Gov. Sarah Sanders’ State of the State Address last week to the Legislature was a run-of-the-mill presentation of platitudes, as those kinds of speeches tend to be. The occasion—an off-year, budget-only session—didn’t call for an “A” game.

She turned her speech into a bit of a conservative Christian manifesto. But the founders were losing the battle against government establishment of religion long before that.

Before I lament the tiny part of her address that was policy substance, and thus the essence, I’d like to take note of the governor’s rare remark of sweetness and kindness. That was news, by the definition that news is something that happened that hadn’t happened before.

In that spirit, I’ll then point out that her governing has not been all bad.

Then I’ll turn our attention to her hellish prioritizing in that address of well-off private-school parents over low-income persons for whom increased Medicaid spending would address basic human needs.

First, on her rare moment of sweetness and kindness: Sanders said that our shared faith and shared values, by which I think she referred to majority faith and majority values, helped us understand that our shared love for Arkansas and her people was more important than any of our differences.

That sounds great coming from a professional people-divider, which is what modern-day political operative work, which is Sanders’ field, amounts to. Alas, though, I’m thinking that what she........

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