Posts by Gary Pearce
A New Year’s Resolution for Democrats
Let’s resolve to stop over-analyzing why Trump won. And start focusing on winning state and local elections, beginning in 2017. Yes, Clinton’s loss was stunning and demoralizing. But over-analysis breeds paralysis. And blinds us to more-pressing problems. Democrats are in far better shape in presidential races than down the ballot. For all that went wrong,…
Read MoreThe HB2 “trust” canard
This is a case of false equivalence. Republicans say it and reporters buy it, but Democrats should reject it. The canard – a big lie, really – is that the failed HB2 repeal has led to a regrettable lack of trust between Democrats and Republicans in Raleigh. And, by extension, that both sides are equally…
Read MoreMcCroryCare
In their rush to strip power from Roy Cooper, Republican legislative bosses talked about a going-away present for Pat McCrory: free health-care coverage for life. That perk fell by the wayside, however. Which just proves that karma is real. Maybe now McCrory feels the pain of the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who didn’t…
Read MoreCoop’s Coup
Last week Republican legislators stripped Governor-elect Roy Cooper of power. This week Cooper showed he still has the power to beat them. Cooper’s strategy was simple and elegant: If the Republicans repealed HB2, he won. If they didn’t, he won bigger. They didn’t. He won. Big time. The Republicans had said – over and over…
Read MoreTrump truths
The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, gave us the Electoral College. Now the Electoral College has given us President Trump. We know he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, and we know most Americans believe he isn’t fit for the Oval Office. But in the six weeks since the election we’ve learned…
Read MoreThe Christmas Coup D’état
My old boss Governor Hunt should be proud. Forty years after he first took office and 16 years after he last left, he still drives Republicans nuts. Governor-elect Roy Cooper should be proud. He hasn’t even taken office and he’s driving them nuts. All Democrats should grab the Christmas gift the GOP has given us.…
Read MoreIntelligence failure
First Trump said he didn’t need to hear any intelligence. Then he named Rick Perry to head a Cabinet department that Perry once wanted to abolish, except he couldn’t remember the name of it. To which a TAPster says, “Somebody get me a dumbrella – it’s raining stupid.”
Read MoreTrump’s GOP
Forget for now what Democrats will do in the Age of Trump. What will Republicans do? They won their biggest election victories in many a year, thanks to a man who ran against their party establishment, ridiculed and routed their favored candidates, and has at best a tenuous commitment to their conservative orthodoxy. He promises…
Read MoreLearning from Clinton’s loss
Masochist that I am, I’ve read a lot of second-guessing and score-settling about why the extraordinarily well-qualified Hillary Clinton lost to one of the most loathsome and unprincipled men ever in politics (and that covers a lot of scoundrels). A fair, thoughtful and balanced analysis – one that is brutally honest, but also constructive rather…
Read MoreHelms and Trump
Rob Christensen recently noted “a number of parallels” between Donald Trump and Jesse Helms. (“Trump, like Helms, rode populist streak as outsider”). But another parallel deserves attention. Read on. Rob wrote: “Both Helms and Trump were plain-spoken populists who gained much of their support from blue-collar workers and from people living in rural areas. “Both…
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