In the middle of a contentious election season, it might be the perfect time to look back and try to figure out how we got here. In “The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism,” best-selling author and Equal Time guest Joe Conason investigates how lofty rhetoric can sometimes hide moneymaking motives. Who benefits, who is left to pay the bill and how does anyone get away with it?
Could Arlington Cost Trump Military Votes? We’ve reached that stage where the candidates try to prove they’re the ones who truly love the military.
How much do military voters and their families care about Trump attempting a campaign stop at Arlington National Cemetery?
Guest: Leo Shane III, deputy editor for the Military Times.
Sep072024
Local News Roundup: Tracks for the Red Line price tag; back to school; Panthers make roster cuts
After decades of effort, the city of Charlotte has agreed to buy the Norfolk Southern freight rail line. The $91 million purchase will pave the way for a commuter rail line to the Lake Norman area. We’ll go through the details.
Leaders from the Charlotte region headed to Florida this week to see how Miami’s Bus Rapid Transit program works. The region’s new mobility plan includes BRT, but skeptics aren’t convinced it’s a good option here. We hear what they learned.
It’s back-to-school week for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, and there’s no shortage of news about education. In addition to teacher shortages leading up to the first day, there’s news that CMS violated North Carolina’s records law by withholding rape and sexual assaults records within the district. And is the district playing favorites with the media by only inviting certain outlets to a briefing?
And last week, the Carolina Panthers won their first game since last December. It was a preseason game, but put an end to a dismal losing streak by the team. Does it mean more wins are in our future? We discuss.
Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into these stories, and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.
GUESTS
Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter
Erik Spanberg, managing editor of the Charlotte Business Journal
Nick Ochsner, WBTV’s executive producer for Investigations & chief investigative reporter
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time.” Mary is also a contributor to a new book, “We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices on Justice for Black Men”
Aug302024
Equal Time: A history of the gay right
When it comes to the politics of LGBTQ+ rights in America, the narrative that one party is pro and the other con has taken hold. But the truth is more nuanced — and interesting.
“Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right” takes readers from the 1950s to the present day, offering comprehensive and enlightening information. It introduces characters and organizations that stayed true to conservative values while championing same-sex marriage and helping to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
When the issue of gay rights is as relevant as ever, historian, commentator and Equal Time guest Neil J. Young offers insights into why so many gay conservatives continue to align with a party whose election-year rhetoric sees them as an enemy of American values.
Jul302024
Respect for difference is more important than an appeal for nonexistent unity
Stop. Reflect. Promise to do better, as individuals and as a country.
That would be a thoughtful reaction to an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally for former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump. And that was the immediate reaction from many leaders.
But in a place where the 2012 murders of children in a Connecticut elementary school became fodder for warped conspiracies that linger, painfully, especially for grieving parents, and the 2022 beating of the then-82-year-old Paul Pelosi with a hammer inspired jokes from the same politicians now calling for civility, America could be too far gone for common sense and compassion — at least for more than a few hours.
Jul182024
After the Trump Assassination Attempt
Former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt Saturday during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. While the gunman has been identified, law enforcement have not offered a potential motivation for the attack. The incident comes at a time of heightened political violence, when more Americans think such acts are justifiable.
Guests: Isaac Arnsdorf, national political reporter for The Washington Post, and David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic.
Jul152024
Local News Roundup: Shooting spree suspects in custody; Optimism from city manager on mobility; Copa America in Charlotte
On the next Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup …
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are investigating a deadly 24 hours after multiple shootings occurred between Monday and Tuesday. It’s part of a rise in homicides in Charlotte this year, which is bucking the national trend in other cities, where homicides are going down. We’ll discuss the latest, including the capture of two teen suspects.
City Manager Marcus Jones is optimistic about our region’s mobility plan, but he also predicts that the price tag for transit and roads will change from its original proposal. We hear more.
Although City Council didn’t meet this week, Malcolm Graham says it’s time for the council to decide the fate of the Eastland Yards proposal. We’ll talk about the latest proposal and the timing of a likely decision.
And an international soccer tournament, the Copa America, comes to Charlotte this week. What is it, and why is it a big deal? We’ll fill you in on Wednesday night’s contest between Colombia and Uruguay and the brawl that followed, and preview Saturday’s match.
Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.
GUESTS:
Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time.” Mary is also a contributor to a new book “We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices on Justice for Black Men”
Mary Ramsey, local government accountability reporter for the Charlotte Observer
Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV Reporter and host of The Political Beat
Jul142024
The never-ending fight for civil rights
It was a milestone that came and went with minimal political fanfare, the 60th anniversary of the day President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964.
Though the political world has had a lot on its mind, it’s important to remember just how revolutionary this sweeping legislation was, and how the rights conferred in it to Americans left behind must be constantly and fiercely protected.
Just as those resistant to American progress managed to replace Reconstruction with Jim Crow, violence and neglect for many decades until citizens nonviolently fought back during the civil rights movement, the powers behind Project 2025 and similar manifestos are architects of modern-day movements that would turn the clock back, and restore basic rights to the few.
Jul112024
Blocking voters you don’t like is a shameful American tradition
After the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution — abolishing enslavement, awarding citizenship to Black Americans and guaranteeing their right to vote (Black men, anyway) — it was a time of progress and celebration.
African Americans were elevated to positions in cities, states and at the federal level, including American heroes such as Robert Smalls of South Carolina, first elected in 1874, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was well known by then, though. His sailing skills were crucial in a dramatic escape from enslavement that saw him hijack a Confederate ship he would turn over to the U.S. Navy.
But not everyone viewed the success of Smalls and so many like him as triumphs, proof of the “all men are created equal” doctrine in the Declaration of Independence. For some whites, steeped in the tangled myth of white supremacy and superiority and shocked by the rise of those they considered beneath them, the only answer was repression and violence, often meted out at polling places and the ballot box.
It didn’t matter that these newly elected legislators, when given power, promoted policies that benefited everyone, such as universal public schooling.
In incidents throughout the South, the White League and the Klan killed Black men who had the audacity to exercise their right to vote, intimidating and silencing those who considered doing the same. In the Colfax Massacre in April 1873, an armed group set fire to the Colfax, La., courthouse, where Republicans and freed people had gathered; between 70 and 150 African Americans were killed by gunfire or in the flames. In Wilmington, N.C., white vigilantes intimidated Black voters at the polls, and in 1898, in a bloody coup, overthrew the duly elected, biracial “Fusion” government.
Reconstruction gave way to “Redemption,” couching a return to white domination in the pious language of religion, not the first or last time God was used so shamelessly as cover.
The perpetrators then were Democrats, allied against Lincoln’s Republican Party.
Today, it’s most often Republicans — afraid they can’t convince a majority with ideas alone — who engage in tactics to shrink the electorate to one more amenable to a “Make America Great Again” promise, one that harks back to a time that was not so great for everyone.
May092024
Playing by the rules? What a concept
“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” All right, maybe people who said this or taught the saying to their kids as a sign of noble character never truly meant it. But they at least pretended to.
Are those times long gone? Well, a lot of folks who know better have been charged with trying to rig, not a game, but democracy. And, in some cases, their defiance of norms and laws is being rewarded and celebrated.
That certainly seems to have happened in Arizona.
Being indicted for involvement in a “fake electors” scheme to keep Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden did not hurt state Sen. Jake Hoffman at the Arizona GOP Convention over the weekend. Indeed, he was chosen as a Republican National Committee member.
“I’m humbled and honored to have been elected as the next RNC National Committeeman for Arizona!” Hoffman wrote on social media. “For the next 4 years I will work tirelessly to ensure that the RNC makes Arizona its #1 priority not only in 2024, but every year.”
When you consider what he is charged with doing in the 2020 election, Hoffman’s pledge, along with the fact that the term “fake electors” doesn’t need an explanation, presents a scary vision of the future. Being unhappy with the results of an election is understandable; subverting the will of your state’s voters to change the final score is not.
Hoffman will have his day in court, but he doesn’t seem one bit admonished by the charge as he carries that partisan energy into November. He was in good — or bad — company with others indicted not only in Arizona but also in Georgia for similar shenanigans, including former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Another defendant in the Arizona case, lawyer Christina Bobb, has found strong support in her party in her role as senior counsel to the Republican National Committee’s election integrity team.
That is not a joke.
May022024
