Liberals think Democrats aren't pushing back hard enough. Is NC's Anderson Clayton the answer?
There is a line of thought that Democrats don't have guts. North Carolina's fiery liberal leader wants to change all that.
During the 2024 Democratic National Convention roll call, over the opening strains of "Raise Up" — a 2001 rap song about North Carolina that, at its core, is about loving who you are and where you're from — Anderson Clayton made herself known to America.
At national party conventions, the roll call is when state delegates formally throw their support to the party's nominee for president. It can be boring, like a teacher doing attendance.
Clayton treated it like a hip hop hype man or a preacher, name-checking North Carolina natives like Nina Simone, who's known worldwide for her music, and former NC Gov. Jim Hunt, who's known regionally for extolling a robust public education system.
"We represent a new South," Clayton shouted.
In the South, some people's accents are like the sounds of a stringed instrument. Each word, each note, beginning like it's written but bending and elongating as the strings vibrate. It's like words are a destination and some Southerners, to get there, take the scenic route.
Such is Clayton's accent. Everybody who's from here, including me, heard her and knew where she was from.
