The Boy Blunder of the GOP
In twenty years or so, the National Enquirer or some other grocery store tabloid will run the “Whatever happened to Madison Cawthorn?” story with a photo of a bloated, unrecognizable man on a motorized grocery cart in front of a burned out trailer. For now, though, we...
The Confederacy falls again
The removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond today illustrates how fast change can come even when it takes so long. On the one hand, Lee, who led a traitorous rebellion, remains a hero in the eyes of too many people more than 160 years after the end of the...
How Big a Role Will Trump Play in The NC Primary?
Whatever else he plans to do between now and the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump is unlikely to go away. Politico reported yesterday that Trump is building a campaign infrastructure and that most of his advisers believe another campaign for the White House is...
Will We Finally See A Backlash Against Republican Extremism?
The women of Texas are now subject to a reproductive surveillance state not imposed upon their male fellow citizens. In deputizing anti-abortion activists across the state to harass and report upon female Texans who seek to exercise their right to procure an abortion,...
Waning Trumpism
In May, on Memorial Day Weekend, the campgrounds were full at Holden Beach and the Trump flags were flying. One guy had a large truck with a banner on it that read “The Silent Majority” and was selling pro-gun and neo-patriotic paraphernalia. The enthusiasm and...
Moscow on the Rio Grande
Back when Stalin was consolidating his power and establishing the police state that would define the Soviet Union, a legend emerged of a boy who informed on his father for hoarding or selling papers or some offense against the state. The father was then sent to a...
The New Nuttiness of the Republican Governor
Greg Abbot and Ron DeSantis are two of the flashiest, crassest, and most authoritarian politicians in the United States of America. Each man has established himself as a field general in the MAGA revolution, downplaying COVID-19 and punishing those of their residents...
Our Own Fascist
History rotates between tragedy and farce, but sometimes a farce turns out to be something far more dangerous. In his loose-lipped way, Madison Cawthorn toed the line of open incitement to political violence. The prospect of another uprising against the government of...
It’s over. The rest is just second guessing.
Well, it’s over. Joe Biden announced the end of the Afghanistan adventure yesterday. It will quickly start fading from Americans’ memories. As one person said on Twitter, Americans barely paid attention when we were there. They will certainly not pay attention when we...
Why North Carolina Politics Are So Bitter
In the late 19th century, 60 German Jews made their way into the terra incognita of Old North Carolina. James "Buck" Duke had invited them here because he had the bright idea of automated cigarette rolling, and they knew how to operate the machines. It must have been...
A breeding ground for miscreants, fascists, and racists
Madison Cawthorn is what happens when a political party refuses to hold its own accountable and puts power before governing. The GOP decided that Donald Trump could say and do anything with no consequences as long as they held the White House. Cawthorn has learned...
COVID is a Republican
This past week, I had two different people tell me essentially the same story. Both had workers come to their houses to make repairs. The homeowners asked the men if they were vaccinated. In both cases, the workers said, “No, we’re Republicans.” That’s a remarkable...
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