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

The election is over. The good news is, there will be another one in two years.

That’s the good news? Yep. Elections – annoying, divisive and cacophonous – are one reason we live in a free and prosperous country. We could have been born elsewhere, perhaps North Korea. There, instead of 30-second political ads interrupting our pleasant evenings, our televisions would bombard us with propaganda about the Supreme Leader who is actually keeping us subjugated, impoverished and isolated.

Still, seeing the glass half full doesn’t mean we ignore the empty part. Our politics has flaws, including this: far too many not-quite-lies.

What is a not-quite-lie, and how do you spot it? In politics, look for two types. Continue reading →

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

There’s not much of a question who the next governor of Arkansas will be after Tuesday’s election: It will be Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Nor is there doubt about the winners of most of the other major races: Anyone with an “R” beside their name.

But many questions do remain. Let’s ask some of them, and then guess what the answers will be.

– Will the Democrats take the Hill, or will their candidate Tucker out? If Democrats are going to win any big races, it’s the 2nd Congressional District, where state Rep. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, had raised almost $2 million as of Oct. 17 in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

The race is potentially competitive because of the district’s composition – Democratic-leaning Little Rock surrounded by Republican-leaning counties – but the numbers favor Republicans. Continue reading →

By Steve Brawner

© 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Voters in two very different countries have been going to the polls recently.

One is the world’s oldest continuous democracy. It enjoys prosperity to the point of excess, a stable government and the rule of law. Voters have weeks to go to the polls and usually face at most the inconvenience of a short wait, probably inside.

The other does not have a democratic tradition. In some ways it’s less a country and more of a collection of factions, including violent ones, contained within an arbitrary international border. It avoids collapse only through the presence of heavily armed foreigners concentrated in its capital city. Government corruption is rampant.

As its election neared, one of its factions threatened citizens that polling places could be attacked. That’s what happened. At least 28 people have died, including in one attack by a suicide bomber who killed 10 civilians and five police officers at a polling site north of the capital.  Continue reading →