Charleston Currents – Andy Brack

Andy Brack

BRACK: Dems might screw up chance to beat tower of jelly

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Democrats better watch it or they will screw up a huge opportunity to retake the White House in 2020.

With all of the toils and troubles of incumbent President Donald Triump — the lies, the mobster culture, the scandals, the Mueller investigation, the misogyny, the drama, the incessant twittering, the blatant corruption, the continuing attacks on the foundation of our democracy — one might think he would be easy political pickings. But with a solid electoral base of about 40 percent, all that Trump has to do to win in 2020 is prey on fear to pick up 10 percent and fuel dissent about Democrats. Scary.

by Andy Brack · 04/25/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Yes, senator, the ox is in the ditch still

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | “The ox is in the ditch.”

That’s an adage frequently offered by Fritz Hollings, South Carolina’s larger-than-life former governor and United States senator who passed away April 6 at age 97.But what did it mean?

Meet the Press host Tim Russert once asked Hollings with a twinkle in his eye.Hollings, who often used colloquial sayings to make a point, explained that when an ox hauling a wagon went into a ditch in the olden days, it took more than the ox to pull the wagon out of the ditch. It took several people working as a team to make things right.

So when Hollings, who retired in 2005 after a 38-year Senate career, talked about oxen and ditches and national budgetary, trade or jobs problems, he was saying the country needed to pull together and work as a team to get us out of a particular ditch.

by Andy Brack · 04/15/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Thank you, Fritz Hollings

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | No one in modern time has given as much to South Carolina as Fritz Hollings. In seven decades of public service – starting as a young officer in World War II to becoming governor to being elected seven times to the United States Senate, Hollings has given back in big ways.

Most recently, he made news [in 2015] after he asked for his name to be taken off of a federal judicial annex in Charleston and for it to be named to honor the late U.S. District Judge Waties Waring, the courageous civil rights jurist from Charleston who paved the way for landmark school integration in the United States.

Through the years, Hollings has left a huge mark that is still paying dividends today. He’s the guy who pushed through stable funding for schools in the early 1950s and later started the technical college system, which attracts companies like BMW and Boeing. …

by Andy Brack · 04/08/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Saluting a true blue son of The Citadel

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Word came early Wednesday that was expected but not welcome: A good friend, Carroll LeTellier, passed away peacefully that morning. We were an unlikely pair — a 57-year-old liberal writer and a 90-year-old retired Army general who was a child of The Citadel and who didn’t hang out much with my kind.

by Andy Brack · 04/01/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

Mourners in Christchurch, New Zealand. Via Wikipedia.

BRACK: Lack of gun reform in U.S. is downright embarrassing

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It took New Zealand less than a week to ban assault-style rifles following a deadly slaughter at two mosques. As a comparison, South Carolina and Congress have been doing nothing but dilly-dallying for almost four years since Charleston’s own horrific massacre.It’s downright embarrassing that we are so hogtied with inaction.

by Andy Brack · 03/25/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: White, Griffin launch Nerf campaigns for mayor

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The silly season is here already in Charleston city politics.

In the last week, two city council members, 45-year-old Gary White and 23-year-old Harry Griffin, huffed and puffed that they are running for mayor against first-term incumbent John Tecklenburg.

Their reasons for running appear to be that they don’t much like Tecklenburg, who has been thwarted by the likes of White and Griffin and other council members who don’t seem to want to move quickly on curbing rampant development that’s destroying the character of the city or dealing proactively with flooding.

by Andy Brack · 03/18/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Lots to do if General Assembly wants real impact

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With two months left, the General Assembly still has a lot of work to do if it really wants to accomplish anything this year.

Despite headlines of progress, lawmakers of both chambers have passed five pretty minor bills, four of which became law. Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed a measure on the election of water and sewer district commissioners for Bath, Langley and Clearwater (wherever they are).

by Andy Brack · 03/11/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Beaufort to become national hub of Reconstruction history

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Sandwiched between the Southern stains of slavery and oppressive Jim Crow laws were a few years of mostly forgotten history, the Reconstruction era.

In the months ahead, the Beaufort area is poised to become the nation’s hub for rediscovering and understanding the promise of Reconstruction to newly-freed slaves as they started to engage in America by voting, buying land and living in freedom.

by Andy Brack · 03/04/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

ERA advocates in Tennessee in the late 1970s. Via Wikipedia.

BRACK: When being last can do the nation some real good

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Here’s a way that by being last, South Carolina lawmakers could do something really good: Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Only one more state legislature has to approve it for it to become part of our nation’s basic protections.

You might have forgotten about the amendment, first approved by Congress in 1972, following the rise of the women’s movement in the 1960s. After approval, the amendment went to the states for ratification. Thirty-eight states are needed for ratification.

by Andy Brack · 02/25/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington.

BRACK: Don’t miss the opportunity for education reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | House Speaker Jay Lucas is a man on a mission to reform South Carolina’s failing education system for the first time in more than 30 years.

“We have left generations of children in poverty behind in this state and every year that we don’t act [on education], we’ll continue to do that,” said Lucas, a powerfully built Hartsville Republican whose tired eyes mask a palpable intensity.

by Andy Brack · 02/18/2019 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views