By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It’s no secret that Congress is broken. So how do we fix it?

For this column, let’s be realistic about some of the really big fixes, such as term limits or a balanced budget amendment. Constitutional amendments must traverse a winding, uphill path that ends with ratification by three-fourths of the states. When do 38 states agree on anything these days? The Founding Fathers made the Constitution difficult to amend. Today’s culture wars make it impossible to amend.

What realistically can be changed in the near future? The rules. Procedural rules governing House and Senate business can be altered by a simple vote of either relevant body.

Granted, changing the rules wouldn’t be easy, either. As Ouachita Baptist University political science professor Dr. Hal Bass reminded me a few weeks ago, inertia in politics is a powerful thing. But at least changing the rules doesn’t require 38 states.

The nonpartisan group No Labels has some suggestions it’s calling The Speaker Project. One is electing the speaker of the House by a vote of the entire body.

Here’s the rationale.  Continue reading Fixing Congress, where possible →

By Steve Brawner

© 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

I was mad at someone on Facebook, until I saw him in real life.

The victim of my annoyance was an Arkansas state legislator who posted something online I didn’t agree with. There was a brief back and forth, nothing serious and perfectly civil, and then it ended. But the debate stayed with me.

A day or two later, the Legislature had just dismissed from its special session, and the governor had just finished a press conference. I was writing my story while sitting in a vacant committee room when that same legislator hurried down the stairs and passed by. He was carrying belongings with both hands and nodded through the window in a friendly way, and I smiled and waved.

I realized I wasn’t mad at the actual person I’d just seen. Continue reading What’s missing on social media? Empathy + fear = respect →

David Couch, the man who legalized medical marijuana in Arkansas, has another one up his sleeve.

The attorney who sponsored the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment in 2016 is working with potential backers on an initiative that would let voters create a seven-member independent citizens commission to draw congressional and state legislative lines.

Couch said he polled the issue last summer and found statewide support in the 60s. Democrats overwhelmingly supported it, independents strongly did and even a majority of Republicans were in favor. Continue reading Next for David Couch, medical pot’s author? Independent group would draw legislative lines →

Voters in central Arkansas’ 2nd District might, possibly, maybe experience something that doesn’t happen that much in congressional races – a real, contested campaign. That’s because national Democrats are targeting that race to try to unseat the Republican congressman, Rep. French Hill.

Hill was re-elected easily in 2016 with 58 percent of the vote against an uncompetitive Democrat and a Libertarian. His was one of many Arkansas races where the outcome was never in doubt. Democrats didn’t even field candidates in the other House elections. President Trump was such a shoo-in that Hillary Clinton, Arkansas’ former first lady, didn’t campaign here.

This time, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the House Democrats’ campaign arm, has made the 2nd District one of its targeted races. It already has run radio ads attacking Hill. Continue reading Democrats’ DCCC targeting French Hill →