Arkansas~ Can They Hear Us Now?

Conservatives picked up all 7 contested state Senate races and 16 new House seats in last week’s election.

The Arkansas Republican Party now holds 45 State House seats, 15 Senate Seats, 3 State Constitutional Offices, 1 U.S. Senate seat and 3 U.S. Congressional seats; an historic high for the chronically entrenched Democratic state of Arkansas.

There were 44 new faces that reported to Little Rock on Friday, the largest freshman class since 1999. From the looks of the social media updates all of them were raring to go, looking forward to working their new jobs.

Republicans in Arkansas have control of the Tax & Revenue Committee and the Transportation Committee. On Tax and Revenue there are 12 of 20 in the House and 4 of 8 in the Senate giving the GOP all-important veto power. Transportation Committee Republicans picked up 11 members of the 20 and 5 of 8 members in the Senate.

The question that should prevail in the minds of all those that consider this a huge victory: So What NOW?  From where I sit there’s but one answer. And that is simple: We stay as engaged in the process as we were during the election. If all we were about is just getting “our guy” in the seat, then we haven’t accomplished what we came to do, and that is keep our elected officials accountable to limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets.

We need an effective strategy to come alongside those men and women we’ve said we trust to go to Little Rock, make the necessary changes to ensure honor, integrity and reason prevail — and then be vigilant gatekeepers.

First and foremost, citizens must actually connect with those we just charged with properly governing us. Edmond Burke said, “Those who have been once intoxicated with power and have derived any kind of emolument from it can never willingly abandon it.”  It’s the responsibility of the governed to keep those governing in check. To that end we have an obligation to meet with, and hold accountable, those who’ve been elected.

I encourage each of you to begin to make contact with your officials on every level starting with School Boards all the way to our U.S. Senators. Let them know that you are a constituent and that you will be watching and engaging in the political trenches. You will not fall asleep again, nor be uninformed any longer, and that if there is anything you can do to help them be better a legislator they should contact you.

Even the elected with whom we disagree on policy need us to come alongside them when we can agree and help them in every way possible to govern well. Those we elected to our political fancy need to know that they are on notice, as well, and that just because they got our vote this time doesn’t necessarily  mean they have carte blanche. We WILL be there, making sure they stay true to their words and promises.

One way to do this is for concerned citizens to take a look at these committees formed last week choose a point of interest and find others with the same interest.  Make a calendar of committee meetings and take turns attending, then research the topics and become the experts in that area.

Secondly we need to engage on the local levels, making sure we have representation at each public meeting i.e. School Board, City Council and Quorum Court Meetings. If we can, get an accounting of these via a blog, web site or letters to the editors informing the general public of what is happening then, when 2012 rolls around, we will have no trouble getting our conservative message together and across to each other. We will have vital facts and information already cumulated.

Thirdly we must begin to search for new potential representatives, focusing first on the 2011 School Board elections across Arkansas. We have 239 school districts, most of which are severely in debt. We need to start building an infrastructure of conservative leaders from the local level up. Grooming candidates to run for higher offices as they build their resumes — giving Arkansans a record they can clearly distinguish.

As you can see the words of Wendell Phillips never have rung more true. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The mindset of every TEA Partier and Freedom Warrior should be, “I have not yet begun to fight!”

Stay informed, engaged and empowered!

Just FYI~ Seventy five percent of the candidates that American Majority Arkansas established relationships with  across our state were elected Nov 2^nd and are now in a position to affectively  govern their constituents.