Charleston Currents – Andy Brack

Andy Brack

BRACK: State needs to break grip of death spiral on governing

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Over the last 14 years, two South Carolina governors pounded a philosophy on the stump and at the Statehouse that there was little government could do to be good or worthwhile.

This drumbeat against government, a child of Washington think tanks from the 1990s, seeped into South Carolina under Gov. Mark Sanford, who was obsessed against government borrowing to finance long-term needs. Then it found an erstwhile acolyte in his successor, Gov. Nikki Haley, now headed to the national stage. Using the bully pulpit of the governor’s office, they railed against big government, preached a gospel against taxes and proselytized for treating government like a business.

by Andy Brack · 01/23/2017 · 3 comments · Andy Brack, Views

Gov. Nikki Haley, center, flanked by Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, on left, and Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster.

BRACK: Haley reflects on accomplishments, but downplays flag

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Gov. Nikki Haley took a victory lap around a legislature Wednesday with which she didn’t always get along.

“When I was first elected, I heard over and again from governors around the country that this would be the best job I would ever have,” she said in her final State of the State address prior to expected confirmation soon as the new ambassador to the United Nations. “I didn’t understand what they meant back then – and if I’m honest, some days, especially during the legislative session, I didn’t agree with them.”

by Andy Brack · 01/16/2017 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

In this White House photo taken in July 2016, President Barack Obama hugged Eliana Pinckney and her younger sister Malana Pinckney, daughters of the late Rev. and Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of nine slain in murders at Emanuel AME Church. The girls’ mother, Jennifer Pinckney, looks on. She testified this week in the trial of the man convicted of the murders.

BRACK: Obama deserves more credit than he gets

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | I’m going to miss President Barack Obama in the White House. There. I’ve said it. Before half of you spit out your coffee or explode into a hysterical frenzy, consider that you still have your guns. He didn’t take them away, as many misled by the gun lobby feared.

Despite doom and gloom prophecies, Obama didn’t ruin America’s economy. Rather, after inheriting the worst recession in 75 years, Obama steered Congress to take measured, decisive actions to shore up the faltering automobile sector, deal with some of the power of the big banks and use $800 billion in a stimulus package for tax relief, education initiatives and much-needed investments in research and infrastructure. The strategy worked and kept a real depression at bay.

by Andy Brack · 01/09/2017 · 4 comments · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Tips for how elected officials can be better, more effective

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It’s no surprise that politicians in our state have credibility problems thanks to distant and recent scandals that continue to tar the whole Statehouse. Confidence in government, to put it mildly, ain’t all that strong.

In the 1990s, several South Carolina legislators went to jail after a Statehouse sting. A generation later despite ethics reforms, corruption allegations led to resignations of a lieutenant governor and powerful House speaker. And then December brought a 30-count corruption indictment for one House member and a felony domestic assault charge against another.

by Andy Brack · 01/02/2017 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Mabus winds up service as leader of America’s away team

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | For U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, presence matters for “America’s away team” – the almost 900,000 sailors and Marines who comprise the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps under his leadership.

You see #presencematters in tweets and on Facebook and Instagram. You hear about it in the hundreds of talks given by Mabus as he has traveled 1.35 million miles around the world. Since 2009 when he took office, Mabus has been to more than 150 countries and all 50 states to meet the men and women serving in the Navy and Marines and help the country reconnect with their service around the world.

by Andy Brack · 12/19/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: What is justice?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | In pictures and words in Western society, we understand justice to be blind, meted without favor to rich or poor, powerful or powerless, famous or average Joe.

“Justice for all,” we recite in the Pledge of Allegiance. The concept of equal justice is a foundation of American jurisprudence. Everyone is supposed to be treated the same in the eyes of the law if they run afoul of it.

by Andy Brack · 12/11/2016 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

S.C. Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster giving a nomination speech at the 2016 GOP convention.

BRACK: A look at Henry McMaster as governor

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The Palmetto State is still rocking from last week’s earthquake announcement that S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley will leave office to be the country’s ambassador to the United Nations in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

by Andy Brack · 11/28/2016 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Time to think more deeply about state’s 2018 leaders

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | News that President-elect Donald Trump is considering S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster for prominent roles in his administration highlights how we need to start thinking now about who we want to lead South Carolina in the future.

With the 2016 elections over, Haley is considered a lame duck as her second term as governor ends in two years. As a rising minority star in the Republican party, it’s natural that Trump’s team would look for a big role for Haley, who met Thursday with Trump for what was called “a good discussion,” by a spokesman.

by Andy Brack · 11/21/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

View of U.S. MIlitary Academy in West Point, N.Y., looking north up the Hudson River, 2001. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

BRACK: New “afterlife” novel by Watkins is hard to put down

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Local author Andra Watkins thrills at bringing history alive. She did it earlier this month in a talk at the Charleston County Public Library. And she does it in her new supernatural mystery thriller, Hard to Die.

On Nov. 2, about 30 people gathered at the library to hear what I thought would be a regular author talk by Watkins to help the launch of a new book, which came out the day before. Her talk was anything but regular.

by Andy Brack · 11/14/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Reviews, Views

BRACK: Don’t fall for this school board con

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The effort by a secret, out-of-state group to denigrate West Ashley school board candidate Priscilla Jeffery has backfired with this voter.

Before receiving a nasty, hateful, unconscionable piece of direct mail on Saturday, I wasn’t sure which two candidates I would pick of three seeking two West Ashley seats on the board – Jeffery, former school administrator Gary Leonard or incumbent Michael Miller.

by Andy Brack · 11/07/2016 · 7 comments · Andy Brack, Views