General
Death and Hope on Campus
The killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University – and now the reaction, rhetoric and threats of retribution – make you tremble for our country. But the Q&A session that Carter and I had the afternoon before at N.C. State University gave me hope. We were at NCSU’s Society for Politics, Economics & the…
Read MoreIgnoring the Past
The future’s a mystery. But it’s also true history repeats itself. So when we come to a fork in the road the past – by shedding light on old mistakes – can help us choose the road to take. At the end of ‘The Roaring Twenties’ my grandmother married – as a young girl she’d…
Read MoreA Lost Virtue
Seldom agreeing, grasping for power, our two political parties have fought for years. Back in Reagan days, Democrats said we needed more government to fix problems. Republicans, like Reagan, shot back government was the problem. Still, as Reagan and Tip O’Neill battled, they shared common values. Both respected that Americans had the right to disagree…
Read MoreA Reckoning
Hitler couldn’t destroy America. The Soviet Union couldn’t either. But Trump’s warning us one federal court has the power to destroy us. Of course, he was angry the court ruled against him. And he was posturing to get clicks on social media. But he left one question unanswered. Here’s what happened: Using what he calls…
Read MoreSlava Ukraini
Our young waitress at dinner had a strong accent, and my wife asked where she’s from. “Ukraine,” she said. She’s been here a year. She’d lived near Poland, away from the fighting. On my walk the next morning, I crossed paths with a grandmotherly woman who’s always pushing a small child in a stroller around…
Read MoreThe Times They Are a’ Changin’
The other day I read Big Tech Algorithms – by feeding us what we crave to see, hear, believe – are warping our character. There’s probably some truth in that but tale spinning goes all the way back to the Serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden – it’s an old bone-deep sin. Parents…
Read MoreWinning and Losing
Fall is in the air, college football is back and I’ll be at Carter-Finley Stadium, pulling for the Wolfpack. In a couple of months, I’ll be in the Lenovo Center (or whatever it’s named now) hoping Will Wade can restore our basketball glory in the era of NIL (“Now It’s Legal”). I’ll learn the players’…
Read MoreA Line in the Sand
After Watergate, puzzled, trying to figure out reams of new election laws, I started looking for a lawyer – but there wasn’t a single lawyer in North Carolina who practiced that kind of law. I called Stan Evans, head of the American Conservative Union in Washington, and he said one name: “John Bolton.” A week…
Read MoreTuning In
A big thing that people in politics don’t understand is how little attention people pay to politics. We politicos dive in and swim deep in the daily river of news – every Breaking News flash, every headline, every talking head, every twist and turn in every story. But most people take only an occasional dip…
Read MoreThe Pilgrim – Part 1
Lying in a hospital bed, past ninety, face peaceful, eyes failing, J. I. Packer could hear his nurse’s footsteps but her face was a blur. Staring down at his hollow cheeks, rail-thin legs, the patch of skin stretched across the awkward dent on the side of his forehead, she asked a question, he didn’t answer,…
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