Democratic opportunities, Democratic temptations
In the years since his death, Ronald Reagan has enjoyed a rapprochement with his liberal antagonists. Speaking in the heat of his primary campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama credited Reagan with "[changing] the trajectory of America" in an at least partially positive...
The party of Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz is one of those high-powered attorneys who likes nothing more than to be at the center of media attention. One reason he’s a great lawyer is that he can argue both sides of any case. He’s doing that right now. Back in 1998, during the Clinton...
Pity the down ballot candidates
This election cycle is going to be tough on down ballot races. Donald Trump is sucking the wind out of all the news and voters only have so much room for politics in their daily lives. Campaigns will struggle to get much attention from the press and will struggle even...
Dan Forest, institutionalization and American hypocrisy
American liberty has always come with exceptions. An estimated one-fifth of the colonial population was enslaved at the time of independence. The raw number of men and women in bondage would grow to four million by the time a bloody war finally brought about, after...
So little
The attacks ads against Thom Tillis should be brutal. And they probably should have started by now. I hope the national Democrats are up for this cycle. Not in my lifetime has North Carolina had a US Senator who had so few convictions and stood for so little. He...
So much for patriotism
Back in 2009, I walked into my house and noticed a shadow moving through my living room and saw broken glass strewn across the floor. I knew immediately that someone had broken into my house and that he was still there. I slowly backed out of the house. When I got...
PoliticsNC Book Club: The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys
The new state Senate majority of 2011, led by men of modestly successful careers, and in large part from rural areas, came into power with an edge of payback. As Bev Perdue exited office after one term, Senators Phil Berger of Rockingham County, Tom Apodaca of...
Controlling for education
Like North Carolina, Georgia has long been a state that Democrats have been waiting to turn blue. As the population becomes more urban and diverse, the voters tend to prefer progressive policies to conservatives ones. But the wait has been long. Then, an Atlanta...
I don’t want Trump removed
I don’t want the Senate to remove Donald Trump from office. I want him to be voted out in a humiliating defeat in November. That’s not to say I don’t think he should have been impeached or that I don’t think he’s guilty. I just believe that the best way to reverse the...
Thoughts on the NYT endorsement
On Sunday, the New York Times endorsed both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar for president. Or at least to become the Democratic nominee. The endorsement comes at a time when Warren is trying to settle a high profile dispute with Bernie Sanders and Klobuchar is...
King’s dream in Rocky Mount
Today, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His most famous speech is the one delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. Almost a year before that, he gave an early version of it in Rocky Mount North Carolina. Fortunately, it was recorded....
Trump and populist legacies
Yesterday, Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia Center for Politics tweeted a photo of an old newspaper with the headline “Effort Being Made to Impeach Gov. Long.” The article refers to Huey Long, the governor and US Senator of Louisiana who ruled the state...
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