North Carolina
Opinion: Politicians ignore truth: NC lags behind in health care, education, wages
Moe Davis quotes H.L. Mencken who said “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety.”
“No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
This oft-repeated observation is by H.L. Mencken, a journalist, satirist and cultural commentator from Baltimore, who made it almost a century ago. Some say Mencken was racist, misogynistic and antisemitic, while others say he used provocative language to stimulate thought rather than to advance a position. Regardless, I’m struck by how prescient he seems today.
Early in my campaign for Congress in 2020, I talked about people voting against their own interests. Advisers warned me to stop saying it because it implied that people are stupid.
In hindsight, I wish I had ignored the advisers and been more like Mencken. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election, but I should have had the gumption to tell people the truth, even if it hurt their feelings. So here it is now: Stupidity is no path forward for Western North Carolina.
More: Opinion: Republicans hope to demolish democracy that was cherished by Ronald Reagan
Mencken’s famous quote is from his book, “Notes on Democracy,” published in 1926. The passage reads:
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
We’re witnessing the enormous power of galvanizing individual ignorance to achieve political aims. It’s how the wealth gap grew into a wealth chasm as ordinary folks swallowed the notion that “trickle-down economics” would lift their rafts along with the rich man’s yacht, and that the “right to work” was good for them and their families when it really meant “the right to live impoverished while the rich grow richer.”
It’s how pro-lifers can argue that every life is precious while cheering the execution of death row inmates and the drowning of migrants snared in razor wire strung across the Rio Grande. It is how lies can masquerade as truth, cruelty as compassion, immorality as virtue, criminality as law and order, sedition as patriotism, and an election that was lost as one that was stolen. Mencken warned that “truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.”
Many haven’t just gotten used to fiction, they gleefully wallow in it and turn hostile when confronted with facts.
More: Opinion: Considering Asheville, Buncombe candidates, nothing will change in 2024 elections
The truth is WNC lags behind and it has for years. Take your pick — health care, education, broadband, wages — so many areas where we could do better if we just tried. Instead, many of us fall for charlatans who ignore facts and pander to feelings, even when those feelings are untethered from reality.
To quote Mencken again, “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” It reminds me of the anti-crime summit Congressman Chuck Edwards held last summer where he spoke in ominous terms about “lawlessness” and the need to act before Buncombe County and WNC “turn into another crime-ridden Chicago or San Francisco.”
Sheriff Quintin Miller responded that Edwards’s statement sounded like something “from Fox News” and was not supported by crime statistics kept by the State Bureau of Investigation. As the Sheriff said, “it’s irresponsible to have a conversation about public safety that is not rooted in data.” Unfortunately, truth becomes irrelevant when politicians ignore it to manipulate the feelings of the electorate to enhance their own political fortunes.
Perhaps it’s a pipedream, but I hope voters will ask politicians what they plan to do for “us” rather than what they plan to do to “them,” the imaginary hobgoblins they whip up to manipulate the malleable masses. And make them back it up with facts, not with just a play on feelings. Mencken said, “the most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” WNC can move forward, but only if it is willing to think.
Moe Davis is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and the former head of the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service. He is currently writing a historical fiction novel set in Western North Carolina.
North Carolina
SBI investigating murder in Madison County
MADISON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that they are investigating a murder in Madison County that occurred around 3 a.m. on March 31.
News 13 is working to get more information. This story will be updated.
North Carolina
Suspect accused of stabbing pregnant woman outside North Carolina Harris Teeter
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A woman accused of stabbing a pregnant woman in southeast Charlotte earlier this month has been arrested, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call just before 11:30 a.m. on March 18 in the 100 block of South Sharon Amity Road. The stabbing happened outside, in the parking lot of a Harris Teeter grocery store.
When CMPD officers arrived, they found a 38-year-old woman who had been stabbed. CMPD said she told them she had been stabbed once during the attack. Her injuries were described as non-life-threatening, and she was treated and later released from the hospital.
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Following the attack, investigators released surveillance footage and were asking anyone who recognized the suspect or vehicle involved to come forward.
On Monday, March 30, police announced they’ve identified the suspect as Marvina Marie Hardy. Hardy was located by CMPD’s VCAT detectives, with the assistance of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Florida Division Law Enforcement, and Florida State Highway Patrol.
Hardy is currently in custody at the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Jail in Florida and is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina. She is facing several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill/inflict serious injury and battery of an unborn child.
North Carolina
I fled hellhole LA for my dream life in the country. Look how much better my life is now
A woman who once swore by the California dream says wildfires, sky-high costs — and a crackdown on her Airbnb lifeline — pushed her to pack up and flee Los Angeles for good.
Natasha Thomlinson-Clark is one of thousands of Angelinos who have left the state in recent months, driven out by a variety of factors, according to newly released Census data.
The urge to relocate crept in slowly, starting when local ordinances and a risk of fines, forced her to stop relying on a short-term rental to supplement her income.
“I had an Airbnb in West Hollywood that was basically how I survived before,” said Thomlinson-Clark. “They shut down my Airbnb…[it was] very hard for me financially.”
Then came the final straw when the Palisades Fire forced her and her husband Luke to reconsider their living situation.
“Then the fires really — that kinda freaked us out a lot,” she said. “We were paying all this money … couldn’t get house insurance. We were basically sitting ducks with no housing insurance.”
“I thought, ‘what are we doing?’”
Within months, Thomlinson-Clark ditched LA for Charlotte, North Carolina — a move she admits was “a bit of a knee-jerk reaction,” but one that quickly paid off.
“We came straight to Charlotte … it was cheaper, it made financial sense to me.”
The couple snapped up a sprawling 2,800-square-foot home for $660,000 in May 2025 — a price that would barely land a modest property in Southern California.
“What you can buy here is ridiculous compared to California,” she said.
The numbers back her up.
Los Angeles County lost roughly 54,000 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, the largest population drop in the nation, according to newly released US Census Bureau data. Once topping 10 million residents, the county has now slipped to under 9.7 million — a steady decline with no clear end in sight.
Experts say affordability is the driving force.
Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner noted that LA’s housing affordability score sits at just 0.41, far below the national average of 0.77. Median rent in the county has surged to $2,709 — compared to $1,667 nationwide — leaving many residents priced out.
“Incomes in LA have simply not kept pace with housing costs,” Berner said, adding that many are “squeezed to the point where they have to choose to leave.”
That’s exactly what Thomlinson-Clark did — even if it wasn’t easy.
“I had never thought about leaving LA. If I’m honest, the fires were a big driving force,” she said. “I worked really hard to get to California — specifically, I picked California.”
She insists the move wasn’t political, still, the financial upside has been hard to ignore. After buying her first home ten months ago, she told The Post, she bought a second one last Friday.
“Money goes much farther here,” she said.
It’s a trend LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger is watching closely.
“Los Angeles County’s population decline is a clear signal that we must stay focused on the fundamentals — public safety and affordability,” Barger said in a statement to The Post. “When people feel safe and can afford to live here, they stay and invest in their communities. If we lose sight of that balance, we risk losing the very workforce and families that make our region strong.”
Even so, Thomlinson-Clark hasn’t completely shut the door on the Golden State.
“Financially it’s better, but you do give up a lot,” she admitted. “California — it’s the sunshine tax you pay. There’s a lot to do in California.”
“Really tough to leave,” she added. “I can’t say I’ll be here forever.”
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