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News From the RPA

11/22/2021 0 Comments

Terry Benham discusses seventh principle: "National strength essential for global security"

By: Terry Benham
​

The world is safer when America is strong.  Throughout our lifetime, the world has looked to America first.  Perhaps it wasn’t always that way but as far back as 1630, John Winthrop declared in a sermon that America would become a shining “city on a hill,” representing the hope and aspirations of all free men and women.  Ronald Reagan later revived that phrase, rallying Conservatives across the country around a belief in American exceptionalism and a hope that we would remain a nation which is “sought out by those possessed by an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.”

Strength and courage are in our DNA.  First exemplified by our Founding Fathers, these attributes assert and preserve our exceptional stance in the world. From the beginning, we’ve been a refuge and a beacon of hope to those who seek freedom from oppression and the opportunity to pursue their dreams.  Whether in our home defense or through our international liberation of the oppressed, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces have always been the strength of the American idea.  It’s through them and strong national defense policies, that we remained exceptional and a pillar of strength for our allies and those seeking hope of a better tomorrow.

The Republican Party has always stood for a strong national defense.  The platform states, “Our self-evident rights must always continue to be secured at the individual, state, national, and international levels.”   Sounds nice, but what does that actually mean as it relates to the idea of American exceptionalism?  It’s worth noting how the statement is structured.  It begins at the most basic level… the individual. So for many conservatives, a strong national defense means a commitment by the individual to serve - to serve the state, to serve the country, and to serve the world.

As a nation, we have faced many threats and adversaries together.  What was once bandits and piracy evolved to the British crown, the Axis powers, and the Cold War.  Those conflicts have evolved today in the form of Islamic fundamentalism, cyber criminals, and opportunistic nation states.  These threats may be remarkably different and the problems more complex - but the requirement from America is the same.  We must be the strong, stable symbol of hope in the face of adversity.  We must remember the core mission for the Department of Defense - to (first) deter war and to protect the security of the United States.

The truth is, our adversaries are working hard to divide and conquer us.  They work tirelessly to weaken our resolve while simultaneously destabilizing the world around us.  The notion that we should only worry about our own borders is nonsensical.  The forward defense doctrine has proven effective at both deterring war and protecting the security of our national interests.  Although costly, U.S. military presence within the borders of those nations who sponsor or harbor our adversaries can often lead to a stability that protects both American security and entire regions. It is undeniable that when America projects strength, we provide stability to the world.

The Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan had the opposite effect.  In generous terms, it was an abysmal failure. While many would agree that a withdrawal of troops from the Middle East was necessary and eventual, the incompetent execution of the withdrawal process combined with a lack of a coherent communication strategy was a complete disaster.  We isolated our departure point, a blunder that will be studied for decades.  We lost 13 American service members to poor perimeter security measures.  We broke our promise to the Afghani people to protect them from the groups that had terrorized their lives. Progress made in taking back territory from these oppressive groups has all but reverted to normal.  Twenty years erased.  It showed the United States to be weak, unresolved, and untrustworthy, and it further emboldened our adversaries.

In addition to that mess that still isn’t over, we have additional challenges.  China, both economically and militarily, is a threat to global stability.  Their economic influence is undeniable, however, it’s their investment in military spending, naval warships, and biological and nuclear capabilities that is the most alarming.  The perception of American weakness has emboldened them to explore gray zone warfare tactics against U.S. allies such as Taiwan. Also emboldened by the perception of weakness, Russia has now deployed 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine in a game of chicken with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations.  Make no mistake, it’s a dangerous time across the globe.

We must refocus our efforts on building a strong military focused on the core mission of war fighters - deter war and protect the security of the United States. We must continue to fully fund our military needs with the understanding that we can’t just spend more… we have to spend smart.  We must pull the plug on outdated projects and refocus on research and development for fighting the next war and protecting some of our exposed vulnerabilities.

We must aggressively streamline the bureaucracy within the Department of Defense and get refocused to the core mission as stated.  This includes minimizing mission distractions.  The men and women of the Armed Forces are tasked with being a lethal deterrent to our enemies.  It’s their individual sacrifices that make them, their unit, and our military the most lethal in the history of the world.  Let’s stick to that and leave social experiments to our civilian society.

American exceptionalism begins with the power of the individual.  It’s a willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of others in our community, in our country, and in our world.  American strength comes from those exceptional individuals dedicated to a military powerful enough to deter war and protect the security of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Our exceptionalism and our strength are under attack by both external and internal influences. If we are to remain a beacon of hope, stability, and security then we must stop playing politics with our national defense and distracting from the core mission of war fighters. Otherwise, our own security may be in jeopardy.

Terry Benham is a veteran of the United States Army and a partner at Impact Management Group in Little Rock. 


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11/15/2021 0 Comments

RPA Rules Committee Chairman discusses Sixth Principle: lower taxes for economic growth

By: Steve Lux
We all grew up hearing the story of Robin Hood, the English character who sought the downfall of the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and the return of King Richard II. Whether you imagine Errol Flynn in tights, Kevin Costner with an always-wise Morgan Freeman by his side, or Walt Disney’s fox, the lesson to folks was the same: “robbing the rich to feed the poor.” Now, obviously, we know the Sheriff was corrupt. We know that people were starving because of excessive and unaffordable taxation by those corrupt leaders, but was Robin of Loxley right?

Everyone also knows that famous quote from Benjamin Franklin: “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.” While the American people have always understood the necessity for some taxation for defense, infrastructure, and other public goods, our country has lately devolved into an economic system of excessive taxation to supplement increasing social program expenditures. Taking a hint from European socialist countries, modern America has sadly begun to pursue a Robin Hood perspective, robbing from the rich to feed the poor. It comes in the form of Democrat individual and corporate tax rate increases with the Leftist rhetoric of asking the rich “to pay their fair share.” Not only does the Republican Party platform view this as morally reprehensible, we believe it is counterproductive from an economic standpoint.

A 19th century French economist and political commentator named Frederic Bastiat popularized the concept of “legal plunder.” Starting his lesson in The Law, published originally in 1850, Bastiat described that “plunder” was the theft of someone else’s property for personal gain. But he continues by describing a situation in which the government is the thief. “When the law itself commits this act that it is supposed to suppress, I say that plunder is still committed, and I add that from the point of view of society and welfare, this aggression against rights is even worse.” If it’s illegal for an individual to steal, it’s also illegal for a government.

It was not until about 1910 that an income tax was first applied in the United States. Prior to the advent of the progressive agenda in the early 20th century, Americans understood the necessity of some taxes. In fact, according to the Bill of Rights Institute, many of the Founders held a belief in taxes on imported goods or luxury items. Mirrored in Federalist 21 by Alexander Hamilton, the consumption tax was largely used to balance the budget. Through this system of low taxes, a defense of private property rights, and historic individual freedom the United States quickly became the world’s greatest and freest economy.

Currently, there are nine states which do not have a state income tax.  Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson recently called a special session to consider once again lowering our State income tax. Our Republican supermajority is considering dropping the top rate of 5.9% a full percentage point to 4.9%.  Further, many Republican candidates running for office in the 2022 cycle have cited the goal of eliminating the state income tax altogether at some point in the future.

Contrast our Arkansas Republican approach to that of the Democrats in Washington, DC. They are proposing to raise the corporate income tax rate from 21 to 28 percent. That would make the United States corporate tax rate the highest of any developed country in the world.  Forbes writer Andrew Milsap wrote it best recently when he said, “It is important to remember that corporate taxes are paid by people.” He continued with the point that 30 to 35 percent of the taxes are indirectly levied on the employees, manifesting as lower wages. Milsap contends that the employer bears about 40 percent of the taxes and the rest is passed on to the consumer in the form of rising prices of goods. We currently see that manifested perfectly in out-of-control rates of inflation that risk accelerating to Carter-era levels. The consumer always suffers the most in the end.

Republicans know that both common sense and basic economics tell us that a free market with limited government regulation will naturally produce greater prosperity for all. More money in the pockets of business owners leads to higher wages and greater investment. When production is high and costs are low, the prices paid by consumers are much more affordable.

​The “invisible hand” of the market is very real. Adam Smith’s theory on free enterprise states that the collective self-interests of consumer and business will naturally drive a prosperous economy. Quite simply, prosperity is created, not taken from someone else. Rather than robbing the rich to feed the poor, let's help the poor by producing good paying jobs for them to fill. Quite frankly, as nice of a story as it is, Robin Hood was wrong. Keep the government from robbing everyone, and the poor won't be poor anymore.


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11/8/2021 2 Comments

RPA Deputy Treasurer explains Party's Fifth Principle: Private Property

By: John Nabholz
​
Private Property: At first glance the phrase conjures a mental picture of a sign posted on the side of the highway with foreboding on the other side, perhaps mean dogs, or sketchy neighbors. And yet, this simple, intuitive right is so foundational to the worldwide decline of poverty, that our society as we know it would not exist without it. The “natural” right to property is so fundamental to Capitalism that it is often overlooked and lately, even maligned as an evil. Fortunately, its importance is proclaimed by the Republican Party of Arkansas as the fifth of its ten principles listed in the Party Platform.

The right to property is intuitive, because we are taught this by every father and mother from a time before we can even talk. “Oh,” you say, “we are taught to share first.” Perhaps so, we are taught to share, but immediately before or after that we are taught not to take from others without their permission. Babies will be taught that if there is something they want, that their playmate is not inclined to share, that they should offer another toy in exchange.

It is the same with private property. Absent the right of private property, capitalism and the free exchange of goods and services would not exist. Both communism and socialism fail because of their failure to respect the fundamental right of private property as greater than the needs of the collective as they (the state) may choose to define their need. There are many liberal intellectuals who point to entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates with a disdainful slant, as if the possession of great wealth was inherently evil. This implies that somehow their wealth was either the cause of poverty or that re-distribution of their private property is a potential solution to world poverty.

The rights of private property were well understood even before the time of Adam Smith, the father of capitalism. As far back as the time of Aristotle in Greece, he could see firsthand the “tragedy of the commons.” Aristotle said, “what is common to the greatest number gets the least amount of care.” It makes sense: if something belongs to you, you will take better care of it and be a greater steward than if something belongs to the common collective.

The right to property is not “given” by the state, but rather the state only exists to protect our rights to property. Often referred to as “natural rights” or “vested” rights, the right to property is considered to have existed before our constitution. Thomas Jefferson’s “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was taken from John Locke’s treatise where he discussed how the state existed to protect “life, liberty and property.” Locke believed that “the fruits of one's labor are one's own because one worked for it.” He viewed this as a natural right, or a right that existed in a state of nature that predated societies or government. John Adams went so far as to say, “Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist,” underscoring how fundamental this right was to the success of the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America.

John Locke believed that the rights to property began with your own body and includes your right to one’s conscience, to one’s freedom, and in one’s labor. None of these natural rights could exist without the right to the things you produce, including your ideas. We live in a physical world, and our rights do not exist only in the tiny spaces in our minds, but in the physical objects and intellectual ideas that have value and belong uniquely to each person.

The funny thing about property rights is that some believe that an increase of one’s right to property will lessen or somehow diminish the common good. This implies that property is finite and any increase by one person decreases the common or individual condition of everyone else. This belief denies human creativity and the impact of labor on a physical world that is finite. It is my belief that a near infinite amount of material wealth and human wellbeing for all of mankind is trapped, waiting to be freed by hard-working people and entrepreneurs, who, by their free will, create a better world. By improving their property with their labor, it increases in value for them but also for all of society as we barter and trade for some of these newly developed riches. It may be counter intuitive to some but the seemingly selfish right to property allows the investment of labor and ingenuity that ultimately enriches everyone. If you multiply this improvement across an entire society, it will explain how seemingly selfish capitalism has removed more people from abject poverty than any system known to man. 

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11/1/2021 1 Comment

National Committeewoman McAlindon presents Party's Fourth Principle: Limited Government

By: Mindy McAlindon, RPA National Committeewoman

Limited Government is a calling card of every Republican candidate. But why? What are the virtues of a Limited Government? ​The real virtue of a Limited Government is that it promotes and supports economic and personal freedom – a free society. 

As a government grows, the influence of institutions integral to the fabric of our society, like churches, other religious institutions, and family, are forced to shrink. Alexis de Tocqueville recognized these voluntary institutions as the bedrock of American liberty and self-reliance.  These institutions are where we teach and learn our value system, our morals, and our beliefs.  It is what binds families and communities together, caring and supporting one another.  Having liberty allows us to dream and reach for those dreams.  It drives creativity and innovation.  It is what has made this American Experiment the most successful in the history of the world. 

Even so, we must always remember our Rights are given to us from God; they are endowed from our Creator not granted by government. The Bill of Rights, those first ten amendments, were specifically added to the Constitution to protect against governmental infringement and abuse of power.  They are a list of limitations for the federal government.  Our Founders had seen and understood that for personal freedom to be expansive, governmental power must be restricted.
George Washington warned, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, —it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” Meaning, government is dangerous and must always be watched!

Well, if Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is that government, when left unchecked, becomes totalitarian or authoritarian, imposing the will of some at the expense of liberty for all.  Liberal politicians at all levels have taken advantage of freedom-loving,  self-reliant individuals.  God-fearing Americans who willingly gave up rights to “flatten the curve” for two weeks witnessed their rights constrained for the last 18 months with little end in sight.  Free speech has been squashed on-line, freedom of religion was impinged as churches were closed (while liquor stores remained open), right to assemble became stay at home orders, and even the right to a speedy trial was significantly slowed. And now, independent, free citizens are being questioned as to their vaccination status before boarding an airplane, requesting a table in a restaurant, attending public events, or simply going to work.

Recently, our Democrat President dictatorially signed an executive order forcing business with 100+ employees to become the enforcement arm of the government.  Not only does such a mandate pry into the personal medical decisions of employees far beyond working hours, but it also effectively cripples the profitability of businesses that cannot or simply will not comply. A government that controls the market, picks winners and losers, and strips personal freedoms is not only unconstitutional but borders on communism. 
 
Still, we must remain vigilant, fighting to keep the balance between freedom and responsibility, between governance and over-reaching government. In Federalist 48, James Madison declared, “It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.”  We must be heedful of that limit.
 
Arkansas is blessed to have a Republican supermajority in the 93rd General Assembly who reflect principles of the Founders - and the Republican Party platform. In the most recent session of the legislature, Republican members have drafted bills which defend employers from unfair government intervention into business practices and preserve efforts to increase state economic progress. It is clear that Arkansas leadership values the consent of the governed and understands the limits and sources of their own power.  As citizens, we too have a duty to remain watchful.

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