Our current governor, Josh Stein, is a Democrat. Same goes for his predecessor, Roy Cooper. But both of our U.S. senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, are Republican. That would be incoherent — all four politicians ran statewide, in the same era — but for a simple, inarguable truth: We are not blue. We are not red. We are where blue and red meet and mingle. Yes, purple.