Category Archives: NC Politics

Setting Fire to the Big-Tent

June 7, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: 1 Comment

By: Andrew Porter 

orange tent

Last week, I went to a town hall with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis and Rep. Richard Hudson at the Greater Fayetteville Chamber. The topics ranged from as broad as taxes and tariffs to as specific as Dodd – Frank. However, it wasn’t the content that struck me; it was Tillis’s demeanor and candor. Tillis had a fairly conservative, wealthy, and friendly audience in front of him, yet he spoke as a centrist. While Hudson was towing the party line, Tillis was challenging the folks in the room to discard extreme ideologies and to think of your fellow man when making business decisions; cautioning some of the wealthiest people in Fayetteville about the dangers of greed. I was stunned and dismayed. Dismayed because he’s going to be Senator for life if he wants it.

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“Say they’ll clear it up another day”

May 31, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: , Leave a comment

The legislature has delayed, yet again, the cleanup of Jordan Lake.  The lake has become tainted with algae blooms due to runoff and development in the Triad and Triangle.   If you live in Cumberland County, this matters to you.  Jordan Lake is fed by the Haw River.  The Haw River joins with the Deep River below the Jordan dam, and this junction marks the start of the Cape Fear River (and a great cat-fishing spot).  The Cape Fear River flows through Fayetteville where it is used for your drinking water.

I grew up fishing and camping at Jordan, and I like clean drinking water (as all human beings should), so I’ve been frustrated to see the overall decline of the lake.  With increasing development upstream, the problem is getting worse.

Cape-Fear-Map1

In 2009, rules were put in place by our legislature to attempt to curtail pollution in the lake.  These rules were costly for developers in the surrounding metropolitan areas of Greensboro, Durham, Cary, etc.  They required stream buffers, retention ponds, and other ways to limit runoff into the watershed.

Developers didn’t like the rules, so they gave money to powerful Republican candidates who took control of the legislature in 2010.  The legislature has delayed the implementation of the rules four times over the past decade.  This week makes five.  Developers are happy.

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Trickle-Down Hatred

May 28, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Leave a comment

We’ll start this post at the top, with our president and his way of communicating with the American people.  His supporters call him “unfiltered,” his critics, “untethered.” Regardless of which side you’re on, it should be obvious to you that things are being said in public that weren’t said before.  Lines are being crossed and in some respects, obliterated all together.  Nothing’s off the table anymore.

In my opinion, Trump’s particular “brand” of leadership has lowered the nation’s discourse in a rather significant way.  Trashing other people is now acceptable and even appreciated.  Social media and the ability to hide behind a keyboard add fuel to the fire.  It’s now o.k. to broadcast hate as long as you can rationalize that the object of your disdain is somehow worse or different from you.

Here’s an example:  it’s Memorial Day, 2018, and we have a story in the Fayetteville Observer where a candidate for Cumberland County commissioner is posting charts on his Facebook page that compare Democrats to Nazis.  “It says both the Democrats and Nazis hate Jews, and adds that Democrats also hate white people. It says they both favor socialism, censorship and media mind control, and that both worship the government.”  The candidate defended the post as tit-for-tat.  “That comes out of Democrats all the time,” he said.

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Carolinian Exceptionalism (School Shootings)

May 21, 2018 By in NC Politics Tags: , Leave a comment

As the father of two young boys, one already in Kindergarten, I can’t help but feel helpless seeing American schoolkids murdered in their classrooms on a monthly basis.  “Thoughts and prayers” are running thin.

Columbine happened when I was in high school.  I remember discussing it with my English class.  Most of us wrote it off by arguing that the kids responsible were “just crazy.”  Colorado was too far away, and it never really registered.  We went on being high school kids.

Flash forward twenty years:  I’m a dad now, and I’m at a PTA event in the auditorium of my old elementary school where I was a turtle in the Christmas play.  The speaker interrupts bingo night to solicit donations to construct a solid wooden fence around the playground to “protect the perimeter” of the school.

What happened?  No, seriously, what happened?

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Rep. Szoka on Teacher Pay: At least you’re not a farmer (Audio)

May 15, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: , 2 Comments

Republicans in the legislature have begun to spin their response to the massive teacher rally that will take place in Raleigh tomorrow.  “Misinformation” is being spread, they argue.  “Union thugs” are organizing the march, not real teachers.  Regardless of the spin, it’s going to get interesting on Jones Street.   This is no small rally.

As a whole, there seems to be a massive divide between the thoughts of knowledgeable Republican legislators and the feelings of teachers.  You could hear it on the airwaves this morning in Fayetteville:

On a local talk show, Representative John Szoka (R-45) expressed amazement and laughed when asked why teachers are so unhappy that they are marching on Raleigh.

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