I burned out on North Carolina politics
When nothing makes sense, explanation becomes exhausting.
There’s a scene toward the end of Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men” when things finally reach the breaking point.
Willie Stark has gone from an idealistic public servant to the most powerful political figure in Louisiana. It took a combination of demagoguery, blackmail and bullying to make it to the top, but in his orbit, everyone still believes it was for the greater good.
That is, until Stark decides to sign away his signature achievement — a gleaming new hospital — to a corrupt developer to save his own political skin. Right after sealing the deal, a raving drunk Stark collapses on his couch. His closest advisor stands speechless next to him, wondering how it all came to this.
"It wasn't the chubby boy face of Cousin Willie I looked down into now,” he thinks. “Everything was changed now. It sure-God was."
That’s about how North Carolina politics feels right now.
The “Republican Revolution” in 2010 ushered in a decade of excellent public policy a…