Who We Are:

Blue Arkansas is a blog for progressive Democrats in Arkansas. Our mission is to give these progressive Democrats a voice within the party and within the larger political community of Arkansas, to give progressive Democrats here a means of communicating, learning, and organizing, and to advance the cause of the progressive movement through the Democratic Party. We are committed to:

-The advancement of progressive values and policy.

-Standing up for progressive ideas and beliefs even if they are unpopular or not politically correct.

-Holding all politicians accountable to progressive values regardless of their party or record or whether we support them or not.

-The election of the best (most progressive) Democrats possible from the Arkansas House to the U.S. Senate.

Blue Arkansas is not affiliated with any candidate(s) or campaign(s) or any political party or organization. This site is run on a volunteer basis by committed progressive activists who don’t make a dime from their work on Blue Arkansas and never will.

Our loyalty is to progressive values, issues, and policy and not to any individual candidate or organization. Support or opposition to a candidate in one election does not mean support or opposition in another, but all must earn that support and will be held accountable when they are wrong. We are progressives and support the most progressive candidates possible, but we are not ideologues and will support moderate or conservative leaning candidates when we feel that doing so is in the larger interests of the progressive movement. We are also Democrats, and will work to advance the progressive cause through the Democratic party and not a third party, but simply having a “D” after the name on the ballot is not a guarantee of our active support.

Da Rulz:

1. Be respectful of others. We’re not the blogger gestapo and all are welcome even if you disagree, but be civil with each other in the comments and diaries. No name calling or insults to each other or anything like that.

2. Don’t be obscene. Yes, that is in the eye of the beholder to a great degree, but we all know there’s a difference between a little curse word and a nasty tirade.

3. Free speech is encouraged, promoted, and cherished by the folks that run this site. However, we also value tolerance and respect for others. If you have a negative opinion of people of a certain race, gender, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender idenity, etc., then keep it to yourself or hit the road.

4. If you are connected with a political campaign or candidate in some regard or you are a public official, then make your identity/affiliation known when it is relevent (such as when commenting on a post about the candidate you’re working for or about events you are involved in).

5. Everyone is entitled to at least one warning for misbehavior. If you are out of line, you will be told to behave. If you don’t listen, then you will be banned.

6. We do follow the Fairness Doctrine here, meaning that everyone has the right to respond and tell their side of the story.  That includes candidates we criticize.

Miscellaneous:

Blue Arkansas is a perpetual work in progress.  We are amateurs and rookies here to some degree and we wear those labels proudly. We do make mistakes, and will correct them and/or apologize if you can show us we are wrong. All the authors here have different styles and approaches and we do disagree from time to time, but we still work as a team. ARDem is the creator of Blue Arkansas, but the blog is a team effort and would not be the site it is without the help of all its excellent writers, our tech guy, and all the people who have helped along the way.

Contact ARDem: david-mcavoy [at] hotmail.com

Contact jsamuel: oldbucsfan [at] hotmail.com