Posts by Gary Pearce
Alt-reality
A TAPster had good advice for Trump in light of yesterday’s news conference: “It should be a basic rule of politics to not say nice things about Nazis.”
Read MoreTake ‘em down
Now that even the morally obtuse Trump has been forced to say white racist terrorism is wrong, we move on to a knottier issue: Should Confederate statues and memorials stay, or should they go? Here’s a case in point. If you drive down Hillsborough Street toward the State Capitol in Raleigh, you come to a…
Read MoreTrump’s cowardice, GOP’s challenge
It’s not at all surprising that Trump couldn’t bring himself to condemn Nazis, Ku Kluxers and racists bent on terrorism. As with Putin, he’s reluctant to criticize those who got him elected. He was harsher on Jeff Sessions and Mitch McConnell. Trump failed the moral test of leadership. Will the rest of the Republican Party?…
Read MoreFire, Fury and Feuding
Two days ago, I blogged about Trump’s lifeblood: picking fights and starting feuds. It’s like Burr and Hamilton with tweets instead of pistols. Then he started two more feuds. The first is with Kim Jung Un, the only world leader as egotistical and unpredictable as Trump. The second is with Mitch McConnell. The McConnell feud…
Read MoreEmpathy, not policy
Democrats love policy. We dream of being policy advisers and writing policy papers. We just know that those working-class whites who voted for Trump would love us if they got a load of our worker-retraining policy. That’s the impulse behind the “Better Deal” policy agenda that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi rolled out this summer.…
Read MoreWhat Trump does well
We know what he does badly. He lies. He is willfully and woefully ignorant about the world. He lies. He is vain, volatile and thin-skinned. He lies. His leadership style is chaotic, unpredictable and incompetent. He lies. His chumminess with Putin is suspicious. He lies. He has no principles, character or sense of decency. And…
Read MoreTrump, Hillbillies, Politics, Trump…
Carter and I had a good time, a great crowd and a rousing discussion last night at Quail Ridge Books’ “Bridging the Divide” program. If I was Trump, I’d say there were about a thousand people there. And that the bookstore manager called and said it was the biggest crowd they’d ever had. More than…
Read MoreBridge builders? Carter and me? Seriously?
Carter and I will be talking about books and politics this Wednesday (August 2) at 7 pm at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. (Support your local independent bookstore!) Join us. We’re part of the store’s “Bridging the Divide” series, designed to bring together people from the left and the right. Now, cynics might say Carter…
Read MoreThe “Green Thing”
A TAPster of a certain age – and a certain attitude, you can tell – passed along the following tale of two generations. I post it for the benefit of old and young. Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags,…
Read MoreEarthquake
Now and then in politics, you feel the ground shudder beneath your feet. The world isn’t shaking yet, but the tectonic plates are grinding, the pressure is growing and something big is coming. So it is these last couple of days. In the Senate, the Republican promise to repeal Obamacare collapses. In the White House,…
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