Tar Heel Politics 2000

Offering 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 <i>Tar Heel Politics 2000</i> 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.<br/>An updated and revised version of Luebke’s <i>Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities</i> (1990) <i>Tar Heel Politics 2000</i> 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.