There’s a phenomenon in the world of politics and policy that is entirely predictable but still comes as a bit of a surprise to witness. It occurs when powerful politicians leave office and then later return to visit their old stomping grounds.

As regulars at the North Carolina General Assembly can attest, unless the politician in question has gone on to another position of prominence in which they wield significant influence, the response from the members currently serving is almost always the same: a moment of polite applause, a few handshakes and selfies and, well, that’s about it. By the time of their second visit, the once prominent pol is pretty much just another face in the crowd.

A similar process often impacts political leaders – most typically presidents and governors – who find themselves confronting term limits and the approach of lame duck status. Absent the possibility that they’ll stay in the game and remain a force with which to be reckoned after departing office, even powerful politicians can quickly find their influence leaking away like air from a deflating tire.

The expectation, since confirmed, that he would seek a U.S. Senate seat, combined with his steady overall popularity with voters, helped to insulate former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper somewhat from this phenomenon, but for two-term presidents, genuine political relevance and influence as the end approaches – much less in the years that follow — is almost always elusive.

Bill Clinton was part of an unprecedented effort by a former president to evade this age-old pattern by returning to the White House as First Gentleman, but that was a unique situation unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.

And this reality – the hard truth that political power is fleeting and generally not hereditary in the American system — is something that seems sure to soon impact Donald Trump and the cult of personality to which he has given rise.

It’s true of course, that we are just a little over six months into a second Trump term that’s scheduled to run through 2029. It’s also true that the first six months have featured a whirlwind of activity – including scores of norm-shattering executive orders, hundreds of federal lawsuits (many of which Trump has won), and the enactment of one of the largest and most radical pieces of legislation in U.S. history.

Indeed, when it comes to dominating the political and lawmaking scenes, Trump is arguably at the pinnacle of his career and power. Among most Republicans, his word is currently law and few presidents in U.S. history have ever claimed and sought to act as if they had such complete power.

But it’s also true that there are several factors already at work that are causing noteworthy cracks to form in the Trump edifice – cracks that are likely to grow and spread (perhaps rapidly).

Topping the immediate list in this realm is the metastasizing controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files. Though Trump has long skillfully manipulated and exploited the controversy surrounding his former pal and his sex crimes, there is growing evidence that his magic in this area may be running out.

Having helped convince millions of his followers that there was a nefarious conspiracy at work surrounding Epstein, Trump’s sudden “there’s nothing to see here” explanation is falling flat with many on the right. And if any sort of smoking gun emerges confirming Trump participation in Epstein’s sexcapades, it would be a presidency-altering development.

But even if the Epstein crisis somehow fizzles, the list of other looming Trump troubles remains long and daunting.

There are his ebbing poll numbers. The latest Gallup Poll finds his approval rating at 37% (29% among independents) — the lowest point of second term.

There’s the widespread unpopularity of the so-called “big, beautiful bill.” While it’s true that many provisions are not scheduled to take effect right away, it’s hard to see how the impending reality of lost health insurance and food assistance for millions (or the plan to ignore the global climate crisis) can possibly boost Trump’s popularity.

There are the upcoming 2026 elections in which the chance that Democrats will win back control of the U.S. House and maybe even the Senate continues to grow steadily. Talk about a presidency-altering development!

And then, of course, there is Trump’s mental and physical health. With his 80th birthday fast approaching, a recent diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency, obvious weight and memory challenges, and a well-known penchant for teenager’s diet, Trump’s chances for a relatively rapid decline would appear significantly less than zero.

Nothing is for certain, of course. Trump has confounded critics many times before and with six Supreme Court justices sitting ready to do his bidding, he remains formidable.

But given the challenges he faces, the lack of any plausible political heir apparent and the emptiness of the GOP bench right now, it’s easy to see how both Trump and the MAGA movement could be poised for a rapid political decline. And if that happens, experience shows that it won’t take long for both to quickly be seen and treated as yesterday’s news.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Ho hum…another hot summer day in North Carolina that ended in torrential rain and catastrophic flooding.

That was the cap to this past holiday weekend in central North Carolina. An early season tropical storm/depression that seemed initially like no particular big deal suddenly exploded to dump as much as 10 inches of rain in some areas, causing the Eno River to experience a record rise of more than 22 feet in four hours – a rise that beat even the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Fran in 1996 – and massive damage ensued.

Dozens of people had to be rescued, and scores of homes and businesses were damaged. Many major roads and highways were closed, damaged or both. At least one person died.

And, of course, the disastrous flooding here was just small potatoes compared to the horror that occurred in the Texas hill country just days before. At last count, the death toll there from a spate of summer thunderstorms had already surpassed 100, with many people still missing.

Meanwhile, this year’s Atlantic hurricane season has only just begun and, as the people of western North Carolina who saw their region devastated last fall by Hurricane Helene are painfully aware, won’t ramp up to full song until mid-August through late September.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this year’s season promises to be another active one, with a range of 13 to 19 total named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), 6-10 hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3-5 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).

So, what gives? Tropical weather and flooding rains have always been fact of life in the eastern half of the United States. Are we just having a run of bad luck?

Unfortunately, the answer to the latter question is almost assuredly a loud and clear “no.”

While it’s true that there’s nothing new about bad weather, as scientists have been telling us for decades, the frequency and severity of modern storms is being greatly worsened by climate change.

As reporter Raymond Zhong of the New York Times reported on July 5:

At the same time, quite perversely, climate-change-driven drought and desertification continue to spread in other parts of the planet. The situation is especially acute in parts of Africa where they are contributing to widespread hunger and mass migration.

And tragically, these are situations that are only going to get worse and soon – especially if the planet’s rapidly growing human population continues to do little-to-nothing to curb its fossil fuel addiction, while simultaneously developing more and more open land with housing and other infrastructure in which speed and short-term profits trump sustainability.

In other words, this past weekend’s weather in our state was yet another wake-up call to the terrifying fact that we are in the midst of a global emergency that cries out for an urgent, all-hands-on-deck response from government, private industry, academia, and average people. While complete healing of the planet would take centuries, we can still minimize the damage in the decades to come by acting with speed, determination, urgency and creativity.

Quite amazingly and inexcusably, however, this is not the path our leaders are following. To the contrary, the Trump administration – abetted by Republicans in Congress and state legislatures like North Carolina’s – are doing the precise opposite of what is so urgently necessary.

As AP reported, the massive mega-bill signed into law by Trump last Friday “supports mining, drilling and production of the oil, coal and gas that are largely driving Earth’s warming and the increasingly deadly and costly extreme weather that comes with it,” while at the same time slashing “tax credits for clean technologies including wind and solar energy.”

Meanwhile, the bill’s answer to the migration crisis – a phenomenon fueled in part by climate change – is to ramp up the creation of a “show us your papers” police state that conjures up some of the worst imagery from authoritarian regimes Americans once considered the enemies of freedom.

And here in North Carolina, it’s expected that Republican legislative leaders will seek later this month to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of a bill that would roll back the state’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and spur the construction of more fossil fuel-fired power plants.

All in all, it’s a remarkable and maddening state of affairs. At a time of urgent environmental and human crises, our elected leaders have adopted a policy of not just fiddling while Rome burns and floods, but of conducting an entire symphony orchestra of delusional actions designed to expedite and worsen the destruction.

And the need for all Americans to rise up and demand an immediate reversal of this disastrous malfeasance could not be more urgent.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

From the beginning of his tenure in the North Carolina General Assembly, it’s always been evident that Thom Tillis was not a true right-wing, authoritarian extremist.

Arch-conservative – especially on matters of taxes and economic policy? Yes. Ready to pare the social safety net to the bone and “divide and conquer” the various groups of people who find themselves relying upon it to maintain a semblance of economic security? Certainly. Happy to ram through a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage while forecasting that its demise was inevitable? Sure. Willing to swallow his pride and abandon basic personal values on a regular basis in order to assuage an above average case of political ambition? Absolutely.

But a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, Trump and Putin-loving, immigrant-hating, LGBTQ-bashing, white/Christian nationalist MAGA-believer? No way.

Like a lot of modern conservative Republicans, Tillis has certainly blown with the winds that overtook his party the last couple of decades. And he’s probably embraced a number of positions and policies that he would have found surprising back in his early 40’s, when he commenced his political career by running for a local park board position in order to champion a public bike path.

But as he made clear on multiple occasions while serving in the North Carolina House and during his 10-plus years in Washington, Tillis’s political values and instincts were and are much more in line with the rapidly withering Bush/McCain/Romney branch of Republicanism than the Trump-as-flawless-Dear-Leader cult. While he regularly caved in to the demands of the bully-in-chief and his hench-people (on immigration, on foreign policy, on advancing unqualified buffoons to court seats and cabinet positions), you knew they were always moves of calculated – some would say cowardly — political expedience. The Trump people knew this too and clearly never trusted him.

This past weekend, Tillis finally reached his limit. Faced with voting for one of the most monstrously destructive legislative proposals in American history — a bill that will wreak havoc on his state and further empower a man who openly aspires to become a national dictator – Tillis made clear there was a limit to how far down the Trump cult rabbit hole he was ultimately willing be dragged. By voting against the president’s disastrous mega-bill and then quickly announcing his decision not to seek reelection next year, Tillis appears to have taken a big step in officially severing ties with the sect and recapturing a small sense of who he is and what he believes as he contemplates his final 18 months in office.

Of course, as mental health experts will attest, leaving a cult — like overcoming an addiction — can be a complicated, up-and-down process. This is especially true for disillusioned former true believers.

Fortunately, in this case, Tillis’s departure seems more akin to that of someone who knew all along that they needed to get away from a controlling and abusive leader, but just hated the thought of being ostracized by the community they so long inhabited and the ideals that many members of the group still nominally professed – not to mention giving up a position of political power.

But as other Republicans like former Congresswoman Liz Cheney have discovered, there can be life beyond the cult. What’s more, and this is important, unlike Cheney whose time in Congress almost immediately ended after she bravely dared to cross Trump, Tillis is now a free man with a full year-and-a-half left in office to do and say what he believes, and maybe just maybe, to convince other disaffected Republican lawmakers who know the emperor is naked to, at least occasionally, join him.

Indeed, with partisan margins so razor thin on Capitol Hill, Tillis now has the opportunity to be the most important and impactful politician for good from North Carolina since Sam Ervin helped spearhead the demise of Richard Nixon a half-century ago.

For instance, as University of Richmond law professor and judiciary watcher Carl Tobias told NC Newsline Sunday, now that he’s free from reelection concerns, Tillis is well-positioned to stymie some of Trump’s looniest court nominees from advancing in the Senate Judiciary Committee – a body in which the GOP holds only a 12-10 advantage.

If only Tillis had had his epiphany before caving on the execrable nomination of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.

Could all of this be wishful thinking? Maybe.

Blood runs thick and Tillis has already taken to social media to say that he wants a Republican to win his seat next year. But given the state of the North Carolina GOP, that will ultimately mean supporting a craven Trump toady who will be commanded to specifically condemn Tillis, so who knows how enthusiastically he’ll stick to that stance?

Whatever the state of Senator Tillis’s psyche at what is no doubt a difficult personal moment, he’s clearly come to a fork in the road on the overriding issue of our times: Trumpism. In one direction lies the rocky path of strength, honor, morality and making an important difference for the nation’s future that would be long remembered. Down the other lies the path of acquiescence, personal ease and comfort, and utter political and historical irrelevance. Stay tuned.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

North Carolina has always been a conservative, business-friendly state in which lobbyists for corporate interests have generally had their way in the state Legislative Building under both Republicans and Democrats.

From the days of tobacco, textiles and furniture to the modern era in which industries like banking, technology, construction and health care predominate, it’s been a rare instance in which lawmakers have said “no” to the policy demands of a large industry – especially those willing to make significant “investments” in political campaigns.

One notable and interesting minor exception to this pattern in recent decades, however, has been in the realm of predatory consumer lending. Throughout the latter decades of the 20th Century right down to the present day, grifting high-cost lenders have generally struggled to gain the foothold here that they enjoy in many other states.

Despite repeated efforts to loosen state laws that bar exploitive products like “payday loans” and “car title loans” and that cap interest rates and fees charged by “consumer finance” companies and makers of high-cost home loans, North Carolina lawmakers have largely held firm.

Several factors that have contributed to this situation, including consistent and forceful advocacy from the consumer protection offices of Attorneys General Mike Easley, Roy Cooper, Josh Stein, and Jeff Jackson; resistance from several legislative leaders (including a handful of Republicans like veteran State Rep. Julia Howard and former State Rep. Jeff Barnhart); and tough stances by the state’s military commanders who’ve seen how predatory loans target and harm the readiness of their troops.

Together with the rise of one of the nation’s strongest networks of consumer advocacy nonprofits – a group that included, among others, advocates from the Center for Responsible Lending, the North Carolina Justice Center, the Financial Protection Law Center and the state’s Legal Aid community — these forces helped keep North Carolina a state that is comparatively predatory lender-free.

What’s more, the successes in this area were so numerous and impactful that following the financial crisis of the early 2000’s that morphed into the Great Recession, they helped inspire action in Washington to establish a watchdog federal government agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In the years since, the CFPB has done prodigious work – winning billions of dollars in refunds for ripped-off homebuyers, student loan borrowers, and banking customers and even putting some predatory lenders out of business. Since its inception, more than 300,000 North Carolinians have turned to the agency with complaints of consumer abuses. More than 86,000 have thus far won relief.

Unfortunately, as one might expect, laws and lawyers that target grifters, scammers and predators are anathema to President Trump – a man whose business career was largely predicated on all manner of shady deals — and he and Republicans in Congress are working hard to gut or abolish the agency.

According to Adam Rust of the Consumer Federation of America, since Trump returned to office in January, his minions have quickly sought to lay off virtually the entire CFPB staff (a move that has waxed and waned in the federal courts), cancelled numerous consumer protection regulations (including rules designed to protect vulnerable seniors from junk fees, rein in online payment app scams and debt collectors, and cap bank overdraft fees), and dismissed more than 20 lawsuits targeting predatory actors.

Where federal law protected certain kinds of work from complete elimination – as with the Office of Servicemember Affairs (a creation of the Military Lending Act) – Rust says Trump’s team evaded the law by simply firing everyone in the office except for a single person. The massive budget and tax bill recently approved by the U.S. House doubles down on this pattern by slashing the agency’s funding agency by around 75%.

To their credit, however, North Carolina advocates and activists – some of whom helped birth the CFPB — have no intention of letting the agency be destroyed without a fight. Last Thursday, several of them gathered for a press event outside of Sen. Thom Tillis’s Raleigh office to plead with him to intervene.

In addition to Rust, speakers included community organizer Emma Horst-Martz, who cited her grandmother’s victimization by an online tech firm as an example of the need to preserve protections for seniors, and a pair of small business women – Ashley Gaddy Robbins and LaCharo Owens – both of whom explained the critical role CFPB protections have played in making access to safe, affordable credit possible for minority and women-owned businesses.

Is there a chance that Tillis could muster the courage, as is his wont every once-in-a-blue-moon, and do the right thing? Experience and a glance at some of his past actions indicate that it’s a huge longshot, but with an uphill reelection race looming in 2026, it seems at least possible that Tillis will see handing such an issue to a Democratic challenger could be a dangerous move.

For their part, the activists and small business owners who pleaded with him last week will not be giving up or going away. Their simple message: stand with the people of North Carolina, not the banks, billionaires and lobbyists. Let’s fervently hope Tillis was listening.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of the wild policy swings that are the signatures of the second Trump administration. From tariffs and trade to Russia and Ukraine, it often takes just hours for supposedly strong policy stances to be contradicted or abandoned by the president or his aides.

And now, this chaotic pattern is directly impacting North Carolina.

Both last fall and this past January, Trump blasted the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene and made bold promises that he would rebuild storm-ravaged areas better than ever.

Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. This fact was made clear last week when the administration abruptly turned off the federal funding spigot by rejecting Gov. Josh Stein’ request to continue providing matching funds for the state’s Helene recovery appropriations.

The decision leaves the state on the hook for $200 million or more in additional expenses for debris cleanup and other emergency work.

The bottom line: Once again, the president has said one thing and done another, and sadly, North Carolinians will pay the price.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Over the last several decades, few initiatives of the American political right have met with greater sustained success than the relentless crusade to capture control of the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court’s reactionary majority is, of course, the ultimate and most visible example of this success, but the ongoing effort to politicize and radicalize the judiciary has borne fruit in many places.

See, for example, the appellate courts in North Carolina where, thanks to the investment of big dollars and a whatever-it-takes-to-win approach to campaigning, Republicans have captured sizable majorities on the state’s Supreme Court (5-2) and Court of Appeals (11-4).

By spending millions of dollars and waging a determined and unabashed culture-war-based ground game that has helped spur conservative voters to action in bottom-of-the-ballot races that once were treated as nonpartisan, the GOP has transformed the state appellate courts through a series of narrow electoral wins into a rubber stamp for its gerrymandered legislative majorities.

And while progressives have tried to push back periodically, they’ve mostly found themselves in a defensive posture and promoting bland messages like “let’s keep the courts fair” or “we need judges who will respect the Constitution” – themes that are true and accurate enough, but that were never capable of firing up the troops.

And then along came Jefferson Griffin.

Six months ago, millions of Democratic- and progressive-leaning North Carolinians had only the vague idea of how the state’s courts were organized – much less the identities of the people who serve on them. Incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs was a mostly anonymous jurist – well-known only among the state’s small cadre of civil rights and civil liberties lawyers of which she was once a member.

Today, thanks to Griffin’s ill-conceived and politically disastrous effort to overturn his loss to Riggs in last November’s state Supreme Court election by tossing thousands of ballots, everything has changed.

Conservative pundits and pols may be spinning the brave face notion that Griffin’s failed challenge helped advance the cause of “voter integrity” – that is, identifying categories of voters on whom Republicans can impose new roadblocks to voting – and one suspects that’s something they will pursue.

But by far the biggest and most important impact of Griffin’s failed effort is the transformative boost it’s given to progressives and Democrats in awakening them to the importance of judicial elections.

Indeed, a lot of Republican and conservative operatives are likely wanting to kick themselves right now, or at least, Griffin. Had he quietly conceded last November after a second recount confirmed his defeat, it would have been a disappointment for the right, but hardly a defeat of great consequence.

Republicans would have still maintained their large majority on the high court and most North Carolinians would have quickly forgotten about the contest.

Today, however, after six months of dreadful nationwide publicity for Griffin in which he was rightfully portrayed as a sore loser, along with six months of unprecedented organizing and messaging by dozens of progressive good government advocates and advocacy groups, the visibility of the state courts is dramatically different.

Meanwhile, Justice Riggs has emerged as a minor political rock star.

Thanks to her willingness to abandon the traditional tight-lipped posture of Democratic judicial candidates by stepping out and running a very public campaign to rally public support for her legal argument to count all the votes that were cast, Riggs, in effect, beat the right at its own game.

For the first time in recent memory, a young, progressive Democratic judge presented herself as (and spoke to average people like) a real person with whom they could easily identify – not just a distant and vaguely mysterious figure in judicial robes voicing sober legal platitudes.

It’s no wonder that other Democratic judicial candidates are already lining up to invite her to headline their campaign fundraisers.

And, of course, for Democrats and other progressives looking to alter North Carolina’s political environment by breaking Republicans’ gerrymandered strangleholds on the legislature and U.S. House delegation, all of this news could scarcely have come at a better time.

At the heart of the GOP gerrymandering success is the party’s control of the state Supreme Court. If Democrats are to have any hope of seeing fair redistricting maps return to North Carolina – maps that would reflect a state that, as the Riggs-Griffin election demonstrated in stark terms, is evenly divided between the two major parties – they’ll have to end the current GOP dominance of the high court. And that will necessitate winning elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030, prior to the next scheduled round of redistricting in 2031.

Whether Democrats can capitalize on their recent good fortune in those upcoming elections remains, of course, very much an open question. Notwithstanding the outrage and enthusiasm of recent months, voter memories can be short, and it’s a sure thing that that big GOP dollars and hardball tactics aren’t going anywhere.

For now, though, the chance that Democrats can reverse recent patterns in judicial elections looks much brighter than it did at this time last year. And all those concerned can thank Jefferson Griffin for the sea change.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Compromise in politics is something that is as old as human civilization itself. Anyone who aspires to serve in an elected position understands this simple truth and the fact that, in many instances, compromise is an absolute requirement for those who want to stay in office.

Many are the well-meaning politicians down through the centuries who’ve legitimately pondered the question: How can I do the most amount of good — by standing on principle and risking some or all of the power and influence I have, or by compromising and living to fight another day?

Of course, for others, such questions never occur. These are the weak, corrupt and morality-challenged individuals who simply blow with the wind and say whatever they think will work to their personal advantage at all times. Anyone who has ever walked the halls of Congress or a state legislature for any length of time can readily spot these on-the-make individuals in both parties. They’re the ones to whom lobbyists for predatory industries and other slimy causes invariably turn to carry their bills and represent their snake oil claims.

But for most American politicians, there remains a wellspring of fundamental human decency — a floor below which they are unwilling to sink, along with some basic principles to which they will adhere, no matter what the cost.

North Carolina’s senior senator, Republican Thom Tillis, has always given the impression of being someone who fits — or at least aspires to fit — into the more honorable category.

Tillis has helped enact many arch-conservative policies through the years — several of which he no doubt truly believed in — but as anyone who’s ever watched or listened to the man speak in unscripted circumstances can attest, he’s not a fire breathing reactionary.

Even before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down bans on same-sex marriage — thus overturning a state constitutional amendment he had helped enact as state House Speaker — Tillis spoke openly and publicly about the inevitability of the nation embracing marriage equality.

He’s also worked on and endorsed — before backing down to Trump, anyway — middle ground immigration reforms that would create paths out of the shadows for the millions of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants.

Most recently, there was Trump’s absurd nomination of former Congressman Matt Gaetz to serve as U.S. Attorney General. Tillis’s exasperated reaction to reporter questions made clear his obvious (and accurate) belief that Gaetz was a desperately unqualified scoundrel.

Now, however, thanks to Trump’s latest outrageous action — one of the most execrable and un-American deeds of any U.S. president in the nation’s history — Tillis (like several other Republican officials) has arrived a make-or-break moment.

After all, it’s one thing to disagree with your party’s leader about taxes, or the size of government, or even interpretations of the Constitution, and still remain allied. It’s quite another when that leader abandons two-and-a-half centuries of history as a global champion of democratic government and freedom and affirmatively aligns the United States with a committed opponent of both — the murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

President Donald Trump’s shameful attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — an act so low that former Republican and longtime New York Times columnist David Brooks rightfully described it in a national television appearance as nauseating and vile — demonstrated once and for all who and what Trump is.

Trump’s support of Putin is not an act of hardboiled realpolitik, nor as some have suggested derogatorily, appeasement of the kind British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain thought he was practicing toward Hitler’s Germany prior to World War II.

Trump isn’t trying to control Putin, he’s affirmatively teaming up with the war criminal as a partner and as Brooks put it, working to “create a world a world that’s safe for gangsters.” He is, in short, betraying the most important things for which our nation has at least tried to stand for 250 years, and joining the other side.

And if this act doesn’t constitute a Rubicon moment for Tillis and other patriotic Republicans who’ve held their noses for so long at Trump’s serial dishonesty, megalomania and criminality, it’s hard to fathom what could possibly do so.

Tillis recently gave a passionate and impressive Senate speech in support of the Ukrainian cause, and he clearly seemed sincere. But there’s simply no way that any person with a measure of self-respect could give a speech like that, believe what he said, and still remain allied with someone like Trump and his Russian partner.

Sure, a break would be supremely difficult. A formidable Trump-backed primary opponent next year would be a sure thing. And thugs loyal to Trump might even make ominous threats as they have toward other politicians who’ve dared to cross their Dear Leader.

But as Tillis must also be acutely aware, if he backs down here and fails to back his words with action, he will have no chance of ever being taken seriously again or remembered as anything other than the Washington punchline he’s fast becoming. And what’s the point of being a senator in those circumstances, other than to cash a paycheck?

In short, Trump’s treachery has made Ukraine the defining issue of the moment — and maybe of our time. And it has provided Thom Tillis with what is likely his last chance to define himself as a moral and honorable leader.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

If ever there was a societal moment of desperate need for large and well-funded teams of scientists, researchers, and other experts to help guide our state and nation in this ever more complex world, it’s now.

Between climate change, mass migration, artificial intelligence, the threat of new pandemics, and an ever-more competitive global economy, the need for top-flight human brain power dedicated to finding common good solutions is acute.

And it’s because of this that the recent slash-and-burn firings and funding cuts imposed by President Trump and Elon Musk are, and will continue to be, so devastating.

Right here in the Triangle we’re already seeing big and hugely destructive cuts at our universities, the EPA and nonprofits like RTI International.

Hundreds of our best and brightest — people who’ve dedicated their careers to public service — are being summarily and wrongfully fired.

The bottom line: The Trump-Musk funding cuts are causing chaos and ruinous destruction. All caring and thinking people should call on leaders in Congress and the courts to stop them.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Donald Trump has undoubtedly caused more needless and destructive havoc in the first two weeks of his second administration than any president in U.S. history.

As Triangle-area Congresswoman Deborah Ross told NC Newsline in an interview for the upcoming edition of the weekly radio show/podcast News & Views, though some of his high-profile edicts have already been quickly and rightfully enjoined by the courts, many others in areas like climate policy and women’s health are “fully in effect and already having devastating consequences around the world and in people’s lives.”

What’s more, the sheer volume of orders, directives, memos, and PR stunts, has given rise to an atmosphere of widespread fear and anxiety.

For American families with immigrant members in particular, Trump’s talk of mass deportations and construction of a concentration camp-like facility in Guantanamo, Cuba has millions on edge.

But it’s not just the most vulnerable in society who are feeling fearful. Trump’s half-baked tariffs scheme has everyone from auto workers to stockbrokers worried about their economic futures and retirement accounts. And the nutty and ill-conceived directives to freeze trillions of dollars in federal funding have caused hundreds of thousands of vitally important workers in the public and private sectors to lose plenty of sleep.

Meanwhile, the prices of groceries and other essentials that were supposed to have magically plummeted as soon as Trump once again graced the Oval Office, have remained — as commonsense told us they would — stubbornly unmoved.

Altogether, it’s been enough to make a caring and thinking person fear for their sanity and their country’s future as they’ve pondered the rapidly metastasizing mess in Washington and the daunting task that lies ahead in resisting Trump’s cruel onslaught.

As Congresswoman Ross observed:

Ross is right. The months and years ahead will demand dedication and hard work — organizing, letter writing, social media advocacy, rallies, demonstrations and direct actions, and paying close and regular attention to a lot of very unpleasant news — if the worst of Trumpism is to be blunted. As Winston Churchill famously observed during World War II, “when you’re going through hell, keep going.”

And yet, it’s also vitally important to remember that all is far from lost. As commentator Ezra Klein explained in an excellent column in the February 2 edition of the New York Times entitled “Don’t believe him,” a big part of Trump’s much ballyhooed “shock and awe” strategy of these first few weeks of his administration can probably be more accurately characterized as schlock and blah…blah…blah.

Here’s Klein:

In other words, as has been the case with countless bullies throughout history, Trump is a fundamentally weak figure with few, if any, genuine friends or deep personal connections, who has long gotten most of what he wants through bluster and intimidation.

He is, as Klein says, a salesman who wants to be a king. He has no interest in or aptitude for the kind of slow, methodical, disciplined work it takes to bring truly lasting and transformative change to American government — much less the broader society.

That’s why he and his minions are trying so hard to foment a rapid wave of fear and panic in the immigrant community. They know that 20,000 ICE employees spread over two dozen field offices can’t, on their own, make a real dent in an unauthorized immigrant population of more than 11 million, and they have no realistic plan for doing it any other way.

Of course, none of this is to say that the Trump camp doesn’t include its fair share of formidable and cunning characters possessed of plenty of commitment and discipline. The warnings we have all repeatedly read of the parallels between the Trump crowd and those of many past and present-day autocrats are undeniable, and the damage the nation is about to endure is quite real and significant.

But as with all large enterprises led by such charlatans, determined, steady, resistance from millions of people can and will be its undoing — especially if those who would resist remain engaged, bear witness, protest, aid those in need, adjust where and how they spend and contribute their money, and refuse to be overwhelmed and intimidated.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin is seeking one of the most important and powerful public offices in North Carolina — a seat on the state Supreme Court.

He’s also taken the extraordinary step of trying to overturn the election he lost for that seat last November by having more than 60,000 ballots thrown out. Thanks to his actions, North Carolina is once again in a negative national spotlight.

And yet, despite having unleashed an enormous controversy that many nonpartisan experts say poses a serious threat to the sanctity of U.S. elections, and indeed, our democracy itself, Griffin is nowhere to be seen or found.

Unlike the opponent who defeated him, incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, who has addressed Griffin’s actions openly and publicly, Griffin has remained in the shadows, hiding behind the excuse that he can’t discuss the controversy while it’s in litigation.

And that in a word, is baloney.

The bottom line: Judge Griffin is attempting an unprecedented action to disenfranchise 60,000 of his fellow citizens. The least he could do is have the guts to stand behind it in public.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Lost to many in the flood of controversial directives and proposals emanating from Washington in recent days is the serious discussion on the political right of plans to slash the nation’s Medicaid health insurance program.

As Dr. Aaron E. Carroll, president of the health policy organization AcademyHealth, explained in an essay in the February 2 edition of the New York Times, Republican lawmakers are seriously discussing a plan to pay for the Trump administration’s pledge to renew 2017 tax cuts (total cost: $4 trillion over the next decade) via big Medicaid cuts:

Dr. Carroll goes on to detail his belief that such cuts would be “catastrophic” for the nation — noting that “children, seniors and people with disabilities — groups that make up more than 75 percent of the program’s spending….”

A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities echoes Carroll’s concern. It reports that one prominent budget-cutting tactic under consideration — mandating work requirements for Medicaid recipients — would have an enormously negative impact. It explains that while nearly two-thirds of Medicaid recipients currently work full or part-time and that only 2% are unemployed merely because they could not find work, 36 million people nationally — including between 17-32% of enrollees in North Carolina — could be at-risk of losing coverage under various work requirement schemes.

ncnewsline.com

One thing Dr. Carroll’s essay doesn’t have the space to do is to spell out precisely what massive cuts to such a vital program would mean as a practical matter in states like North Carolina. On the front, however, a recent fact sheet distributed by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund entitled “What Medicaid brings to North Carolina” does precisely that.

The following is a by-the-numbers look at some of the highlights:

2.8 million – number of children and adults in North Carolina insured by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as of September 2024

1,407,870 – number of children enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP

480,836 – adults enrolled because of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act as of June 2024 (more recent numbers from NC DHHS place the total at over 609,000)

350,271 – number of people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid as of September 2024

41 – percentage of children ages 0-18 in North Carolina who were covered by Medicaid in 2023

12 – percentage of adults ages 19-64 in North Carolina who were covered by Medicaid in 2023

$14 billion – amount of federal dollars that flowed to North Carolina’s Medicaid program in 2023

73 – percentage of North Carolina’s Medicaid spending that came from the federal government in 2023 (Note for Medicaid expansion enrollees, the figure is 90%)

21 – percentage of North Carolina adults ages 19-64 enrolled in Medicaid who reported having medical debt in 2024

29 – percentage of people with medical debt enrolled in Medicare

29 – percentage of people with medical debt enrolled in employer-provided health insurance

32 – percentage of people with medical debt enrolled in individual and Marketplace programs

(Note these debt numbers were compiled prior to the implementation of the Cooper administration’s groundbreaking medical debt relief program that took effect during the second half of 2024.)

40 – percentage of children ages 0-18 living in metro areas covered by Medicaid or CHIP in 2023

49 – percentage of children living in rural areas

12 – percentage of adults ages 19-64 living in metro areas covered by Medicaid or CHIP in 2023

16 – percentage of adults living in rural areas

60 – percentage of youth ages 12-17 with a mental health condition with public insurance whose mental health services were always covered in 2022

46 – percentage of youth ages 12-17 with a mental health condition with private insurance whose mental health services were always covered in 2022

27 – percentage with public insurance whose services were usually covered

30 – percentage with private insurance whose services were usually covered

13 – percentage with public insurance whose services were sometimes or never covered

24 – percentage with private insurance whose services were sometimes or never covered

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

North Carolina is in the national news again and, as with past embarrassments like the infamous bathroom bill and efforts to ban talk of sea-level rise, it’s not a flattering story.

This time, it’s Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s effort to retroactively throw out 60,000-plus ballots cast by registered voters in the 2024 election.

Griffin claims that voters whose records don’t include a Social Security number or driver’s license number should have been ineligible to vote – even though all were registered (many for decades) and had to show a photo ID to vote.

The claim is so farfetched that a Republican Supreme Court Justice called it quote “almost certainly meritless.”

Unfortunately, Griffin isn’t giving up, so tomorrow, Tuesday, advocates opposed to the scheme will gather across from the state Legislative Building in Raleigh to publicly read the names of all 60,000-plus challenged voters.

The bottom line: The event is scheduled to run from six am to eleven pm and will be live streamed on YouTube. North Carolinians who believe in democracy should check it out.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

America’s courts and the judges who sit on them have always been inextricably linked to the world of politics. Indeed, the idea that lawyers who are either appointed by politicians or who run for office themselves wouldn’t be political animals to some degree and often render judgments that reflect their own personal values and philosophies, is rather silly.

It’s no surprise, for instance, that American courts consistently rendered opinions favorable to white men and white male supremacy throughout most of their first two centuries since they were, of course, comprised almost exclusively of white men.

What’s more, up until recent decades, the line between politicians and judges (as well as judicial ideological lines) were often blurrier than they are today.

Prior to the late 20th Century, it was considered perfectly acceptable for politicians to serve as federal judges. One chief justice – William Howard Taft, who served from 1921 to 1930, was a former president. Chief Justice Earl Warren was the former Republican governor of California. Chief Justice Fred Vinson was a former congressman and Treasury Secretary who was known to play poker with President Harry Truman while serving as chief. It’s only been in recent decades that it’s become a de facto requirement for Supreme Court nominees that they be sitting judges on other courts.

And as recently as the 1990’s, it wasn’t considered especially noteworthy that Justice David Souter – a moderate on many issues – had been appointed by President George H.W. Bush.

All that said, the politicization of the courts has grown much more intense in recent decades, thanks in large part to a concerted, well-funded, and highly successful effort pursued by the political right. As author David Daley documents in painful detail in his recent book “Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 5-Year Plot to Control American Elections,” and explained in a recent interview with NC Newsline, the federal judiciary has undergone a dramatic ideological transformation in recent decades that has, in turn, helped transform our national political landscape.

All of which makes the recent complaints by Republicans about the decisions of a small handful of federal judges appointed by Democratic presidents to rethink their plans to retire or take “senior status” in light of Donald Trump’s recent election (and their desire to avoid having Trump name their successors), rather laughable.

As NC Newsline’s Brandon Kingdollar has reported, the list of judges having second thoughts in recent weeks and rescinding plans to take their leave from full-time work includes U.S. District Court Judges Max Cogburn of North Carolina and Algenon Marbley of Ohio and, perhaps most notably, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Wynn.

Wynn, a North Carolinian and former member of the North Carolina Supreme Court who was appointed to the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit by President Obama, wrote President Biden last Friday to explain that he was withdrawing his plan to take senior status. The letter came just a few days after North Carolina’s Republican U.S. senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, blocked the nomination of the gifted attorney that Biden had nominated to replace Wynn – North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park.

That action, in turn, led Tillis to issue a blistering and preposterous condemnation, in which he accused Wynn of being among a group of judges who “are nothing more than politicians in robes.”

That would be the same Thom Tillis who has made flip-flopping his position from semi-principled consensus seeker to craven lapdog on any number of issues in response to complaints from Trump minions – most notably, on immigration policy – a signature component of his political repertoire.

And it would also be the same Thom Tillis who happily and hypocritically abetted previous Republican efforts to a) block without legitimate reason President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the high court for almost an entire year in 2016, and b) race through the nomination of Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett in just a few weeks in late 2020.

And it would be the same Thom Tillis who presided as North Carolina House Speaker over the enactment of legislation that unleashed partisan judge buying in our state by ending public financing for judicial campaigns and who’s fellow Republicans soon thereafter repealed a state law that had made judicial races nonpartisan.

And it would be the same Thom Tillis who has never so much as raised a peep of concern about the blatant conflicts of interest that continue to plague the North Carolina Supreme Court, where Justice Phil Berger, Jr. — the son of the legislature’s most powerful politician, Sen. Phil Berger, Sr. — continues to render judgments of his daddy’s handiwork.

Of course, none of this blatant hypocrisy is terribly surprising. As countless once supposedly serious pols – from Mitch McConnell to Lindsey Graham to JD Vance – have repeatedly demonstrated, when you’re on team Trump or willing to be one of its enablers, honesty, consistency and any concern for genuine governance always play second fiddle to winning at all costs and appeasing the Republican Dear Leader.

One just wishes that Tillis could at least spare us the embarrassing faux outrage as he follows his marching orders.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

If North Carolina Republican legislative leaders were hoping to prevent a gubernatorial veto of their ambitious 131-page proposal to reorganize several aspects of state government and take away the powers of statewide offices soon to be filled by Democrats by attaching changes to Hurricane Helene relief legislation, the plan has failed.

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill this morning. This is from an unusually strong statement that Cooper issued to accompany the veto:

The General Assembly returns to Raleigh on Monday December 2. With precise supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, Republicans would appear to have the votes necessary to override the veto. It is notable, however, that three House Republicans from western North Carolina — Majority Whip Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain), and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) — voted ‘no’ on the legislation when it was approved last week. None of the three has yet given a public indication as to how they would vote on an override motion.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

In case you ever wondered, here’s a sure indicator that a politician has been caught doing something sketchy and underhanded.

When the only explanation they have for an action they’re taking is to mumble that it’s “business as usual” or that it’s analogous to something their political adversaries once did, you know they’re up to no good.

North Carolinians were reminded of this hard truth last week when Republican lawmakers floated these excuses and other similar ones to justify a massive and secretly crafted scheme to reorganize state government and seize power from offices held by Democrats. The changes were rammed through the legislature (as part of a bill that purported disingenuously to be about hurricane relief) in just a matter of hours.

Senate Republican leader Phill Berger, incoming House Speaker Rep. Destin Hall and outgoing Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson all played this cynical game.

According to Raleigh’s News & Observer, Hall told reporters after the 131-page bill was approved in a strictly partisan vote that it had been fully and adequately debated because – gee whiz! – the House spent a whole 90 minutes on it and Democratic lawmakers would’ve likely still been opposed if they’d had another month to examine it.

“But tonight, you know, we knew that they got the bill a little bit later, so we allowed them debate it, and it sounded like they debated just about every page of it,” Hall said smarmily.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (Photo: Lynn Bonner) Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (Photo: Galen Bacharier)

Berger, likewise, said the process used was “within the rules” and was akin to what “Democrats have used before” — though he did not say how or when that was the case.

Meanwhile Robinson, whose presence in the Legislative Building to preside over the Senate has been so rare over the past four years that his sudden appearance last week raised concerns that he might try to usurp Gov. Roy Cooper’s powers and sign the bill while Cooper was in Washington begging for more federal aid, echoed Berger’s take by telling WRAL.com the bill was “just politics as usual.”

All three men are fully aware, however, that their explanations are transparently bogus.

As NC Newsline reporter Galen Bacharier detailed in Monday report, the bill in question is chockful of dozens of controversial changes – some of them unprecedented, hugely impactful and of questionable constitutionality.

It makes major changes (i.e. cuts) to the powers of the governor, lt. governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction.It makes significant changes to state election law by transferring power from the governor to the state auditor (the auditor!) and erecting new barriers to the counting of votes.It creates a whole new state government department.It alters appointments to and leadership of the state utilities commission and abolishes the state Energy Policy Council.It weakens the state building code.It makes an array of appropriations – some of the highly questionable — completely unrelated to hurricane relief.It even grabs some state-owned parking spaces near the Legislative Building for the use of legislators.

And the list goes on.

Hall’s claim that 41 seconds per page is plenty of time to discuss such a catalogue of important changes – changes of which the general public was not even remotely aware – would be laughable if it weren’t so outrageous.

Meanwhile, Berger and Robinson’s “politics as usual” take – perhaps a reference to the 1993 decision of state Senate Democrats (later validated by Republicans) to alter the chamber’s rules governing the competing duties of the Senate President Pro Tem and Lt. Governor – is hardly analogous to such a multifaceted power grab.

But what makes the legislation a downright cruel joke, of course, is that: a) it was labeled as a hurricane relief measure – something designed to embarrass Cooper if he were to veto it, and b) it doesn’t even really provide significant relief.

As Bacharier’s report notes, the bill allots only a tiny fragment of the billions of dollars needed ($225 million) and even that money was not actually appropriated. The bill merely transfers the money from the state’s savings reserve to its Helene Fund, where it will remain unspent until appropriated at a later date by the legislature.

The whole thing was so absurd that even three House Republicans voted ‘no’ – something virtually unheard of in the modern, Trumpified North Carolina GOP, where public disagreement is generally verboten. One of the three – Rep. Mark Pless of western North Carolina’s Haywood County – even had the guts to decry the lack of process and lack of real aid for his home region in a statement to NC Newsline’s Brandon Kingdollar.

Of course, the notion that Pless or either of the others — Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain) – would muster the courage vote to sustain a gubernatorial veto still seems hard to imagine, but the mere fact that three such dedicated archconservatives would dare to publicly cross the GOP leadership speaks volumes as to how far out of bounds the bill (and the excuses used to justify it) stray.

One can only hope that at some point soon, the trickle of dissent gives rise to a flood.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

Barring a criminal conviction that either lands him in jail, under house arrest, or in some other status that prevents him from running for and holding office, Donald Trump is going to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party for the third consecutive election this fall.

As veteran pollster Tom Jensen told NC Newsline recently, the notion that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can somehow attract enough support to deny him the nomination is almost certainly fanciful. While she enjoys a good deal of backing from the anti-Trump wing of the party and some independent voters, those factions simply aren’t nearly large enough to overcome Trump’s overwhelming support among what has become the core of the GOP.

Meanwhile, over on the Democratic side, President Joe Biden is also clearly assured of renomination. While the president certainly has his share of doubters within his party who worry about his age and/or question his handling of the impossible quagmire in the Middle East, there is no other remotely viable alternative.

And third-party candidates? While the U.S. has had a few over the last several decades who attracted something more than a tiny share of the vote – most notably George Wallace in 1968 and Ross Perot in 1992 – there is no indication that anyone is even remotely poised to make such an impact in 2024.

The implications of this situation are numerous – both for partisans and the nation.

As noted, the prospect of a second Biden term divides Democrats. A large and solid contingent holds Biden in great esteem as a remarkably successful leader who has used his decades of political and policy experience to, quite literally, rescue the nation’s economy and its democracy. Another group, however, is less enthusiastic. They yearn for a new, more youthful, and more oratorically gifted leader who will inspire younger generations and project a vision of change and progress – both at home and abroad.

Trump’s renomination is even more polarizing for many Republicans. While the former president’s support is broad and deep, a not insignificant chunk of the GOP and Republican-leaning voters share the view held by almost all Democrats that Trump is a criminal, a liar, and a profound danger to the country. As former Republican North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin observed in a recent op-ed published by Raleigh’s News & Observer, “they abhor Trump’s belligerent swagger and lack of integrity.”

Where this leaves the nation is, of course, something that will be determined over the next several months. But if there is a most interesting and important question to be answered during that period it quite likely revolves around the anti-Trump Republicans.

As Martin’s essay makes clear, this group recognizes the menace a second Trump term poses to the nation. They cling to their vision of what the Republican Party once was – the party of Reagan, the Bushes, McCain and Romney – and can’t abide Trump’s megalomania and serial dishonesty.

Unfortunately for Martin and company, the idea he suggests in which Trump might be denied the nomination via some kind of organized intervention by independents in GOP primaries is – like the idea that Haley can somehow convert a huge swath of Trump supporters to her cause over the next several weeks — a fantasy.

And so, much as they might despise it, the choice for Republican traditionalists like Martin will eventually come down to this: Trump vs. Biden – or more succinctly, policy vs. patriotism.

If they hold their noses and help Trump win in November, they’ll likely halt Biden’s domestic policy agenda and see some of their own priorities – lower taxes, less regulation of business, more conservative judges – implemented.

But as they’re also acutely aware, they’ll also be playing with a dangerous fire – a fire in which they themselves might eventually be consumed. This, since supporting Trump means aiding a man they recognize as a corrupt and treasonous liar, a likely criminal, a friend to the world’s dictators and, and an aspiring autocrat who could quite possibly engineer the demise of the two-plus centuries of democratic government.

It’s for these reasons that it’s not completely unimaginable that the Jim Martins of the country could eventually choose another path – one in which, as an act of national unity, they condemn Trump, support Biden’s reelection for the good of preserving the nation’s democracy, and vow to fight on for conservative principals in other elections and forums. Such acts are actually fairly common in other democracies — especially those with more than two major political parties.

Admittedly, such a scenario is a stretch. Years of Fox News propaganda have convinced many conservatives who ought to know better that Joe Biden is some kind of radical leftist, rather than what he is — a moderate Democrat from the same mold as Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Obama.

But ultimately, a national unity stance is no more farfetched than the idea that traditional Republicans can deny Trump the nomination. And unless something very big and very unexpected happens very soon, it’s one of only two plausible options from which they will be forced to choose.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.