Two Authoritarian Futures for the GOP
The relationship between liberty and extremism in the GOP has changed. Where in 1964 Barry Goldwater stunned his party's convention by declaring that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," the leading Republicans of today train their radicalism on the...
Outside the box
Lt. Governor Mark Robinson’s handlers are trying desperately to shut him down and put him in a box. Last week, they announced Robinson would not be attending a conference where he was listed as a featured speaker. The ReAwaken America tour that features a who’s who of...
Democrats’ summer boost
The Washington Post reports this morning that Democrats are shifting their message to highlight expanding the middle class after polling shows them lagging Republicans on the economy. Polls in May showed voters believe Trump did a better job handling the economy than...
Joe Biden has Moved the Left to a Much Healthier Place
One of Joe Biden's most lasting accomplishments may be that he has done a service to people who had traditionally regarded him with deep skepticism. During the 2020 primary season, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party exhibited contempt for the former Vice...
An American travel log
I left home towing a 13-foot Scamp travel trailer on July 3 to begin a 5,000-mile journey across the interior of the northern United States. I met people and saw things. This country is truly magnificent. It’s vast and changing and still wild. Everyone should drive it...
Back to the stupid
I’ve been on the road for almost three weeks and covered more than 5,000 miles. I had almost no interaction with social media or news and little contact with anybody outside my immediate family. It was a great break. When I got back, I was immediately reminded...
Thom Tillis Wants to Reinvent Himself
Thom Tillis has always attempted to operate with a malleable image. From the severely conservative state Speaker always on his toes to the caring grandpa contrasted with adulterous Cal, this wily politician has long adjusted his self-presentation to fit his political...
Evangelical Imperialism
GOP legislators have introduced a bill that would transfer full control of public education to the evangelical community. This is not the banner under which they've brandished the legislation; their marketing consists, as usual, of pablum referring to "parents'...
The Surpeme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling was An Act of racial Aggression
The already-creamy composition of elite American education is about to become blindingly white. This transmogrification of a sorry status quo is the consequence of yet another regressive Supreme Court decision, issued last week in a case involving UNC-Chapel Hill,...
Trumpists in robes
Editor’s note: This may be the last newsletter for a while. I’m taking an RV out west for most of July and will have little access to internet. If I have occasion to post, I will (I still have a lot to say), but don’t count on it. When I return, I’m going to move the...
The John Locke Foundation is in a Complete Moral Death Spiral
Cynical critic of the John Locke Foundation though I long have been, even I found a recent Carolina Journal piece to be shocking. "What's behind the new push to end teen marriage?" it mused. I didn't want to read the piece, presuming, without justification, that its...
All about the win
Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected the Independent State Legislature theory when it decided against the North Carolina legislature in the case of Moore v. Harper. The Moore named here is State House Speaker Tim Moore. He and the Republicans were arguing that the...