Tar Heel Politics 2000Offering an insightful analysis of North Carolina political trends and personalities, Paul Luebke moves beyond the usual labels of Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal. In Tar Heel Politics 2000, he argues that North Carolina's real political battle is between two factions of the state's political and economic elite: modernizers and traditionalists. Modernizers draw their strength from the bankers, developers, news media, and other urban interests that support growth, he says. Traditionalists, in contrast, are rooted in small-town North Carolina and fundamentalist Protestantism, tied to agriculture and low-wage industries and threatened by growth and social change. Both modernizers and traditionalists are linked with politicians who represent their interests. An updated and revised version of Luebke's Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities (1990), Tar Heel Politics 2000 highlights the resurgence of the southern Republican Party for the first time in a century and discusses a number of significant changes that have occurred over the last decade. These include the institutionalization of a viable two-party system in the General Assembly, the further shift of native-born whites throughout the South into the Republican voting column, and ideological conflict in North Carolina that parallels to some extent the post-1994 battles between the Republican Congress and the Clinton White House. In addition, the book provides a detailed analysis of the political appeal of Senator Jesse Helms and draws on Luebke's insights as a member of the North Carolina State House since 1991. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Competing Ideals in North Carolina Politics | 19 |
TwoParty Ideological Conflict | 47 |
A Socioeconomic Portrait of North Carolina | 77 |
The Politics of Economic Development | 93 |
Still Not a Major Player | 111 |
The Multicoloring of North Carolina | 129 |
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a∆uent advocated afl-cio African American agenda antiunion areas Assembly big business bill black Democrats campaign candidate Carolina’s Carolinians Charlotte Observer citizens Coastal Plain Congressional Club corporate defeated Demo Democratic Party di√erences district Durham e√ect e√orts Edmisten election electoral example federal food tax cut funding Gardner Governor Hunt Greensboro gubernatorial Harvey Gantt Heel Democrats Helms’s highways house Democrats house Republicans Hunt’s income tax increase industrial Interstate 85 issues Jesse Helms Jim Hunt Jim Martin Jordan labor leaders legislative Luebke majority manufacturing metro Piedmont counties modernizer Democrats North Car North Carolina November o√ered o≈ce o≈cials opposed organized percent politicians populist primary public schools race racial Raleigh reelection regressive tax rural sales tax seats senate Democrats South southern Speaker state’s statewide subsidies Tar Heel Terry Sanford textile tion tionalist traditionalism U.S. Senate unions vote wages western Piedmont white Democrats white voters workers