The Comey Indictment
In a 1939 book review, as Hitler’s regime threatened Europe, George Orwell wrote of a recently published volume by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, “If there are certain passages of [the book] which seem rather empty, that is merely to say that we have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious…
Our Constitution
The Constitution can’t save us. We must save it.
Do Not Be Gaslighted
On the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration, we who opposed his election face a simple question: What is there left to do? It is perhaps easier to know what we will not do: We will not seek by violent insurrection to overturn a free and fair election. Nor will we disrupt the tradition of peacefully…
Bullets Cleanse Nothing
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump — an act repugnant to anyone who honors and values the ideas, habits, and practices of democracy — cleanses nothing. Trump, a man of base character and a would-be authoritarian who disregards the norms of republican self-government while seeking to gain office by casting doubt on election…
Renewing America
The huddled masses gathered at a nondescript Charlotte business park just before Independence Day to help renew America. Sixty people from three dozen countries, seemingly of every hue, color, age, and background, became flesh-and-blood representatives of e pluribus unum as they sat together on folding chairs in a fluorescent-lit conference room while a middling official…
Beware Democracy
It’s difficult to overstate the contempt Charlotte’s government feels for its citizens. Though disdain for the people is widely distributed among our elected officials, high-ranking bureaucrats, and well-connected members of the governing class, perhaps no one personifies it like Assistant City Manager Tracy Dodson, whose duties as director of economic development require her to act…
Politics Through Tragedy
A Hobbesian darkness animates the narrative that bolsters law enforcement’s political legitimacy. Danger lurks everywhere, we’re told, and each of us, at any moment, might find ourselves victimized in a menacing world where everyone, left to their own devices, will indulge their natural-born instinct to engage in the English philosopher’s “war of all against all”…
Secrecy, Submission, and CMPD
Charlotte cops punched and pummeled a woman at a public bus stop on a public street, but they insisted on privacy when discussing their assault upon her, and we, as a political community, went along. After a few of his officers beat Christina Pierre in November 2023, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Johnny Jennings announced plans…
Jeff Jackson Isn’t Your Schoolgirl Crush
No matter how hard he strives for celebrity, a politician shouldn’t be judged by the standards of a Tiger Beat cover boy. Jeff Jackson, a Democratic congressman from Charlotte who’s running for state attorney general, first entered public office in 2014 when party members named him to a vacant seat in the North Carolina Senate.…
CMPD Lands a Few Blows
Charlotte cops beat the hell out of Christina Pierre, and now it’s time for the commonwealth to take a few blows. By now the story is well known: On November 17, Pierre and Anthony Lee, Pierre’s partner and co-worker, sat at a public bus stop in Steele Creek after their shifts ended at a nearby…
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