Posts by Gary Pearce
Another Senate Whiff for NC Democrats
Once again, Lucy (North Carolina voters) pulled the football (a Senate seat) away from Charlie Brown (Democrats). In the 50 years since 1972 – when the two-party era began in North Carolina and Jesse Helms won the first of five Senate elections – there have been 18 Senate elections. Democrats have won four and lost…
Read MoreNational Relief, But NC Disappointment
The election left me feeling better about our country than I have for six years. But worse about North Carolina. 2022 showed that Americans are tired of the Trump Show, which has been running nonstop at full volume for seven and a half years since he rode down the golden escalator on June 16, 2015.…
Read MoreThe “Red Wave” Never Came Ashore
There was no “red tsunami,” no wave. Barely a ripple. Before the 2022 election, Republicans boasted they would deliver a 1994- or 2010-like shellacking to a Democratic President. Inflation was up. President Biden’s approval ratings were down. Voters were down on the economy and down about the direction of the country. But Biden had the…
Read MoreJoe Dickerson: a hero’s story
“I crawled along with my bayonet in my hand, sticking it in the ground ahead of me trying to find mines.” Joe Dickerson, describing the terrible 400 yards between the water and the seawall on Omaha Beach, D-Day, June 6, 1944. My stepfather Joe Dickerson, who died Monday at age 96, was a veteran of…
Read MoreSizing up the Democratic field
Size matters in politics. Yes, physical size: Think Trump looming over Hillary in their debates, or Reagan vs. Carter or George H.W. Bush vs. Dukakis. But just as important is political size, psychic size – call it heft, command presence or the aura of leadership. The Presidency is a big job. To get there, a…
Read MoreDemocrats and Republicans find common ground
Apparently, we all agree on one thing: Washington is corrupt. That’s the central message from two challengers to Senator Thom Tillis, one a Democrat and one a Republican. In his announcement video this week, Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham says we must “reform the corrupt system in Washington.” He says, “the corruption in D.C. and politicians…
Read MoreCongress could censure Trump
Many Democrats are torn over impeaching Trump. They think he deserves it, but fear it may reelect him and decimate them in 2020. Here’s an alternative from an unlikely source, Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan: Congress should censure Trump. She wrote: “The harrowing part of the Mueller report is part 2,…
Read MoreDemocrats should just forget this poll
Democrats have been circulating and celebrating an Emerson College poll that shows Trump losing North Carolina to Joe Biden by 12 points, to Bernie Sanders by eight points, to Pete Buttigieg by four and tied with Elizabeth Warren. The poll shows State Senator Erica Smith leading Senator Thom Tillis 46-39, and Governor Roy Cooper leading…
Read MoreUnhealthy Politics
Healthcare was a winning issue for Democrats in North Carolina and across the country in 2018. Republicans in Raleigh seem bound and determined to make it an even bigger winner for Democrats next year. Governor Roy Cooper is building on 2018 by making Medicaid expansion a big part of his budget showdown with the Republican-led…
Read MoreCooper’s fight echoes Terry Sanford’s
Governor Roy Cooper has picked the same fight over North Carolina’s future that Terry Sanford picked more than 60 years ago. The issue is the same. Then, powerful people in Raleigh wanted the legislature to pass corporate tax cuts. Sanford said that was wrong. He said North Carolina needed to invest in education. This year,…
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