Progressive Voices

A summer of hectic twists and turns has made it increasingly clear: The North Carolina General Assembly’s ruling Republicans have been driven by desperation. They must be desperately worried that their lease on unbridled power is about to expire. So, while they still have the chance...

A decade ago, the entire nation suffered through a financial crisis that led to the brink of a global financial collapse. While Wall Street reckoned with its risky practices, America’s families suffered lost wealth of nearly $2 trillion, half of it coming from communities of color who were targeted for high-cost and unsustainable mortgages. Now a new poll finds that even with the passage of a decade, consumers still support financial regulation and related enforcement.

The drive by Republicans who control the General Assembly to enhance their already formidable power, often at the expense of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, has been relentless. Why is this a problem? Because legislative power for the past several years has been used to further an agenda in which the needs and concerns of many ordinary North Carolinians, so far as government might be able to address them, scarcely matter.

About 30 years ago, my sweet, elderly aunt for whom I was named was brutally beaten and raped in the country church where I was baptized and where five generations of my ancestors are buried. She had gone there on a Saturday morning to practice the organ selections for the next day.

God is dead. Well, almost. We know that God is on life support because recent polls say so. He, She or it has been around a long time, always, theologians say. But the number of people who believe that is rapidly diminishing.

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the 14th Amendment, a landmark to be celebrated July 28 by the N.C. Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. In recalling the amendment’s essential role in enabling the “new birth of freedom” Lincoln envisioned at Gettysburg, it’s worth remembering that its interpretation has not always lived up to its promise.

In April, Mountain Valley Pipeline announced a proposal to build a pipeline extension that would run through Rockingham and Alamance counties in the Dan and Haw River watersheds. This 24-inch diameter pipeline would cut a 100-foot swath through private lands during construction.

Like so many people in this state and across this country, I have not gotten over my funk regarding the rise of Trump and the subsequent train wreck of his presidency.

Few times in recent memory have demanded a more careful examination of our nation's history than now — the year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 14th Amendment’s passage.

Suicide prevention was a major issue during the 2017-18 legislative session of the North Carolina General Assembly. Despite being left out of the omnibus budget bill, funding for the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which receives over 5,000 calls per month, was secured in later legislation.

The KIDS COUNT Data Book, released on June 28 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, shows that a stronger economy is producing better outcomes for parents and their kids. Federally-funded supports such as SNAP, Head Start, CHIP, and school lunches are helping drive child success. But those positive outcomes are in jeopardy as 73,000 North Carolina children are at risk of not being counted in the upcoming 2020 census.

Americans comprise only 4.4% of the world’s population, but own 42% of the world’s guns (about 300 million). This means we have slightly less than one gun for every citizen – and the U.S. tops the list for gun death percentages.

“Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.” – Bayard Rustin This Anthony Kennedy news. Last week’s departure of America’s most important swing vote—perhaps the last foxhole against Trump’s most virulent attacks—read like a funeral dirge for liberal and moderate Americans.

Democracy and economic progress took a beating today, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a blatantly partisan 5-4 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, the nation’s highest court struck down 40 years of established workplace protections. Those protections allowed state and local government employees the right to sign collective bargaining agreements requiring workers who benefit from union representation to pay their fair share of fees to support that representation.

It is hard to understand why some in the General Assembly are trying to constitutionally cap our state income tax rate. As North Carolina’s former State Treasurer and as someone who cares deeply about our future, I offer our current leaders some advice – don’t do it – it’s a BAD move.

The current leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly – top members of the state House and Senate, all of them Republicans – rule with iron fists and aren’t squeamish about the tactics they use to hold and even magnify their power. Sadly for the rule of law and for the public’s confidence that their state is being governed in the public interest, these leaders during their eight-year reign have placed a premium on naked partisanship.