I often give a speech about how Arkansas lost more population per capita than any other state from 1940-60. We’ve been gaining population consistently since the 1960s, however.
What led to that turnaround?
On the private-sector side, I point out the amazing business titans — people like Sam Walton, John and then Don Tyson, William Dillard, Charles Murphy, J.B. Hunt and others — who built some of the nation’s top companies in this small, poor state and kept them here.
Also on the private-sector side, I point to Witt and Jack Stephens, who in essence brought Wall Street to Arkansas. They had the ability to take the ideas of the state’s entrepreneurs and then take them public, allowing them to grow to the next level.
On the government side, I point to the power of the Arkansas congressional delegation during the 1960s when we began to turn it around. Those members of Congress were able to bring us projects such as the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundments and more. Such projects helped rescue desperately poor rural areas of Arkansas.
I would always end the speech by saying that we had been blessed since the election of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller in 1966 with a run of moderate, pragmatic governors. This was unusual for a Southern state. And it was not a partisan thing. Five of these governors were Democrats — Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker and Mike Beebe. Four of the governors were Republicans — Rockefeller, Frank White, Mike Huckabee and Asa Hutchinson.
While they might be a bit more partisan on the national stage, back home in Arkansas they governed from the middle. And that was a good thing.
We’re less than two months into the administration of Gov. Sarah Sanders, but it appears that long era has come to an end.
Sanders seems intent on bringing the chaos and divisiveness of the Trump administration to state government — from rushing through a major education overhaul in an attempt to avoid needed debate, to avoiding the Arkansas media while relying on national far-right outlets, to her mindless tweets.
The name calling from the governor is puerile and frankly just tired — the sign of a shallow person unwilling to debate issues on their merits.
“The left is becoming even more desperate with their lies and false attacks,” she tweets.
“We are not messing around in Arkansas. Every kid will have access to a quality education whether the left likes it or not.”
“The left.”
“The radical left.”
So predictable.
So unimaginative.
We’ve not seen anything like this in Arkansas since Orval Faubus and his minions were branding those who would dare ask questions as Communists.
The governor is demeaning her own constituents on a daily basis. And as a native Arkansan who loves this state, it ticks me off.
I think back to when Mike Huckabee was thrust into office following the 1996 resignation of Tucker. Huckabee dropped out of a U.S. Senate race he was going to win and immediately surrounded himself with experienced Arkansans. His senior management team in the governor’s office included highly respected former legislators such as Dick Barclay, Jim von Gremp and Joe Yates.
Huckabee later brought in strong, outspoken women (all native Arkansans with long years of service to the state) such as former legislator Carolyn Pollan of Fort Smith and Judge Betty Dickey of Pine Bluff. Huckabee’s chief of staff his entire time in office was Brenda Turner of Texarkana. Turner worked behind the scenes and kept a low profile, but she was a force of nature.
Sanders, meanwhile, has surrounded herself with political hacks who have no concern about the people of Arkansas or this state’s future. It’s all about the boss’ national political standing inside a Republican Party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt. They’ll simply move on to other states when they’re done here.
There are modern-day Barclays and Pollans out there, governor, who would be happy to help you.
I sincerely pray that you find them and listen to them. It’s still early in your administration. It’s not too late to turn it around.
Arkansas must come first.
Poor Rex. This is what happens when one becomes irrelevant and no one seeks his opinion anymore. Time to go to the pasture and retire before you become even more foolish. Something’s amiss with you. Been seeing it happen over the last 5 years. Get a checkup please.
Rex is spot on. He has practical experience in Arkansas politics experience and a good memory. “Mike” above can only be demeaning and insulting. Sanders makes me wish we could go back to two-year gubernatorial terms. I’ll sign a petition to put that on the ballot.
Why would I retire when I have the best job in Arkansas?
Rex, thank you for this. As a businessman I learned that every sale and each customer were important my bottom line. As a politician, I’d hope that Sanders would learn that every constituent is important to our state’s success. The extreme divisiveness of the Trump administration has no place in our state’s politics. Each of us matter to the bottom line, whether gay, straights, black, white or magenta. We need a governor who can find it in her heart to really care for each of us. So far, not so good.
Thank you for verbalizing what many of us in the center have been feeling for quite some time. I fear for our great state. It is being played for a fool right now. I wish the center right and the center left could figure out a way to govern for our common good while leaving the far right and the far left alone to sulk in their own corners. Governor Sanders would do herself well to study her father’s handling of the last generational shift to Arkansas K12 education.
Rex, even if your points are well taken, what does it say that you refer to a bunch of young Governor’s staffers as hacks? Have you met these people? Do you think they wake up and put their shoes on any different than Austin or Evan? No name calling for the Governor, whose radical left is at least nameless and faceless, but oh yes, old white newspaper guys can demean people by name and assume they’re evil having never met them or spoken a word. What privilege indeed to be so all knowing.
I was called that so much during my 14 years in government, Honest Broker, that it’s practically a term of endearment. But only a political hack would advise the governor to do an exclusive interview on changes affecting Arkansas schoolchildren with The Washington Examiner rather than with a publication that Arkansans see. I trust and pray there are plenty of other advisers to our governor who aren’t out-of-state political hacks. These will be the ones who actually tell her what she needs to hear, not what she necessarily wants to hear: “Cut out the angry, divisive approach. Call on your better angels. Let’s focus on building Arkansas rather than raising money nationally for a campaign that is more than three years away.” Trust me, when this administration ends and historians write about it, the governor will look back and most appreciate not the brownnosers but those who spoke honestly because they cared about her personally and about the state.
In Bill Clinton’s first term as Governor of Arkansas, he brought in people from outside the state, including some young, arrogant types who almost immediately made the legislators angry, in addition to most of the people in Arkansas. Clinton lost the next election to Frank White. Rex Nelson is absolutely correct in his analysis. While Mike Huckabee wasn’t the best Governor, in my view, he did a pretty fair job of handling the office without the anger, arrogance and name calling that his daughter seems to prefer. As a conservative Democrat (yes, there are still some of us out there), I probably would respectively disagree with Rex on some issues, but on this one, I think he’s right.