For the past six months, ever since the midterm elections of 2010, conservatives have been feeling pretty good about themselves. They have seized their political victories in Washington, Raleigh, and across the nation as a “mandate” to advance a far right policy agenda as quickly as possible. [Funny how these same conservatives did [Continue Reading...]

Today, across North Carolina, the U.S., and Europe, people are being told that times are tough and that everyone has to tighten their belts—especially the public sector, because there is not enough revenue to pay for everything. Frankly, this assertion that all governments need to draft austerity budgets is based on a series [Continue Reading...]

Anyone who cares about their own economic future, and the nation’s, should think twice about voting for candidates who promise lower taxes, deficits, and spending, less government regulation, and more freedom. Yet who can argue with such glowing offers-it is like criticizing Mom and apple pie. The problem lies in what these politicians are not telling the voters; what they are leaving unsaid is the real scary stuff. [Continue Reading...]

Many Americans can’t remember what they ate for breakfast, let alone pay any attention to history-recent or otherwise. Take our current debate over national economic policy, which is taking place in a historical funhouse where the factual record is constantly distorted. This twisted historical mirror is deluding people into blaming the current administration for a near depression it did not cause, dismissing all the attempts (as underwhelming as some of them are) to confront the crisis, and running back into the hands of conservatives who are promising only more of the same deregulation and tax cuts for the rich that drove the economy off the rails just two years ago. [Continue Reading...]

Wake County voters will soon cast ballots in four Board of Education contests; and the future of one of the nation’s last efforts to create genuine classroom diversity hangs in the balance. More than fifty years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racially segregated schools were “inherently unequal,” no matter how much money any district spent. If a new anti-diversity majority takes control of the school board, they could dismantle a recognized model of educational access and equity for all children—regardless of race, class, religion, or ethnicity. Wake County would then probably follow Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) backward in history toward racial and economic re-segregation. [Continue Reading...]