North Carolina – Republicans
Flood of Lies
First came cataclysmic floods. Then came the cascade of lies. The lies – and the lying liars who tell them – compound the suffering in Western North Carolina and complicate the recovery. Like supercharged hurricanes fueled by superheated ocean waters, the lies explode in today’s social-media ecosystem. Elon Musk has turned X/Twitter into a breeding…
Read MoreTaboo
As a boy growing up in Virginia my grandmother told me, Be polite…to dowager aunts, grandmothers, rudeness was taboo. Courtesy was an old southern habit. In college I sat down in the bleachers to watch a football game – students poured whiskey into paper cups, guzzled, faces flushed screamed, cheered – but politeness still held.…
Read MoreGuest Blog by Palmer Sugg
In 1984, Carter hired me to work for the Helms campaign. While my primary assignment was to travel with the candidate, Carter occasionally sent me to speak for the campaign. In September of 1984, he dispatched me to the campus of NCSU for a Q&A with Fraternity Leaders. He didn’t bother to tell me that…
Read MoreScandals
Bob Windsor owned a small newspaper The Landmark – all in for Jesse Helms back in 1984 he called Jim Hunt a ‘Sissy, prissy and effeminate.’ The first line in his newspaper article claimed Hunt was gay. It was a smear. Pure and simple. Not a word of truth in it. Jesse denounced the smear.…
Read MoreCrazy and Crazier
We’ve never seen anything quite like this before – it’s all over the news not just here but around the country: Stories about how Mark Robinson dove into a porn site, posted checkered comments for four years. It’s either the worst smear ever – or it’s true and just plain shocking. Robinson, himself, said it’s…
Read MoreA Strange Election
Republicans love Trump. Democrats hate Trump. Both groups’ votes are set in stone. Swing voters usually decide who to vote for based on issues. But this election they’re heading down a different road. A lot of swing voters side with Trump on the border but, at the same time, vote for Harris. They see Trump…
Read MoreReaping What They Sowed
For decades, North Carolina Republicans have been bottom-feeding. With Mark Robinson, they hit bottom. Since the 1960s, they’ve opposed civil rights, voting rights and equal rights for anyone who suffered discrimination. Since Jesse Helms’ first election to Senate in 1972, they’ve appealed to hate, fear and racism. They’ve trolled the darkest depths of politics. Every…
Read MoreAnother Election About Character
Josh Stein’s got a second ad with no one in it talking but Mark Robinson. Stein scrolls one question across the screen – Is this who we want to be governor? – then shows Robinson making speeches, growling: “I got them AR-15’s in case the government gets too big for its britches… cause I’m going…
Read MoreBetter Days
On stage at his rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, angry, lips set, tearing into Kamala Harris, J. D. Vance snapped, ‘She can go to hell.’ Meantime, over on Truth Social, Trump retweeted a meme showing Harris standing beside Hillary Clinton, above the line ‘Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.’ Most of us remember the…
Read MoreDo TV Ads Work?
Josh Stein’s ads about Mark Robinson certainly worked. They worked because they defined Robinson early in the race and because they used the most devastating weapon in politics: Robinson himself on camera saying, “abortion in this country’s not about protecting the lives of mothers – it’s about killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough…
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