Beware of fear, Tucker warns

FAYETTEVILLE -- Appeals to fear run through the current political scene, and that should concern the public, former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker told a meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Political Animals Club on Friday.

Tucker is a Democrat, but he reminded the audience he was president of the Young Democrats for Rockefeller in 1964. He campaigned for Republican Winthrop Rockefeller in his challenge to incumbent Democrat Orval Faubus. Tucker also worked closely with Republican U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt for decades, he said.

Fear-induced antagonisms and refusal to work across party lines are making compromise and working together for the greater good very difficult to achieve, he said.

"We call ourselves 'political animals,' and the danger is that this animal is a beast in all of us," Tucker told the crowd of more than 100 at a lunch meeting at Mermaids Seafood Restaurant.

Tucker said a"huge racial divide" exists between supporters for Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Hispanics and blacks support Clinton, while Trump's supporters are mostly white, he said.

The former governor also said gender is an issue.

"There's a woman running for president, which you wouldn't think would be an issue, but we've never had a woman president," Tucker said. "Women only got the right to vote in this country 100 years ago, and no woman was elected to the U.S. Senate until Hattie Caraway," from Arkansas in a 1932 special election.

Political differences could become hard and fast divisions in the country, he said.

Tucker resigned from office in 1996 after an independent counsel's investigation, a probe that had then-President Bill Clinton as its primary target. Tucker was sentenced to probation for misapplying $150,000 in business loans and has since repaid those loans. The prosecution arose from the same type of political antagonisms that are evident now, Tucker said in an interview after the speech. Bill Clinton is the husband of Hillary.

A question and answer session after the speech dealt largely with Trump, whom Tucker said he would not hire if he were "looking at his resume and whether he had the qualifications for the job."

NW News on 06/25/2016

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