Archive for November 2017
Divisions within divisions
We’re not just divided between Blue America and Red America, Democrat and Republican, right and left. We’re divided within our own tribes. And the internal fights can be the angriest, meanest and most bitter of all. Three factors fuel our political – and social and cultural – fights: population patterns, gerrymandering and how we use…
Read MoreFake News
The California NAACP asked legislators to send a resolution to Washington to tell Congress ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ has to go as the national anthem – it was the latest political stunt but that story took off like a rocket and landed in newspapers from coast to coast and the headline in the Raleigh newspaper…
Read MoreWhat Goes Around Comes Around
It’s disappointing that Democrat Ralph Northam was elected Governor of Virginia – it’s worse that he won by five points more than Hillary. It’s disappointing Democrats in Virginia swept the House of Delegates elections – it’s worse that, since they aren’t very well known, most candidates for state legislature live and die by national trends…
Read MoreFull Circle
A Democrat wrote on a Republican Congressman’s Facebook page: You Republicans cut taxes for the wealthy by screwing the middle class. But think tanks, from the Tax Policy Center on the left to the Tax Foundation on right, have said Republicans cut income taxes on all income groups – from those earnings less than $10,000…
Read MoreTake down your damn yard signs!
I may not get politicians to get past wasting money on yard signs. They’re like crack addicts. But they at least could TAKE DOWN THEIR DAMN SIGNS AFTER THE ELECTION IS OVER!!! We’re talking about you, Nancy McFarlane and Charles Francis. Your unsightly, now-sagging signs are still cluttering rights-of-way. In fairness, the Mayor’s election was…
Read MoreA tale of two cities
Prosperous, progressive and, yes, white West Raleigh prevailed over less-prosperous, left-out, left-behind and, yes, black East Raleigh in the mayor’s race. Now the job of newly reelected Mayor Nancy McFarlane and the new City Council is to bridge the divide. And that’s the challenge for North Carolina Democrats who hope for a replay of Virginia’s…
Read MorePaul Ryan is right
“We’re with Trump,” he said after Tuesday’s elections. Indeed you are. So is every Republican on the ballot next year. They’re lashed to Trump like Ahab to the whale. If they cross Trump, they lose a primary. If they’re with him, they lose the kind of suburban voters who made Tuesday a rout. Now, Democrats…
Read MoreBlindness
The NAACP called him ignorant. So did the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Professors from Harvard, Yale and Columbia called him blind and strange. The Washington Post attacked him. And so did CNN. On Social Media he was also called provocative, dangerous and depressing. It all started when a church in Alexandria, Virginia decided…
Read MoreBlindness
The NAACP called him ignorant. So did the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Professors from Harvard, Yale and Columbia called him blind and strange. The Washington Post attacked him. And so did CNN. On Social Media he was also called provocative, dangerous and depressing. It all started when a church in Alexandria, Virginia decided…
Read MoreBoehner’s Boners
You need a break from Trump, Trump, Trump. So dive into this great (and long) read about what happened to Congress, Washington and the Republican Party over the last 25 years – told through the (famously weepy) eyes of former Speaker John Boehner: “John Boehner Unchained: The former House speaker feels liberated—but he’s also seething…
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