Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

CarterWrenn200x271

Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

Archives

Categories

Whitewashing History

By Gary Pearce 2023-03-23

Republicans in the North Carolina House rammed through a bill saying schools shouldn’t teach any “concepts” that cause students to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress.” Will some students feel “discomfort” when they learn that White Southerners introduced slavery to America, started a Civil War to protect slavery, denied Black…

Read More

Pusillanimous

By Gary Pearce 2023-03-22

Pu·sil·lan·i·mous, “pyoo-suh-la-nuh-muhs” (adjective): Showing a lack of courage or determination; timid. The United States today is confronting two brutal dictators: Putin in Russia and Xi in China. We face a nuclear threat from North Korea. The Middle East is volatile. This is no time for a President who is timid and lacks courage or determination.…

Read More

A Better Road

By Carter Wrenn 2023-03-22

It used to be when we had a primary here in North Carolina and no candidate won 50% of the vote there was a runoff between the top 2 candidates. Politicians frowned on runoffs, changed the rule: If a candidate got 40% of the vote, and led, he won. Then politicians changed the rule again:…

Read More

Parsing Words, Stepping Carefully

By Carter Wrenn 2023-03-21

Donald Trump’s in the crosshairs of the district attorney in New York, the district attorney in Atlanta, and a special prosecutor in Washington. Last week moving a step closer to indicting Trump the Manhattan D.A. asked Trump to testify in front of a grand jury. Does he have a case? Or is he fueling a…

Read More

Stop the Steals

By Gary Pearce 2023-03-21

In 1968, Richard Nixon’s campaign told South Vietnam to reject a peace deal before the election. Nixon thought peace might help Hubert Humphrey. In 1980, we now learn from The New York Times (link below), John Connally sent word to Iran not to free the hostages before the election. The Reagan campaign thought their release…

Read More

A Reason for Hope

By Carter Wrenn 2023-03-20

It was like traveling back in time, watching John Sebastian’s folk music documentary on PBS: An old black and white video of Judy Collins singing Turn, Turn, Turn, another video of Harry Belafonte crooning Jamaica Farwell, Trini Lopez singing If I Had a Hammer. Old songs rolled on: Where have all the flowers gone, Michael…

Read More

Trump’s Carnage

By Gary Pearce 2023-03-20

Donald Trump likes to incite violence. He set a violent mob on the Capitol January 6, 2021. Now he’s riling up his supporters to protest if he gets arrested. When Trump was inaugurated, he said, “The American carnage stops right here, right now.” No. He was just getting started.

Read More

Two Enemies

By Carter Wrenn 2023-03-17

During the Cold War America had one powerful enemy: The USSR. After the Cold War we faced no powerful enemies. Three decades later China started upping its nuclear arsenal, allied with Putin, Putin started a war. Fearing Russia, Germany started to arm. Fearing China, Japan started to arm. About the only thing Biden and Republicans…

Read More

Hate

By Gary Pearce 2023-03-17

Nancy Pelosi once called Donald Trump “the most dangerous person in the history of our country.” And that was before he set a violent mob on the Capitol to overturn an election. Now he’s back. And he’s worse than before. He promises us “retribution.” After the 2016 election, I asked a Republican friend, no fan…

Read More

A World Lit Only by Fire – Part II

By Carter Wrenn 2024-05-02

After Rodrigo Borgia died, soft-spoken but cunning Leo de Medici became pope, after bribing cardinals ended…

Read More

A World Lit Only by Fire – Part I

By Carter Wrenn 2024-05-01

It was a time, Tom Hanks wrote describing the end of the Middle Ages, when dukes…

Read More

Trust Flies Out the Window

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-29

Planned Parenthood’s spending a ton of money – $10 million – to elect pro-abortion candidates in…

Read More