Posts by Gary Pearce
Speaking of Which…
When you’ve been in politics some 40 years, as Carter and I have, you’ve heard a few great speeches and many bad ones. And written some of both (we like to think). Which must be why the N&O’s John Drescher turned to us for his column on “what makes a good speech.” John was reacting…
Read MoreDemocrats in Labour
British elections are entertaining. For Democrats this year, they’re also instructive. First the entertainment. On election night, all candidates for a Parliamentary seat stand on stage whilst the results are announced, like American Idol contestants waiting to see if they won or lost. They all wear big badges with their party colors. Then they all…
Read MoreThis Space for Sale
From time to time I post blogs from an anonymous TAPster. His offerings are welcome and refreshing, welcome because they save me work, and refreshing because they offer the perspective of a seasoned observer of the Raleigh scene, as well as a certain inspired looniness that comes over a man who is all but retired…
Read MoreBill Friday and the Hairdresser
Governor McCrory says our universities’ mission is to put butts in jobs. Bill Friday believed their mission is to set minds and spirits soaring so they can make North Carolina a better place. The contrast between that blinkered view and that broad vision was never captured better than in Jane Stancill’s remarkable story Sunday about…
Read MoreA Tale of Two Tales
There are two competing political narratives on the state’s budget picture. The question is whether voters will buy either one. When a budget surplus was predicted last week, Democrats and Republicans pounced. “Chicken Littles on the left loudly cried North Carolina would lose so much tax revenue that students wouldn’t have teachers, roads wouldn’t be…
Read MoreWashed Up
A TAPster who has too much time on his hands and no love lost for my beloved OBX offers the rant. I post it here because I am, after all, fair and balanced. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks collapsed again last week. There was no hurricane, nor a storm of any kind. The moon…
Read MoreSchooling Democrats
On Monday, I wondered (“Why is School Out?”) whether Democrats in the legislature have retreated from the education battlefield. On Tuesday – coincidentally, I’m sure – the NC Democratic Party put out a news release: “Teacher Appreciation Week draws attention to consequences of McCrory education cuts: NC approaches massive teacher shortage as class sizes rise,…
Read MoreWhy is School Out?
Republican legislators keep undermining public schools. Education goes all but unmentioned in Governor McCrory’s agenda. But Democrats seem to have retreated from the battlefield. In the 2014 campaign, education was the top issue for North Carolina Democrats – in races for county commissioner, the legislature and even U.S. Senate. National issues and President Obama’s…
Read MoreBarney Frank Vs. Liberals
As a congressman, Barney Frank was a happy warrior and joyful scourge of Republicans and conservatives. In his excellent memoir, “Frank,” he applies the scourge to his fellow Democrats and liberals. Most tellingly, he dismisses the way Democrats dismiss white working-class males’ hostility as “a manifestation of excessive religiosity, a gun fetish, or homophobia.” Nor…
Read MoreWake Effect
First the legislature retreated on RFRA. Then on Dix. Take a bow, Wake County. And take note of what this portends for 2016. The Republican juggernaut slowed, if only briefly, because Republicans realized they better not push Wake County much farther. Education cuts, tax increases and commissioner-gerrymandering have mobilized Democrats in the county and alienated…
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