacher pay raise. Every now and...
Democrats Can Do Much Better in North Carolina
"Diamond" Jim Gardner, failed hamburger magnate and eventual loser of two gubernatorial elections, once thought he could transform the state. To some extent he did: Gardner pried open eastern North Carolina for Republicans, creating a geographic foundation for the...
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