Displaying items by tag: partisan

Because I spend much of my time these days encouraging constructive engagement across political difference, through such programs as Duke University’s North Carolina Leadership Forum, readers sometimes ask me if I think political differences are more appearance than reality — that if we just tried hard enough, we could reach a broad public consensus on many seemingly contentious issues.

RALEIGH — A three-judge N.C. Superior Court panel has tossed out North Carolina’s election maps for state House and Senate districts. The court has ordered state lawmakers to draw new maps in two weeks.

RALEIGH — To the ears of politically engaged North Carolinians, it may sound strange to hear claims that changes in partisan control don’t yield significant changes in state policy. But among scholars, this has been a widespread view for many decades.

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper’s second State of the State address included plenty of proposals liberals and Democrats cheered. But Republicans and conservatives, who dominate the General Assembly that would put these policies into effect, aren’t likely to embrace many of them.

Partisanship is one of the illnesses plaguing the U.S. body politic.

We see this every election cycle as millions of voters cast straight-ticket ballots for candidates just because of the capital letter before their name.