Entries by Neal Barkus

Will West Virginia Avert Its Eyes from Trump Administration Corruption?

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American political history is rife with examples of corruption. The period after the Civil War was known then as the Great Barbecue, when ethics broke down in public life. There were embezzling treasurers, bribe-giving lobbyists, purchased newspapermen, and swindlers at the public trough. But the Trump Administration has just tried to pull off a corrupt deal so brazen it would make Reconstruction-era crooks blush. Good people, including West Virginia’s Congressional delegation, cannot look the other way.

Moving a Sofa – or a Nation

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There is a long-running debate in America between those with a libertarian outlook, who believe it is every man for himself, and the rest of us. But we can cut through the debate about individual versus collective rights at a moment’s notice by asking ourselves how important our objective really is. Is it moving a sofa or moving a nation? If our objective is hugely important – maybe existential – we know the answer. We have demonstrated time and again that the collective approach is the only way. After all, we are in this together.

Why West Virginia is Right to Count Timely-Cast Absentee Ballots Received After Election Day

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West Virginia is one of thirty-one states that permit absentee ballots mailed on or before election day to be counted if received within a reasonable time after election day. West Virginia’s choice reflects a balance of the need for finality in elections with the particular needs of our citizens. This grace period ensures that the elderly, the disabled, overseas military personnel and others have their votes counted despite the difficulties with mail service. Our state is right to count these ballots, not as a partisan matter but as a matter of fairness and democracy.

Tending to Our Democracy

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Democracy in America has developed slowly but surely since 1789. It is now the principal attribute of our political life. But recently, the fiction that the integrity of our elections is under threat has driven one major political party to adopt measures that weaken democracy. These measures narrow who can vote and how we can cast our vote. Our democracy needs tending and election integrity should not be the tail that wags the dog.

ICE Has Violated America

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the hammer of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy. Public opinion is mixed on the policy, but not supportive of ICE methods. Whatever you think of the policy, ICE agents have behaved like the dreaded secret police of totalitarian regimes, and disgraced America in so many ways it is hard to count them.

An Open Letter to Dante on the Great Man’s Place in Hell

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In 14th Century Italy, Dante evaluated the sinners of his time. In his great poem The Inferno, Dante placed them in the appropriate circle of hell. The worst sinners were closer to Satan and their punishments fit their crimes. But the political and other crimes of our Great Man could not have been imagined then. This letter explains all to Dante and asks for his opinion on where the Great Man might be found for the rest of eternity.

Land Ownership Rights Threatened by the Legislature

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Land in America is generally owned in “fee simple,” meaning that the owner possesses every aspect of ownership and every possible use. But recent efforts around the country by extractive industries and their legislative allies are threatening one aspect of this historic type of land ownership. Industry wants to prevent land protection agreements by which the landowner voluntarily chooses not to develop his property. How a landowner chooses to use — or not use — his property should be up to him not the Legislature.

Making Sense of the Religious Exemption Dispute in West Virginia

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At least five lawsuits are underway in West Virginia challenging the state mandate requiring vaccination of schoolchildren, which allows no religious exemptions. Protection of religion from government intrusion is a fundamentally serious matter, not a culture war issue. But so is the protection of our children against serious and sometimes fatal diseases. The problem is that Governor Morrissey has tried to create religious exemptions where none exist in the law, and a judge in Raleigh County appears headed in the same direction. Protecting schoolchildren from disease should be at the top of our list, and the vaccine mandate has done an admirable job of that for 120 years. What is happening here?

Let’s Revive West Virginia’s Future Fund

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Several states with economies dependent on natural resource extraction have had the foresight to create sovereign wealth funds. These are investments funded by a set percentage of severance taxes or royalties collected by the state. West Virginia had a sovereign wealth fund called the Future Fund, but it died in 2023 with a whimper, not a bang. Legislators did not have the discipline from year to year to build and preserve the Fund. The answer is a constitutional amendment that removes from the legislature any discretion not to make deposits into the Future Fund. The political value of solving this problem with a constitutional amendment is plain.

West Virginia Desperately Needs A Higher Minimum Wage

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West Virginia’s minimum wage has been stuck at $8.75 for a decade. The minimum wage worker today has taken a 35% pay cut compared to the same worker in 2016 because of inflation. Raising the minimum wage will bring many workers and their families out of poverty, reduce deaths of despair, improve the health of newborns and enhance the attractiveness of working. It would be a powerful economic and social policy costing the taxpayer nothing.