Category Archives: Politics

Wanted: an open golden door

Politics, U.S. Congress

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” – “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus, at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Christmas has passed and a new year is beginning, which means that nearly 800,000 young people have spent the holidays not knowing if they’re subject to being deported in a few months. Meanwhile, almost a year after President Trump took office, little progress has been made on his promised wall.

The Founding Fathers created a Constitution that depends on compromise and common sense to address problems imperfectly but nondictatorially. Lately it hasn’t worked very well, but these two immigration issues should be fairly doable.

Continue reading Wanted: an open golden door →

(My) Arkansans of the Year

Politics, State government, U.S. Congress

Arkansans of the YearBy Steve Brawner

© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

This is the part of the calendar when I list my “Arkansans of the Year.” As always, take it with a grain of salt.

Any list of mine will be heavy into politics and policy, which interest me and provide my living. It would be more accurate to call it “Arkansans of the Year (whom I know about, am interested in, and are what journalists consider ‘newsmakers’).”

Besides, who’s to say what’s important? Journalists mostly focus on the earthly and the temporal rather than the eternal, which runs on a different set of deadlines. What creates headlines this year can be a historical footnote after 20. Important moments happen every day in this state with now 3 million people, but they go unreported. The teachers imparting knowledge in the classroom, the soldiers and firefighters in harm’s way, the cops on the beat – those people matter, a lot. They just don’t make the news very often.

Finally, like Time magazine’s Person of the Year, this list recognizes impact, for good or not so good, rather than achievement or nobility. It’s a newspaper column, not an honor.

So let’s get to it. Continue reading (My) Arkansans of the Year →

Yes, Virginia, one vote really does matter

Elections, Politics

vote, SimondsThink your one vote doesn’t matter? Virginians may have thought so, too, until this week.

There, an election for the House of Delegates, that state’s House of Representatives, is stuck in a tie. Republican Delegate David Yancey initially won the race to represent Newport News by 10 votes. After a recount, Democrat Shelly Simonds won by one vote. But then a disputed ballot was successfully challenged, leaving the count at 11,608-11,608. The winner’s name likely will be picked randomly from a glass bowl.

It’s about more than one legislative seat

OK, we’re talking about a single state legislative race. Big deal, right? Continue reading Yes, Virginia, one vote really does matter →

Top 6 questions for 2018 – and a few predictions just for fun

Elections, Politics, State government, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner

© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What might happen in Arkansas and national politics in 2018? Asking questions is easier than making predictions. So let’s ask, in the order they’re likely to be answered.

– Will Sen. Tom Cotton become the next CIA director? There have been reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who did not deny calling President Trump a “moron,” will be leaving soon. CIA Director Mike Pompeo supposedly would move to State, while Cotton would go to CIA.

If that happens, it would lead to new questions. Continue reading Top 6 questions for 2018 – and a few predictions just for fun →