A Democratic legislator said something that struck me: “Feeling helpless is Democrats’ biggest problem in North Carolina.” Many Democrats are depressed and discouraged, or angry and frustrated, by 2022 – losing the US Senate and Supreme Court races and seeing Republicans get a near-supermajority in the legislature. Those feelings fueled the state party upheaval last…
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Sitting in Washington Congressmen and Senators nod, tell lobbyists, I can do that – in the next breath say, By the way, I need a favor too, smiling, ask for contributions. After Watergate Congress, reeling, put limits on contributions to political campaigns – and outlawed corporate donations. Horse trading waned. Time Passed. Lawyers spotted loopholes…
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Jules Verne wrote three stories about balloons – now balloons are back floating across the sky above us. What on earth can China be thinking? After a fighter jet shot down a balloon over Lake Huron China shrugged, said we’d sent ten spy balloons sailing across China – so now the problems not just spy…
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Sometimes I wonder why I watch the nightly news. Earthquakes killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Aid was slow in coming, and builders are blamed for shoddy construction. Russia launched a new offensive. Ukrainian forces, short of ammunition, fell back. Several US airliners had near crashes and collisions. A train carrying dangerous…
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If Anderson Clayton can infuse North Carolina Democrats with the energy, optimism and aggressiveness of her insurgent campaign for state party chair, 2024 can be a good year. The first vice chair, former state Sen. Floyd McKissick, also was ousted, by Jonah Garson. Kimberly Hardy defeated incumbent second vice chair Matt Hughes. Garson and Hardy…
Read MoreWe lost the Vietnam War, Reagan stepped forward, ran for President, and Establishment Republicans – who then ruled the GOP – beat him. Then Jimmy Carter beat them. Four years passed, Reagan ran again, whipped the Establishment Republicans, whipped Jimmy Carter, and we won the Cold War. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed,…
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The “Parents’ Bill of Rights” should be renamed the “Bullying Bill of Rights.” Yes, parents should be involved in their children’s schools. But any good in the bill the North Carolina Senate passed last week is outweighed by the harm to LGBTQ+ students. Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, (pictured) said, “no matter the intent, the consequence…
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The best thing about blogging again is reconnecting with old friends. Like Erskine Bowles, who emailed to welcome Carter and me back. In 2004, I worked in Erskine’s unsuccessful race against Richard Burr for Senate. Erskine and I had a rocky relationship then. I pushed him to do things he wasn’t comfortable with, like running…
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As North Carolina Democrats elect a state chair this weekend, three divides emerge: young/old, rural/Raleigh and grassroots/headquarters. Two contrasting candidates are 73-year-old incumbent chair Bobbie Richardson, who defends the party’s 2022 performance, and 25-year-old Anderson Clayton (pictured), who says the party should do more at the grassroots and in rural areas. One young Democrat texted…
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Back when Rod Blagojevich ran for governor of Illinois, Obama endorsed him and Trump gave his…
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Does a message about “workers,” “working families” and “working-class voters” really work for Democrats? Or does…
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I’ve resisted the temptation to rail every day about Trump’s cruelty, corruption and incompetence – and…
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