Looking for Arkansas' "300"

While the results of the primary elections were not what we had hoped for, I want you to know that there is still hope. When what we pray for does not come to pass, it does not mean that we have lost God’s favor. Sometimes it simply means that He wants us to look in another direction. Sometimes it means that He wants us to let go of the things we have been holding onto, and by faith embark on the best sort of adventure of them all. The kind that is so unlikely, that the only way it can succeed is if God Himself is in it.

This is particularly true in the ministry of government and politics. There is a constant temptation to put faith in this or that candidate, or this or that political party. The more ascendant they seem on their own, the easier it is for God to be forgotten- or at least relegated to a mere figurehead. The stronger we seem in ourselves, the less glory for Him should our plans succeed.

This is a theme repeated throughout the Holy Scriptures. When there is faith in man and his institutions, God seldom intervenes for good. It is the Stone that the builders rejected which became the Chief Cornerstone. This is most clear in the account of Gideon, whom the Lord called to deliver His people when the young man was hiding in a wine press.

This unlikely candidate for deliverer raised up an army. God told him that the army which he raised was too many for Him to bless, lest the children of Israel come to believe that they delivered themselves by the power of their own might rather than His working in them. God kept telling Gideon to send more and more soldiers home, until at last only a tiny band of 300 was left to face the vast armies of the Midianites. Did the Midianites view this little band with contempt? Perhaps they said so in their press releases by day, but the Scripture records that in the privacy of their tents at night, the mighty Midianites feared the sword of Gideon as the Sword of the Lord. Right has its own power that cannot be measured by numerical superiority.

Right has its own power, but I have found that the good Lord generally wants us to start our doing right at home before we try to fix the world. The outsider candidates lost in their bids to go to Washington, but what good is it trying to fix a Washington which does not want fixing when we have troubles right here in our own state? Perhaps our energies would be better spent by first changing state and local government before we burn ourselves out trying to fix distant Washington D.C.

There are things that need changing right here. For example, I think that most of us would agree that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who most recently was seen working to get Blanche Lincoln elected in the Democratic primary, should be given an opportunity to re-enter the private sector. In fact, even the state Chairman of the Republican Party, Doyle Webb, said a third party should get on the ballot and find an opponent for Dustin McDaniel.

Well friends, it’s not too late to do that. The Constitution Party of Arkansas has a small group of patriots already working toward that goal. All it takes is 10,000 voter signatures on petitions to certify an alternate party. Let’s say 12,000 signatures just to make sure 10,000 good ones are obtained.

And what does it take to do that? Just 300 people getting 40 signatures each. Only 300 people getting only 40 signatures each could get outsider candidates on the ballot, not only for attorney general, but for a multitude of state races such as state legislative seats. I am asking you to be like one of Gideon’s 300 for this state. I am not asking for money. I am asking for action. Action that is needed in a time when government seems to have lost its way and those we have counted on to fix it have obsessed on federal races to the detriment of state government.

The action I want you to take is to download a ballot access petition and get 40 voters to sign, and then mail them in. The deadline to mail them is July the 9th. Sending in 40 valid voter signatures entitles you to membership in the Constitution Party of Arkansas if you want it. But even if you don’t want it, even if you only want Dustin McDaniel and others like him to draw an opponent in November, I urge you to download the petition and being gathering signatures.

Our position is that we need to take back state government first, and only then work with state government as our helper to encourage an out-of-control federal government to return to its constitutional limits. The CP will not be fielding candidates for Federal offices, so there is no need to fear dividing the vote in any of those races. Most state legislative races are unopposed in November, and our focus will be to find candidates and give people a choice there.

If hope is lost, it can only be because it was first misplaced. Our hope is misplaced when the whole of it is set upon any organization headquartered in the beltway. It is misplaced when it is set upon any New York celebrity talking head that we really don’t know as a person. These are baskets in which it is unwise to put all of our eggs.

Our hope can’t be found in Washington D.C. or in the false glamor of the east coast media. Properly placed hope is hope placed first in God and next in our friends, family, and neighbors. Have you suffered because of misplaced hope? So have I. And I realize now that the only solution is to quit looking to even the so-called “conservative” pundits for our answers and start looking to each other. We shouldn’t wait for their permission to begin moving outside the political establishment which has so often failed us, because they are tied into it!

Let's take our liberty into our own hands. It starts with downloading the ballot petition. We have just over a month to get this done. Will you be one of “Gideon’s 300” for this state?