Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

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Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

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Idols

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-27

In ancient times men worshiped idols made of stone or gold, like the ‘Golden Calf’ the Israelites bowed to at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Time rolled by and ideologies (promising salvation) took the place of golden idols. Surrounded by threats, with Christianity waning, fearful men now cling to ideologies – E.D.I., Wokeness, other political…

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The Ayatollah

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-26

Police in Iran arrested a 22-year-old woman for not wearing a hijab, hauled her to jail. Bruises on her face, legs, she died two days later. Witnesses said the police beat her. The police said she died of a heart attack. Protestors took to the streets – the Ayatollah called out soldiers, killed 500 protestors.…

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Jim Hunt, Democrats and Race

By Gary Pearce 2024-02-25

When Jim Hunt was president of North Carolina Young Democrats in 1968, he said something at a YDC meeting that was deemed newsworthy – and wasn’t popular with all Democrats: “I’m getting tired of going to county, local and even State YDC meetings and looking out at the audience to see far too few black…

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An Old Problem

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-23

Years ago sitting in a Republican convention I stared at a stranger standing at a microphone – I had no idea who he was but we were on opposite sides and when he finished speaking I had no doubt he’d handed us a problem. Back then Bob Orr was what I called a Mountain Republican.…

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An Old Sin

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-22

Worshipping idols instead of God is an old sin – after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Israelites built a Golden Calf, worshipped it not God.  Even Solomon, after he married pagan wives, built altars to pagan idols. These days ideologies – creeds – have taken…

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Clouds on the Horizon

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-21

In a small Virginia church at the end of the Roaring Twenties my grandfather married my grandmother – a month later the Stock Market crashed. During the Great Depression he struggled for a decade.  Hitler marched into Austria and Czechoslovakia, German tanks rolled over Poland, Belgium, France, British soldiers fled Dunkirk. Staring at storm clouds…

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Navalny the Politician

By Gary Pearce 2024-02-20

Alexei Navalny was a hero, an inspiring leader and a man of courage, compassion and character who stood up to men of cowardice, corruption and cruelty. He was also a politician, in the best and noblest sense of that much-maligned and despised word. He was a political threat. He would have beaten Putin in a…

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The 13th District Republican Primary

By Carter Wrenn 2024-02-07

The primary’s heating up in the new 13th Congressional District – there’re 14 candidates in all but four are dominating the race: Kelly Daughtry, Fred Von Canon, Brad Knott and DeVan Barbour. DeVan Barbour and Kelly Daughtry both ran in the primary two years ago. Barbour finished 2nd. Daughtry 3rd. Both are from Johnston County…

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Swifties vs MAGA

By Gary Pearce 2024-02-07

The MAGA meltdown over Taylor Swift explains much about politics today – and for the last 70 years. It’s about old white men who are angry about being knocked off their perch by women, Blacks, Latinos, young people and LGBTQ people. It’s been going on since May 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared school…

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A Lost Soul

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-23

We don’t know much about him – he grew up in a village on the coast…

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Rachel Hunt and MAGA Meltdown

By Gary Pearce 2024-04-23

Two things this past weekend made me feel good about this election. First, I crashed a…

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Trump’s Ordeal – Week 1

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-22

Trump rolled through two civil trials, hardly blinking, defiant, but at the end of the first…

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