Marble Fever Infects the RPA
But the grassroots has a cure
The Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA) is split into two parts these days: the “old guard” who have mostly been with the Party for a long time and are used to the status quo where Democrats run the state whether they’re in power or not, and the grassroots who are mostly new and intensely focused on enforcing the Republican platform and running an aggressive campaign to elect Republicans who also agree and support the Party platform.
In our church, we say, “If it’s not in Scripture it isn’t.” The same goes for the Republican Party. If it’s not in the platform or the RPA Rules, it doesn’t control what we do or how we act. That’s what we grassroots Republicans believe.
Marble Fever Spreads
In the past we’ve seen so many new legislators catch “marble fever” where they forget all the things they told voters they stood for once they get to Little Rock. Well, we hate to have to add the RPA / Executive Committee to the list of those infected with those symptoms. We don’t know you anymore, Joseph Wood. When you ran for office you were 180 degrees out of phase with who you are now, and your RPA management team reflects that change as well. What’s so threatening about allowing all RPA members to have a voice?
We’re confused. How does the RPA obviously violate our own Rules and yet continue to get away with it?
Looking Back
We remember when the TEA Party first came along about ten years ago. The Republican elites were scared out of their Depends over active voters who asked questions, wanted answers, and who comprised a rather large percent of the RPA’s donors.
The state GOP did everything it could to neutralize the TEA Party, offering our leaders positions, lying about us, and basically ignoring the people (the voting base). They still promoted us to vote and asked us to canvass for them, hang signs, and do all the other things we’d done for them in the past. They just would not acknowledge our key part in “turning Arkansas red,” nor would we get a seat at the table, despite all our work, donations, and engagement.
No Special Privileges
Jump forward to today. At the 2024 Biennial State Convention the grassroots are again looking to get a seat at the table and, according to the numbers, we outnumber the old guard 3 to 1 — more than enough members to vote in anything we want. Now the elites are looking at becoming just like every other member of the RPA, with no special privileges. That’s anathema to them — they are used to controlling what happens and they believe they’re entitled to violate the rules whenever it’s in their best interests. Of course they’re wrong; they’re entitled to all the privileges of membership, the same as every one of us, but nothing more.
Politics in the past was all about Democrats getting in the way of everything the Republicans wanted to do; they were the majority and what they said they wanted was what happened. Now that the same political struggle has moved within the RPA the grassroots is determined to cure the RPA of its marble fever.
Over the last few years, the Republican old guard is acting more and more like Democrats, playing fast and loose with the Rules, turning precedent on its head, and moving goalposts willy-nilly to suit their purposes — while the grassroots are the steady, get-back-to-basics, follow-the-platform Republicans.
The difference is now the grassroots holds the majority and no matter what dirty tricks the old guard tries, we have the passion and perseverance for returning the Party to its platform values. We have the numbers and we’ll cure this marble fever.
We will win.