Opinion: In North Carolina, the Good and Not-So-Good News

Featured at Roll Call

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s North Carolina, so, of course, the good news is followed by that pesky dark cloud every time.

You would think everyone in the state would welcome the end of the long saga over House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill, which was repealed recently in a compromise. That bill, which had compelled people to use the bathroom that corresponded to the gender on their birth certificates, also said cities could not follow Charlotte’s lead and enact their own anti-discrimination ordinances or a minimum wage and much more.

 

Read the rest atRoll Call
Apr132017 TAGS: , , , , , , ,

Opinion: Not So Fast, Democrats. You Had a Good Day, but Now What?

Featured at Roll Call

As the Republican Party has learned, it’s much easier to be the party of “no” than to actually have a plan to lead. So while Democrats are celebrating a GOP in disarray, the party out of power needs a message and a plan.

Understandably, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosicelebrated as the GOP’s new-and-improved health care plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed. But long term, she must truly want to experience a return to the speaker’s post. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer knows just how to rile Donald Trump, his fellow New Yorker. But he still has to call Trump Mr. President.

So what happens the morning after the party, when all that remains are empty champagne bottles and a headache? f

Read the rest atRoll Call
Mar302017 TAGS: , , , , ,

Will Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, run into Senate roadblocks?

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC —  The White House is paving the way for Constitutional Conservative Neil Gorsuch to fill the open spot on the nation’s highest court. Right now, it doesn’t seem like Democrats will put up much of a fight over his Supreme Court nomination. WCCB Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis weighs in.

Read the rest atWCCB Rising
Feb012017 TAGS: , , , ,

Common Ground in the Trump Era Is Doubtful

Featured at Roll Call

The parallels aren’t perfect, but close enough to see and hear hypocrisy from all sides.

Observing some of the more dismissive reactions against last weekend’s women’s marches that exceeded expectations in Washington, across the country and around the world, you would think that gathering for a cause and against an American president was somehow unpatriotic.

New President Donald Trump’s initial statement that he was “under the impression that we just had an election” eventually gave way to a defense of a constitutional right to protest, though his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said, “I frankly didn’t see the point.”

Various Republican elected officials around the country mocked protesters before offering half-hearted apologies. In North Carolina, GOP state Sen. Joyce Krawiec tweeted: “Message to crazies @ Women’s March — If brains were lard, you couldn’t grease a small skillet. You know who you are.” She won her seat without opposition in November, so she probably felt pretty safe.

Déjà vu

I had a flashback to a revved-up crowd at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, where I was covering what was called the first national tea party convention in early February 2010. Participants who came to rail against health care and other policies of then-President Barack Obama claimed patriotism as their motivation for righteous dissent.

 

Read the rest atRoll Call
Jan262017 TAGS: , ,

What Donald Trump Should Have Said to a Civil Rights Icon

Featured at Garnet News

Donald Trump is about to become president of the United States of America. But he isn’t acting like it. He tweets in scatter-shot fashion, noticing every real and perceived slight and attacking. Doesn’t he realize that it is politically smart for any leader to think and act strategically, always anticipating many moves ahead, like a master chess player?

Read the rest atGarnet News
Jan162017 TAGS: , , , , ,

Washington Politics: A Hint of Compromise or North Carolina-Style Dysfunction?

Featured at Roll Call

Though the year has just begun, there are already signs that the partisan power struggle in Washington will not benefit from a fresh start or optimistic resolutions of renewal.

“I want to say to the American people: We hear you. We will do right by you. And we will deliver,” said re-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, as he no doubt relished uniting with President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Washington to celebrate the consolidation of power by undoing President Barack Obama’s actions of the last eight years.

But is he listening to all of the American people when his party is deciding what exactly it will deliver? Does a president elected by an electoral- but not popular-vote majority present the best evidence of a mandate to completely change course?

The Republican majority in Washington might look south as a warning of what could happen when you believe you’re not only right, but good, and those who disagree don’t matter. It’s a charge that was lobbed at Democrats and President Obama during their years in power, but irony is in short supply when the tables are turned. It certainly did not matter in North Carolina, a state almost evenly split in party and political sentiment, where one party, nonetheless, is more interested in ruling than governing.

 

Read the rest atRoll Call
Jan052017 TAGS: , , , ,

Hope for a United Future in America’s Divided Past

Featured at Roll Call

When you enter the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, you step into an elevator going down, and through its glass walls, the years flash by, with history moving backward, to the 1400s. Campaign 2016 has often resembled that kind of journey, not moving that far into the past, of course, but far enough to a time when no thin line of civility kept American citizens from lashing out at one another — loudly, and with anger and violence.

That has been the dispiriting price of the long slog to Election Day, Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton, with the country collectively collapsing at the finish line. Still, it would be wise for all Americans to acknowledge that there are miles to go, and that this path is one we have traveled since the beginning, often with one side celebrating and the other deflated — a future of cooperation and compromise downright impossible to imagine

 

Read the rest atRoll Call
Nov112016 TAGS: , , , , , ,

What Happens to the GOP’s Diversity Dream?

Featured at Roll Call

After the presidential election of 2012, the Republican Party had a plan. Mitt Romney won over a majority of white voters, but failed miserably at attracting the diverse electorate that increasingly is America. GOP would have to stand for something other than Grand Old Party. The Growth and Opportunity Project was born, with one goal being outreach.

As then Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in stark terms at the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in January 2013: “We must reject the notion that demography is destiny, the pathetic and simplistic notion that skin pigmentation dictates voter behavior. … The first step in getting voters to like you is to demonstrate that you like them.”

The goals were lofty and judged doable, with Mississippi national committeeman Henry Barbour saying the message should be “the opportunity for people to aspire to reach their dreams whatever that may be.” He touted New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as the party’s future: “She’s smart; she’s not afraid.”

What happened in 2016? The short answer: Donald Trump.

 

Read the rest atRoll Call
Nov082016 TAGS: , , , , ,

Local News Roundup: More Presidential Candidate Visits; Polls Tighten for NC Races

Featured at WFAE

This week’s top stories: Political campaigning is in the homestretch, with November 8th just around the corner…  The NAACP gets a hearing on what they consider to be illegally canceled voter registrations, and the county commission talks magnet schools.

Read the rest atWFAE
Nov042016 TAGS: , , , , , ,

If North Carolina Is Another Florida, That’s Good and Bad

Featured at Roll Call

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina is feeling pretty excited these days. If you’re a political junkie or just going out for a walk, it’s hard to miss the array of top-tier political figures and celebrities eager to tell you how important your vote is. The state is not quite Florida yet, in terms of its role in the president-electing business, but it’s getting there. – See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/north-carolina-another-florida-thats-good-bad-clinton-trump#sthash.uHoTqrd7.dpuf

Read the rest atRoll Call
Nov032016 TAGS: , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »