If you’ve been around Democratic politics in North Carolina and the South for long, you’re asking today: “Is the backlash coming this time? Or is race-baiting politics finally dead?”
You ask because you’ve seen race-baiting and “white backlash” work before.
Today, maybe, things have changed. Maybe the videos of police violence, the Black Lives Matter protests – and the fact we’ve been home watching it all – have fundamentally changed how white Americans look at our past, our present problems and our future together in this country.
A veteran Democrat from Eastern North Carolina thinks so: “There’s been a seismic shift. There’s more recognition of the evils of the past.” He thinks that’s especially true of young people, but also among older whites.
Another North Carolina native, nationally known pollster Harrison Hickman, said, “I have not seen any direct questions about racial attitudes. What I have seen is a sharp increase in support for Black Lives Matter. I think something is going on, and I think the protests have made a difference.”
He added, “It’s possible that white poll respondents are giving ‘socially acceptable’ answers, and it’s possible that their attitudes, and poll answers, will revert with the passage of time. But one difference this time is that leaders are not waiting around to see if things will change.”
Elected leaders everywhere are taking down Confederate statues and monuments. Mississippi took down its flag. Washington’s NFL team will no longer be the Redskins.
The change may be hurting President Trump’s reelection chances.
The New York Times reported this month, “From North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Arizona, interviews this week with more than two dozen suburban voters in critical swing states revealed abhorrence for Mr. Trump’s growing efforts to fuel white resentment with inflammatory rhetoric on race and cultural heritage. The discomfort was palpable even among voters who also dislike the recent toppling of Confederate statues or who say they agree with some of Mr. Trump’s policies.”
A Monmouth University nationwide poll in late June found that “67% of the public says racial and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. is a big problem, while just 17% say it is not a problem at all.”
There’s a big partisan gap. While 86% of white Democrats and Independents said discrimination is a big problem, only 40% of Republicans agree.
Some Democratic strategists fear that calls to “defund police” might turn off voters who are open to reforming police practices.
They remember history. Race has decided North Carolina elections since 1950, when Frank Porter Graham lost a Senate race to Willis Smith. Smith’s campaign circulated flyers headlined: “White People: Wake Up.”
In the 1960s, white Southerners began abandoning the Democratic Party after it embraced civil rights.
In 1964, GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater won the South by voting against the Civil Rights Act, though Lyndon Johnson swamped him everywhere else. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the Presidency by following the Southern Strategy of Strom Thurmond, the old South Carolina segregationist.
From 1972 to 1996, Jesse Helms won five Senate races with blatantly racist campaigns. That’s why Chowan University took his name off a campus building this month.
The election of a black President in 2008 raised hopes that we were past race. Then came Donald Trump.
Maybe today – 12 years after Barack Obama’s election, 60 years after the Greensboro sit-ins and 160 years after the Civil War – change has finally come.
Gary Pearce is a former political consultant and adviser to Governor Jim Hunt. He blogs at www.NewDayforNC.com.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
