Category Archives: Politics

School boards head to the big ballot

Education, Elections, Politics, State government

Alabama, blue wave, school boardsIf you’re like most voters in Arkansas, you rarely if ever cast a ballot in school board elections. This May and November, that will start to change.

That’s because the Legislature last year voted to require school districts to choose between holding elections to coincide either with the May primaries or the November general elections. Because of that, school board candidates are filing for office now alongside candidates in other races.

Previously, school elections were in September, when few voters were interested or often even realized elections were occurring.

Continue reading School boards head to the big ballot →

Let 16-year-olds vote so they can defend themselves – against us

Debt and deficits, Elections, Politics

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-oldsThe legal voting age since 1971 has been 18. Maybe that should be the maximum instead of the minimum, at least for a few election cycles.

I write that at age 48 after observing young people lately interact with the world created by supposedly responsible voting-age adults.

Exhibit A is the students at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who escaped from a mass killer while 17 of their classmates and educators didn’t. The killer, a clearly troubled 19-year-old, had purchased his military-style weapon almost as easily as he later purchased a drink at Subway after his rampage ended.

We adults refuse to do much about this. So the students are. Continue reading Let 16-year-olds vote so they can defend themselves – against us →

Emptying tomorrow’s piggy banks

Debt and deficits, Politics, U.S. Congress

Piggy bank, piggy banks, debt, deficitHave you ever brought your children to the store and had to fend off one request after another to buy something? One effective way to make them stop, and teach them a lesson, is to tell them they can have what they want – as long as they pay for it themselves.

You can see the wheels turn behind their eyes as they’re confronted with the goodies’ cost versus their limited resources. What seemed so important when someone else was paying for it no longer is worth emptying their own piggy bank.

Apparently, many in Washington have never taken their children shopping. Or maybe their parents never took them. Continue reading Emptying tomorrow’s piggy banks →

A blue wave is coming. How big, and how wet will Arkansas get?

Elections, Legislature, Politics, U.S. Congress

Alabama, blue waveHistory – both the recent and not-so-recent kinds – suggests a blue wave is coming. The only questions for this column are, how big will it be, and how wet will Arkansas get?

The recent kind of history is that, since President Trump was elected, Democrats nationwide have flipped 35 state legislative seats that were occupied by Republicans. In contrast, Republicans have flipped four seats that were occupied by Democrats.

The latest occurred Tuesday in Missouri, where a 27-year-old Democrat, Mike Revis, was elected in a district outside St. Louis that Trump won by 28 points in 2016. Revis defeated a pro-life, pro-gun Republican.

Continue reading A blue wave is coming. How big, and how wet will Arkansas get? →