Posts by Gary Pearce

Democrats are cheering and Republicans are chafing as Donald Trump hogs the spotlight. Presumably, at some point he will implode or get tired of the game. But how much damage will he do to the Republican brand by then? And suppose he keeps going through the debates, through the primaries and maybe even through November…

Say it ain’t so, Harper Lee. How can the upright icon of To Kill a Mockingbird become the twisted racist of Go Set a Watchman? Your fans are gobsmacked. But Southerners of a certain age get it. Take two TAPsters who recall their grandfather, a prominent judge and Democratic Party power back in the day.…

How is this possible? How can this poll be right? How can Donald Trump be leading the Republican presidential race in North Carolina with 16 percent of the vote? Why isn’t his lead much bigger? How can Republicans not support the self-described “most successful person ever to run for President”? A “really rich man.” A…

After Rob Christensen and I engaged in a high-toned debate on whether Alexander Hamilton should be on the $10 bill and I proposed that we instead dump Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill, a TAPster had a terse reply: “Hell no. Dump Grant, who was responsible for killing thousands of Americans and was a half-ass…

Rob Christensen is right that Alexander Hamilton did much to create today’s America. But there’s another side to Hamilton’s coin – er, $10 bill. Yes, Hamilton’s contributions were remarkable. He became one of George Washington’s most effective combat commanders in the Revolution. He became President Washington’s most trusted counselor. He became the son that the…

First the House got its arms twisted by the Senate and cried uncle. WRAL’s Mark Binker described what happened last week after even Republicans in the House couldn’t swallow the Greensboro gerrymandering scheme: “House lawmakers weren’t smiling as they filed back into their chamber at 12:48 p.m. Thursday. Only 40 minutes ago they had rejected…

Carter blogged that, with Donald Trump polling in second place in the Republican race for President, some of his opponents might wonder whether “some evil genie popped out of a bottle and spewed crazy-dust all over Republican voters.” Well, Democrats take second place to none when it comes to crazy dust. How else do you…

That’s the anguished question Chief Justice John Roberts asked in his dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. He wrote: “…the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari…

As even Southern Republicans retreat from the Confederate flag, and as the inevitable counter-reaction begins, I’m reminded of a battle over the battle flag almost 40 years ago. It was in 1977, the first year of Governor Hunt’s first term. One fine spring day, as we arrived at the Capitol in Raleigh, we were startled…