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Stories by John Brummett
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: How dare the people rule! "Regnat populus" my patoot.Never has a state been as afraid as Arkansas of its own motto, which means "the people rule," which they don't and which the powers-that-be fear and ... August 7, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Hail the tactical middle A new political party announced itself last week. It calls itself the Forward Party. It calls itself centrist. It says it has no policies yet.Its opening co-chairpersons are:• Previously Republic... August 4, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Asa, the nice conservative Gov. Asa Hutchinson's presidential flirtation hasn't shown up yet in any polls but ranks among the leaders in insiders' screen time.You could argue that one must start somewhere. At this p... August 3, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Asa’s fine little mess Some of us were trying to figure out Asa Hutchinson and teacher raises the other day, and not having much success.Centrist and center-left types were appreciating the imminently departing Republican g... August 2, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Vive la tax cut! This Republican Legislature so wants to cut income taxes in special session next week that it's willing to risk untold millions in penalties for misapplying federal covid-relief manna.But it won&#... July 31, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Arkansas PBS lives Not to jinx it, but it may be that public television is going to be all right in Arkansas. Knock wood.State Sen. Jimmy Hickey credited progress on the Arkansas PBS front to a "back-room deal.&quo... July 28, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: E is for ethics I thought it might be one of those doctored photographs.There are people out there mean enough who'd know how to rig up a bogus addition to an actual picture of Sen. Alan Clark as he grinned while... July 27, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Sarah has a plan, really Sarah Sanders got asked an in-person question Saturday on a governor's race issue by a live Arkansas newspaper reporter.That has to be the lead, on account of being so unusual.Republicans loathe a... July 26, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Pucker up, teachers State legislators showed local school superintendents on Thursday what happens when they let their teachers and local advocates get a little uppity.The Republican majority of the Legislative Council h... July 24, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: No partisan scam here "This commission is a partisan scam," Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio regurgitated from the Trumpspeak app in his brain in February.That was a big lie, to be distinguished from the Big Lie, wh... July 21, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The stirring of a pulse Arkansas teachers, education advocates and Democrats seem to have put Arkansas Republican legislators on the temporary defensive.It's almost as if Arkansas had a two-party system, or at least mino... July 20, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Life-changing teachers As research for this column, I watched an episode from 1986 of "Designing Women."That's a sassy hit sitcom from olden days of major-network prime-time prominence. It was created by Arkan... July 19, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Media avoidance as strategy Thank you for reading this newspaper. Just know Republican politicians increasingly consider it and local television news irrelevant.Democratic politicians might not value it, either, if they ever got... July 17, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Reasoning, not leaping A spate of polls has people warning against jumping to conclusions. So I will leap only to a singularly sound one.It's that the American people want something better than a Joe Biden-Donald Trump ... July 14, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMETT: Help teachers? Maybe later The thing about state Sen. Jonathan Dismang of Beebe is that it makes him no less conservative to be understated, responsible, reasonable and problem-solving.In the era of gone-mad conservatism, sane ... July 13, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The art of demonization When people say "good column," which some do-- really--they almost always mean "way to go, man."The compliment actually is mostly agreement, not admiration.Fans are not praising co... July 12, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: All things being unequal … We got the idea here in Arkansas--or borrowed it from other states--to send people some money from our big surplus as relief for these gasoline and grocery prices.What we're going to end up doing ... July 10, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: It’s about principles State Sen. Alan Clark confesses to trying to collect $155 in taxpayer money as per-diem reimbursement for attending a legislative meeting he didn't attend.And, for that, he says the Senate Ethics ... July 7, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Surplus for Sarah? State government confronts a big surplus and Republican legislative sentiment to save some of it for Sarah Sanders' convenience rather than spend it now on teachers.There is some reasoning. But th... July 6, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Up in Bubba’s business I called over to Bubba McCoy at the car lot, disturbing a gripping episode of "The Rifleman" on old-person television.He asked why I was calling. He said I only call when I need a column. He... July 5, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The exception, maybe With one possible exception, the House committee investigating the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, has executed its televised hearings with uncommonly effective tactical and strategic precision.It's... July 3, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: It’s not performance art Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, women no longer have a federal right to authority over their bodies. But they are now welcome to join the group standing around the high school football coach who has... June 30, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Ethical dilemma in Senate It's the kind of thing that might have happened before and been swept under the rug or dealt with beneath radar. The state Legislature can be an insular society in which relationships with colleag... June 29, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Sunday bloody Sunday Asa Hutchinson appeared on one national television news show too many.Sharing his near-weekly version of Sunday-morning wisdom on "Meet the Press" on NBC, he managed only to stick out his no... June 28, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Just the usual nuttiness Joe Biden was flailing with a gimmick per usual. Chris Jones was reminding that he was flailing even before his president was.Asa Hutchinson was being all practical and cautionary, like a governor.Sar... June 26, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Profiles in historic courage Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the House in Arizona, emerged for history Tuesday as an American hero.He brings shame to all of us who ever painted Republicans with too broad a brush.So do a f... June 23, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Democrats’ best hope? Most of them were somebody back in the day, in the gubernatorial cabinet of Jim Guy Tucker, or on the staff of Dale Bumpers or David Pryor, or in college administration, or lobbying for a professional... June 22, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Sanity lacking in Texas Did you hear about the Republican U.S. senator from Texas who has an A-plus from the National Rifle Association and got booed Friday at the Texas Republican State Convention?He'd been caught worki... June 21, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: He showed up Editor's note: This is a Father's Day blending and retooling of two odes written over the years to a good departed dad and others of his time, place and caliber.For years, J.T. would not go to... June 19, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Have to start somewhere Since Arkansas voters apparently don't like common ground in politics, a dreamer turns his attention to fusion.If we can't experience better politics, can't we at least dream?"Fusion ... June 16, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Surplus of ideas Last week's column on the questionable idea to use one-time state surplus money to begin a presumably ongoing upgrade of Arkansas teacher salaries engendered pushback both resentful and substantiv... June 15, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Down to communication As someone mildly left-of-center on most things, I never felt as confident as when a conservative Republican woman from Wyoming championed my position on national prime-time television.For once, I was... June 14, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The nonpartisan charade I will write a sentence now and invite District Judge Chris Carnahan of Conway to tell me it's wrong and that he wants it corrected.Here is the sentence: District Judge Chris Carnahan of Conway is... June 12, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Teacher pay hard row to hoe Low-wage workers in the private sector have been getting pretty good raises. Their employers found across-the-board pay upgrades necessary to keep vital slots filled and services provided amid the cha... June 9, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: TV blockbuster or bomb? It sounds like a prime-time television production, because that's what it will be. Thus it will be easily dismissed and derided by Republicans as a choreographed political assault, because that&#3... June 8, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Why no action? Voters This literally happened last week. I walked down the dairy aisle of the supermarket. A woman unknown to me turned and expressed horror at the price of a dozen eggs. I said yeah and walked on to the yo... June 7, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Guns not Asa’s priority In Asa Hutchinson's Arkansas, gasoline poses an emergency but guns don't."We need a little patience here" on new gun laws, the governor said Thursday at a session with reporters in w... June 5, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The arrows fly again If you'll permit one more Arkansas primary wrap-up, let's avail ourselves of conventional wisdom's arrows to assess the standing of political persons and concepts as emerging, surviving or... June 2, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Making case for doing little U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said on a Sunday news show that he and other Democratic senators are in genuine discussions with a few Republican senators about imperfect but worthy new gun laws in response to... June 1, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Bubba ’splains it all With the primary over and a long Memorial Day weekend ahead, I called Bubba McCoy over at the car lot on Wednesday. This was for the traditional holiday-weekend purpose of tapping his rural wisdom to ... May 31, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Recounting the primary I sit the day after the primary in front of a luncheon audience of the Central Arkansas Political Animals Club at the Governor's Mansion.I wonder why a man so politically out-of-touch would be ask... May 29, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Asa tries a little nuance This business with Asa Hutchinson and a rape and incest exception for abortion goes back contentiously to ... well, my heavens, it's been 36 years.The conventional wisdom that Hutchinson hasn'... May 26, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A tale of two states There are two big takeaways from the primaries yesterday, maybe three, starting with the stark contrast of Georgia and Arkansas.Republicans in Georgia, a famous new swing state, solidly rejected Donal... May 25, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: What voters could do We confront two mildly interesting questions in today's primaries in Arkansas.One is whether voters will force statewide Republican runoffs that would inconvenience or even alarm a couple of GOP a... May 24, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Vengeance is theirs Arkansas PBS proposed last year to use a federal grant to hire a consultant for elementary-aged children's educational programming. But it pulled down the contract after state Sen. Dan Sullivan of... May 22, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Where the blame lies Are you "right wing"?Depending on the definition, sure.Are you "left wing"?Depending on the definition, sure.One thing about a mass shooter is that he'll give extremists on the... May 19, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Corruption by degree We saw a mild advancement Monday in the Republican movement declaring money to be speech and that the rich have a constitutional right to be our politically mouthiest.The six Republican-nominated just... May 18, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: A partisan change of venue Don't forget that the primary ballot contains the question of whether to move the Arkansas Supreme Court a few blocks east to state Republican Party headquarters.That's in a metaphorically pro... May 17, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: In state’s best interests State Sen. Joyce Elliott, the liberal lion who chastises me for calling her a tilter at windmills, tilted at windmills on social media Wednesday."I voted yesterday," she wrote. "And I v... May 15, 2022
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Stirring the pot with truth I know a little about silly and ignorant feuds, fears, suspicions, resentments and schisms in evangelical churches, having come up in the Southern rural religious fundamentalism of the 1950s and '... May 12, 2022
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