Arkansas GOP: Still not ready for prime time

When I first moved to my little corner of Arkansas in 2010, we had a Democratic Governor (and really any state-wide office you could imagine) and solid majorities (if not super-majorities) in both chambers of the State Assembly. What I learned very quickly from reading the news sites at the time was that the state's GOP was not ready for prime time (as a pundit put it at the time). There was no apparent positive platform, and much of the energy seemed to be directed at airing grievances about Obama being our nation's President. A barely-existent Democratic infrastructure combined with a Tea Party wave we saw in 2010 and again in 2012 were what propelled the state's GOP to tentative power and later absolute power after the 2014 election cycle. A decade later, one would think that the GOP's party apparatus would be in solid shape, its politicians more polished and with some tangible policies that appear based on current economic realities, etc. This is the part where we laugh loudly. Once we contain ourselves, we can acknowledge that the GOP in Arkansas is in disarray with gerrymandered districts, a state court system that puts its thumb on the scale for the GOP (even if it hasn't yet started to follow the Party Line with the consistency that the party brass might have hoped for) and voter apathy being the factors enabling to hold power. 

The problem with a party run by folks who couldn't find their butts with both hands (as my dad would have said) is that in the absence of any positive agenda, meetings are bound to devolve into reprisals and score-settling. That seems to be very evident when we turn our attention to the Saline County GOP. Saline County is located to the south-southwest of Little Rock. It's practically spitting distance from Little Rock. Needless to say, its meetings will attract Republicans from other surrounding counties. Saline County's GOP has been making news in our state mostly for its members' role in disrupting the state's GOP convention earlier this year, and for its insane and inane level of bitterness and infighting. Physical violence is a bit uncommon, but that also apparently is a thing now at Saline County GOP meetings, as this article details (along with some recent colorful episodes of its leaders and members in action). The article embeds the video of the altercation. Although there is not a lot of context about what led up to the fist-fight the broke out, I get the impression that there is a bit of history between any of the individuals involved. I really don't care about the details. What I find more interesting is the struggle for the presumed county party leaders to get the situation back under control. They appeared to just give up finally. 

Think about why one goes to a county party committee meeting. One might want to meet some candidates and learn what they bring to the table for the offices they are running for. Surely one would want to know what sorts of fundraising activities and campaigning activities are coming up so they can make plans to participate. Dodging personal insults, threats, and fists are, I would hope, be the farthest thing from an attendee's mind. A well organized county party sets the stage to avoid the vitriol and violence. I sure didn't see a lot of organization in the video clip accompanying the article. It was chaos. If I ever saw any of these folks running for an office, I would use some good old-fashioned horse sense and vote for their opponents, as these individuals are simply not serious enough to be trusted with the public well-being at any level of government. I go to my own county's Democratic Party meetings in order to learn what I need to know about candidates' platforms, our chances in the next election, and for fundraising and not to end up being a witness at what could arguably be called a crime scene. The longer I live in this state, the more I appreciate my county's Democratic Party organization. We at least stay civil and focus on the issues that matter. 

If you want to see the Saline County meeting video clip, it is on YouTube. Note that it doesn't embed very well. You will have to click a link to watch directly on YouTube, as the scene was considered one not suitable for the under-18 crowd. Make of that what you will. As I said earlier, this bunch is not ready for prime time.


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