Cotton’s true self

Dear editor:

It was quite a shock to open Thursday’s paper and see our esteemed Sen. Tom Cotton revealing his true self.

1. Making excuses for an obviously unhinged president.

2. Not voting against the proposed Senate health bills.

3. Siding with the president on building the wall across our entire Southern border; this in spite of the fact that it will cost over a billion dollars and Trump has vowed to shut down the government if he doesn’t get the money to pay for it. Of course Mexico is going to pay us back (don’t hold your breath). Most of the people in Texas and Arizona, who are most affected, don’t want a wall, as do over 65 percent of American voters.

4. This wall is as bad an idea as drilling a tunnel to China. Walls don’t work! Think about how much this cost could be used to help the tens of thousands of children who go to bed hungry every day in this country, many of them in the state he “represents.”

5. Loved the way he sidestepped the question of Confederate monuments. His answer — “Leave it to the locals” to make the decision.

In that one statement, he shows that he is guilty of supporting the worst of the worst in America. KKK, bigots of all strips and ignorance, but he is doing just what he has been told to do by the Koch brothers and other giant corporations, because he actually thinks he will be running for president one day. Lord help us! It reminds me of the old saying “we have to live with our mistakes.” We do until it is time for him to run for a second term.

I like to call him Lil Abner, for those old enough to remember the cartoon. He got to Washington and the first thing he did was to join forces with the big money guys. Then, with stars in his eyes, he turned against the very people who voted him into office. But he did look good on paper — military service, Harvard grad, good old country boy with common sense. Little did we know he would turn out to be the most ambitious, shallow, self-serving candidate we have ever sent to represent us.

All of the town meetings, telephone call-in events and other PR setups, fell on deaf ears. We told him we want to stop partisan politics and get things done to help people — affordable health care, good jobs, work with our allies abroad, back efforts to slow climate change, save our national parks and public lands from the oil and gas industries, help reduce the costs of education and drugs, invest more in education. Didn’t happen. Won’t happen.

Tom Cotton is on his own mission and can’t be bothered with serving his state — he is now a member of the most exclusive club in the world, the United States Senate, yet that is not enough. He wants to be president and he will try to get there at all costs — that means ignoring us Arkies and following the big money trail. Shame on us and shame on “Lil Tom Cotton.” R. Bruce Smith Hot Springs