Posts by Gary Pearce
We’re Number 29!
Business and political leaders cheered when CNBC named North Carolina “America’s Top State for Business in 2025.” But look deeper, and there’s less to cheer. The network looked at 10 factors in ranking states. One was “Quality of Life.” Where does North Carolina rank among the states on that? We’re 29th. CNBC says “Quality of…
Read MoreBroken Promise
Roy Cooper has seized the winning issue for 2026. He isn’t officially running, but last week he sent a fundraising email that began: “There is no upside to taking health care away from millions of Americans. “Yet Washington Republicans passed a new budget bill that will do just that, even though Donald Trump promised Medicaid…
Read MoreUgly
Democrats naturally are enjoying watching Trump, MAGA and congressional Republicans tear each other apart over the Epstein files. It’s ugly. But what’s truly ugly is the Big Ugly Bill that Trump rammed through Congress and nearly every Republican rubber-stamped. It is the most disastrous, most dangerous and most immoral legislation passed by Congress in more…
Read MoreYes He Will
Almost every day, somebody asks me, “Will Roy Cooper run for Senate?” Yes. I have no inside information. But the former governor is putting together his campaign team. He’s speaking out on social media. And he’s wise to wait. Waiting keeps the focus on who Trump picks to run for Senator Thom Tillis’ seat. Trump,…
Read MoreLove
A veteran of North Carolina politics said something that surprised me: “The more I look at the world, the more I’m convinced that the answer to our problems is love.” Love is a word you don’t hear much in politics today. The Time of Trump is a time of hate. Every day, he searches for…
Read MoreTrump Disasters
While deadly floods hit Texas and North Carolina, Trump is gutting the National Weather Service, gutting FEMA and aggravating climate change, which causes more calamitous storms. He golfs while Americans drown. A headline in the Guardian said, “Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn.” Talking about the Texas disaster…
Read MoreTillis Told the Truth
Democrats have been gloating over Senator Thom Tillis’ political demise. We should be quoting him. Tillis is the single best validator of Democrats’ single most powerful issue against Trump and Republicans: the deep, devastating and life-threatening cuts in healthcare they rammed through Congress last week. He challenged them in a floor speech: “So, what do…
Read MoreGOP Sheep
The sheep, not the elephant, should be the symbol of today’s Republican Party. N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall said this last week about who will replace Senator Thom Tillis: “We must unify behind whoever President Trump picks.” “Whoever President Trump picks”? As of last week, there were 2,290,923 registered Republican voters in North Carolina. But…
Read MoreTillis and Cooper
Thom Tillis and Roy Cooper now have the opportunity – no, the obligation – to turn the tide of history against Trump. Tillis made a political decision not to run for reelection. Now he should make a patriotic declaration of conscience. For the next 18 months – unbound by reelection concerns – Tillis can be…
Read MoreA Winning Message
Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, won the mayoral primary in New York City on the same message Trump won on in 2024: things cost too much and we need to get prices down. Trump, of course, has broken that promise. He keeps us distracted with ICE raids, Iran bombs, Qatari jets, Trump bitcoins and Trump…
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