Sarah Sanders is Not a Tyrant

It’s easy to indict the Republican Party of Arkansas for corruption. It’s common knowledge that management is responsible for the actions of those they manage. If the RPA is corrupt – and they are – then it’s Joseph Wood and, by connection his boss, Sarah Sanders, who are responsible.

As a former political consultant, the Governor was certainly attuned to whatever dirty tricks work to get a candidate elected; however, she had no experience in serving the public. Her experience was and is in serving a candidacy, serving the machine. Never having served in a low level or any elected position prior to her election as Governor of Arkansas, she never had the opportunity to learn how to serve the people. She was never shown an example of serving the public by either of the candidates she consulted for nor did she have any personal experience in service to the public. She still doesn’t serve the public, and she rules through fear and largess distributed through her PAC.

On her watch, the Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA) removed Saline County from the party; framed Jennifer Lancaster, the 2024 State Convention Chair, and removed her from the party; and intimidated other county parties with threats of expulsion if they didn’t toe the line. It seems there are no Republicans in the republican party anymore. There are, however, a bunch that go along to get along. Shades of 2010!

RPA’s platform does not specifically mention FOIA, however it does state a commitment to “open, honest, and accountable government,” and additionally addresses principles related to government transparency and accountability, which are closely tied to the purpose of FOIA laws. The platform, as outlined in its most recent public iterations, emphasizes limited government, individual liberty, and the protection of constitutional rights, which can be interpreted as implicitly supporting transparency mechanisms like FOIA to ensure government accountability to the people. That’s what the platform says.

What happens in the real world of Arkansas politics is Governor Sanders didn’t like the people being able to determine who was traveling with her, so she advanced the security lie that people of bad will could know how and what to plan if they knew what type of security she had with her. As the information available on FOIA was only available after the fact, the argument was specious. As to who the governor had with her on the plane, there is a question of who pays for the spouse and children. It may be nice to have your family with you, but you should pay for them if they travel with you.

Regardless of the reason for the request, she had the FOIA laws weakened in the last session, and there were at least four more bills brought out in this session to emasculate FOIA. Not living by their platform if I’m any judge.

The actions taken against party members pale when compared to the rumored poll of party faithful to determine what bill topics should be acted on in the 2025 legislative session. This covert planning is directed at attacking the grassroots movement, reinforcing the primacy of elected officials doing whatever they wish regardless of what their constituents want, and consolidating the governor’s hold over state government. None of this is reflected in the platform.

Every bill that had grassroots support was either not able to get out of committee or was followed up by a Sanders-sycophant-submitted bill that was passed instead of the grassroots bill. Several legislators were heard to say “that’s what you get for taking away our vote,” so these actions were revenge of our employees against actions we the people had taken. By the way, many states have removed the vote in party internal elections from elected officials; the reason given is elected officials are there to do the people’s will, not determine what that will is. The same goes for the Governor, but she doesn’t care a whit about the people except at election time. Her interest is in a tame and compliant legislature.

It’s disgusting to watch people pretend they’re for the people when they’re obviously not. Some will say “there’s always the next election,” but that won’t resolve anything because the corruption goes all the way to the top. As soon as a person is elected under the republican banner they’re pressured to “do the right thing,” which means what Sarah wants. It won’t change until county committees read the platform and demand RPA follows it. The bosses can’t kick out every county and continue to rule. Unfortunately it seems the counties that are left are as tame as the legislature, at least those that lead them.

We’re told that some county chairpersons were marked as “troublemakers” when they advocated anything that was not part of RPA’s (read Sarah’s) agenda. This is consistent with the oppressive leadership style we’ve seen demonstrated. The Governor has her drones like Joseph Wood and others to do her bidding, while exhibiting a kind, motherly face in public. She hasn’t earned our trust and in fact has destroyed any chance she ever had of the grassroots approving of her or her actions.

It’s a shame that a state political party created as force against slavery now practices the fear and intimidation tactics that kept slavery alive. It’s as if elected officials are required to surrender their free will in order to get power. Actually, that’s exactly what happens if an elected official wants to make a difference. You have to bend the knee to the monarch or you get no cooperation, no support, and no one voting for your bills if they even get out of committee.

It’s time someone in the state government actually read the State Constitution, and maybe even the RPA Rules. It wouldn’t hurt the professional republicans at RPA to read them either. Then, maybe, just for a change of pace, abide by them.

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Jack Sotallaro

Continuity planning, civilian and military