A Brief history of the GOP’s ten-year war on UNC
Phil Berger rode into power ten years ago with a vision of reshaping every institution in North Carolina. A decade hence, he has largely succeeded. Across almost every front, but particularly in the area of education, the Tar Heel state is unrecognizable from the...
Dispatches from Memorial Day at the beach
I spent Memorial Day Weekend at the beach. I chose not to engage in the silly Twitter war over whether or not saying “Happy Memorial Day” is appropriate. Instead, I enjoyed my family and watched the Memorial Day concert from Washington and some documentaries about...
NC Senate’s budget moves would further weaken a state in decline
The idea that a North Carolina Senate led by Phil Berger would agree to a budget acceptable to Governor Cooper was always hard to believe. But if recent reporting proves to be correct, Berger's intransigence may block even an agreement with the state House, usually...
More dispatches from Bojangles
Yesterday, on a drive from Charlotte back to the Triangle, I stopped at Bojangles somewhere between Concord and Greensboro. I had planned to use the drive-thru window, but the line was backed up and there were plenty of parking spaces. I know it’s usually a mistake,...
UNC is making all the wrong enemies
Ta-Nehisi Coates. Henry Louis Gates, jr. Chris Paul. Joy Reid. Hundreds of Black American luminaries signed a letter denouncing UNC's treatment of Nicole Hannah-Jones. The letter, issued to The Root, makes stark claims about UNC's behavior. In conclusion the...
Bending the arc
George Floyd died at the hands of police officers one ago yesterday. His death set off a wave national protests in a nation that had been locked down for two and half months. The reaction to Floyd’s death and the summer of protests and riots that followed laid bare...
New poll paints a disturbing picture of the GOP
Whether because of Fox News or half a decade of being exposed to Donald Trump's tweets, Republicans seem to inhabit a warped reality. That's the takeaway from a poll by Ipsos measuring voter attitudes about recent political events. It seems that many Republicans would...
Speaking of qualifications
In the Carolina Journal this morning, John Hood made a spirited defense of the UNC Board of Trustees that is under fire for not offering tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones. Hood takes on critics who declare the decision was racially motivated and, instead, notes that...
Madison Cawthorn’s preposterous historical ignorance
The fact that Madison Cawthorn lacks a college degree has no bearing on his fitness for public office. Abraham Lincoln had less than one cumulative year of formal education. More saliently, the late North Carolina Senate leader Marc Basnight never completed a...
Controlling the narrative of our history
Republicans are doing everything they can to control the narrative of our history. In some instances, they want to maintain the stories that we’ve been told about a righteous nation that downplays our most egregious wrongs. In others, they want to change the story to...
A people’s tragedy: The hidden cost of politicizing UNC
In a searing tweet, Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth said, "This is a pathetic attempt to silence one of the most important voices about US history. We'd welcome her @wesley_u." For anyone who believes in public higher education, Roth's statement cut to...
McCrory brags about one of his most shameful decisions
"I'm cutting up the credit card," then-Governor Pat McCrory said flippantly. The context was an unprecedented cut in unemployment benefits that had been crafted behind closed doors by business lobbyists and signed without a thought by the new, in-over-his-head North...