Charleston Currents

MY TURN: Book outlines how 4 presidents tackled difficult situations

By Elliott Brack, republished with permission | It’s fun to read books by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Here’s why: the author writes intelligently, figuring that the readers know basic facts about the overall book subject. So, she cuts to the quick, giving you new insights and facts about the stories you already know. You don’t waste time hearing her version of what you already knew.

by Andy Brack · 08/03/2020 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

From “Civic Government,” a statue in Ohio by George Danhires. Source: Wikipedia.

BRACK: Let’s have a national media campaign on civics

Commentary by Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Americans – liberal, conservative and in-between — need to be reminded of what it means to be American. For role models, they don’t need to look to just about anyone in Washington or state capitals like Columbia.

All that seems to be coming from Washington is nonsense that spans from a presidential administration in constant crisis mode to a Congress that ping-pongs from outrage to shock to digging in their heels about things petty and consequential. And then there are the tell-all books and anonymous opinion columns that shine spotlights on all of the dysfunction.

by Andy Brack · 09/10/2018 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

HISTORY: The New Deal

S.C. Encyclopedia, part one of two| The New Deal was a collection of federal programs enacted between 1933 and 1939 to solve the problems created by the Great Depression. In South Carolina the New Deal brought three R’s: recovery for farmers, bankers, textile mill owners, and small businessmen; relief for the unemployed and destitute; and reform in labor-management relations, banking, sale of securities, and retirement. In the process the New Deal radically increased the role of the federal government in the state’s economy by creating permanent acreage allotment programs, agricultural credit, compulsory minimum wage / maximum hours requirements, protection for laborers who sought to unionize, Social Security benefits, a public welfare system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect depositors, the Federal Housing Administration to expand housing opportunities, and the Rural Electrification Administration to electrify the countryside.

by Andy Brack · 12/07/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia