Charleston Currents – Andy Brack

Andy Brack

BRACK: Will the Year of the Woman impact S.C. governor’s race?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Strap in. The silly season is creeping up on us.

South Carolina’s primary elections are less than two months away. You’re about to get inundated with campaign literature, commercials, emails and lots of junk, particularly from gubernatorial candidates.

Up until now, the 2018 race for governor has been anything but titillating. In fact, it’s been pretty tame and dull. But that’s expected, in one sense because early campaign time is devoted mostly to raising enough money so candidates can stir up the party faithful later. And that “later” is now beginning.

by Andy Brack · 04/23/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: If you want prosperity, you’ve got to invest to build talent

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re a little overweight, you know – in your heart of hearts – what you really need to do: Eat less, get rid of junk food and exercise more.

For states like South Carolina that are underweight in terms of education, economic disparity, health outcomes and poverty, we know – in our heart of hearts – what we really need to do: Invest more in our future, throw off the shackles that still hold us back and increase opportunities for our people.

by Andy Brack · 04/16/2018 · 3 comments · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: S.C. friendship touted in new book isn’t all that unlikely

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | In 1975, the rock group War released a popular song titled “Why can’t we be friends.” It wasn’t complicated. The title was repeated a lot between various couplets, including this one: “The color of your skin don’t matter to me; As long as we can live in harmony.”

Forty-three years later, two South Carolina Republican members of Congress released a book on friendship that for all intents and purposes reiterates a similar theme.

by Andy Brack · 04/09/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: How the divisive issue of climate change can be a unifier

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | South Carolinians can learn something from an Alabama Christian leader who is trying to unite people through what may seem an unlikely issue – the environment.

Dr. Randy Brinson, a Montgomery gastroenterologist who is president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, is on a mission. He wants to make climate change become a nonpartisan issue that brings people together for solutions, not allow it to continue to be a political ping pong ball manipulated by cynics for their own purposes.

by Andy Brack · 04/02/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: House lawmakers need to be bolder on tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of tax reform are rising and slithering through the halls of the Statehouse as lawmakers have been seeking to change how sales, services and income are taxed.

Unfortunately, the backsliding already has begun. Two weeks ago, members of a special House tax policy committee announced with great fanfare that they were taking the bold steps of putting a lot of reform on the table, including a move to get rid of costly special sales tax exemptions that suck billions of dollars from state coffers.

But by late last week, the boldness was gone, a victim of institutional timidity. It’s not surprising because if the past is any reflection of the future, anything changing the tax status quo will be a long, tough slog. Two efforts since 2010 have failed. And even if reform does come, it’s could be two or three years off as proponents will have to spend months to flesh out details and educate recalcitrant lawmakers on what reforms mean.

by Andy Brack · 03/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Make our schools safer with real gun reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | This time, it feels like something about guns is going to happen. After the Parkland slaughter of 17 students and teachers, inaction doesn’t seem to be a viable automatic political reflex for mass gun violence.

Maybe the nation has reached a tipping point, thanks to thousands of Florida students who marched on the state’s capital to pressure lawmakers to make common-sense reforms to curb the gun violence.

“The times have clearly changed,” University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus told a Tallahassee newspaper. “And the activism of the students and their parents and grandparents and everyone else has made this a bigger issue and a much more politically impactful issue. I think it has ramifications for any partisan race from the top of the ticket down to local races.”

by Andy Brack · 02/26/2018 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Election systems are safe, but hearts and minds may not be

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The Russians will only be successful in meddling with the 2018 elections if we let them do it to us.

The nation’s spy chiefs last week said they expected foreign governments to try to fiddle with election outcomes in 2018, just like the Russians did in 2016. But that doesn’t mean foreign governments will necessarily try to hack into voting systems, change names on voting rolls or disrupt the internal mechanics of voting.

“What they are trying to do is inject themselves [into our election process] and cause confusion in another way – using social media and other means,” said state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg. “They are creating fake news.”

by Andy Brack · 02/19/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Put an end to gerrymandering

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Perhaps it was naivete, youth or idealism. Maybe all three. But I never felt trapped by gerrymandering during a run for Congress in 2000. I believed people from Seabrook Island to Little River in the First Congressional District were ready for someone different.

Today, of course, I know different. I could have been George Washington himself and not won a seat in Congress that year because of the way the district lines favored Republicans thanks to gerrymandering. After two years of work and more than $500,000 raised, I got 36 percent of the vote – the percentage a Democrat typically got in that seat.

by Andy Brack · 02/12/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: It’s the Year of the Panda in S.C. politics

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If the 2018 gubernatorial race in South Carolina were a sound, it probably would be the chilling screech of fingernails dragged across a blackboard.

Folks, it’s the Year of the Panda, a season already with some of the worst political pandering in recent memory. The nonsense coming out of gubernatorial campaigns is more painful than bamboo shoots being stuck under those screeching fingernails – shoots that should nourish pandas, not irritate voters.

Winner of the week’s pandering award is Gov. Henry McMaster for the blatant ploy to suck up to voters by proclaiming Feb. 4 to be “Stand For The Flag Super Bowl Sunday.”

by Andy Brack · 02/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views