Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you
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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. All Right, it's Tuesday at noon, and that
means we chat with Andrew Dunn. He is the columnist,
he's an op ed contributor over at the Charlotte Observer.
He's the publisher of long Leaf Politics substack newsletter, and
you can go to the website longleafpol dot com. Andrew.
As far as I know, Andrew never been added to
a signal group message chat to see the plans to
bomb an American enemy. I believe that's accurate. Andrew, welcome,
How are you? Oh?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great?
Speaker 1: Good to be with you.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Never added to a signal group chat with Intel officials
or anything like that that you want to disclose?
Speaker 2: No, not yet, not yet.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, there's still time there's still time. We shall see,
all right. So, a couple of things that you've written
over the last few days here over at the Charlotte Observer.
You wrote that as governor, Roy Cooper built a reputation
as a steady hand in times of crisis. That image
was always more perception than reality, but he never faced
the kind of sustained scrutiny that could shatter it. So
I guess the first question I would have for you
is why did he never face sustained scrutiny in.
Speaker 2: Your opinion, Yeah, Well, there's a couple different reasons. I mean,
one is that Roy Cooper is a very disciplined politician,
and he really cultivated his image as kind of the
mister Rogers type, kind of the steady hand. And you know,
if you see him out in public or any interview
he does, he sticks to his message. He's very disciplined,
hard hard to catch him in an unscripted, unscripted moment.
But the real reason, I think is that in every
race he's run, he's had a tremendous fundraising advantage. So
he's just been able to flood the zone with his
own advertising, his own messaging, and his opponents have just
never had the money or the resources to prosecute that
case against him. But if Cooper were to run for Senate,
that would change how so well. I mean, presumably he'd
faced Tom Tillis sitting US senator, tons and tons of money.
Cooper probably would outraise Tillis a little bit, but the
discrepancy would not be nearly as large as what Cooper's
used to So Tillus would have plenty of money to
make the case against Cooper of all his failures and
disaster response.
Speaker 1: And so the the Cooper war chest has, is my understanding,
is largely funded by essentially out of state interests. And
it seems like he he built that infrastructure with the
HB two argument against Pat McCrory and then just kind
of maintained that infrastructure. Is that Is that fair?
Speaker 2: I think that's fair to say. You know, there's a
lot huge donor network, you know, and started with really
the Jim Hunt era, and that really built out the
North Carolina donor network, and I think Cooper did a
lot to expand that more nationally and bring in your
New York, your California donors as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you say the failures that Cooper sidestepped for
years are catching up to him if he runs for Senate,
they won't be easy to ignore. Would that require a
political press corps that's willing to actually scrutinize Roy Cooper's
handling of Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Helene, and even
the COVID pandemic.
Speaker 2: I think that is part of it. And I think
you're going to have a National Press Corps that's a
little more willing to engage with that question than the
North Carolina Press Corps is. And some of that is
because you've kind of got the Biden administration and Democrats
on one side and Cooper on the other kind of
pointing fingers at each other on where the blame should
fall for failures in disaster response. And you know you
saw that in the Washington Post article that came out.
I think you guys talked about that a little bit,
that you know, the National Press Corps doesn't want to
give Donald Trump any credit whatsoever for doing disaster response well,
and if the finger has to then go to Roy Cooper,
then they're willing to do that.
Speaker 1: You rate later on in the piece that with Cooper
out of office, his shield is gone. His His own
Emergency Management director recently confirmed what many suspected. The Cooper
administration intentionally never appointed a disaster Recovery Coordinator, which is
the very role that FEMA recommends for every state to
ensure effective disaster response. Now, do you know why have
you come across why they decided not to appoint that position.
Speaker 2: No, I really have any idea. There's no real reason
not to. And maybe Will Ray should have been that person.
It's a little unclear, but he's saying that it was
an intentional decision not to, so I'm really not sure
what the thinking was there.
Speaker 1: Does this present a problem for Josh Stein if he's
now you know, shifting gears. He's doing his WNC effort
separate from the agency that Roy Cooper set up, the
Encore and co R, which failed so terribly. So does
this kind of does this create some like like opportunity
for Republicans to drive a wedge between these two guys
and make them It's sort of like the rape kit
testing backlog. I like that whole issue where Cooper claimed
he cleared the backlog and then Stein comes in and
promises to clear the backlog again, and it's like well, well,
who's actually responsible for doing that?
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I think it's possible. And you know,
I would love to know what Cooper and Stein say
to each other on this issue behind closed doors. That
would be that would be very illuminating. I would be
surprised if it drove a huge wedge. I think Cooper
is a very savvy politician and and and more ruthless
than people would would understand. So I think he would
get it if if Stein has to create some distance there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with that assessment of Cooper. I think, yeah,
like you said, he's got this image as mister Rogers
and he's a political animal. But that is so what's
your assessment then, in comparison of Josh Stein, like is
he the same is he cut from the same cloth?
Or You've got another piece that you write about Stein's
first budget proposal as governor and that it seems to
indicate maybe a different kind of approach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. I mean it really seems like Stein
is trying to take a more collaborative approach with Republicans
and with the General Assembly. I mean you could never
call Roy Cooper's approach collaborative. I mean, basically he put
his foot in the ground and said this is you know,
and called anybody who opposed him his enemy. You're not
seeing that from Stein. We'll see if at last, I
mean this is the first year, and you know, there
is still somewhat of a honeymoon period with a new
governor coming into office. We'll see if Stein ends up
changing tax But for now, at least he's trying to
play ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned tax policy and education policy is some
pretty big areas where it seems like Stein could have
taken sort of a left wing maximalist position like Cooper did,
but he hasn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, if you put, you know,
the last Cooper budget right right down next to the
first Stein budget, you know, Cooper was definitely farther to
the left, which is kind of interesting because Stein is
viewed as more to the left politically than Cooper is.
I think Stein recognizes that and knows that he's vulnerable
to that that description. So I think that's one of
the big reasons why he's really trying to be intentional
and stay to the right of his predecessor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll watch that as it and and the
other thing is that, like, it's a governor's budget and
it's the opposing party controls the legislature. So the chance
that Stein is going to have his budget adopted are
you know, slim to none, and slim just left the room,
So like, is it? Does it really mean much?
Speaker 2: You're exactly right. I mean, the old joke is that
a governor's budget is just a cheap doorstop, and there
is a lot of truth to that. However, you know,
there is not a veto proof majority in the General Assembly,
so presumably Stein's vito could carry some weight. I think
the General Assembly would prefer to avoid that, so I
think they are going to be willing to negotiate somewhat
with Stein.
Speaker 1: And before we let you go, give you a chance
here to tout your bracket. Not the basketball one, but
kind of along the same lines. It's over at long
leaf pol dot com where people are voting on all
of these different things about North Carolina and you've got
four regions and so now you're down to the to
the final four, which is pitting what sa kwamvideri, which
is our slogan, right, the state slogan to be, rather
than to seem up against college rivalries and one bracket,
and then on the other side you got the John
Locke Foundation, which seems to be a bit of a
Cinderella story up against the Republican Revolution. So what is this?
What do you what's the purpose of this besides some
good fun, but what's the what are you hoping to determine?
Out of this? What do they winning?
Speaker 2: Fine as fun as fun as the main purpose, I'm
calling it the Ultimate North Carolina politics showdown, and kind
of the premise is we're going to determine what or
who most embodies in North Carolina politics. So yeah, we're
down to the final rounds and I encourage everybody listening
to go to longleafpol dot com and cast their vote.
Speaker 1: I was kind of surprised the Possum Drop did so
poorly for all of the attention that thing got that
ten years.
Speaker 2: Have a big disappointment, but what can you do?
Speaker 1: Well? It was seeded properly. No arguments over the fifteen
seed for the Possum Drop on that one. So Hey,
Andrew donn I appreciate your time. As always, people check
out his substack longleafpol dot com. You can also read
his work over at The Charlotte observer. Thanks again, We'll
talk with you you actually know. Yeah, yeah, we will
talk with you next week. I am here next Tuesday. Sorry,
so we'll talk to you next week. Great, thank ye
thanks Andrew. All right, if you're listening to this show,
you know I try to keep up with all sorts
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also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. All right, so thanks again to Andrew Dunn.
As always, we talked with him on Tuesdays here on WBT.
He is, as I mentioned, he's a contributor over at
the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer, the
McClatchy papers. He writes off eds for them. I think
it's like once a week, maybe twice a week. But
he also runs his website, long Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com.
And Andrew is a former reporter. He was a comms
guy for Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, so he's been in
the political mix for quite a long time. He had
another piece over at his website, a piece called North
Carolina's Opportunity to Break Free, and he talks about a
couple of different things, but specifically Hurricane Helene recovery funds
and like how that whole conversation seems to focus on
whether Congress is going to approve another pot of money.
And then there is the dismantling of the US Department
of Education, and he says, Helene shows the problem. The
dismantling of the Department of Education shows the path forward,
and the path forward is actually hang I actually do
have a drum roll, Yeah, here it is. It's much
better block grants. Block grants, take the money, give it
to the state, right, rather than you know, hoping that
Congress is able to you know, do a specify thing
for a certain amount of money and whatever whatever, like
block grants rather than using FEMA, rather than using the
Department of Education. He said the General Assembly could push
the Trump administration to keep shrinking federal agencies and shift
funding to the states in the form of block grants,
just like the plan is for education, no more micromanagement
and minimal strings attached. He says, we won't cut ties
with Washington overnight, but we can start laying the groundwork now.
It's about rebuilding a muscle that we have let atrophy.
The federal government is bloated and stretched thin, and the
more we can handle here at home, the stronger we become.
He talked about how Weatherman's campaign for lieutenant governor. He
lost to Rachel Hunt, but he talked about being more
self reliant, self sufficient as a state and that is
something that we should work towards. I agree with that, right.
The federal government is a creation of the states, and
so we shouldn't have to send tax payer money up
to DC have it washed through the bureaucracy and then
doled out through NGOs and programs and all these strings
attached to stuff, because all of that is a process
that is far removed from where we live. And so
block grants will help streamline that and make the states
more self sufficient and build this kind of infrastructure at
the state level so we can chart our own course.
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Ezra Cline you know who that is, founder of vox
dot com. He is a former Washington Post columnist. He
was one of the super smart when people were saying
smart about everything all the time. Remember that. Remember that period.
It was like I don't know about two or three
years probably I don't know about a decade ago, maybe
twelve years ago, and everything was referred to as super
smart or a smart take. He had a really smart take. Anyway,
he along with Matthew Iglesias and somebody else. I think
they started vox and this was the quote explanatory journalism
where they would just give you like two sentences and
explain it to you in a super smart way. Of course,
so as reclined, he's still around and he chatted with
Derek Thompson. I guess this was on a podcast or
maybe on a website or something, but they chatted in
what is I guess could be considered an interview. But
they also wrote a book together, and so they were
talking about it and they made the case for a
new approach to progressive politics. This is no no way,
no no, it's a new approach. So lying is still
on the table because that's the old way, that's always
been the way with progressivism. But there's a new approach
inside of under the umbrella of lying. So the new
approach they are calling it, Yeah, they're calling it abundance,
which I guess when it comes to collectivism, there are
things that I guess do become abundant, like misery, poverty, authoritarianism,
fear right. I guess there is an abundance of those things,
so okay, But anyway, they're calling it abundance. That's the
title of their upcoming book, but according to John Sexton
at hot air dot com, it could be called other things,
including basic competence. Basic competence okay, because what has been
from the very beginning of progressivism go back, you know,
one hundred years Woodrow Wilson and the rise of the
the whole progressive movement, you know, eugenics and all of
that stuff, Margaret Sanger, planned parenthood, like all of these
things were predicated on what I mean, yes, racism, but
still besides that, like a from an operational standpoint, the
belief here was that they would have super smart experts
that would be able to properly and most efficiently manage
all the things from the economy all the way down
to healthcare and everything in between. Like they could manage
all of these things because they're the experts. It's this
technocratic class, right that was sort of the foundation of
the progressive movement, that they would they would be able
to govern us all due to their big brains. So
what has happened, though, what do they have to show
for it? After a century of progressivism. What do they
have to show for it in its modern form, which
is the Democrat Party. Well, in places that are controlled
exclusively by Democrats, are they being run, Well, that is
where you should see the proof. No, you should see
the proof that they're cities that they have under their
control and have for you know, three generations, four generations
now that these cities should be virtually utopian. No, Derek Thompson,
he said in talking about this book Abundance, He said
that the progressives have lost track of what the goal
should have been, which, as John Sexton called it, basic competence.
And Thompson offers up the example of the apartment building.
The apartment building, it's been around for a very very
very very very very long time. Like there are apartment
buildings going back thousands of years. This is not a
new technology, okay, But somehow they can't seem to build
them anymore in San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other
Democrat run cities. Did they just forget No, they just
got overloaded with regulations and NIMBYs not in my backyard, Nimby,
not in my backyard. Thompson said, I think we went
from a world where liberalism was a liberalism of building.
Between the thirties and the sixties, we saw this type
of building right, and then there was a turn in
the nineteen sixties and seventies. And for the last half century,
liberalism has too often meant a liberalism of blocking, blocking things,
preventing things from occurring. John Sexton then highlights a fellow
by the name of Rui to Shera, And if that
name rings a belle, it's because he was the guy
that told Democrats that demographics is destiny. Right. He to
Shera is a Democrat who long time ago wrote a
book predicting that demographics meant Democrats had the future firmly
in hand. As the country became less white, it would
also become less republican. But in the past few years
he has now been warning his party that demography is
not destiny and that the party was setting themselves up
to lose by moving too far left on too many issues.
And so to Share a looks at this at this
book abundance, and he acknowledges that the authors has reclined
and Derek Thompson that they may be onto something, but
to Share is not convinced Democrats are willing to change
to become the Party of abundance. Again, Democrats are not
willing to change. Which is that don brand right? Blocking?
It just blocking. This is why we joke like progressivism
is not progressive. It's not. I mean, all it is
is progressive control. That's it. It's it. But when you
talk about advancing a society, it actually does not do that.
Very regressive. As a matter of fact, it would mean
like if the Democrats were to try to shift their
thinking into and their focus into becoming the party of abundance,
it would mean that you would have to basically take
a sledgehammer to the party's current foundation. All right, So
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So ruy Tshera, the guy who said demographics is destiny
and then was like, oh no, no, you guys are going
too far left though, and now you're losing all of
these people to Democrats. Well, the Democrats are losing them
two Republicans. I should say he was telling that two Democrats,
but he is not convinced Democrats are willing to change
to become the Party of Abundance, as as Reclined and
Derek Thompson are recommending, because that would mean uprooting much
of their party's current foundation. The NGOs and activist groups
that are anti development and anti capitalism. That's the problem
the Democrat party has, he says. To Shri says, the
culprit is a democratic party that puts ideology and special
interests ahead of good governance. It is committed to ensuring
that development is not socially harmful in any way and
does not transgress the interests of any quote unquote stakeholders.
In reality, that amounts to a promise that nothing will
get done, and the result is endless paperwork and litigation
by those very stakeholders or more accurately, interest groups, interest
groups that claim to represent the stakeholders. This includes countless
environmental and social justice NGOs, non government organizations or nonprofits
if you will. It includes local nimbi groups, and of course,
the the army of lawyers who make their living from
this sort of thing. Costs balloon and projects are delayed.
They're realizing this. I mean a lot of people already
have out in California as they're trying to rebuild from
their wildfires. Right, and what a progressives have to say
about fixing this issue, that's right, nothing their ideology, the groups,
the nonprofit industrial complex, and the priorities of liberal educated
voters to whom so many Democrat politicians are beholden all
make it close to impossible for the party to tackle
this kind of a problem or to even make an
effort at embracing parts of this so called abundance agenda. Right,
the environmental roadblocks to building things are a core of
the Democrat Party. Now. I heard it today. They were
at this Senate Intelligence Committee hearing where they were going
over the Signal Group chat that Jeffrey Goldberg was in
on and before the bombing of the Huties and all that.
One of the Democrat senators I forget who it was,
maybe Bennett from Colorado. He's like, they put out your
annual assessment of threats, and climate change wasn't on there
for the first time in eleven years, and what's up
with that? Did you order that removed? Who ordered the removal?
Who ordered the code red? And Gabbard's like, we did
an assessment on the most pressing threats to the American
people and the country. That was our threat assessment, and
it did not include climate change. But this is such
a part of the Democrat Party. Now they've raised now
what two generations predicting imminent death of everybody, and the
fact that we are all still alive even after net neutrality,
right when everybody died. But the fact that we're all
still alive doesn't prove that their hypothesis is incorrect. For
some reason, this does nothing to dissuade people about the
catastrophism that they are in the grips of. To share.
It goes on to say Democrats cannot achieve electoral dominance
as long as they remain crippled by a fetish for
putting coalition management over a real desire for power. Democrats
remain stuck trying to please all of their interest groups
while watching voters of all races desert them over the
very stances that these groups impose on the party. What
is he saying there? He's saying what I've been saying,
which is I think I say it better, but I
am a professional communicator, so that tracks. All he's saying
is that the party has been captured by leftists and
it can't get itself back towards the center. It just
can't do it because the party is captured. Achieving a
super majority means declaring independence from liberal and progressive interest
groups that prevent Democrats from thinking clearly about how to
win he says, collectively, these groups impose the rigid mores
and vocabulary of college educated elites, cisgender, or anyone place
that puts a hard ceiling on Democrats appeal and fatally
wounds them in the places they need to win, not
just to take back the White House, but to even
have a prayer in the US Senate. Again, they're captured
by the most radical leftists in their coalition. Soon over
at hot air dot com, he says, you have a
lack of competence and woke extremism, which are both driving
people out of the Democrat Party, and the party seems
unable to do anything about it. Case in point Chuck Schumer. Right,
we just saw it happen with Chuck Schumer. He refused
to shut down the government in what would have been
a pointless act of defiance. So what was he essentially
choosing competency over posturing? And now he's being attacked inside
his own party, which you really hate to say it. Meanwhile,
you got Bernie Sanders and AOC barn storming the country
speaking to adoring crowds. The far left cost Democrats the
last election, and now they're presenting themselves as the only
path forward change. They're doubling down on stupid, which is
a bold strategy. Cotton. We'll see if it works for them.
Along those same lines, this story out of the Washington
Free Beacon. Remember this guy, Makamud Khalil, Columbia University protest leader,
got picked up by Ice. They're trying to deport him.
I think back to Syria. He apparently lied on his
visa application. He hid his work for the United Nations
Relief and d Works Agency for Palestine Refugees or UNWAH.
When he applied for his green card. He didn't tell
them that he worked for UNWA Unrah whatever. Khalil worked
for the terror tied agency at the very time of
the October seventh massacre in Israel. He concealed the job
while applying for permanent residency last March. That alone justifies
his deportation, say prosecutors. A Department of Home Land Security
document that was filed in court states that Khalil, a
Columbia graduate student and a spokesman for the notorious anti
submitted group Columbia University Apartheid divest Quote, failed to disclose
his positions as a UNRWA political affairs officer. He also
admitted omitted a second position with the Syria Office at
the British Embassy in Beirut. Oh don't I forget those things?
Oh sorry, it just completely slipped my mind. He's a
Syrian native, but he's an Algerian national. He married an
American citizen, and he's been challenging his impending deportation, saying
that it's a violation of his First Amendment right to
free speech. However, when applying for a green card, if
you conceal group memberships that would threaten their residency status,
then you are considered to be guilty of fraud. But
for the leftists who have captured the Democrat Party, none
of that matters. The only thing that matters is his
ability to activate the shock troops. That's his benefit to
the party and so he must be protected. All right,
that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. I could not do the show without your
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