North Carolinians don’t believe the hype about tax reform because they’ve heard it all before
Republicans have cleared most of the obstacles to their tax bill and will likely send it to Donald Trump for his signature sometime in the next day or two. Republicans in Congress are rejoicing. The American people are not. According to SurveyMonkey poll, 58% of...
Silence from GOP members of the North Carolina delegation on Mueller
As the attacks on Robert Mueller and his investigation intensify, so has speculation that Donald Trump will fire Mueller. The White House is accusing the investigation of unlawfully obtaining the Trump team’s emails, which is ironic considering these same people...
Lessons from Alabama for purple states in 2018
The Doug Jones victory over Roy Moore gave an added boost to an already motivated Democratic base. It showed that Democrats can actually win in Red States. While they got close in a number of special elections in Republican Congressional districts, they’ve come up...
Mark Walker’s Christmas Carol
Congressman Mark Walker will be visited by three spirits this Christmas season. The first, the Ghost of Christmas past, will take him back to the time of his birth when America had great ambitions. The country believed in a more egalitarian nation. The bulk of the tax...
Republicans can now hit the panic button
Okay, it’s now time for Republicans to hit the panic button. Democrat Doug Jones won a US Senate seat in Alabama last night. Alabama! I didn’t really think it was possible, but it happened. It was the best election night for Democrats since Barack Obama won in 2008...
A wave of candidates
Yesterday, North Carolina House Democrats announced nine candidates vying for legislative seats. They called it Blue Monday and rolled out profiles of the six women and three men who announced their candidacies. Members of legislature promoted them on twitter. The...
Can Democrats win when the message is “We’re not that guy?”
Tomorrow, Alabama elects its replacement to fill the remainder of the term left vacant when Jeff Session became Attorney General. Polls say that Roy Moore, an accused child molester and disgraced former judge, is likely to defeat Democrat Doug Jones. Moore’s victory...
Franken is just the beginning
Yesterday, Democrats essentially forced Al Franken to resign his Senate seat. The move comes just days after the House leadership forced Democratic Congressman John Conyers from his seat. Republicans, in contrast, have endorsed a child molester in the Alabama Senate...
A party of causes and movements
By the time most people read this post, Al Franken will probably be a former Senator. Thirty of his Democratic colleagues called for him to step down among increasing allegations that he groped women during photo shoots. In this moment of societal transformation and...
A policy victory, not a political one
Republicans claiming victory over the imminent passage of their tax bill should understand the limits of that victory. They got a policy victory, not a political one. They haven’t done anything that will assuage the voters’ dissatisfaction with Congress. According to...
