Mr. Arnold is an extraordinarily talented orator, poet, and songwriter from Arkansas who awakens us by speaking truth in a way that rekindles our souls. It is with profound respect that we repost his readings to our Wyoming audience because they remind us of our better selves.
Arnold is speaking indirectly to Aftyn Behn, candidate for U.S. Congress in red Tennessee District 7 after moving 14 points in one cycle and yet losing the election to her opponent by just 8.
“… You did something that was not supposed to happen. You looked at the machinery of Tennessee politics, the good ol’ boys’ club, the entrenched power, the corporate donors and the same old cynicism, and you forced it to reckon with you.
Robert L. Arnold, Substack 12/2/25
You did not just close a gap.
You carved a future out of it.”
And to the rest of us still fighting he says,
“… hear me for a second. … Hope is <any state> beginning to remember itself not just as a place of tradition and stubborn pride, but as a place of workers, farmers, teachers, immigrants, dreamers, fighters, the people who always move this country forward when the rest of the nation has fallen sleep.”
Robert L. Arnold, Substack 12/2/25