North Carolina protesters look forward and reach back to faith

If the scene looks familiar, well, it is.

A minister leading the way as a multi-hued crowd of demonstrators speaks of justice and equality, even while being peacefully led away by police. Speeches laced with words of scripture on caring for “the least of these.” A governor who calls a growing numbers of protesters “outsiders.”

It’s the South, in 2013, not 1963. But surprisingly to some, it’s North Carolina, long hailed as a moderate to progressive Southern state that is now making national headlines for Moral Mondays, named that by those who object to a stream of conservative proposals put forth by a Republican-controlled legislature and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Growing protest vs. conservative legislation: North Carolina in the national spotlight

CHARLOTTE – North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was a rock star to the crowd gathered at the party’s 2013 state convention over the weekend at the Charlotte Convention Center. But as the conservative agenda led by GOP super-majorities in both the state House and Senate in Raleigh continues to advance, disapproval is mounting, with an increasing amount of national attention.

How did a Republican wave overtake a Southern state long thought of as moderate, even progressive, one that gave Barack Obama a narrow win in 2008 and where the vote was close as Mitt Romney took it in 2012?

And will a growing and diverse group of protesters gathering weekly at the state legislative building in Raleigh for what they call Moral Mondays, speaking up and being arrested, be able to turn back a tide of legislation North Carolina NAACP president Rev. Dr. William Barber calls “extreme and immoral”?

More Mark Sanford drama? Like you’re surprised

Just when his apology tour was going so well, South Carolina’s Mark Sanford is in the headlines again — and not for his conservative fiscal policies. His ex-wife Jenny Sanford has filed a trespassing complaint saying that in violation of their divorce settlement, she caught him leaving her home in February, using his cell phone as a flashlight.

Jenny Sanford has confirmed that court documents obtained by The Associated Press were authentic, but didn’t give any more details. She told The State newspaper on Tuesday, “We have had a number of matters [in the divorce], and we have to deal with them in private.” Well, except that her husband is running a very public U.S. Congressional race. “The race is not a concern,” Jenny Sanford said. “I am focused on raising my children.”

This can’t be the news South Carolina Republicans wanted to see weeks before a May 7 special election Sanford has a great chance of winning.

Note to Ben Carson: It’s not racism or a ‘plantation’ mentality; it’s just politics

Compared to politics, separating babies conjoined at the head in a 22-hour-long surgical procedure is nothing. I wonder if Dr. Ben Carson is thinking that right about now.

Carson has had a pretty rough time lately. The pediatric neurosurgeon studied hard and worked his way out of rough circumstances to make a name for himself at the top of his field. Today that name is being pummeled, and all because he opened his mouth.

Carson knows who to blame for the metaphorical beating he’s taking, though. White liberals. “They’re the most racist people there are,” he told radio host Mark Levin on Monday. “Because they put you in a little category, a box: ‘You have to think this way, how could you dare come off the plantation?’”

That was a quick turnaround.

What kind of state is North Carolina? Democrats and GOP make high-stakes bets

Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina are in an ideological standoff, with future elections in the balance. That explains why Kay Hagan, a Democratic senator facing a tough 2014 reelection race, endorsed same-sex marriage, and Republicans in control of the statehouse made moves to tighten voting restrictions – all in one week.

The House now turns to the Violence Against Women Act

Even as most of the headlines coming out of Washington these days contain the word sequester, another bill is moving along, making progress without quite so much drama. But the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed in the Senate and due for action in the House, is no less important.

House Republicans last week released their own version of the legislation and are prepared to take it to a floor vote this week. While House Republicans are confident of the effectiveness of their bill, it has not resolved disputed differences with the Senate proposal.

“I cannot say enough about the revolution that was the Violence Against Women Act,” said Sarah Tofte, director of policy and advocacy for the Joyful Heart Foundation. “Those of us who work on these issues, who care about these issues, see it as forming the core of our country’s response on violence against women and girls.

 

 

Why Obama always returns to North Carolina

President Obama just can’t stay away from North Carolina, though after giving him hope and a victory in 2008, the fickle state cozied back up to the GOP in 2012. Being wooed with a national convention and a stream of visits from surrogates wasn’t quite enough to stem a statewide swing from blue to red. Yet there the president was on Wednesday, the day after his State of the Union speech, selling his ideas on manufacturing and the economy at the Linamar engine factory near Asheville, N.C.

Playing hard to get is irresistible.

 

 

How will the Violence Against Women Act fare in Congress?

A bill reauthorized twice since its inception in 1994 stalled last year. Will a new version gain bipartisan support?

The GOP on its minority problem: Don’t call it ‘outreach,’ but ‘engagement’

In a come-to-Jesus moment at the RNC winter meeting in Charlotte, the message was: Republicans cannot scare people and expect to win; Republicans have to invite people and include people and that’s how you win.

For Southern Democrats, all politics are local

Southern Democrats in Washington for the inauguration of President Obama on Monday celebrated as much as their counterpoints from across the country. But they also knew they had work to do, with GOP senators, governors and state legislatures cutting a bright red swath through the region. So they used an Inauguration Day gathering to launch South Forward, a program aimed at making gains for the Democratic Party by supporting local candidates.