An uphill climb

I read Gary’s column about Roy Cooper – I’ve only met Roy a couple of times but, even though we disagreed on issues, he was always polite, courteous. And that’s rare in politics these days.

Trump unending Senator Thom Tillis came as a shock – most folks figured Tillis would work out a deal with Trump the same way he did last time he ran, when Trump embraced him during the primary.

Gary pointed out Trump’s now going to select the Republican nominee to replace Tillis. That’s unusual – no other Republican president from Nixon to Bush had that kind of power. But it’s a fact Trump does.

Gary said almost every day someone asks him whether Roy Cooper will run for Senate.  I hear a similar question, Can a Republican beat Roy Cooper?  

For years, when he was Governor, Roy had what pollsters call a ‘high job approval rating’ – meaning a lot of people, even when they disagreed with him, liked him. You hardly ever see that these days in politics.

So who wins a Senate race between Roy Cooper and a Trumpster?

In an election nothing’s certain. The unexpected happens. Could a Trumpster beat Cooper? It’s possible. But that’s a long uphill climb. In politics these days we see a lot of anger, hear a lot of insults hurled – and people would like to see a little old-fashioned courtesy instead.

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Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.