Posts by Carter Wrenn
Blue Moon Elections: Who Votes
Two years ago, just before the election, when early voting started, a surprising trend appeared out of thin air. Fewer African-American Democrats were voting than had voted in the 2012 Presidential election. And the impact was profound. Before the 2016 election polls showed Richard Burr running even with, or a couple points ahead of, Democrat…
Read MoreBlue Moon
The first time I ever laid eyes on a ‘blue-moon’ election was thirty-six years ago, after Ronald Reagan was elected. What’s a blue moon election? It’s the first election after a new President takes office, when there’s not a Senator or Governor on the ballot running statewide. Back in 1982, Jesse Helms’ political organization had…
Read MorePolitics These Days
“If he doesn’t cooperate or get a pardon, he’s going to die in prison,” a former federal prosecutor told the Los Angeles Times, talking about Paul Manafort. The Times also reported that, a month ago, Trump called Paul Manafort’s jailing “very unfair” and that, two days later, Rudy Giuliani said Manafort being treated unfairly was…
Read MoreEverybody Loses
The media says Trump, by inflaming them, makes the most liberal Democrats more powerful. But what inflames Democrats isn’t Trump’s ideology – it’s Trump, himself. And when Trump insults and boasts the anti-Trumpsters protest and hurl insults right back – they’re the mirror image of Trump himself, proving the old adage: Those to whom evil…
Read MoreDoubt Whispers
In the middle of Donald Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton, a Playboy model sold the rights to her story about her affair with Trump to the National Enquirer for $150,000 – and when Trump learned what happened he sat down with his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to discuss buying those rights from the Enquirer so the…
Read MoreLies
The ABC News reporter asked Steve Bannon if Trump ever lied and Bannon said ‘never’ then the reporter asked, Never? and Bannon quipped, “Except when he called me Sloppy Steve.” Politicians telling tall-tales is an old story but, like insults and boasting, in days past lying was a taboo – Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives all…
Read MoreBoasting
The same way people once frowned on insults and name calling, there was a time in our country when people frowned on bragging. Ronald Reagan never bragged about winning the Cold War and Obama didn’t boast about how many times he’d been on the cover of Time magazine. But those days are past. A reporter…
Read MoreThe Infection
The arena hushed and lifting his right arm, finger pointing upwards, eyes narrowing, lips forming into a circle Trump said, He’s a loser – and it was more than the words it was the disdain in his voice that gave the words power. A master of ridicule, Donald Trump has used mockery as a weapon…
Read MoreReality Show Politics
Republicans elected Donald Trump to ‘drain the swamp’ and today they still enjoy watching the ‘Trump Show’ but it’s beginning to look like he’s not going to be able to whip the Washington Establishment. Instead, many of the men around Trump have morphed into Washington Insiders themselves. Tom Price is one example. It’s an old…
Read MoreA Tiff (Between Democrats)
It was odd. In Wake County, during their primary, a coalition of liberal activists led by Dean Debnam launched a campaign to defeat four incumbent Democratic County Commissioners (who I’d always thought of as pretty liberal themselves). You wouldn’t usually expect to find a liberal Democrat doing favors for a developer but that’s exactly what…
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