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Justice delay in resigning makes sense

Some people continue to be upset that Gov. Jim Justice is waiting until Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey’s inauguration on Monday, Jan. 13, to resign and take is place in the U.S. Senate to avoid having a total of four governors (two of those being senate presidents acting as governor) in a 10-day span. However, there is at least two good reasons for the delay. First of all, it allowed former state treasurer Riley Moore to take his U.S. House of Representatives seat Friday when Congress returned from recess. While both the House and U.S. Senate have narrow GOP majorities for the new ...

Difference between ‘deep state’ and ‘the swamp’

Donald Trump has promised to do many things once he reoccupies the White House. Among the most famous, and most desired by his biggest fans, is his vow to “drain the swamp” and “demolish the deep state.” The first and arguably most important challenge for such a project is definitional. What is the deep state? And what is the swamp? Are they different? How so? Trump doesn’t have a clear answer. He often uses the terms interchangeably. And he’s not alone. Many in the media do the same. That’s understandable if you try to put yourself inside Trump’s head (something I ...

Lost Majority

New Year’s Day is a good time to take a long look backward with a cautious eye toward possible futures. My guide here is RealClearPolitics analyst Sean Trende’s 2012 book “The Lost Majority,” whose bold thesis was unduly neglected by political scientists spinning tales of a permanent New Deal Democratic majority. Trende’s thesis instead was that Democrats’ big 1930s majorities were not enduring. Their 1940s presidential victories owed more to Franklin Roosevelt’s wartimes and Harry Truman’s Cold War leadership than to big-government domestic policies, which no Congress ...

Life of service

Jimmy Carter’s passing is mourned because of his life of service, honesty, and faith. He is unquestionably the most successful of the “ex-Presidents” in that he achieved much after he left office. His work with Habitat for Humanity and nearly eliminating the guinea worm that caused blindness in Africa were outstanding successes. Carter’s presidency, however, was adjudged by some as a failure given Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. True, Carter left office after suffering the worst re-election defeat since Herbert Hoover’s loss to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Moreover, Carter ...

Future learning opportunities

The Christmas Open Hours at Kump Education Center brought back lots of happy memories of Decembers long ago. An exquisite toy train kept chugging around the track reminding us of the days when Elkins was a railroad town. A lovely homemade snowman collection in the library was a sentimental reminder of the days when Elkins had many deep snows each winter. December is the time for nostalgia, but January forces us to think about our KEC vision: creating a brighter future for the next generation. Forty years ago most children had two parents who did what they could to give their ...

Leadership multiplicity

There is a popular meme often shared on the internet of two individual Spider-Men pointing at each other. Sometimes the meme includes four Spider-Men or more. Replace the Spider-Men with Gov. Jim Justice, outgoing Senate President Craig Blair, incoming Senate President Randy Smith, and Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey all pointing at each other. The one thing all four have in common is one is the current governor, one is the incoming governor, and the two senate presidents might have had to briefly act as governor. But that possible Golden Horseshoe question is no longer a ...