JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<table width="100%" border="0" bordercolor="red"  bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
    <td width="200" valign="top" height="500">

    <table width="190" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
    <td bgcolor="#083365">
    <a href="#" class="menu_links"> Discussions</a>
    </td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td bgcolor="#073b77">
    <a href="#" class="menu_links"> Polls</a>

    </td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td bgcolor="#06448a">
    <a href="#" class="menu_links"> News</a>
    </td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td bgcolor="#064a97">
    <a href="#" class="menu_links"> Announcements</a>

    </td>
</tr>
</table>    </td>
    <td width="*" align="left" valign="top">STUFF</td>
</tr>
</table>

CSS

.menu_links:link
{
    font-family     : Calibri;
    font-size       : 13px;
    color           : #e0e0e0;
    text-decoration : none;
}

.menu_links:visited
{
    font-family     : Calibri;
    font-size       : 13px;
    color           : #e0e0e0;
    text-decoration : none;
}

.menu_links:hover
{
    font-family     : Calibri;
    font-size       : 13px;
    color           : #ffffff;
    text-decoration : none;
}