Comments by Van Zant | Eastern NC Now

I remember a year or so back Mr. Hickman told the board about the Gadsden flag patch in a Colorado school incident where a student was suspended, and I think there was a lawsuit and the school system had to backtrack fast. Evidently, all that didn't mean much to five of the members. It is good to know there are four on the board that understand the importance of this issue. Still, it is disappointing that the board majority is a long way from free speech protections. I hope you can help them understand.

Commented: Saturday, December 20th, 2025 @ 7:48 pm By: Van Zant

Look for more of the same with both the North Carolina GOP and the Beaufort County GOP.

Commented: Saturday, December 20th, 2025 @ 7:37 am By: Van Zant

W: Our local government is like watching re-runs of Mash where Radar O'Reilly keeps getting Colonel Blake's signature for stuff he has no clue of. The local officials have forgotten how to lead.

Commented: Thursday, December 18th, 2025 @ 10:43 am By: Van Zant

How ironic that these hateful leftist goons want to convict Christians of hate speech.

Commented: Sunday, December 14th, 2025 @ 10:33 am By: Van Zant

How come this Republican majority county commission always elects a Repub that was a Democrat before he ran for office as Chairman, paired with a Democrat as Vice Chair? With this Republican majority, has a Republican EVER been allowed in a leadership position. This is OK with the local Republican Party?

This is simply one-party rule that is opposed to any Republican aligned with the Republican Party platform. If it meets the definition of fraud, perhaps it is.

Commented: Monday, December 8th, 2025 @ 7:57 pm By: Van Zant

CV and RH: Steve Rader and Charles Hickman both have pretty impressive resumes. Just looking at the Republican Party resume part, I know that both are former Republican Party District Chairmen. There's plenty more. I know that off the top of my head. I wonder just what could these self-proclaimed "true Republicans" have against them.

Commented: Saturday, December 6th, 2025 @ 4:11 pm By: Van Zant

The attacks leveled against Ms. Davis show just how much resistance there is in this county to public officials that do more than just go along to get along. Davis is being harassed for doing the job she was elected to do. Thanks to the Conservative Club for recognizing her efforts.

Commented: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 @ 11:00 pm By: Van Zant

RH: That's what my Methodist friends told me.

Commented: Sunday, November 30th, 2025 @ 4:35 pm By: Van Zant

Whether I'm frying in the frying pan or burning in the fire, it's not a good place to be. The kinds of options being presented are a brand of politics similar to the type of threats found in extortion games or mafia protection rackets. I don't see much future in a Republican Party offering this as standard fare. Beaufort County Republican Party infrastructure needs reformation badly.

Conservatism will exist with or without the local Republican Party, but it would be nice if primaries weren't more vicious and more conniving than general elections. As crazy as Beetle is, local conservatives are probably more hated by some 'fellow' Republicans than by her. Think about that.

Even with this insane political situation bubbling in the local caldron I have plenty to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving 2025.

Commented: Thursday, November 27th, 2025 @ 8:55 am By: Van Zant

Jeff: I heard about that. I've also been talking to some of the old timers. This stuff has been going on for a while despite promises back then of "bringing the party together" by some of the characters that are still around today. That turned out to be practices that reduced the ratio of conservatives on committees. By around 2019 that changed to just banning conservatives outright. The reality is, there are Republicans in this county way more interested in fighting conservatives than anything else.

I'm aware of similar issues in other counties and other places around the country, but I think Beaufort County has an especially virulent strain of this destructiveness.

Commented: Wednesday, November 26th, 2025 @ 8:19 pm By: Van Zant

CV: I hear you. I just don't understand the constant antagonization and the ongoing internal feuds against local conservatives. Is this some kind of agreement made between out of state chums that just don't like local folks, or is it something else? Whatever it is, it is harmful and disrespectful to our community.

While I agree with you on Kidwell's voting record in Raleigh, I do not agree with you about local politics being "small potatoes" and "petty." My home is the most important thing to me. I want MY choice of local representatives, and I do not want the people hating me to choose for me.

Commented: Monday, November 24th, 2025 @ 10:38 am By: Van Zant

Speaking as a Beaufort County Conservative, we are being put in a difficult position. We are not fans of the Phil Berger machine. I know I plan to contribute to the Sam Page campaign. It appears Berger has sold out long ago and he really should be brought up on disloyalty charges for things he has done in recent years. If the North Carolina Republican Party had any credibility left that would happen.

At the same time, our own Keith Kidwell while voting mostly right in Raleigh is utterly hostile to conservatives back home in Beaufort County. Kidwell's close associations with characters at home that hate conservatives is very problematic. Some of his friends in the Beaufort County Republican Party leadership should be brought up on charges also for their own crimes.

We are between a rock and a hard place. If he and his associates would just leave us alone, we could find some way to coexist with the power mad egomaniac. As long as he and his associates are attacking us, we are being forced to pick our poison.

Befuddled: I have heard something about a primary. I don't know much, but I'll be looking into it. Again, local conservatives are being forced to explore options.

Commented: Friday, November 21st, 2025 @ 10:39 pm By: Van Zant

In recent years the local Republican Party has lost a lot of good people for good reason. They have been treated (like c#@!) very disrespectfully. Unfortunately, there seems to be no willingness by many to bind those wounds and attempt to form a coherent mission outside of attacking conservatives. Let's see if I've got the gist of this stuff lately. Recent party rules violations by the Beaufort County Republican Party Chairman follow:
1. Calling for the resignation of a Republican elected official claiming she (the Chairperson) is the local GOP. There was no involvement of the Beaufort County Republican Party Executive Committee. That committee has the power to do what she did with the press, not her alone.
2. Publicly endorsing municipal candidates in non-partisan elections using the authority of the Republican Party with no input from the Republican Party Executive Committee. She does not have the absolute power of the Executive Committee.
3. Spending money on ads and materials without authorization from the Executive Committee. (The Treasurer is on shaky ground here too.)
4. Using media to attack private citizens - Not clear about the source of this funding.
Additional ethical issues:
1. Failing to call for executive committee meetings for several months in order to avoid any consequences for her actions. (The actual committee should call for a meeting to address this. They need to take some responsibility too.)
2. When finally calling for a meeting, attaching it to a Christmas Party event. Is this really going to be a meeting?
3. Changing the date of the meeting again in order to cause conflicts with the schedules of conservative members of the Executive Committee with the dual purpose of keeping them out and also encumbering them with an unexcused absence that will hopefully get them off the Executive Committee altogether.

This is a lot of mischief, but I wouldn't be surprised if I still missed something.

The Republican Executive Committee needs to call its own meeting and bring charges against their rogue chairperson. She is acting independently of the committee as a whole. She is unilaterally attacking individual Republicans, collective Republicans, and some citizens in general. Her war against conservative Republicans and others is well out of control, and she is speaking and acting with illegitimate powers of the entire committee. She should be removed. At the very least, she should be severely reprimanded and given a very, very short leash from here on out. Anything short of these measures will ensure that the Republican Party in Beaufort County is a catastrophic failure with no credibility left at all. What we have here is not leadership. It is sabotage. I don't know whether to recommend what's left of the people of good will to abandon this sinking ship or to urge the good people that have already left to come back and try to save it.

Commented: Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 @ 10:09 pm By: Van Zant

Stan: I agree. I think it is important to be as self-sufficient as possible. Dependent people are a step away from being desperate. Desperate people are easy to manipulate.

Commented: Monday, November 17th, 2025 @ 11:34 am By: Van Zant

I consider the closing of Snowden School to not only be a huge loss to Aurora, but also to all of Beaufort County. Community schools should be better appreciated. When they are gone, they are not easily replaced.

Commented: Monday, November 17th, 2025 @ 5:14 am By: Van Zant

JV: You're right. WEF influence runs deep and wide and should not be underestimated.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2025 @ 11:09 am By: Van Zant

Here in Beaufort County, we have lots of questions about most of the things that are done. If this cadre of local GOP masterminds really care about Republican goals, then why are they doing the things that they do? There are plenty of examples.

The best examples lately are the School Board. Ms. Davis recently defeated a 40-year incumbent Democrat. The GOP masterminds are already demanding she resign and are plotting to defeat her in a future primary if she doesn't. Things were OK with them with a Democrat there for decades but not now?

Mr. Hickman, a couple of years ago defeated a 30-year incumbent Democrat in a district that no Republican ever ran in. The Beaufort County intelligentsia can't have that, so they find a primary opponent. Remember it was not a priority at all when a Democrat was there for decades.

Over the years some of the backstabbing local GOP people have been given a free pass, saying it is just some kind of personality conflicts. Recent events have proven it is a lot deeper and more diabolical than that.

Commented: Friday, November 14th, 2025 @ 3:29 pm By: Van Zant