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.

Illustration generated by DALL-E

The “Republican Revolution” in 2010 ushered in a decade of excellent public policy and a clear agenda for change. The new majority cut taxes, paid off debt, built a reserve fund and expanded school choice. Teacher pay rose faster in North Carolina than anywhere in the nation, reversing years of stagnation.

Things weren’t perfect, of course, but there was a vision, a clarity of purpose, and a direct line between conservative principles and public policy.

All that is gone now.

Over the past three years, North Carolina’s political world has become toxic, with plenty of blame to go around.

Republicans now seem focused on bills with little to no conservative principle behind them — only dollars and power. Democrats have turned to faux outrage and fearmongering as their modus operandi. Reasonable voices have been forced out or drowned out. I don’t have the energy to rehash all of the examples, and that’s kind of the point.

I’m not blameless, either. I’ve treated political opponents with a lack of charity, myself, and been sucked in to partisan one-upsmanship. But I’m also not the only one who’s noticed the problem.

“I have seen the General Assembly, in my opinion, take the souls of those who have served,” said N.C. Sen. Jim Perry (R-Lenoir) on the Do Politics Better podcast in December. He’s not running for re-election despite being one of the most prolific fundraisers in the General Assembly.

"Let’s actually get rid of these far right and far left bots — let’s just call them bots — because they are absolutely becoming too powerful,” said N.C. Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell) on a later edition of the same podcast.

I burned out

My personal breaking point came last summer, right when the scandal broke about House Speaker Tim Moore’s somewhat-sordid personal life. After the newsletter published, I got a few calls from reporters wanting me to comment on what it all meant for Moore’s future.

But when I started gathering thoughts on what I’d say, it hit me: What on earth was I doing?

I started Longleaf Politics in 2018 with the goal of making North Carolina a better place. I wanted to explain the day-to-day workings of politics and government, helping people understand what was really going on.

But in that moment, I realized I was spending way too much time sorting through power plays and lies and dirty business instead. It wasn’t helpful, and it wasn’t fun.

I just couldn’t return those calls, and I couldn’t keep the newsletter going.

So what happens now?

There’s a reason why you’re getting this email now. I’ve been toying with the idea of bringing Longleaf Politics back in some form for awhile now, but the aftermath of Hurricane Helene hammered home the simple fact that politics really does matter.

Like so many of you, I have close ties with the North Carolina mountains, and the tragedy of last week’s storm has been overwhelming. The photos and stories from places like Spruce Pine, Lake Lure, Chimney Rock and Boone break my heart. People are still missing a week after the storm, which feels unthinkable in 2024.

But at the same time, the kindness and courage of volunteers from around the state have been inspiring — and make me even more optimistic about our state’s future¹.

There was never going to be some national moment of unity after the storm, not this close to a presidential election. And predictably, the instinct of too many in the political commentor class has been to spin this human tragedy for partisan gain². Again, I don’t have the energy to litigate the specifics.

I think his analysis is flawed, but PoliticsNC’s Thomas Mills is correct when he writes:

“While it’s not time to score cheap political points, I think that now is exactly the time we should be thinking about politics.”

Government actually does have a crucial role to play in our society, and politics is our way of deciding who to put in power and what priorities they should have. We need more people, not fewer, engaged and asking questions and hashing out better policy.

I have no interest in writing about whether or not Mark Robinson is engaged in disinformation or entertaining the notion that Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration is “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

But I do want to push the General Assembly to find answers to questions like, how can North Carolina’s inland areas better prepare for natural disasters to keep tragedies like this from happening again?

So yes, Longleaf Politics is coming back, but a few things have to change.

Actually, a lot of things.

You won’t see any recaps of the week’s news or deep-dives into political infighting. You’ll get commentary on important issues from time to time when the situation warrants it, but this won’t be the focus.

Instead, I’m going to get back to the things I really enjoyed doing — like compiling the 50 most powerful people in North Carolina politics — along with some new regular features. There’ll be an increased emphasis on political communication and strategy, an area where I feel I can provide value. I want to publish data and info you won’t find anywhere else.

And we’ll focus heavily on the core readers of this newsletter, political professionals and obsessives who live and breathe North Carolina politics — and who want to make this state a better place to live.

1. To keep up with the latest news from Western N.C., I highly recommend this sub-newsletter from The Charlotte Ledger, “Mountain Updates.” It’s written by a Swannanoa native.

2. I was particularly bothered by the second question of the vice presidential debate, in which CBS News briefly mentions the devastation in North Carolina but uses it to pivot to a question about climate change. I was hoping J.D. Vance would push back on the question rather than answer it.