Comments | Eastern NC Now

All Drug dealers are murderers. Their dealing results in a slow, if not fast death of our children, and their Moms, and Dads, Aunts, Uncles and even WHOLE COMMUNITIES. They should get life in prison.
I'll bet you didnt know... that some law enforcement agencies let dealers continue to operate uncharged, in an arrangement where the dealer, assists in the bust of "buyers," so that the officers can look like they are doing a really robust job of protecting the community.

Commented: Sunday, August 31st, 2025 @ 4:44 pm By: Befuddled

It is a sad commentary on our federal court system when it is necessary to go all the way to the Supreme Court to keep males out of girls restrooms and locker rooms in school. This regional appeals court seems to be run by radicals or morons or a combination of both.

Commented: Sunday, August 31st, 2025 @ 4:32 pm By: Rino Hunter

Sanctuary Counties are an abomination unto our Constitutional Republic.

Commented: Sunday, August 31st, 2025 @ 12:25 pm By: Stan Deatherage

"Ole Coop" was a Leftist Governor, nothing more.

The last time I saw "Ole Coop" speak at a commissioners' conference, he railed against School Choice and how the public schools needed even more money to gain an even greater competitive advantage.

In all my years of governing, my insider knowledge gained from across a wide swath of experiences is Leftists will never accept the reality that NOT everyone wishes to be indoctrinated into their skewed ideology. Leftist hate the reality that NOT everyone will crawl into their tiny little box of manipulative thinking.

Commented: Sunday, August 31st, 2025 @ 10:01 am By: Stan Deatherage

Gavin Newsome may be handsome to some Leftist folk, but what honest, full thinking human would not completely realize that Gavin is a governing idiot.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 8:46 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Don't you just love the "Racist-Hated-by-other-Racists" feel good story?

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 6:15 pm By: Stan Deatherage

What has happened to Europe with the invasion by illegal aliens is frightening. They have a limited window to correct things before the continent becomes a caliphate. Fortunately, parties willing to do what is needed are coming to the fore in many countries.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 3:51 pm By: borderhawk

Having been there during a key part of the period described by Campbell, I have to disagree with him over the changes in the legislature and in politics generally. For five years in the Jim Martin administration, one of the hats I wore was as a member of the legislative team for my department and worked regularly with the General Assembly promoting Governor Martin's agenda as it pertained to my department.

One of the big differences between now and then is the sea change in the Democratic Party during the intervening years. During the Martin administration, there was still an active conservative wing of the Democratic Party, one whose members, like State Representative Walter Jones, Jr. (D-Pitt), worked regularly with us in helping pass Governor Martin's agenda. The conservative wing of the Democratic Party is now an extinct critter. Democrat legislators now range from full blown "progressives" of the far left to "go along / get along" business Democrats, who tilt liberal, but somewhat less so.

I was sitting in the House gallery with others from our legislative team when a coalition of conservative Democrats and Republicans ousted dictatorial House Speaker Liston Ramsey and replaced him with conservative Democrat Joe Mavretic (D-Edgecombe). I was also there when Democrats stripped most of the Lieutenant Govenror's power from Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner and handed it to Marc Basnight as President Pro Tem of the Senate.

That brings me to the major thing that has led to the problem in functioning of today's legislature. That is the concentration of power in the leadership in both houses, placing great power at the top and emasculating individual legislators. The leadership has far too much power viz-a-viz individual legislators.

For a century, the NC House had a tradition of one term speakers. After serving one term a speaker moved on to something else, like a state cabinet position or a judgeship. They did not stay around in office to build up a political machine but turned over the reins to someone else. This prevented a concentration of power. That tradition was broken when Speaker Carl Stewart decided he wanted to run for statewide office but do so from the perch of House Speaker. Stewart broke tradition by running for and winning a second term. Then his successor, Liston Ramsey, decided he wanted to be Speaker-for-Life and built up a dictatorial power structure within the Speaker's office. Ramsey's running roughshod over individual legislators led to a rebellion from within his own party that led to his ouster and replacement, with Republican help, by conservative Joe Mavretic. Unfortunately, the genie was out of the bottle, and we have never had a voluntary one term speaker since.

In the Senate, power was long divided between the Lieutenant Governor and the president pro tem, which prevented a concentration of power and lieutenant governors changed every four years anyway. Most of the Lieutenant Governor's legislative powers were in Senate rules rather than in the state constitution. When Jim Gardner was elected as lieutenant governor as a Republican in 1988 that changed everything. The Democrat majority in the Senate stripped him of all of his legislative powers that came from Senate rules and gave those to the president pro tem, who at the time was Marc Basnight, concentrating power in that office. It took Basnight a few years to get a firm grip on things but once he did, he was called "the most powerful man in North Carolina."

The real problem in the legislature is the concentration of power in the hands of the legislative leadership, and to solve the problem that needs to be changed. Since no one seems to want to honor traditional voluntary term limits, the best solution is Constitutional term limits for the top leadership positions in both houses to no more than two terms. One term would be even better.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 3:29 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Mr. Campbell is making several huge points that I'd urge fellow conservatives thinkers, especially those within the inner sanctum of the County GOP, to REALLY focus in on.

Republicans and Conservative Unaffiliated minds need to focus on NOT engaging in the Hegelian Dialectic of the Uniparty and presenting the facts as they are....as given by THEM.

It can be done without theatrics...if both sides know the boundary lines. It would be refreshing to see honest and real conversation between opposite sides of the aisle. It would be even more interesting to see who keeps their cool and maintains control of the debate.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 12:10 pm By: John Valley

At the same time corrupt Phil Berger was trying to shut down our local shrimping industry, a company that imports shrimp from Red China was undergoing a big expansion in the Norfolk area. Was crooked Berger on the payroll of the Red Chinese trying to cut out local shrimp production to hand the market to them? "China Phil" Berger needs to be voted out of office.

Beaufort County should never forget that Boss Berger gerrymandered our county into a Democrat senate district to gerrymander Senator Bill Cook out of office. The reason? Bill Cook was the leading Senate figure fighting against the "green energy" boondoggle, a boondoggle that Berger was in cahoots with the speical interests to impose on North Carolina.

Phil Berger is an enemy of eastern North Carolina and an enemy of conservatism. He is more devious and evil than even Marc Basnight thought about being. He is far worse than Basnight, but just as much of a legislative dictator.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 11:30 am By: Concerned Taxpayer

Google is anti-privacy and pro-censorship. Any real conservative should shun them and not use any of their services. They are far more of a menace than, say, Bud Light.

Commented: Saturday, August 30th, 2025 @ 8:58 am By: Rino Hunter