A few days ago, I remarked on the NandO investigative piece that uncovered all the PPP (COVID-protection) loans that professional political consultants of both parties applied for, received, and for which they were blessed with loan forgiveness. I focused entirely on Democratic political consultant Morgan Jackson.
Ex-Gov. Pat McCrory read the same article, and on his WBT radio show yesterday morning he ranted about the Republican consultants outed by Danielle Battaglia's reporting. “Some are questioning whether it was illegal that they asked for those loans,” McCrory said on air. “Me included.” Then he started naming names, and the violators on his mind were mainly Republican (he did mention the Democrats too, being "bipartisan" to a fault, so McCrory's "toe-stepping" celebrity is still intact):
“These are the former state directors of the Republican Party, who are now political consultants, who asked for money. Former state senators who asked for money. Former aides to [Senate President Pro Tem] Phil Berger, former campaign or current campaign people for [Gov.] Roy Cooper and [Attorney General] Josh Stein and [Rep.] Dan Bishop. It’s Republican and Democrat. It’s bipartisan.”
After the show Danielle Battaglia, asked McCrory if he zeroed in on those particular Republicans "for personal reasons" -- since he was known to have clashed with them in the past -- McCrory answered that those people had “done Machiavellian things against me,” so, yes, I believe Battaglia got an answer to her question.
McCrory demanded that US attorneys get involved -- yes! -- and he called for "an audit to be done on their income to see if they actually met the loan’s criteria. He later told The N&O he believes the SBA would be in charge of auditing the businesses."
Tomorrow, Sunday, in a special called meeting the State Board of Elections will make a decision regarding No Labels, the putative new political party that Pat McCrory is jointly leading, and whether it has navigated new and frankly unjustifiable questions about its purpose which Democrats on the SBOE have posed before they'll let No Labels on next year's ballot.
At its last meeting on July 6th, SBOE officials acknowledged that No Labels had submitted 14,797 verified signatures on a petition requesting ballot access, which according to law must be granted. That number of verified signatures is more than enough. Nevertheless (and here's where I have to agree with Pat McCrory that it's all political, and I'm not happy about it), the Democratic Chair of SBOE, Alan Hirsch, managed to delay approval for "more time to ask questions," the most important of which apparently runs "Who are you really, and who do you stand to hurt?" which is a solidly political consideration, appears to frustrate the law, and is therefore out of line.
I also fear what No Labels can do to enable Trump back into the White House, a place that man should never darken again, but pulling a stunt like delay to handicap a movement that has otherwise followed the law and met a demanding threshold -- that ain't a good look for Democrats. It's a lousy look and I rue the day:
As for who No Labels might field in 2024?
Well, that decision will not be made this year.
Republicans and Democrats alike have labelled No Labels a spoiler.
NC Newsline asked Catawba College political scientist Dr. Michael Bitzer this week about McCrory’s newfound attraction for a third party and their chances of making political history.
“The sense that I got was after the U.S. Senate nomination loss, he [McCrory] felt very much like a person without a political home,” said Bitzer.
And even as voters voice their objections about Democrats and Republicans or a rehash of 2020, there is a certain practicality as they get closer to casting their own ballot.
“In the end, people tend to be party loyalists and they tend to come home. And third parties tend to be the spoilers in American politics,” Bitzer explained. (Clayton Henkel, NCNewsline)
This cryptic headline appeared in the News and Observer yesterday: "Former Gov. Pat McCrory is not running for president, but he does have plans for 2024." What?
Turns out it was a nothing-burger article, very much in keeping with the latter days of our former governor, who was during his one term in office little more than a throw rug under the feet of Berger-Moore. The news is that McCrory is now a "volunteer" -- he used that word himself -- with a struggling new political "party" calling itself No Labels (what, "Beige" wasn't even considered as the name?)
Not really that "new" either. It was founded in 2010 with Joe Lieberman as the figurehead national chair. The NandO article at least got me interesting in learning more about No Labels, whose centrist goals are wholly unobjectionable except that it might -- be warned! -- might run a third-party presidential ticket in 2024 "if data shows that Americans aren’t satisfied with the party nominees and the No Labels candidates have a path forward to win, McCrory said."
Which means, practically speaking, diluting the vote for Joe Biden and allowing the nightmare of Trump to return.
The one tangible thing No Labels has accomplished is the formation in the US House of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which has accomplished some good things including passage of Biden's big infrastructure act.
That plaintive whining is actually a pretty good question. McCrory was wondering what happens to the 25% who voted for him in the recent Republican primary for the US Senate, the Republican voters who didn't like the Trumpist message coming from winner Ted Budd, the gun store owner who projects potential for muscular bullying and promises to do Trump's bidding in the Senate.
People who are like me. "Soft" Republicans? Or sane Republicans?
The question should be: What are the "people like me" going to do about the total takeover of their party by the likes of Donald Trump, who's as crooked as a dog's hind leg and who encourages and endorses further crookedness in his followers? "Just find me 11,780 votes."
What will they do? Odds are they'll fall in line, vote the Party even though the Party has become a clown show at midnight. And so will Pat McCrory, whining all the way.
Pat McCrory (at least) thinks Madison Cawthorn is now an anchor around Ted Budd's neck. That's either ballsy or a suicidal misreading of where the NCGOP is right now.
This 30-second ad is scheduled to air on Valentine's Day (tomorrow) during "The Batchelor" in the Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Greenville-New Bern media markets. It's pretty nasty, linking McCrory's "heart" to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and even (gasp!) Mitt Romney. The Club for Growth has been pouring on the vitriol against McCrory in an attempt to advance the candidacy of Trump-endorsed Ted Budd.
Since I have a particular grudge against J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, who's also running for the US Senate in Ohio, I'm encouraged by news that his candidacy appears to be sucking wind. He was a Trump critic who remade himself as a Peter Thiel avatar masquerading as a Trump toady, and it ain't working.
The reason it ain't working (the bad news) involves the continuing death-grip Trump has on Republican voters: “Driving [Vance's] negatives is the perception that he is anti-Trump" (Politico). Imagine that. As a Republican politician, you may not utter a peep of criticism about the man whose management of the presidency continues to make appalling headlines more than a year after he left office: "Trump Illegally Ripped Up Hundreds of White House Documents And Many Went in Burn Bags."
It's maybe not so much the Trump endorsement that sways large swaths of Republican voters; it's maybe quotable evidence that you ever said a negative thing about him (like Vance once did, in spades). Maybe that explains why the Trump-endorsed Ted Budd in the North Carolina Senate race hasn't yet put away a paper-tiger like Pat McCrory, who was not endorsed by Trump but who has assiduously avoided being quoted attacking the former president.
Look at the continuing trouble Nikki Haley blunders into simply because she allows her bad thoughts to get written down and published: "We need to acknowledge he [Trump] let us down," she told Politico magazine. "He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again." Which is why Nikki Haley will never win another Republican primary, and Pat McCrory might.
Mild sauce usually doesn't cut it anymore for Republican politicians (which is why Vance tried to remold himself, not as a pudgy wonk any longer but a slimmed down assassin of "socialism" who wants to "own the Libs" more than he wants to be an intellectual Libertarian, which he is). Wouldn't it be FUN-nee if Pat McCrory proved there's a winning upside to pouring milk on your toast?
Last night in Greensboro, former Republican congressman and Christian pastor Mark Walker announced that he was turning down Donald Trump's offer and staying in the US Senate race. Trump had told Walker that he would endorse him for another congressional seat if he'd drop out of the Senate race, thus clearing the Trumpist lane for Ted Budd, but Walker said no way by the love of God. He's full speed ahead for that Senate seat, but on difficult political terrain, where Budd is supposedly coming on strong (with Trump's blessing and the $$ of the Club for Growth, which is getting his name out there).
Full-speed-ahead? Yes. Walker rolled out his spanking-brand-new campaign bus. See it?
myfox8 WGHP
Walker threw this event at the Greensboro Auto Auction on Wendover Avenue and drew a respectable crowd.
Bad news for Budd. Potentially good news for ex-Guv Pat McCrory, who according to comments from Trumpists, is tanking in polls while Budd is rising, but whose center lane, country-club vibe still has juice in suburbia and whose name recognition alone made him instantly the frontrunner. The overriding irony is that Budd and Walker are really political brothers from different mothers:
“[Walker's decision] obviously is better for McCrory than Budd,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. “I think Walker and Budd are competing for many of the same voters. Ideologically they are virtually indistinguishable. Demographically they are very similar. There’s just not much daylight between the two of them, except for Trump’s endorsement.”
If this were the best of all possible worlds (and not the Republican Party under Trump), Walker could draw some distinctions now, create a new identity for people who relish the fighting spirit in their preachers: "I stood up to a would-be dictator because I'm a better man than that." But that would happen in a world that doesn't exist right now.
Walker still might get tough, if he decides to fight like a man with one small stone and a slingshot (or like a wildcat in a toesack). Walker published this photo on his Facebook page with this caption:
Keeping a previous commitment at the Senate Forum in Monroe with Pat McCrory at the Sweet Union Republican Women’s Club. As usual, only one candidate didn’t show.
The "Sweet Union Republican Women's Club" made me flash on Andy Griffith's Aunt Bee.
Nobody's paid much attention to candidate for US Senate, Marjorie Eastman, because the swinging trio of Republican men running for Dick Burr's seat -- McCrory, Budd, Walker -- have sucked up all the oxygen. Only now, Marjorie Eastman is suddenly in the press, because a new super-PAC founded by tycoon Fred Eshelman has been spending $1 million getting her name out there. The PAC is called "Restore Common Sense," and in the best of all possible worlds, Marjorie Eastman could be a runaway good bet to win a normal Republican primary -- distinguished ex-military careerist and smart, normal woman. Damn impressive on paper. Her Wikipedia article -- must reading. There's no indication there that she's any kind of conservative culture warrior. She's all about veterans and wrote a well received book, "The Frontline Generation: How We Served Post 9/11."
She had combat experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "She was ranked the #1 Military Intelligence Company Commander in Eastern Afghanistan for the deployment cycle of 2009-2010, awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service as a combat commander and received the Combat Action Badge" (website). She announced her candidacy back last October and was largely ignored until Fred Eshelman decided to help her.
But she's not from around here. Went to school in California, and she accepted a White House Fellow appointment from Bill Clinton in 2000. As a military careerist, she's lived a lot of different places. She and her husband recently retired to Cary, and she's obviously very new to politics. But her Wiki bio lists real achievements in the academic realm:
[Eastman] also studied abroad at the University College London, School for Slavonic and East European Studies. She attended the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, where she earned her master's degree in International Security, with concentrations in Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Human Rights. During her graduate studies, she was one of 56 students selected nationally for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Honors Internship Program. She also has an MBA from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.
Everything I read screams not-a-Trumpist. A moderate Republican with a sense that the United States belongs in the international stew because it can do good deeds.
But then I watched her intro video on her website, and I guess I ought to accept by now that every educated Republican moderate will quickly mouth the magic words -- "I'm a conservative, pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment Republican." Those words are actually somewhat jarring in the video because they follow an opening section that seemed complete in itself -- about being inspired (if not incensed) by the heroic sacrifice in the face of national adversity (9/11). It's soft-focus patriotism. But then the next section -- and it's like the advisors said to her, "can you do a tougher version?" -- Marjorie Eastman obliged and even got downright icky: She says she wants good old American capitalism to save us from "the creeping socialism that's being pushed in our Congress."
Here's the whole thing:
That internationalist sheen dooms her, no? in the Republican primary. But I can't help wondering if all that super-PAC money might make her more viable and hence a threat to McCrory, by dividing the never-Trump vote, especially if Mark Walker takes Trump's dangle of running for a House seat instead.
Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly obviously believe their gerrymandered maps are about to be declared unconstitutional by the State Supremes. The "gerrymandering trial" appeal goes before the Court on Feb. 2nd. Plaintiffs are looking to overturn the 3-judge panel's ruling last week that there's really nothing the judicial system can do about partisan power grabs via gerrymandering. The NC Supreme Court has set arguments on the appeal for Feb. 2nd. They have (by my count) exactly 7 working days from then, to February 18th (Friday of the week of February 14), which according to the State Board of Elections is their drop-dead week for having new districts defined so that they can accommodate candidate filing for a (court-ordered) May 17th primary.
The Republican bosses in the General Assembly are taking the correct steps right now to delay the primaries another three weeks to June 7th. That's a gift to the Court. More time, more deliberateness, more care in who the Court orders to draw new maps. Ahem.
That delay in the primaries is just an acknowledgement of reality by the Republican bosses, not necessarily IMO a nefarious first step toward impeaching any Justice who rules their gerrymandering unconstitutional. Dallas Woodhouse, writing for the Pope Carolina Journal, has reported that some Republicans are sure 'nuff talking impeachment (Billy Corriher's reporting), but delaying the primaries in this new instance is perhaps merely dealing with it.
I'm okay with the Court ordering the General Assembly to draw new maps (rather than an independent commission). Yes, I realize Berger Moore will slip in what bad faith they can in new maps, but don't they have to be better than what we have right now? Weren't the 2020 court-ordered maps that the Republicans were forced to re-draw better than what they replaced? You bet they were, for at least those new maps prevented veto-proof majorities for the Republicans in NC House and Senate and led to the election of 2 new Democrats in the US Congress. Odds are, new maps would eliminate at least some if not all malicious mischief, like the splitting up of Watauga County between two different Congressional districts and two different NC House districts.
Dallas Woodhouse thinks the delay is particularly bad for the Republican senatorial primary between Pat McCrory, Mark Walker, and the Trump-tetched Ted Budd. It's bad if Mark Walker sticks to his guns and stays in the race rather than take the tainted Trump bait of running for the US House instead. Walker stays in and divides the conservative vote with Ted Budd, and McCrory waltzes. Woodhouse would applaud that.
Came across an "exclusive interview" that former Rep. Mark Walker gave Channel 11 in Greensboro, and it appears that Donald Trump's attempt to get him out of the US Senate Republican primary and into a Congressional race instead has failed.
It's all about Walker's faith. "I don't run one way or the other because of the odds or what's on paper," Walker said. "I do something because it's in my heart." (Was he right on the threshold of announcing that God called him to run for Senate?) "I'm all about compassion." But next breath: "We've got to make sure we lock that border down."
Anyway, about that "pressure" from DJT to drop out of the Senate race in favor of Ted Budd's candidacy. Walker admits that he was invited to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump by the Club for Growth, the super-PAC that has already pumped $5 million into promoting Budd.
During the meeting, Walker said Trump offered his endorsement to run for the U.S. House in exchange for leaving the Senate race to help Rep. Budd.
"I'm always grateful if someone wants to look at our body of work and say we want you back in the U.S. House," Walker explained. "I don't look at it as pressure. Are they wanting to encourage me to look at a U.S. House seat? Yes. But I don't feel pressure."
Walker is either obtuse about how Trump operates or he's deliberately one-upping the weasel while holding an unmelted pat of butter in his mouth. Indeed, Walker went on to criticize Trump in an oblique way, like any good Baptist pastor might:
As for the impact of Trump's endorsement [of Budd], Walker expressed some regret at the rhetoric from the former President -- and some North Carolina Republicans -- about whether the 2020 was "stolen" or "rigged," claims that have overwhelmingly been discredited and debunked by courts and even GOP-led commissions in several states.
"You can get out there, increase your social media following, say the most outlandish things .... Anybody in the political arena can make an argument. It's what makes the viewer feel good. It's what sells on your cable media. But show me the member of Congress, male or female, that's out there making a difference. A lot of times America doesn't know their names."
I'm impressed that he would be so forthright about the baleful influence on Trump on the prevailing mode in the Republican Party.
His staying in the Senate race gives the advantage to Pat McCrory in the May primary, no?
“A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.”
Reading about what motivated state Senator Jeff Jackson to bow out of the US Senate race and endorse his rival Cheri Beasley sparks inevitable comparisons with other politicians, some of them right here in North Carolina seeking office right now. Jackson's exit was the honorable thing. He had been told by his consultants that he couldn't win the Democratic primary next year without going negative on Cheri Beasley. Recent polls showed Jackson behind Beasley in a two-person race. The only way to climb back up was to tear Beasley down. That's what the consultants were advising.
Jackson told Michael Graff, “We decided not to do that. Not because I have a particular problem being critical when I think it’s fair, but just in her case, it would not have been honest. She has over a decade of exemplary public service to her name. And the prospect of suggesting otherwise on television ads, was just a non-starter with me.” That is more than honorable. That models a masculinity free -- or damn near free -- of self-interest. Manly self-sacrifice for the good of the many (in this case, "the many" being the NCDP).
Comparisons are odorous (said Dogberry), but also however oh so delicious. Look now at the Ted Budd for Senate faction. You've been seeing how they're treating poor pathetic Pat McCrory, right? I know Ted Budd did not (supposedly) have anything to do with those attacks (which have included TV hit-pieces), but he is said to benefit from them, and he hasn't so far as I know ever distanced himself from them. Ted Budd ... hence and therefore (and this is how comparisons work, chums) not a good man.
Alex Jones wrote a great piece about toxic masculinity, how it blossomed under Trump and swept the old Republican party rudely aside, until what's happened -- see -- is that Mark Robinson is the most popular Republican elected official in the state of North Carolina. Mark Robinson is a giant dick. He plays a swaggering bully with a booming voice who can deliver a sermon tongue-lashing like a tent preacher.
Which brings us to the topic of toxic masculinity. (You know me: I've been reading.) A male gene, present in some and not in others, produces constant anxiety about "gender performance," and not just performance in the bedroom, so that making a show of manly dominance becomes the best medicine for doubts (with emphasis on show; an audience is required). Performative masculinity appears to be a symptom of a psychological bundle of neuroses now defined as "precarious manhood," wherein "men experience anxiety when it comes to their manhood and masculinity, or masculine gender identity." In extreme cases anxiety can lead to acting out, violence, or at least physical aggression. Or he might just refuse to protect even himself and his loved ones by masking up. He can't admit any fear. Trump made fun of people wearing plague-masks, and so did Fox News, and suddenly it was a matter of endangered manhood to comply with any "mandate."
Since we're all here in the theater with our popcorn, here are some other displays of what Alex Jones was writing about:
Congressman Madison Cawthorn once upon a time not so long ago had himself filmed punching out a punky tree, and posted this performance of heroic manhood to his social media:
I can't post here the new Bo Hines for Congress introductory video, but you can view it easily on his Twitter feed. He's proud of it. He spent a lot of money on it. It's a show of aggressive manhood. Alex Jones: "The piece shows him vigorously pumping iron and doing pullups in a gym bedecked with a prominently displayed Back the Blue flag. Over a background of rock music, a tough-guy’s voice says Hines will bring 'North Carolina gridiron values' to Congress. Message: This guy is a stud. Vote for him."
(You remember Bo Hines, right? He's almost as young as Cawthorn and has been a district-shopping itinerant who may have settled finally on running for Congress in the CD 4. Hines is a Madison Cawthorn acolyte. Cawthorn introduced him to Trump.)
Or Ted Budd, the Trumpist choice for US Senate, who's obviously six times the man that Pat McCrory could ever claim to be.
We've been following the high-level scheming of Madison Cawthorn and Donald Trump in easing Mark Walker out of the US Senate race in North Carolina, to clear the way for Ted Budd to defeat Pat McCrory in the Republican primary next March May. All the principals met at Mar-a-Lago last weekend and we thought it was settled that Walker would switch his campaign from Senate to Congressional Dist. 7
But Politico published this morning that Trump, or Walker, or possibly suspicion itself threw a clod into that churn:
...On Saturday, former Rep. Mark Walker got Trump’s word he would endorse Walker to run in a newly drawn congressional district if he exited the Senate race, a shift that was expected to serve as a boost for Budd.
But on Thursday, after days had passed without an official endorsement announcement from Trump, Walker said he will remain in the Senate race for now, and he will continue to consider a House run through the end of the year....
Come on, guys. When did Donald Trump ever throw a gullible subordinate under the bus?
With former Congressman Mark Walker reportedly getting Trump's blessing to leave the US Senate race to run instead for Congress in the 7th CD -- thus giving Trump-endorsed Ted Budd a clearer field for beating Pat McCrory in that Senate race -- we're not surprised to see McCrory-bashing come to a quick boil among those allied with Trump. This multi-page, full-color “report” on McCrory has hit the mails and is pictured in today's News and Observer editorial pages:
From the accompanying editorial:
It’s the kind of ferocity that’s usually saved for a general election, and it’s a signal to Republicans that if you run against Trump-backed candidates like Cawthorn and McCrory opponent Ted Budd, the worst attacks against you might come from inside the house. It’s also notable that this isn’t coming from the Budd campaign, but an outside group — the kind of national intrusion into state politics that Republicans invited with their unrestricted approach to campaign funding.
Most of all, it’s a reminder that Republicans brought this upon themselves when they courted the worst elements of their base, when they dismissed coarseness as principled passion, when they embraced a president with no boundaries. Now that president and the Republicans he leads have turned on their own with delight. It won’t end with McCrory, and it will discourage decent Republicans from running in the future, further cementing the GOP as a radical and ruined party.
Here are some recent campaign themes from ex-Congressman Mark Walker's social media (Twitter and Facebook):
His Twitter bio: "Conservative Champion. Bridge Builder. Running for US Senate. Fmr. Pastor and Member of Congress serving all people of North Carolina." We might add, "Thought he had the conservative, especially Christian conservative base sewn up. Then Trump anoints Ted Budd."
So there's maybe a little desperation in the Walker camp? A new video spot, painfully staged, has Walker striding up to the abandoned F. W. Woolworth's in Greensboro, where the famous "Greensboro Sit-in" happened, where he coaxes Clarence Henderson (who was not in the first wave at the sit-in but in the 2nd wave and who nevertheless is now an elderly gentleman) to endorse him on camera. It's actually painful to watch Henderson struggle with his lines, none of which come off as remotely authentic to the man, but, you know, "Bridge Builder" (see above) ... get it? Video also features super-Christian and former guv of Arkansas, Mike Huckaby. The message: "Mark Walker, Christian champion ... He Ain't Scary." Last I looked, this video was pinned to the top of Walker's Twitter feed
(I wonder if Walker's main attack on Ted Budd will be the implication that he is scary and whatever the opposite of bridge-building benevolent white guy praising a significant moment from the past in the Black struggle for equality. Budd's a gun-toting Trump clone wannabe, while Walker positions himself as the softer, more religiously pious alternative. Hmmm. That can't possibly work in the Trump era, can it?
Another recent Walker as talking-head video contained the weirdest attack on Thom Tillis as a way to attack Ted Budd. What? And by the way, Walker opposes the so-called "bipartisan" infrastructure bill because it's what's for breakfast if you're a Republican conservative.
Walker, like Ted Budd incidentally and clearly veering off the "Bridge Builder" image, bashes Rep. Cori Bush, the woman-of-color-as-conservative-punching-bag-of-the-week. Wonder how Clarence Henderson (see above) might feel about that wedge.
Yes, and there's the persistent paranoia that liberal Socialist dictators in this country will use the government to hype the bogus threat of COVID in order to scare the people into giving up their "freedoms."
He posts a FoxNews.com article on why China should be sanctioned and stripped of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, because of "human rights violations, religious persecutions, & the deadliest systematic cover-up in history" (he means the Wuhan laboratory-grown virus that escaped and caused a Pandemic -- just one of the Trump-inspired conspiracy theories growing like weeds).
Walker seemed shunted aside after Trump tromped into NC to endorse Budd, but he looks to be hanging in there in the money chase. As a draw for religious conservatives, he could actually give McCrory the advantage, as he and Budd could divide the hard-right while McCrory grabs the more moderate middle and squeaks out a win.
Here are some recent campaign themes from Congressman Ted Budd's social media (Twitter and Facebook):
Let's get one thing straight immediately: Ted Budd takes a dim view of any new masking mandates. On July 30, he posted this: "The Biden administration brought back mask mandates without showing the American people compelling data. DC liberals have politicized our institutions and broken our trust." Maybe DC liberals are screwing up the whole wide world and all the adjoining planets, but continuing to politicize the practical benefits of masking tells me a ton about Budd's intelligence and/or the way he manipulates the intelligence of his low-information constituents.
And of course, like Ron DeSantis and even poor Pat McCrory, he wants to tie vaccinations and mask mandates to a supposed crisis on the Southern border: "Nancy Pelosi is more interested in forcing fully vaccinated staff & visitors to wear masks than stopping COVID-positive illegal aliens from flooding across the border. Absurd." If you're a conservative Republican, you pass up no chance to stir up racial resentment.
Unlike Pat McCrory's Facebook and Twitter, which are identical in content, Budd's Facebook news feed is different from his Twitter feed. On Facebook, he harps much more on illegal immigration, for one thing, and passes up no opportunity to bash President Biden, but he also shows himself visiting with businesses and constituents in his congressional district. Blessedly, there are few reminders of Donald Trump. Perhaps at one point Budd had the Trump endorsement pinned to the top of his Facebook feed, but it's not there now.
I don't really grok the conservative affection for cryptocurrency, but Budd shares an interview he did with Breitbart News in which he signals his opposition to the infrastructure bill because it proposes a tax on cryptocurrency.
I'll say this: Budd's social media is more entertaining than Pat McCrory's because Budd is an authentic conservative and energetic in promoting those causes, while McCrory is an inauthentic copy of a conservative. Budd posts on all sorts of topics -- abortion to "critical race theory" to Biden's budget, especially singling out unemployment benefits that low-wage employers are blaming for the current labor shortage in the fast food industry. The overall impression is that Budd has plenty of energy to engage, while Pat McCrory is mainly hiding out.
And thus far, Budd is not trying to smear or characterize his three main Democratic rivals.
Here are some recent campaign themes from Pat McCrory's social media (Facebook and Twitter, mirror images of one another):
Still needing the Trumpists --Trump publicly pissed in his face -- the ex-governor knows the odds against him in the primary if the conservatives coalesce, so he puts out paint-by-numbers conservative boilerplate, like stringing together "Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and George Soros" in the same sentence, alleging they're the trio spending "MILLIONS" to propagate the "radical liberal agenda." (What? No "Socialism"?) Your standard wall-papering over the "moderate" Republican candidate's lack of passion for the culture wars.
Fighting to stay relevant after the Trump diss, McCrory has challenged his two Republican rivals to three debates before the primary. Mark Walker immediately agreed, but Ted Budd, the Trump honoree, hasn't, and McCrory is obliged to spread that news.
Most interesting (cause Pat McCrory ain't at heart no mean man), he tries going "full Ron DeSantis," scapegoating immigrants on the Southern border as the real causes of disease. McCrory shared a Fox News posting: "WH dodges question on why vaccinated Americans must wear masks while infected migrants [are] released into Texas town." That's inflammatory, guaranteed to raise the race temperature of Trumpists, where it's always burned hot.
In fact, the Southern border constitutes a "National Security Crisis." McCrory currently harps most on that meme: "President Biden and Vice President Harris, get to the border - we can't keep ignoring this National Security Crisis!" he said in a video posted yesterday. In a separate post he returned to the theme, naming the main three Democratic candidates as sharing in blame: "There is a crisis on our Southern Border - and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to admit it. Why won't Erica Smith, Jeff Jackson, or Cheri Beasley speak out about this National Security Disaster?!"
What is the disaster, exactly? Could it be no more complicated than brown people weaponized as a threat to white supremacy and a distraction to the real facts of the case, that it's anti-VAX and anti-mask Americans who are spreading disease willy-nilly across the landscape?
Also recently, McCrory tested "Joe Biden's inflation" as a thing, a hobby-horse he might ride like other Republican candidates -- the high price of gas as a sign of Biden's failed administration. It's bogus, and anyway, it's a weak punch that lands like overcooked pasta. McCrory nevertheless has learned to throw in the Democrats to share in the blame: "Why won't Jeff Jackson, Erica Smith, or Cheri Beasley speak out on this?!"
Bless his heart, McCrory's trying! But the impression remains that he doesn't have actual passions for policy positions. He has a passion for pleasing, especially the country-club one percent.
Pat McCrory, a former governor and Charlotte mayor, confirmed through an advisor this week that he would have voted to uphold the election results [which put Joe Biden in the White House].
More:
On his radio show on Jan. 6, McCrory said he would have upheld the election results “because as a conservative, he doesn’t believe the federal government should be interfering with or overturning the election processes of individual states,” said Jordan Shaw, an advisor to McCrory.
NC Trumpists will not forget nor forgive this flagrant failure of total loyalty to Trump.
J.W. Williamson was the founding editor in 1972 of the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, which he edited until July of 2000. He has taught college classes in Appalachian history, cultural politics, and literature, and he has lectured widely on the pop-culture history of "Appalachia" in the American consciousness. His books include Interviewing Appalachia, Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films, and Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains. He has won the Thomas Wolfe Award given by the Western North Carolina Historical Society, the Laurel Leaves Award given by the Appalachian Consortium, a special Weatherford Award given by Berea College, and the Cratis Williams-James Brown Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association.
The views expressed on WataugaWatch are solely those of J.W. Williamson or individual contributors and are not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the Watauga County Democratic Party nor by any other adults of sound mind in this or any other universe.
