Skot Covert: Why Asa Hutchinson Is Right For Young Arkansans

Editor’s note: This guest opinion-editorial is written by Skot Covert, an Ozark, Arkansas native and recent graduate of Arkansas Tech University. Covert, Director of Digital Media with Impact Management Group, is currently serving as National Co-Chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC).

Democrats, in a quest to stem their election-year losses, have adopted a campaign strategy straight out of George Orwell’s 1984. Rather than say who they are and what they believe, Democratic candidates like Mike Ross are engaging in “doublethink,” a term Orwell described as the “power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

Young adults in Arkansas want more and deserve better than a candidate who refuses to stand up for what he believes. Ross wants young voters to see him as a rebel that can’t be defined by party labels.

“I was never a national Democrat,” Ross says. “I’ve always been an Arkansas Democrat.”

And he wants young people to see him as a Washington-outsider, who should be defined more as a fifth-generation Arkansan and a pharmacy owner, rather than a six-time Congressman.

But Ross’ record in Washington tells a much different story. The truth is that he voted with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 82 percent of the time. He voted “yes” on the stimulus bill, “yes” on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), “yes” on the Obama budget, and “yes” on the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And perhaps worst of all, he was a decisive vote that passed health care reform out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Ross’ Obamacare record shouldn’t come as a surprise to Arkansans who may remember him saying, “one of the biggest reasons I ran for Congress was because I wanted to reform health care.” And he got his wish by being a decisive vote that breathed new life into an on-the-ropes Obamacare bill because, in his words, he “was not trying to kill health care reform.” This is the very legislation that is crippling job prospects among young Americans.

That’s not leadership. It’s doublethink.

It’s believing yourself to be a so-called Blue Dog Democrat that stands up for your constituents while also believing what all Washington Democrats believe – that more government is the right answer to every problem.

The truth is that young adults want big ideas, not big government. A series of surveys and focus groups conducted by the College Republican National Committee earlier this year revealed that our generation is concerned about its future. Sadly, they have every right to be. Economic growth under Obama has been poor, joblessness is rampant, the national debt casts a shadow over the American Dream, and all too many young adults are being buried beneath the weight of student loans. They crave the bright light of opportunity, but fear our future has been inexorably dimmed by government’s missteps.

Fortunately, the survey also revealed their unwavering sense of optimism.

Young adults don’t want much – they just want to be given the tools to succeed. A full 45 percent of young people said they wanted to start their own business one day. And as one focus group participant told us, “We should really try to find out, what barriers do people have towards being successful and of being hardworking, educating themselves, and trying to improve the economy and so on, and work at maybe reducing the obstacles there.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson is doing just that. His PREPARE Plan, which streamlines workforce training programs, matches the goals of students to the needs of employers, and improves the relationships between employers and schools, is a perfect example of using government to improve, not inhibit, economic growth. The package of market-driven reform ideas will not only expand the career options of young graduates, but will also attract job creating businesses that are constantly searching for skilled workers.

It’s those types of ideas – that unbind the hands of young entrepreneurs from the shackles of red tape – that deserve our votes. Hutchinson understands that the answer to unlocking Arkansas’ latent economic prospects isn’t more government, it’s a more intelligent government. It’s a more efficient government.

Those ideas are reflective of Hutchinson’s long-held belief in the economic power of conservatism. They are the perfect example of Hutchinson staying true to who he is. Contrast that to Mike Ross, who is spending his time and his money trying to convince voters that he isn’t the Democrat his voting record suggests. That strategy may have worked in 1984, but this is 2014.