Setting the Record Straight

Don't let myths and ideology control your actions

Dear Friends:

Now that the campaign is over and you are about to take over the levers of power in North Carolina government, there are a few things that some of us in the progressive movement would ask you to consider - about our state, about the budget and the public services and structures it funds and about the nature of our concerns.

Thirteen things to fear if the far right takes over the N.C. General Assembly in 2011

During the month of October, NC Policy Watch released a series of special reports that detailed some of the policy initiatives that are likely to gain traction in the North Carolina General Assembly if ideologues on the far right assume significant power in 2011. This edition of Setting the record straight provides a brief summary of each of those reports along with easy-to-follow links that will connect the reader with the original reports.

"Freedom": It's one of the great ironies ("lies"? injustices"?) of modern American politics that this word is so often appropriated by the far right. Think about it. How often have you heard one of the spokespeople for a far right think tank or political candidate describe his or her work as "pro-freedom" or as promoting a "pro-freedom agenda." One local right-wing group has even dubbed its local organizing groups "Freedom Clubs."

The Wake School Board majority continues to leave a trail of destruction

In urging caution in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell once famously counseled President Bush to remember the "Pottery Barn Rule": "You break it, you own it." Bush, of course, ultimately ignored the warning and, as the cost and casualty figures make painfully clear, Powell's forecast came true in spades.

The right wing's latest courageous defense of the super-rich

Self-deception is a universal human phenomenon. Everyone is capable of convincing him or herself that the world's problems are all someone else's handiwork and that he or she has been doing everything and more to make the world a better place.

Exploring and debunking the latest arguments in support of school re-segregation

You've got to hand to some of the folks on the modern far right: their capacity for manipulating facts and statistics to the point of self-deception is often quite impressive. Take, for instance, two of the loudest voices in the debate over the move to re-segregate the Wake County public schools: school board member John Tedesco and the Raleigh News & Observer columnist, Rick Martinez.

N.C. congressional candidate tells a whopper

American politicians of all ideological persuasions have been spouting misleading statements, half-truths and bald-faced lies since the beginning of the Republic. We've also always had our share of plain old kooks running for office. Remember Lyndon LaRouche?