Stories by John Brummett

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: On freedom and politics Let's begin a tad backward, with what will be an honest question from many on the cultural right in response to what this column is going to be about: Why would libraries go to court to try to han... June 4, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Douse the fire-breathing Gov. Sarah Sanders practices overstated and incendiary divisiveness as a political tactic.Her essence is as a cynical political operative, and she's a good one of those. She knows that divisivenes... June 1, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Deal made; next crisis 2025 Flags flew above stoops. Charcoal flamed as burgers sizzled. Potato salads varied, from mom's downward. And, most likely, many people remembered, if for a moment, combat-lost Americans.A debt-ceil... May 31, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Pandering to partisans Partisans are the problem, along with uninformed people.Then, of course, there are the politicians who protect above all else their treasured incumbency, which is important only to them. Most anyone c... May 30, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Advantage Scott Asa Hutchinson may not actually be in the water--the water being the pool of legitimate Republican presidential candidates--but, if he were, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina strikes me as someone... May 28, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Can’t keep putting it off I'd send in now my quarterly estimated federal income-tax payment due June 15 if I thought it would help.That's the kind of caring patriot I am. I know enough about our politics and governance... May 25, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Happy ending not needed Lately I've clicked on major newspaper websites and, to my surprise, found serious op-ed social commentary based on three of my favorite things in the entertainment field. Those would be rock icon... May 24, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Berry was the real deal There really was such a thing as a "Blue Dog Democrat" espousing and living genuine cultural conservatism and advocating a genuine activist-government populism championing seniors, farmers a... May 23, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: About that report … I ran through, for the retiree class, a few of the contradictory interpretive headlines in respectable newspapers on the Durham Report. That's the document summarizing the findings of special coun... May 21, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Dancing on the debt ceiling President Biden declared that there'd be no negotiating on raising the debt ceiling. He assured that it was not in question whether we pay our bills. He insisted that we will not put conditions on... May 18, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: You know, that Arkansas guy … A leading anti-Trump Baptist theologian lamented Sunday on "Meet the Press" the absence of morality-based and character-based resistance to Donald Trump among Republicans, including among th... May 17, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A needed re-exposure The "town hall" on CNN with Donald Trump reflected and illuminated rather than harmed the American political condition. It was responsibly journalistic in its primitive, sad spectacle.Americ... May 16, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A LEARNS experience It sounded like a technical delaying tactic until it sounded like something that might blow the lid off state government.So, it bore looking into. That resulted in a predictable conclusion that fell i... May 14, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Teachers, here’s your essay The state Education Department, now in service to the nationally obsessed political ambition of Gov. Sarah Sanders, is requiring this year that nominees for Teacher of the Year submit competitive essa... May 11, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The failure of U.S. politics A new poll finds substantial support for sending Donald Trump both to the White House and the criminal-defense table and that Joe Biden has lost the only advantage he ever had, which was that he wasn&... May 10, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: For less ridiculous parties Asa Hutchinson appeared last week on Fox News in what until recently had been Tucker Carlson's hour. Hutchinson was interviewed by a substitute host, Lawrence B. Jones, who seemed incredulous that... May 9, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: At the edge of the cliff Quite perilously, the situation with the Clinton Library--not the presidential one in Little Rock but the public one in the town of Clinton in north-central Arkansas--provides a microcosm of the feder... May 7, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A surprising appointment Emails, texts and calls trickled in Monday. People wanted me to know that Ken Warden, whom Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just appointed commissioner of higher education, was someone they had grown up wit... May 4, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: What the queen demands The state Teacher of the Year Award is, or ought to be, about a teacher in the current, winding-down school year. It should be someone who was nominated locally by peers for superior performance and e... May 3, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Librarians on edge Public librarians and school librarians soon will stand newly subjected to jailing in Arkansas. It conceivably could happen if a parent objected to a book a child got from the library and the local pr... May 2, 2023

In a pickle with Bubba I called Bubba McCoy and told him a woman came running over from the adjoining pickleball court the other day to say that it looked as if our match was about to wrap up and that she didn't want me... April 30, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A new savior needed A new poll from NBC News tells us the American people overwhelmingly do not want to face another Joe Biden-Donald Trump presidential choice. So, naturally, that's what they'll most likely get ... April 27, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Phoenix deal scorched It went the way it should have gone. It's good when that happens. So, let's celebrate.Score one for five members of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. They cast decisive "no&qu... April 26, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Odds look slim for Asa People from Arkansas run for president all the time anymore.After Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee and Wes Clark, we now confront a presidential hopeful who could well get creamed in the Arkansas Republica... April 25, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The UA’s divisive deal The private-equity firms that own the online University of Phoenix decided to sell, probably because the getting is good. The online for-profit college market grows more regulated and crowded.The Univ... April 23, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Understanding the chasm Invitations to make guest presentations to Sunday School classes come along occasionally, usually in the Methodist or Presbyterian field.I go into these venues delicately. I had enough conventional fu... April 20, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Just silly and spiteful Let's begin with a disclaimer. Occasional reader responses accuse me of getting tiresome with my diatribes of dislike against our governor.My response is that it's not a matter of dislike, but... April 19, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A matter of justice I am proudly reporting today from a front-row seat at Friday night's affirmative-action ceremony of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.It just goes to show that affirmative action can be a matter of... April 18, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Desperately seeking kudos "I admire your audacity in thinking you have any business being governor."--My first draft of an application for appointment to the state Highway Commission, leaving only 488 words to go.Wit... April 16, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Ethical behavior a virtue When a conservative columnist gets one right with pithy flair, it is to be celebrated, or at least quoted."Why didn't this give Thomas the willies?" Mona Charen wrote the other day.And t... April 13, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Opportunities lost and gained Last week state Rep. Fred Allen of Little Rock rose to deliver only the second speech that he'd made against a bill in his 12-year legislative career.He prefers a low profile and eschews divisive ... April 12, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The conservative thing State Sen. Bart Hester, the president pro tem and a disarmingly simplistic ideologue lacking any sense of irony, explains that Republicans had no choice but to fill the law books with the culture war ... April 11, 2023

Waning-hour weirdness A state representative once said he well-understood the weirdness that can occur in the "weaning hours" of a legislative session.It might be nice if legislators set aside time to wean themse... April 9, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Context in criminality "They're gonna misdemeanor the S-O-B back into the White House."--A man who might have been me to another man by text Tuesday afternoon.All morning long Tuesday, the day Donald Trump wou... April 6, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Trump not beaten … yet The nation and sanity cannot bear another "Trump acquitted" headline, the third. One shouldn't even be risked.It would raise to astronomical magnitude the conservative-movement worship o... April 5, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Asa puts on his helmet Also in the news: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Sunday morning on an ABC news show that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination.He said he will make a formal announcement l... April 4, 2023

Disgust in the Senate The state Senate probably will vote next week to reinstate Sen. Alan Clark's seniority effective in 2025, resolving to let ethics-defying bygones be bygones.Maybe Sen. Stephanie Flowers will deliv... April 2, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Legitimate … and arguable It's a legitimately arguable need, meaning Republicans' vast new prison so that we can enforce a new law declaring that a serious felon must serve every day of his sentence without any of this... March 30, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Backyard meditation People seemed surprised when I walked with Shalah into the "garden-recovery" program presented Sunday afternoon by gardening guru Janet Carson.It's true I don't care for the gardenin... March 29, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Caught up in the vortex When I was 14 I wanted a job. A man at our church ran a restaurant in a truck stop and said he could put me to work bussing tables.My dad took me to the restaurant for coffee with the fellow churchman... March 28, 2023

Bubba takes a break Bubba McCoy said my call had caught him on spring break, and asked, "Did we have spring break back in our day?"I said poor people didn't as far as I could recall. The only thing I rememb... March 26, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Time grows short for budget When state legislators get back next week from their unearned spring break to work ostensibly toward an unlikely adjournment April 7, they might be presented with something important that they've ... March 23, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Hogs basking in the glow It's a lucky man--and he should appreciate it, and does--when the thing he is frittering his time on is the story of the week in Arkansas, thus worthy of being his work at least for a day.I suspec... March 22, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Well, math is hard Gov. Sarah Sanders' education bill now law set a minimum teacher salary of $50,000 and ordered $2,000 raises for teachers already above $50,000. It vowed to provide state money to school districts... March 21, 2023

A frightful case study State Rep. DeAnn Vaught, Republican of Horatio in southwest Arkansas generally respected for hard work to aid rural Arkansas, got all broken-out in gumption Wednesday.It was as if she'd had all sh... March 19, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Free market? What’s that? It wasn't the atrocity of the day. It didn't even make the front page.What adorned the top right corner of Page One was another of those laws about relieving yourself in the assigned bathroom ... March 16, 2023

Here, regnat politicians State Rep. David Ray of Maumelle filed seven bills Friday in a major offensive for politicians against the people. He should package them as "power to the politicians, right on."If I didn&#3... March 15, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Generational chagrin It was an Arkansas liberals' gathering of people about the age of the president. Thus they were few and not so spry.Much of the conversation was whether "they" had overplayed their hand.... March 14, 2023

Leaning toward litigation? On Wednesday Gov. Sarah Sanders gathered another all-white group around her as she signed that big school bill that conceivably could redistribute pupil attendance in a racially segregating way.It als... March 12, 2023

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Archers at the ready Arkansas is in legislative hell and presidential politics is warming up, so the time seems right to pull out the arrows of ever-fickle conventional wisdom.⬆  Gov. Sarah Sanders--I'm in troubl... March 9, 2023