Strange Irony Part Two

Our new Governor has me going back and forth. Just when I think I have decided to classify him one way or another, he does something to shatter my efforts to pidgeon-hole him. Sure he spends too much, and if the ERA passes generations hence will curse his name, but he is standing his ground on the grocery tax cut. And in a way that might surprise you too.

At the NWA chamber of commerce meeting the other day his boast that the grocery tax cut was moving forward got only scattered applause- most of the businessmen there were for tax cuts targeted to business. Beebe did not let the low applause pass, he confronted them on it. Beebe told them, "For those of you who are tepid in your clapping, and for those of you who didn’t clap at all, let me harken back to what I said earlier: We are in this together. It may not help you as much as it helps somebody else, but to the extent that it helps the least of us, it ultimately helps all of us.”

Wow. That sounds like a scriptural allusion (Matthew 25), and has been reported as such. At the very least, it reflects bibical thinking, no matter where ever he got it.

What makes this stunning is that this is the group of men that in large part made Beebe Governor. That is to say, the difference in the recent election is that NWA business interests decided to "switch sides" and support the Democrats this cycle with money and votes. It is widely believed that at least some of the reason is that many businessmen with a secular worldview felt uncomfortable with the strong religious background of Asa Hutchinson and the GOP ticket. They did not want to waste energy on "social issues", they just wanted to "get down to business"- which seems to mean using government to tilt the laws in their favor.

Wow if I have it right. They threw Hutchinson et al overboard because they were uncomfortable with his religious conservative leanings, and now less than one month in office Beebe is all but quoting scripture at them!