No Pearl Harbor moment this time

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In the years before World War II, Americans were aware of the conflicts that were happening overseas, but they were determined to stay out of them. George Washington had urged the nation to avoid taking sides in international affairs, and that sentiment had endured. The country’s involvement in World War I, known then as the “Great War,” had not accomplished much besides getting a lot of people killed. The Great Depression had only recently ended.

Given all that, it’s not surprising that many Americans wanted to stay out of the latest in a thousand years of European wars. Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was an outspoken leader of the 800,000-member America First Committee. As explained by the National World War II Museum’s website, one poll in January 1940 found 88% of Americans opposed to declaring war against the European Axis powers led by Germany.

In fact, some Americans were on Germany’s side. Some of German descent formed the German American Bund, which drew 20,000 people to a rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939, along with lots of protesters outside of it.

Sentiment shifted as Americans witnessed Germany’s bombing campaign against the British. By April 1941, 68% favored going to war against the Axis if there were no other way to defeat them. At that point, Americans were divided. Continue reading →

He helped test the vaccine in the lab – and will take it

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When Trey Oguin has the chance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, he’ll take it. Why is he so confident? Because he helped develop it.

The 36-year-old Wynne native and Ph.D. is a lab manager at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute in North Carolina. His lab studied the effects on mice of the preclinical vaccine developed by Pfizer.

The company says it’s 95% effective. Oguin said it worked “marvelously.”

“Of every therapy that we have tested here, it was far and away the best,” he told me. Continue reading →

What I wish I could have voted for

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

On March 20, 1854, a group of anti-slavery activists met in a one-room schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. They formed a new political party at that meeting and called themselves Republicans.

That schoolhouse is generally considered the Republican Party’s birthplace, though that’s disputed. Momentum was building across the country. Six years later, Abraham Lincoln was elected the country’s first Republican president. Five years after that, the Civil War ended, and so did slavery.

This year I cast yet another “protest” vote in the presidential race – not really for a candidate, but against the two major parties and their policies. There were 11 other names on the ballot in Arkansas, and I chose the Libertarian even though that party does not really reflect my views. Continue reading →

Why the governor can propose a tax cut

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You know what Benjamin Franklin said about nothing in this world being certain except death and taxes? In Arkansas come legislative session time, you probably could add “tax cut proposals” to the list.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has led the Legislature in cutting income taxes this past three sessions, and he’s announced his proposals for the upcoming one. As a result of legislation passed in 2019, the income tax rate for the highest bracket will fall from 6.9% to 5.9%. He wants to reduce it further to 4.9% for new Arkansas residents for five years.

He also wants to reduce the sales tax on used vehicles from 6.5% to 3.5% for those costing between $4,000 and $10,000. There is no tax for vehicles sold for less than $4,000.

That second one seems like a fair and commonsense proposal. People paying for a vehicle that price are just trying to get a dependable ride to work or to school.

The first proposal? I don’t see it passing. Continue reading →

How to fix the Electoral College: Make every state purple

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

A presidential election has come and almost gone, and the two major party candidates have not campaigned in Arkansas or given the state much thought. President Trump is assured of winning here, so both candidates placed it in his column and forgot about it.

This is because of the Electoral College, which divides the country into red and blue states when all should be a shade of purple.

Here’s a plan to fix it.

As we’re reminded every four years, the president is elected not by the popular vote but by the Electoral College. Arkansas gets six of the 538 electors. It takes 270 to win.

Many states including Arkansas are reliably “red” (Republican), while others are “blue” (Democrat). Candidates focus on the few “purple” states that can swing either way.

Defenders say the Electoral College protects small states like Arkansas, but that’s not necessarily so. In almost all states, the winner of the popular vote wins all of its electors. Because of that system, a candidate can be elected by winning the largest 11 states narrowly and not even be on the ballot in the other 39.

Also because of this state-by-state winner-take-all system, the loser of the popular vote nationally can be elected president. This has happened in two of the last five elections: President Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016. Continue reading →