Republican Party
NC House Speaker’s slush fund spending is emblematic of today’s Trumpified GOP
Donald Trump’s malignant eight-year run in American politics has helped give rise to many deeply troubling phenomena: The first nation’s attempted coup d’état.* The resurgence of unabashed white nationalism. A bizarre alliance between religious conservatives and some of the nation’s most rapacious and predatory corporate actors. A widespread willingness to embrace crazy conspiracy theories and […]
Outgoing UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees chair considering run for state auditor as Republican
Dave Boliek, the outgoing chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees has his eye on a new challenge: a possible run for the Republican nomination for state auditor. “I haven’t decided yet, but I’m 99 percent of the way there,” Boliek, a longtime Democrat until three months ago, told Newsline Thursday. The move may […]
State Rep. Tricia Cotham welcomes Georgia lawmaker into the Republican fold
State Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg) didn’t waste much time welcoming Georgia lawmaker Mesha Mainor into the Republican Party. Mainor announced Tuesday that she is leaving the Democratic Party after falling out with state party leaders over a recent vote she cast in support of a school voucher bill. Cotham quickly tweeted this note: “Welcome to […]
‘Resolved’ but still relevant? Tim Moore appears to sidestep another potential scandal
This week North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) quietly resolved a lawsuit over his relationship with another man’s wife, making it the latest in a long series of personal and political scandals Moore has managed to sidestep. The suit, filed last month, reignited questions about the Cleveland County Republican’s ethics history, his larger political […]
For Trump supporters, ‘a bridge too far’ must be nearby
I often wonder where idioms like “a bridge too far” originate. This phrase comes from the title of the 1974 book of the same name, by Cornelius Ryan. The book tells the story of Operation Market Garden, the Allies’ plan of attack to conquer several bridges in the Netherlands in September of 1944. The goal […]
Bookman: In MTG’s grimy paws, a beautiful video becomes something sickening
“I’ll say it again,” Marjorie Taylor Greene says in a new video labeled “The Predator President.” “Democrats are the party of pedophiles.” What follows in the video is a compilation of interactions between Joe Biden and various young people, attempting to make the case that the 80-year-old president sexually abuses young children. This is what […]
Not all Republicans feel ‘Ukraine fatigue,’ as GOP splits over continued aid
WASHINGTON — As some in the Republican Party call for halting aid to Ukraine, other GOP members of Congress are doubling down on supporting the war-torn nation and even criticizing the Biden administration for not doing enough. Several Republican members of the U.S. House traveled to Ukraine during a congressional recess in early April to […]
Election deniers who lost secretary of state races now run several state GOP operations
Many of the election deniers who ran last year for positions that would have given them control over state elections systems lost their races. But several have found a new path to exert influence: as chair of their state Republican Party. On Saturday, Kristina Karamo, an activist who rose to prominence for her efforts to […]
How Republicans normalized George Santos
Decades ago, Holocaust scholar Hannah Arendt warned: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, i.e. the reality of experience and the distinction between true and false, i.e., the standards of thought, no longer exist.” With that quote […]
How the Jan. 6 insurrection led the GOP to the 2023 House Speaker vote mess
On Jan. 6, 2021, Americans watched with horror as insurrectionists tried to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. It was also a day that the Republicans set themselves up for not only their 2022 electoral shortcomings, but the coming chaos of 2023. The unprecedented length it is taking to pick a […]
Dumping Trump will not solve the Republican problem of leadership
Every once in awhile, I find myself longing to know German, a language known for its voluminous vocabulary of smashed-together words where one word perfectly encapsulates a deep, specific, and complex meaning. One of the best examples of this is schadenfreude, a German word that connotes taking pleasure in other people’s pain – and one […]
U.S. House GOP picks leadership team for next Congress: McCarthy, Scalise and Emmer
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans elected their slate of leaders for the 118th Congress on Tuesday, even though the party hadn’t yet secured the seats needed to take the majority come January. The new leadership team emerged from several contested races decided during an hours-long secret ballot voting session, including a three-way campaign for whip […]