There seemed to be a great sigh of relief a few weeks back when the governor announced his intentions to postpone a special legislative session last month. I don't think it was out of fear of tax-reform measures.
Instead, I think Arkansas' sensible collective was relieved to have avoided, at least for a short time, another runaway session dominated by misguided legislative proposals based on addressing nonexistent problems, introduced by lawmakers as part of a national agenda, rather than an Arkansas agenda.
We've seen plenty of it this year already. If I had to summarize the motivations of much of this year's more controversial bills in one word, it'd be disinformation. Disinformation has taken hold of the Arkansas Capitol, and I don't foresee it turning loose any time soon.
If you work your way down the list of questionable legislation passed out of the Capitol building this year, you'll find a good deal of dubious information used to justify it.
Arkansas added a few acts to the books that make it more challenging for our citizens to vote:
• Act 736 makes it easier to toss out absentee ballots.
• Act 249 makes it harder to approve provisional ballots.
• Act 973 narrows the window for absentee ballot delivery.
These bills were not introduced to address any pre-existing problems in Arkansas. Instead, they were introduced and overwhelmingly approved based on the false notion of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Pay no mind to the fact that Arkansas is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to voter turnout, and the candidate they believe in having been the victim of the nonexistent fraud won Arkansas overwhelmingly.
Bills were introduced to control and censor what historical facts public school teachers could and could not teach concerning matters of race. Such efforts stemmed from the misinformed belief that "critical race theory" was being taught in Arkansas schools--of course, it was not, nor at any K-12 in the country.
Bills were passed to take away communities' ability to enforce sensible mask mandates, especially within our school districts where hundreds of children were forced to isolate and miss class due to exposure. Subsequent studies confirmed the effectiveness of masks to prevent the spread of covid-19 by 25 percent, and wearing one could have kept those students in the classrooms.
During the nine-day extended session, which was only intended to last three days to address redistricting and covid-19 emergencies, certain lawmakers had a field day filing bills motivated by partisan-driven misinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories about vaccines and mask-wearing.
We did avoid some bad legislation, but the threat of another session has a lot of folks concerned. And rightfully so. When lawmakers deal in questionable information, you are bound to see legislation based on politics rather than policy.
I find it hard to believe that all of my colleagues that engaged in these conspiracies and falsehoods genuinely believe in what they are selling. Instead, they know some of their constituents back home do.
They form a misinformed minority, but a very loud one. One that sucks up a lot of the oxygen in the room, leaving some lawmakers--I believe--willing to deal in misinformation to avoid the ire of the very vocal few.
Arkansas is not the only state experiencing this. It's a phenomenon spreading across the country. Our friends across the river are experiencing it, too, prompting a great, stirring piece from one of their own elected officials in Tennessee.
As supposed leaders in this great state, my colleagues on either side of the aisle must not just search for consensus from the most vocal of our constituents. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, genuine leaders are not searchers for consensus, but molders of it.
We were given a great responsibility when voters sent us to Little Rock. It's important we treat these duties as such and, as leaders, search for truth and reason among the noise. We must operate in the best interest of all Arkansans, and we must operate in one shared reality.
There's no such thing as a conservative truth or a liberal truth. There is only one reality. And that's the truth. What we do here on this stage, in the people's house, has consequences for all of us for many years to come.
Another session is coming. Democracy is hard work, but it can be the most rewarding work if we do it right and we do it together.
State Sen. Keith Ingram of West Memphis represents District 24, which includes Crittenden County and parts of Cross, Lee, Phillips, and St. Francis Counties. Currently, he serves as the Senate Minority Leader.