“Mississippi’s favorite scourge looks to afflict politics again this year,” writes Bill Crawford, in his latest column in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. And by scourge he means the race issue. Yet this always-volatile topic has yet to emerge in the campaign season of 2023 in Mississippi, until now, as Crawford himself is the first to raise it.
Continue reading “My Reply to Bill Crawford”
The campaign for Mississippi’s Lt. Governor will be, in the words of one writer, “the most contentious” in the state in 2023. And that’s because of the battle in the Republican primary, a fight between Senator Chris McDaniel and the incumbent, Delbert Hosemann.
Continue reading “The Race: Chris McDaniel vs Delbert Hosemann”
It has been barely a week in the campaign for Mississippi Lt. Governor and the state’s media has already jumped in to carry water for incumbent Delbert Hosemann. They have written attack pieces against Hosemann’s opponent, Senator Chris McDaniel, and columns defending the incumbent’s less-than stellar record in office. But this early series of attacks is not a sign of strength from Hosemann; it is a sign of weakness and fear.
Continue reading “Salter Carries the Hose for Hosemann”
“Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.” So wrote Senator John F. Kennedy in his 1956 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage.
Courage can be defined as strength in the face of fear, pain, or grief. Political courage is showing such strength while doing what is right, even as pressure mounts from constituents, well-funded political action committees, or one’s political opponents. Kennedy well understood that elected officials face pressure to be liked, to be re-elected, and from special interest groups to do their bidding.
Continue reading “Chris McDaniel: A Profile in Courage”
Senator Rand Paul has taken some heat for a recent tweet that called for the repeal of the Espionage Act, passed by Congress in 1917 as America entered World War I. Since this law is the one that will likely be used against former president Donald Trump, in the latest attempt by the government to pin something on him, Paul’s detractors have taken to painting him with the same “Russian agent” brush they use for anyone who says anything in defense of Trump.
Continue reading “Repeal the Espionage Act?”
James Madison called it “a powerful instrument” and a “most complete and effectual weapon” in the hands of Congress, giving them authority over the other two branches of government. And that power was control of the purse strings of the country.
Continue reading “Republicans Need To Dust Off Federalist No. 58”
To outside political observers, a race for Lt. Governor in Mississippi might seem a strange electoral battle to expend a lot of time, energy, and money. In most statewide elections for state offices around the country, the fight is waged over the governorship, and rightfully so, since those offices tend to be quite powerful in many states of the Union.
Continue reading “Mississippi Needs Chris McDaniel as Lt. Governor”
Mississippi was once a solid Democratic state. From the days of Reconstruction until the 1960s, Mississippi voted for Democrats. That’s just the way it was. But the old Democratic Party is no more, a far cry from the days of Jefferson, Jackson, Cleveland, and even JFK.
Continue reading “Delbert the Democrat”
The most maligned President in US history was Warren G. Harding, who served from his inauguration on March 4, 1921 until August 2, 1923, when he died while on a tour of the West Coast. But so much of what is known about Harding and his presidency is in the realm of myth, not fact.
Continue reading “8 Myths About Warren G. Harding”
Since the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the federal government had rarely lifted a finger to help America’s black population when Warren Harding entered the White House in March 1921. The last civil rights bill had come in 1875. The plight of African-Americans was left up to the states. Washington had long since washed its hands of the issue.
Continue reading “Harding vs. FDR: Race Relations”
Ryan S. Walters 