Three Challenges for North Carolina Democrats
The number of top-of-the-ticket victories that have gone to Republicans can create a skewed impression of North Carolina's politics. Republicans have won the state three straight times at the presidential level and four straight times at the Senate level. That's...
Where the hell are the Democrats?
Where the hell are the Democrats? They’ve just had one of the most successful rollouts of any presidency in modern history and instead of celebrating, they're silent. They are acting like they’re in damage control when they should be pressing their advantage. They’re...
A Budget Fit for a State That Has Given Up
Just how rigid and intransigent an ideological disposition it requires to look at $6.5 billion and spend almost none of it is hard for a pragmatist to comprehend. But that is the judgment call that came down from North Carolina's reigning political boss, Senator Phil...
Personal Freedom without personal responsibility
The New York Times posted a short video about vaccine hesitancy in Arkansas where COVID is spreading quickly and hospitals are getting overwhelmed. There are a lot of reasons people shun the vaccine, but they have a common thread of misinformation combined with...
Exporting extremism
North Carolina may be the nation’s largest exporter of right-wing nut jobs to Washington. Yesterday, a guy from Grover drove to DC claiming to have a bomb in his truck and threatened to detonate it unless Biden resigned. Back in 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury...
Should We Have Invaded Afghanistan in The First Place?
The United States government had been tracking Osama bin Laden for years when he finally executed his longstanding mission of bringing fire to the skies of America. Former President Bill Clinton considered ordering a missile strike against what was suspected to be bin...
Callous and irresponsible
I’m not going to say that Republicans hate kids or want them to die, but I will say that they are pandering to their anti-vax, anti-mask base instead of prioritizing the health of our children. Republican governors are not just banning mask mandates, they are...
North Carolina Should Welcome Afghan Refugees
Long devoid of immigrants and subject to political xenophobia, North Carolina has recently become an immigrant state. And a refugee state: in fiscal year 2016, the final year before Donald Trump clamped down on refugee admissions, North Carolina was among the top-ten...
Biden said out loud what a lot of Americans are thinking
Yesterday, Joe Biden nailed it. He stood before the American people and talked to them like adults about a very difficult situation. He explained what he is doing in Afghanistan and why. He took responsibility for what’s happening while admitting that the scenes we’re...
In the end, America will just look away
The fall of Afghanistan has been ugly and surprisingly quick, but hardly surprising. For years, I’ve assumed what we are seeing now would come to pass at some point. Americans are tired of being in a country that seems to have no resolution to its civil war. I...
The Lost Promise of North Carolina
North Carolina was once known--and not affectionately--as the Rip van Winkle state. For most of the 19th century, the state lolled about in a mire of ignorance and stasis, its illiteracy rates high, its population large but stagnant and not on the move. National...
A common sense approach to living with COVID
I’ve spent way too much time the past week or two reading about COVID and looking at cases, hospitalizations, and deaths and this is where I come down. I don’t believe we can protect the unvaccinated and I don’t believe it’s our job to do so, so I’m against universal...