By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | All South Carolinians should be proud of the display of leadership and the example set by former Gov. David Beasley when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the United Nations World Food Programme.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | About a dozen years ago, a think tank challenged Southern legislators to engage on multiple environmental challenges.
Unsurprisingly, they mostly just nibbled around the edges, tweaking this and slapping putty on that. They haven’t confronted climate change seriously or done much to truly embrace renewable energy. Seeking environmental justice for the downtrodden is mostly just a good idea – still. Preserving land and cleaning up pollution get a lot of lip service. In the years since the book, other challenges have emerged — flooding, infrastructure, old dams — but they never get the priority they deserve.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Friends make our lives richer. They open new worlds and ideas. But they’re so familiar and comfortable that you kind of want them to never change and always be there.
Two longtime friends, cookbook author and foodie rock star Nathalie Dupree and historian husband Jack Bass, are leaving Charleston soon to live closer to family in North Carolina. I don’t want them to go, but at the same time, I’m happy they are embracing a change.
By Fred Palm, contributing editor | The ongoing raging COVID-19 community transmission that is expanding, like this year’s wildfires and tropical storms, will continue to impact children beyond this season. It is not over yet for them. Nor will it end for them. Children’s lives, like the lives of adults, are being damaged in many ways. But children have much less experience to return to. Adults have memory and lived perspectives.
Unfortunately, our state’s leader, Gov. Henry McMaster, has taken a course in denial about the threats from coronavirus from his crony, President Trump. The GOP-run legislature is no better at protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Instead, it twiddles as more people die and get the virus.
“We really don’t have any leadership,” said state Sen. Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat who is the new Senate minority leader. “The governor is in line with Trump. There’s no leadership at DHEC [the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control] and the legislature has abandoned the field.
By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | History shows the American economy prefers checks and balances. Since 1945, the S&P 500 stock index under a divided federal government has had a 14 percent return whereas under a unified government the experience was 12 percent.
Morris
The 2020 elections are not completely over, yet the probability is for a Joe Biden presidency, a tight GOP majority in the U.S. Senate and a tighter Democratic majority in the U.S. House than before the election as more seats were taken by the GOP. We will have a divided Congress at least for the next two years. Assuming the eventual transition, how will history be written under this administration?
First, political appointments will be meaningful and more competitive, particularly at independent commissions, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, where personnel is policy.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Just look at what happened in neighboring Georgia and you can see that Democrats have the keys to win big elections. But in South Carolina, they haven’t turned on the engine.
Instead, they lost a U.S. Senate race as well as down-ballot contests for Statehouse and municipal positions in what was supposed to be the year of the blue wave. It was, at best, a ripple as state and local elections were nationalized so much that you’d think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader Chuck Schumer lived in the Palmetto State.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | There’s a guy over in Hartsville who you can bet on to give you a good laugh, particularly if you like politics. The good news: His humor works for Republicans, Democrats and anybody who loves Dollar General, lard and Bea Arthur as Maude.
Just about every day, he’ll bring a smile to your face on Facebook through some wry observation, witticism or old-school joke that evokes the clean humor and one-liners of Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Steven Wright and Bob Newhart.
By Tom Ervin, special to Charleston Currents | Two Fridays ago, I stood in line for almost three hours to vote. It was heartwarming!
A young mother pushed a double stroller holding her twins and carried a third baby tucked in her backpack. Many elderly voters waited patiently in line while leaning on their walkers. Several voters arrived in wheelchairs. College students were voting with their parents.
Although the line wrapped all the way around the parking lot at the Greer Recreation Center, everyone was smiling and talking. Almost everyone wore masks and exercised social distancing. Several of us pleaded with a poll worker to move the young mother with her three small children to the front of the line. When he agreed, everyone cheered. Another woman passed out bottles of water to strangers. These folks were demonstrating their love of freedom and democracy. They were determined that their voices would be heard.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Social media and personality-driven television shows that comment constantly on news blur the traditional firewall between news and opinion. As a result, some newspapers are abrogating a traditional role of endorsing candidates during election season.
This, we think, is wrong. And kind of lazy.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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