Midsummer update
I’ve got a busy week so instead of a big blog, here are a few observations about the state of politics in midsummer. The political environment is slowly improving for Democrats. It’s not going to get good enough to make 2022 a good year for the party, but it might get...
A Backlash Against the Trumpified Supreme Court is Possible but not Guaranteed
The United States Supreme Court is making every Republican promise real. For decades, GOP politicians have pandered to their party's extreme wing with pledges to enact an agenda quite far to the right of the median voter's preferences. Swing voters largely shrugged,...
Playing with fire and the already burned
In Republican primaries across the country, Democrats have been helping Trumpist candidates with extreme views. They’ve been attacking more moderate GOP candidates, hoping to end up with more winnable races in November. Republican moderates, especially anti-Trumpers,...
Ten years old
The impact of ending Roe v. Wade is quickly becoming clear. The ruling will yield a number of unintended consequences that include devastating effects on young lives. Some also might be surprising, like reducing, instead of increasing, the fertility rate. Nothing will...
The Preamble
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted...
It’s progress, not failure
As the General Assembly adjourns for the summer, a lot of the focus is on what the legislature hasn’t done. They didn’t expand Medicaid. They didn’t legalize medical marijuana. They didn’t legalize online gambling. But those takes are wrong. The focus should be on...
The fight has just begun
The Supreme Court just delivered a devastating series of opinions designed to upend liberal policies that have been place for decades. The most high-profile case ended a woman’s right to choose when to become a mother, but other cases block states’ abilities to...
The Gender Gap Between Beasley and Budd Could be Huge
The contest for U.S. Senate in North Carolina features a stark contrast in personalities. In temperament, background, and ideological intensity, Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd, each carrying their respective partisan banner, are dramatically different people. Their...
A Republican narrative
Yesterday, the January 6 committee hearings became as compelling as the Watergate hearings. Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ assistant gave blockbuster testimony describing what happened at the Ellipse and White House on January 6. Cassidy Hutchinson...
Don’t make it a process argument
Josh Marshall, the founder and editor of Talking Points Memo, wrote a column in the New York Times this weekend offering Democrats a way to make abortion a salient issue in November. He urges all Democratic Senators and challengers to pledge not only to codify Roe...
From think tank to hackery
I’m back from Sweden. While North Carolina was suffering from 95+ degree heat, we were struggling to get above 70 degrees. At some point, I’d love to spend summers there. For now, I’ll take what I can get. While the landscape, the climate, and the culture were much...
Pro-democracy conservatives
By the time most of you read this, I’ll be on a plane heading to Stockholm. I probably won’t write until I get back later in the month, so I want to give you some summer reading advice. Don’t read people who agree with you. Or at least don’t only read people who agree...