The Caucasian Right Tried to Arrogate America
Was January 6th an act of desperation? No. The insurrectionary assault on the United States Capitol was the most targeted act of violence against the American state since the Confederate Army killed hundreds of thousands of American troops. Without granting any degree...
Bo Hines, because insults and winning is all that matters
Bo Hines is little more than Madison Cawthorn with an Ivy League education. Hines, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, recently proposed local tribunals to determine whether a woman or girl is eligible for an abortion. His...
Two Tragedies for Ukraine and Russia
THE TRAGEDY OF THIS WAR For the last year the world has been flooded with news of the impending and now the actual war of Russia against Ukraine. While numbers are incomplete, I estimate there have been at least 100,000 soldiers and civilians killed and...
Dueling narratives
As we head down the stretch of the final week of the campaign, two distinct, partisan narratives are emerging. Republicans are giddy at the prospect that the red wave that seemed to have subsided over the summer is back. Democrats are saying that the media is buying...
Using the Second Amendment to shutdown the First
In the wake of the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Democrats protested that rhetoric from the right was, at least partially, to blame. Republicans immediately responded, calling the accusations unfounded. They pointed to attacks on Republicans to show that both...
All over but the votin’
This year’s political environment feels as volatile as any I remember. Last spring, the year looked to be a historic red wave about to wash Democrats out of office up and down the ballot as party infighting paralyzed the legislative process. By summer, the dynamic had...
Speaker Tim Moore doesn’t want you to vote
By Woodrow Barlow and Luka Thornton North Carolina has some of the strongest voter protection laws in the south. This may seem surprising, considering how many times our state legislators have tried to pass photo ID requirements, prevent same-day registration, and...
News of the news
A few weeks ago, Axios ran an article that supposedly exposed partisan media sites pretending to be local news. The sites are part of David Brock’s extensive network of progressive organizations that include American Bridge and Media Matters. Axios acted like they are...
The Justice and the Good Ol’ Boy
The justice and the good ol' boy are running very different campaigns. This observation may come across as being as fresh and newsworthy as a pit bull sampling the delectable flavors of a hapless mailman. But, along with candidate quality, the contrasting strategy...
A revealing election
We’re just 18 days from the midterm election. Right now, the environment seems to favor Republicans. Inflation and a souring economy dominate the political conversation and the low-information voters who will determine the elections aren’t focused on either Democratic...
Voting begins in earnest tomorrow
Tomorrow, voting in North Carolina begins in earnest. While mail-in ballots have been available for several weeks, in-person early voting will give us far more insight into the electorate. If North Carolina follows states like Georgia that began voting in-person on...
The Republican War On Thinking
That something as simple as critical thinking would engender fierce controversy in North Carolina is not surprising at all. If Republican governance has had one hallmark, it has been political attacks on the foundations of functioning, small-r republican government. A...