Another defining primary
Ten years ago, the Republican primary for US Senate in North Carolina mirrored sharp divisions within the national GOP at the time. Then-State House Speaker Thom Tillis represented the staid establishment led by country club Republicans. Greg Brannon was the Tea...
It was all so preventable
After everything we know about Donald Trump--the sexual abuse, January 6, the destructions of norms, the lying, the threats--he’s still the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for president. After everything we know about him, the GOP leadership will support him if he...
The Conservative Obsession with Immigration is About Who Gets to Be An American
Republicans have fired a barrage of rhetorical blanks on the issue of illegal immigration. Relishing President Biden's struggles to secure the border and listening over-intently to their base, GOP politicians concluded that border security offered a choice line of...
The new nanny state
Not long ago, Republicans threw around the word “liberty” a lot. You would see it in their Twitter handles and in the names of affiliated organizations. You can recognize them by their Gadsden flag decal. They wanted government off our backs and the ability to act...
Do NC Republicans Risk Going the Way of the NC Whigs?
North Carolina has a long history of political competition--and of parties being undone by that competition. The Whig Party reigned over Raleigh throughout the 1840s, growing complacent and deflecting demands from the voters even as their position quietly grew...
RIP, Conen
Losing someone as young as Conen Morgan is always hard. Conen was a 42-year-old political consultant who has worked in Democratic politics most of his adult life. I won’t say that I knew Conen well, but I’ve known him a long time. We worked on a few campaigns together...
Clowns to the right of me
In the you-can’t-take-them-seriously department, the John Locke Foundation has a newfound concern about energy production off the coast of North Carolina. After decades of advocating for building oil platforms off the coast of North Carolina, the organization says...
Mark Robinson and His Rivals, Part II
This is part two of my little duopoly on the Republican gubernatorial race. Last week I evaluated Mark Robinson, still the prohibitive frontrunner even if the last few weeks' developments have bruised his image a bit. But the fact is that several candidates have...
Make rich people pay for vouchers
Republicans who support the voucher scheme that will drain public schools of resources keep pushing the narrative that Democrats don’t want poor kids to attend private schools with their kids. They point out that Roy Cooper sent his own daughter to private high...
A public service announcement and a call to arms
Yesterday, Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency for public education. Republicans, of course, howled. They accused of him being desperate as the legislature exercises its veto-proof majority to pass legislation with no checks or balances. Cooper is not...
The cost of mediocrity
Carolina Forward has a report out today debunking Republican claims that the party has turned North Carolina into an economic powerhouse. The GOP has been crowing about the state’s rank on various “Best states to do business” lists. They cite their decade of tax cuts...
Propaganda
There’s an article over at Carolina Journal that Republicans are sharing widely that claims to prove that gerrymandering is not a problem. The methodology the guy uses is so flawed that I’m surprised somebody didn’t stop it. It just further erodes the John Locke...