Posts by Gary Pearce
Protests and Presidents
Fifty-four years ago this week, on May 8, 1970, 4,500 students from nearly a dozen colleges and universities marched on Capitol Square in Raleigh to protest the Vietnam War. Four days earlier, National Guardsmen had shot and killed four students and injured nine more in protests at Kent State University in Ohio. Our march, which…
Read MoreA School Test
The Republican legislature may not vote for Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s school plan, but North Carolinians can in November. The Governor has drawn a line in the sand – and a clear line of difference between the two parties. Cooper’s plan: 5% teacher pay raise this year $1,500 retention bonus restore master’s degree pay for…
Read MoreDemocrats’ Country Inroads
New data shows that North Carolina Democrats are right to look for votes on country roads and small-town streets. A group called Rural Democracy Initiative – “Communities, Not Corporations” – will release a poll next month saying that “rural voters tend to be economic populists who would overwhelmingly support parts of the Democratic Party’s agenda…
Read MoreRachel Hunt and MAGA Meltdown
Two things this past weekend made me feel good about this election. First, I crashed a women’s fundraiser for Rachel Hunt, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Second, I posted on X/Twitter this photo of Hunt and me, showing off the Jim Hunt Dark Brandon shirt my wife got me for my birthday. A mega…
Read MoreFor Our Schools: Mo Green
A teacher I know, who happens to be our daughter Maggie Pearce Dill, said it better than I could about Mo Green, the Democratic nominee for state superintendent of public instruction: “I have met more candidates and seen more politicians speak than I can count, but very rarely am I moved like I was hearing…
Read MoreHow Low Can They Go?
The Kelly Daughtry-Brad Knott race shows how low Republicans will go in their pathetic pandering to Donald Trump. The May 14 runoff in the 13th Congressional District, south and east of Raleigh, is all about who can bow down deepest to Trump. Bryan Anderson wrote in The Assembly, (“The GOP’s Family Feud”), that Daughtry’s father…
Read MoreMark Robinson is Wrong
Every time Mark Robinson speaks, he shows he’s unqualified, unprepared and too uninformed to be governor of North Carolina. The News & Observer got a tape of the Republican candidate telling the East Wake Republican Club in December that “it has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money.” Wrong, Mr.…
Read MoreDistract and Divide
It’s the oldest trick in the right-wing playbook: distract us by dividing us. Jim Blaine, a UNC-Chapel Hill trustee and Republican political operative, says the Republican-run legislature or the Republican-appointed Board of Governors will take action this year – an election year – against diversity programs in the University system. “It’s my belief that it…
Read MoreHoops Joy – and Fear
I’m as passionate about NC State basketball as I am about Democratic Party politics. So, I’m celebrating the men AND women making the Final Four. I also have a nagging fear about college basketball this year. It stems from the explosion of sports gambling, which came to North Carolina the same time as March Madness.…
Read MoreAmerican Trauma
An American history textbook published in 2050 might call the first quarter of the 21st Century “Time of Trauma.” “Trauma” explains a lot about our politics today. It started with 9/11, a shocking attack on the homeland. Briefly, we rallied and came together. Then we embarked on two misguided, misbegotten and ill-fated overseas wars that…
Read More