Assault on the courts
As I’ve said before, the North Carolina Republicans embraced Trumpism before there was Trump. They’ve taken a populist, authoritarian approach to governing, playing to an angry base while limiting the checks and balances designed to give our government accountability....
So many polls, so much spin
The government shutdown this weekend has everybody pointing fingers. Democrats blame Republicans and Donald Trump. Republicans claim Democrats put the needs of people who aren’t even citizens above the needs of those who are. A series of polls left plenty of spin for...
Stay, just a little bit longer
The Supreme Court stayed the decision of the three-judge panel that found our Congressional districts are unconstitutional gerrymanders. The panel had ordered the districts redrawn this month but the Supreme Court will allow the districts drawn in February 2016 to...
Your values are showing
Republicans in Congress are about to cut off health insurance to millions of children across the country, including 95,000 here in North Carolina. It’s another failure of leadership and governing. The party that has no problem offering a windfall in tax cuts for the...
Democrats, hold firm on DACA
Yesterday, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough on his MSNBC show gave Democrats good advice. Don’t give in on DACA. Make the Republicans offer a clean bill on the program or let the government shutdown. He’s right. Now is not the time for Democrats to...
The Pearsall Plan revisited
In the wake of the Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954 that ruled segregated schools are unconstitutional, Southern states started looking for ways around the decision. In North Carolina, our government came up with the Pearsall Plan. The plan would allow...
Republicans are making demographics destiny
Immigration has been a contentious issue almost since the beginning of the country. Tensions might subside but they’re always just below the surface. Right now, they’re busting through. Yesterday, Donald Trump wondered why we have to take people from all these...
It’s not priorities, it’s coercion
The North Carolina legislature adjourned from their special session yesterday without addressing their latest unfunded mandate. The General Assembly passed a law requiring smaller class sizes but did not allocate funds to cover the costs. Schools across the state will...
More electoral chaos
Well, our election cycle is in chaos again. Yesterday, a three-judge panel ordered the state to redraw our Congressional Districts. This time, they ruled that the maps are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. In particular, Judge Jim Wynn’s ruling cited Rep....
Republicans’ immigration problem
It looks like immigration is going to consume the national debate for the next few weeks. Trump appears ready to deport 200,000 people who’ve been here for almost a generation and Congress is going to get into a showdown over fixing DACA. From a political standpoint,...
