A good week for democracy and the rule of law
Photo by Evan Vucci/AP/Shutterstock There’s no shortage of reasons to feel that our democracy is in peril. A substantial portion of the population seems to believe that our system of government is unable to cope with the pressures placed on it by changing cultural...
Tribalism and fundamentals at work
For years, I used to tell people who said, “Well, I vote for the person not the party,” that once that person is elected, they vote with party in Congress or the state legislature. Now, that message has clearly sunk in and while I might have been right, I wish I...
Ted Budd is a threat to democracy
So Ted Budd refuses to commit to accepting the election results in November. When asked why, his campaign manager “claimed without evidence that Cheri Beasley, the Democratic nominee and a former State Supreme Court justice, might try to disenfranchise voters,”...
The Power of Women’s Outrage is Real
Furnifold Simmons, the son of a slave-driver and the master of white supremacy in Jim Crow North Carolina, had a woman problem. His marriage was strong and no one, at least no racist, questioned his ethics, but thousands of his (white) female constituents had suddenly...
Dark fantasies
Every so often, an event captures the imagination of conservatives that lays bare how deeply bigotry is ingrained in the movement. This month, it’s been mermaids and Hobbits. When Amazon Prime introduced Black actors playing Hobbits, conservatives screamed,...
Deep state Lindsey Graham?
Yesterday, Lindsey Graham announced that he is introducing a bill to ban abortion across the country after 15 weeks. He took Republicans by surprise as many GOP candidates are trying to downplay the issue in their races. Candidates in swing states immediately...
How to Beat Mark Robinson
Politics usually revolves around multiple axes. Philosophical conflict, fiscal priorities, disagreements on America's role in the world, and the very nature of society coexist on the interlocking planes of political dispute. But once every few generations, policy...
Misreading history
As I mentioned in a blog post last week, the John Locke Foundation is making a movie. It’s a love story set in Wilmington at the time of the 1898 massacre and coup. According to Amy O. Cooke, CEO of the JLF, “One group not thrilled with our project is the...
Telling the Truth on the GOP
After Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia last week, Republicans screamed, probably a bit too loudly. They were outraged, calling Biden “divisive” and accusing him of “pitting his fellow Americans against each other.” They had never heard a President of the United...
The starting bell
Happy Labor Day! It’s that time of year to remember that if you enjoy the weekend, thank the labor movement. If you believe in the 40-hour work week and overtime pay, thank the labor movement. If you are glad we have child labor laws, thank the labor movement. If you...
There’s A Progressive Vision for the North Carolina Economy and a Regressive One
North Carolina's economy has looked at various points in history like the rustic horror of a plantation slave labor camp, the grimness of Satanic mills that persisted down south after New England had healed those wounds, a smoky cigarette factory, and a glass-cube...
A country under threat and a media out to lunch
I watched Joe Biden’s speech twice last night. Not because I was so moved by the address, but because fixing dinner interrupted me in the middle of it. I thought it was good speech—and appropriate. I also thought it would be controversial because Biden told the truth...
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