THE CASH POST ELECTION COMMENTARY

                                                                   CASH MICHAELS

SO WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY ARE WE NOW?

by Cash Michaels

The shock is palpable.

The fact that Donald Trump is once again the president-elect of the United States, and will take office again next January, is nothing short of stunning.

What part of “this man is dangerous” didn’t many Americans understand about the convicted felon they’ve just re-elected to power? A man who has no respect for women, for people of color, for the truth.

In many ways, I’m glad I’m a 68 year-old man in poor health, so I’m not looking forward to much. The future does not look bright at all for young people under this man. Indeed, democracy is gagged and bound to the railroad tracks with this guy.

Give Trump credit, he knows how to read a room though. His instincts told him that most Americans care more about themselves before ever considering the future of their country. Trump pegged it right believing that life for many Americans is so raw, they’d rather hold someone else responsible for their problems. That speaks to an absurd sense of entitlement, that there are those who don’t deserve the blessings of citizenship because they weren’t born here. Never mind what freedom traditionally meant across our fruited plain, that those who come here willing to work hard and honestly build a life, deserve our respect and welcome.

No, in Trump’s America, they get accused of “eating the cats and eating the dogs.” In Trump’s America, they are royally disrespected by being told that they come from “a pile of garbage.”

And if they’re female, and dare to speak up, stand up, or step out of place, they get called “dumb,” “retarded,” or “trash.”

This is Trump’s America now, where those who voted for the man apparently believe he can indeed stop entrenched wars and bloodshed in one day, or fix the economy with nothing but a phone call. A man whose “infinite wisdom” made him destined to rule, because he has no intention of sharing power with Congress or the courts.

A man who, now more than ever, sees himself above the law that the rest of us cherish and must abide by.

The majority of American voters elected a television star to lead them once again, instead of a principled public servant, who happened to be an accomplished woman of color, who was the embodiment of the American dream, and promised to lead the rebuilding of this country, and had the gall to see a nation that could march into the future together.

The fact that once again, Americans rejected the inspiring leadership of a great woman, is sickening. 

One good thing closer to home did come out of this election though - Mark Robinson, our loudmouth lieutenant governor, can go back to being a loudmouth private citizen again after Democrat Josh Stein handed him his backside in the race for governor.

History will never forget how Robinson, once the hottest thing in conservative politics, became the political pariah for almost every Republican candidate running for something. Even though the man couldn’t afford to be on TV after that explosive “Black Nazi” CNN report came out, Democrats were more than happy to put him in their campaign commercials to use against their Republican opponents hoping he would scare the hell out of women voters with his anti-abortion rants.

So unless, the MAGA movement feels Mark Robinson still has some currency in politics worth investing in, his days as a feared cultural warrior are over beyond the sticks of North Carolina’s redneck counties.

I hope.

But make no mistake, beyond Stein’s commanding victory, I was not that pleased with North Carolina’s election results. I so much wanted State Auditor Jessica Holmes, a decent human being,  to win the office she’s ably managed since Gov. Cooper appointed her to it last December. Holmes had very little money, and certainly couldn’t afford to campaign on television like her Republican opponent, Dave “I hate DEI” Boliek. Instead, she worked hard to win across the state, but in the end, fell short.

I am grateful that, according to unofficial results, our next superintendent of Public Instruction won’t be someone who wants to see Pres. Barack Obama executed by firing squad on pay-per-view TV. Nor will our next state attorney general be someone who sponsored a so-called “bathroom bill” that discriminated against citizens because of their sexual orientation.

But back to the world according to Trump….I’m not ready for it. Never will be. That monster played games with a deadly disease which led to the deaths of 1 million of my fellow citizens when he was first elected. He demeaned people of color in his rhetoric and actions. And he disrespected women and punished them for wanting their reproductive rights.

As I said, I am stunned. And when it becomes clear that this cruel clown has been lying about everything he has promised to make our lives better, all I will be able to do is just shake my head, and wonder why more folks could not have figured that out sooner.

I get it. The Democratic Party has serious work to do. It needs to stop being perceived as elitist; needs to stand up stronger for the working man and woman; needs to get tougher and mean it about important policies that improve the quality of American life.

One can reasonably argue that when rural folks, Black and Hispanic men, and working class white women allow themselves to be wooed by a criminal shyster of all things, we’ve fallen so low, it’s hard to look up.

What could have happened if my country just had the guts to elect a woman leader who was willing to see us as Americans, and not suckers, losers or piles of garbage?

Good things, I imagine, good things that would have made all of our children proud.

         But Kamala said it best in defeat - “The light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up fighting!”

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TWO CASH ELECTION STORIES FOR THURSDAY

 STEIN DEFEATS ROBINSON

FOR NC GOVERNOR; TRUMP

WINS NORTH CAROLINA

By Cash Michaels

It didn’t take long on Election night for Democrat Josh Stein to claim victory after his unofficial win for governor. With 55% of statewide precincts reporting in, Stein, currently the NC attorney general, defeated controversial Trump-endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of Greensboro by 15 points..

“Thank you for believing in the promise of North Carolina,” Stein told supporters at a watch party in Raleigh.

Lt. Gov. Robinson, who lost support from fellow Republicans after controversial comments denouncing women, Jews, Muslims, LBTGQ+ and Blacks, followed by an explosive CNN Report accusing him of calling himself a “Black Nazi” on a porn site, now finds himself a political outsider once he leaves office in December.

“I’m not sad for me, I’m sad for you,” a tearful Robinson, the first Black lt. governor in North Carolina history, told supporters.

Sources say that once Stein takes office in December, the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly is expected to pass legislation to further take power away from his office.

Meanwhile, Republican former Pres. Donald Trump outlasted Democrat presidential opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, 51% to 47% with 100% of precincts reporting in to unofficially win North Carolina’s 16 Electoral College votes. Both Harris and Trump made repeated trips to campaign in the state in recent days, hoping to secure North Carolina as an important battleground state on the road to 270.

Back to NC Council of State races, with 100% of precincts tallied, Democrat Jeff Jackson unofficially outpolled Republican NC Congressman Dan Bishop, 51.4% to 48.6% to become North Carolina’s next attorney general.

Incumbent State Auditor Jessica Holmes lost a close race to Republican Dan Boliek 49.4% to 47.6%, while former Guilford County Schools Supt. Maurice “Mo” Green defeated Republican opponent Michele Morrow for state superintendent for Public Instruction, 51% to 49%.

For the NC Supreme Court with 100% of precincts reporting in, conservative Republican Jefferson Griffin ousted incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs, 50.2% to 49.8% in unofficial returns. That means there will now be just one Democratic justice seated on the seven member NC High Court.

On the NC Court of Appeals, Republican Tom Murry defeated Democrat ic incumbent Judge Carolyn Jennings Thompson, 50.9% to 49.1%

For Congress, 12th District U.S. Rep All Adams was re-elected, and Fourth District Democratic Congresswoman Valerie Foushee won a second term to Congress Tuesday..

Finally, North Carolinians passed an amendment to the state constitution that prohibited non-citizens from voting, which was already the law before the measure passed.

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HOW DID NC’s BLACK VOTE

PERFORM IN ELECTION 2024?

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

As always, the African-American vote was a critical part of the November 5th general election. Did the mostly Democratic voting bloc turnout in the numbers that the party needed?

At the end of early voting, which saw a record over 4.2 million North Carolina early votes cast in this election, various analysts expressed concern about the amount of Black vote cast versus in 2020.

“About 17,000 more Black voters showed up for in-person early voting than four years ago,”wrote veteran political analyst Thomas Mills. “In total, 791,000 African Americans voted early. Democrats need about 300,000 Black voters to show up on Election Day.”

Did that happen? At press time, it was too early to determine how North Carolina’s Black voting bloc performed on Election Day, but a snapshot of Black voting behavior during early voting creates a picture of what Black voters needed to accomplish on Election Day.

A statistical breakdown of the five top counties by turnout from the North Carolina State Board of Elections shows in Wake County, out of 863,176 total registered voters, 510,175, some 59.1% had early voted by November 2rd. Of that number, 328,980 were white; 83,302 of 152,182 (54.7%) were Black, and 97,893 were other.

In Mecklenburg County, out of 839,672 total registered voters, 55.0% or 461,822 early voted. Of that number, 261,123 were white; 129,485 of 250, 247 (51.7%) were Black; and 71,214 were other.

In Guilford County, where 228,555 (57.5%) out of 397,722 total registered voters early voted, 130,378 were white; 70,228 (53.2%) of 132,118 were Black; and 27,949 were other.

In Forsyth County, the total number of registered voters there is 280,085, of which 166,473 (59.4%) early voted. Of that number, 107,960 were white; 37,490 (55.1%) of 68,043 were Black; and 21, 023 were classified as other.    

        Rounding out the top five counties, Durham County saw 154,835 (61.1%) of its 253,531 registered voters early vote by Nov. 2nd. Of that number 81,765 were white; 43,750 (57.8%) of 75,748 were Black; and 29,320 were other.

As Stella Adams, veteran elections analyst says, per the Black vote across the state, but particularly in counties like Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford and Durham, Election Day Black voter turnout was crucial not just for the Harris-Trump race, but all of the important down ballot races as well.

So what Black voters did on Nov. 5th, that they didn’t do during the seventeen-day early voting period beforehand, was critical.

In an earlier analysis, Thomas Mills made note of concerning deficits in Black early voting turnout just four days into the early voting period.

“So far, there are more than 67,000 fewer African American voters than there were in 2020 at this point. That’s a huge deficit that Democrats should be scrambling to address,” Mills wrote during the first week of early voting. “They need to be shifting money and people to connect with Black voters and get them to the polls.”

“The problem is widespread,” Mills continued. “In Durham County, there are 4,500 fewer Black voters this year than four years ago. In Mecklenburg, the number is 5,000. In Wake, it’s a little more than 3,000. In Cumberland, the Black vote is down by 5,000. In Guilford, the number is more than 8,500.”

“This is a turnout election,” Adams stressed prior to the polls closing on Election Day. “Where we needed the high turnout was in the urban centers, because traditionally, they’re more progressive in how they vote.”

Adams added that getting at least 75% high turnout counties like Durham and Orange with the “purest” Democratic voters was important, thus their Black voter turnout on Election Day made all the difference in elections that were generally so close.

At press time Tuesday, none of the top five counties had a 75% Black early voting turnout - Wake (54.7%); Mecklenburg (51.7%); Guilford (53.2%); Forsyth (55.1%) or Durham (57.8%) had reached that plateau. So what they did on Election Day was of key concern, especially given how Republicans and unaffiliated dominated early voting.

Adams added that if the Democratic Party is not doing all it can to get more of its registered Black voters to the polls, then that will be a problem that will consistently bite it in coming elections.

According to Adams, African-Americans over 65 dominated early voting at 80% or higher in the community,  the majority of those being females. Working African-American adults between the ages of 30-50 were the ones underperforming and voting at less than 60%.

Again, a breakdown of Election Day final turnout numbers will determine whether the slack in younger Black voters was made up sufficiently. But given that Republican Donald Trump ultimately won North Carolina on Election night, Black voter turnout apparently fell short on Election Day.

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THE CASH STUFF FOR THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 2024

 CONCERN THAT BLACK 

VOTER TURNOUT IS WEAK

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

With almost three million early votes already cast in North Carolina, are  African Americans, and particularly Black men, being setup as the “fall guy” if Vice President Kamala Harris loses the presidency against Donald Trump Nov. 5th?

Martin Luther King III, oldest son of the late civil rights leader, thinks so.

"This election is not going to be won or lost by the number of Black men that support or do not support (Harris), even though it's going to be probably razor-thin," King told USA Today recently. "You can't go and say, well, it's Black men's fault."

"That's where it seems like it's trying to go," he added.

Former Pres. Barack Obama seemed to think so too, which is why he addressed a group of Black men during a recent stop at a Harris Pittsburgh campaign office.

"You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses,” Obama said to the group. “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

Just days before the Nov. 5th general election, there is concern that VP Harris is not attracting the same level of Black voter support as Pres. Joe Biden did in 2020. Four years ago, Biden got 87 percent of the Black vote cast. It has been projected that for the 2024 election, Harris may only pull 70%.

Some projections have Republican Trump garnering a possible 20% of Black male voters nationally.

With the presidential race against Trump so tight in literally every battleground state, including North Carolina, the Black vote, once again, becomes a crucial piece of the puzzle for a Democratic victory.

And thus far, political analysts like Thomas Mills, publisher of the weekly newsletter Politics NC, doesn’t like what he sees.

“So far, there are more than 67,000 fewer African American voters than there were in 2020 at this point in the in-person voting period,” Mills wrote after the first four days of the early voting period began Oct. 17th. “That’s a huge deficit that Democrats should be scrambling to address. They need to be shifting money and people to connect with Black voters and get them to the polls.”

“The problem is widespread,” Mills continued. “In Durham County, there are 4,500 fewer Black voters this year than four years ago. In Mecklenburg, the number is 5,000. In Wake, it’s a little more than 3,000. In Cumberland, the Black vote is down by 5,000. In Guilford, the number is more than 8,500.”

“The problem is apparent in rural counties, too. In Wilson County, there are more than 1,000 fewer Black voters so far than the same period in 2020. In Halifax County, Black vote is also down more than 1,000. Same in Nash County.”

Mills continued that there has been an “internal argument” within the Democratic Party about the apparent poor allocation of resources to stimulate the Black vote. There are those who “believe there’s been too little investment in Black GOTV (get out the vote) efforts,” Mills continued, adding, “North Carolina might exemplify the validity of that criticism.”

        There has been reporting that the Harris campaign has been concentrating on suburban women, given the strength of the abortion issue for Democrats. 

“If these shrinking numbers hold through the election, they will almost certainly put North Carolina out of reach for Kamala Harris and will likely jeopardize several council of state seats,” Mills added.

That might explain why on Wednesday, VP Harris came back to North Carolina for the 20th time (Trump spoke in Rocky Mount as well). It might also explain why the DNC has launched a last minute “historic’ seven figure ad campaign titled “I Will Vote” to attract Black voters on 48 Black radio stations and 55 Black publications across the nation, including in at least one newspaper here in North Carolina.

According to recent polling, VP Harris is leading with those who have already cast early ballots in at least three swing states. Trump is leading with likely voters who have yet to go to the polls. 

Here in North Carolina, according to The News and Observer, a Marist College poll found Harris “…edged out Trump 55% to 43% among those who said they’ve already voted. But the former president led Harris 53% to 45% with likely voters who haven’t yet cast their ballots. Trump also led Harris by two points among likely voters who are undecided, including voters who are leaning toward one candidate. Similarly, Trump outpaced the vice president 53% to 42% with independents in the state who are likely to vote. When the results are broken down by race, the former president held an 18-point lead among white voters — 58% to 40%. In 2020, Trump won white voters by 33 points. Harris had an even larger lead among Black voters — 80% to 19%.”

According to NBC News, of the seven key battleground states, there are reports of North Carolina “slipping” away from the Harris campaign. Destruction by Hurricane Helene, along with the rampant misinformation associated with it, is seen as one reason.

And strangely enough, the fact that the governor’s race between Josh stein and Republican Mark Robinson turned out not to be as competitive as expected is seen as another reason why as many voters  as expected aren’t driven to the polls.

        At presstime, The Hill reported, "New polling from the Alliance for Black Equality, a super PAC mobilizing Black voters in swing states, found that Harris has increased her support by 10 points with Black Generation Z men since early October."

       "Overall, Harris’s support among young Black men increased from 59 percent to 69 percent between Oct. 4 and Oct. 19."

Over 27 percent of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters have gone to the polls thus far. Early voting ends Saturday, Nov. 2nd at 3 p.m. across the state.    

        Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5th., polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. statewide.

Photo identification is required.

All mail -in absentee ballots are required to be delivered to your local county board of Elections office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day.

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JUDICIAL PANEL TO RULE

ON NC NAACP VOTER ID

LAWSUIT

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Even though voter photo identification has been a legal and electoral fact for North Carolina voters for at least two elections so far, a three-judge Wake County Superior Court judicial panel heard arguments last week in a 2018 NC NAACP lawsuit seeking to do away with North Carolina’s voter ID law.

The civil rights organization argues that when the 2018 Republican-led state legislature enacted the voter ID law, based on referendum passage of a constitutional amendment mandating voter ID, it did not have the legal right to do so because the NC General Assembly was unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered, contrary to federal law.

During the years prior, federal courts had already ruled that the NC legislature had illegally targeted Black voters through racial gerrymandering and legislatively to diminish their influence during prior elections.

The NC NAACP maintained that because republican state lawmakers, in particular, were responsible for the racial gerrymandering, any laws their majority passed during that period were unconstitutional, ad should be ruled legally null and void.

The state NAACP hopes to have thrown out the state constitutional amendment mandating voter ID, on which the subsequent law is based on, as well as a state constitutional amendment mandating a seven percent cap on the NC income tax rate.

Given the long history of this case, the NC NAACP actually won its argument in Wake Superior Court, lost in the state Court of Appeals, and partial won in 2022 in the then Democratic - controlled State Supreme Court.

While agreeing with the NC NAACP in principle, the state High Court sent the case back to Superior Court after questioning some of the evidence presented, ordering a new analysis and new order after a new trial.

Republican legislative leaders, meanwhile, are seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying that it would be impractical to rule that legislation passed by the NC General Assembly during the period in question was unconstitutional.

"When challenging an act of the General Assembly, you have to prove that act’s unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt," argued Martin Warf, attorney for GOP legislative leaders.

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THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024

                                                                    CASH MICHAELS

                                          IF KAMALA HARRIS WINS…

                                            By Cash Michaels

As the clock runs out on this crazy presidential election, and we all hope to regain our collective sanity and peace of mind not having to see any more ridiculous campaign commercials, the thought dawned on me - if Donald Trump wins, what can we expect?

Obviously more chaos, more mindless chest-thumping, more devious moves to undermine our democracy and permanently install the Fascist Lying King and his followers as future dictators, per Project 2025.

You see it’s not Trump so much that I’m worried about, but the much younger Trump-wannabes that have been lining up for years near the foot of the throne, hoping to grab some of that power Trump will have to let go of as his 78-year-old mind and body fails him for good in the not-to-distant future. Those people - J.D. Vance, Stephen Bannon, Stephen Miller, Don Jr. and some of the racist clowns from Trump's recent disgusting Madison Square Garden fascist-fest - have already considered what lies ahead after Big Daddy has met his maker, and they represent an existential threat to the future of this nation that we unfortunately rarely talk about.

        What's even scarier here is that the crude, racist, sexist, undignified, dishonest tropes about Trump that most decent people find revolting, literally half of our fractured country finds "real," and they love it. Theirs is a sewer-laden world of dishonesty and no rules, so anyone like Trump who either behaves that way, or talks that way, or even thinks that way, is the leader they've all been waiting for. It's like 70 million people have that just-come-from-a-bar-on-a Saturday-night mentality.

But that’s another column, preferably one that’s necessary ONLY if Kamala Harris loses.

However, if Kamala wins…!

First, unless it’s an apparent and absolute blowout landslide of an election victory for Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minn. Gov. Tim Walz, we may not immediately know who truly won the presidency for several days after November 5th.

Lord, I can’t tell you just how dangerous a scenario that would be for this nation. We’ve already gotten a taste of Trump’s January 6th, 2021 so-called “Day of Love,” where our country’s democracy hung by a slender thread amid anarchy and chaos at our nation’s Capitol.

But let’s just say if our prayers are answered, and Kamala Harris wins by an unquestionable majority in the Electoral College. And then, on January 20th, 2025, Harris is sworn into office, and begins her term as our commander-in-chief. 

What should we expect from a Harris-Walz Administration?

Well that depends on what kind of Congress we end up with.

There is a school of thought that after this general election, we could end up with another split Congress, except this time it could be a Democrat-majority House of Representatives, and a Republican-majority U.S. Senate.

How well would a Pres. Harris work with a possible Democratic Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and likely Republican Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Cornyn would do everything he could to make life difficult for a ‘President” Harris. In fact, he would feel constitutionally compelled to, instead of being willing to work to find compromise for the good of the American people.

And that’s where I have a big problem with our presidential elections. The average voter doesn’t understand that no president can leap tall buildings in a single bound all by themselves. They have to cajole Congress to partner with them on policymaking. In fact, that’s what a candidate for president is actually running on - their ability to convince Congress to codify their vision for the country into law.

That’s why it’s kind of dumb when folks blame a president solely for high prices or a bad economy. All a president can really do is state a certain policy preference, advocate for it, and hope that Congress feels somewhat the same way and does something about it.

Where presidents get into trouble is when they promote a certain policy, Congress follows through in codifying it, and then all hell breaks loose because of it. In that situation, the chain of custody is damning. 

Or when presidents promise a certain policy, but can’t get it off the ground to save their life because Congress isn’t going for it. That leaves the president standing there, holding onto an empty campaign promise and nothing to show for it.

That’s why I’ve always held that electing your choice for president is not enough. You also have to give that president a Congress they can work with, so that the policy vision expressed during the campaign has a ghost of a chance of being reality.

If elected, I think Kamala Harris would be a good president, but in this current politically toxic atmosphere, would not be allowed to be as successful as she could be. But I do believe that she would make us proud in how she at least conducts herself in office, and wield the power that goes with it in a respectable and responsible fashion.

But remember, when you elect a president, you’re really electing a policy advocate. Give that president a Congress they can work with, and that’s when stuff really gets cooked in the kitchen.

I think Kamala will make a fine cook-in-chief!

The NY Times endorsed her as “The Only Patriotic Choice for President!”

Neither The Washington Post nor The Los Angeles Times, however, had the guts during the most important election of our lifetime to actually publish their endorsements of VP Harris, which shows you just how dangerous the Trump influence actually is.

Kamala Harris can win, and should win.

I just have to believe that there are more people in this country who aren’t so dazzled by a fascist convicted criminal and his sick, myopic power trip, so that she will win!

I pray!

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