Drummond rightly dodges lunatic fringe at Freedom Caucus' gubernatorial debate
Still, it's good to know what they said because they really said it and it's crazy
So you switched parties, Democrat to Republican, just to vote for Gentner Drummond in the primary, and perhaps a runoff, and given his uncouth cozying to Donald Trump since, you can hardly stand yourself.
Fear not, you’ve done the right thing, all of which was on display Monday night at the Oklahoma History Center, where five Republican gubernatorial candidates were invited but only four showed, hoping to make it 1948 all over again, only this time in a world where you can not only carry weapons in the streets and alleys, but inside the state capitol and on university campuses, too.
Oh, yes, and if we weren’t arresting and prosecuting girls and women for, as former state senator and moderator Nathan Dahm asked the question just so, committing or allowing an abortion to take place, then, all agreed we must start doing it now and I swear I’m not making it up.
In fact, you can watch it all right here.
It was a reality check, is what it was, for longtime left-of-centers like me, and everybody else, too, because there really is a lunatic fringe in Oklahoma, and there it was, led by former speaker of the House Charles McCall, former state senators Jake Merrick and Mike Mazzei, and Chip Keating, who claims outsider status despite being the son of a former governor.
In affiliation with the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, the event was hosted by something called Cedar Gate, which is described on its website as “a private Oklahoma destination where leadership and leisure meet,” whatever that means, though pictures point toward shooting sports being the primary entertainment.
In fact, before Dahm began asking questions, Cedar Gate co-owner Marla Hill held the mic for several minutes and who knew she was a comedian?
“I went and I prayed and I got quiet and I said, ‘Lord, tell me, who should moderate this debate and what organization should that be?’” she said. “And, so, in the stillness and the quietness, I heard, ‘Senator Nathan Dahm.’”
Really? You think it happened that way?
Did she pray about it at all?
If she did, did God almighty actually say, “Senator Nathan Dahm,” who was once torn a rhetorical new one by the great Jon Stewart?
Or maybe she knew Dahm already, figured he’d do it — or knew he would because they’d planned it already and the whole prayer thing was a sham to begin with, a lie performative Christians tell because it serves their purposes — and, figuring that, mistook her own inclination for God actually directing her to Dahm, as though He gives a shit about such things.
I digress.
On with the show.
Here’s a highlight.
Public education funding is peachy as is, all four candidates agreed.
“We don’t have a revenue problem, it’s a spending problem,” Keating said. “The per pupil formula is so broke across our school districts in Oklahoma.
“We give the school districts a blank check and we don’t tell them how to spend the money.”
So, I guess, mark Keating down for invalidating local school boards.
“Schools don’t have money problems,” Mazzei said. “It’s a money management problem.”
McCall used the question to congratulate himself, or so it seemed, for open transfer and tax credits given to private school parents, while Merrick actually sounded like he’d spoken to some teachers.
“I want to make sure that we hire high quality teachers and that we pay them high quality wages and that we trust them to teach,” he said. “Too many teachers are saying that … we’re ready to teach, we’re called to teach, and then we’re told how to teach.”
Reasonable, right?
Of course, in his opening statement, he also said this, not about education, but still.
“My priority is still the same,” he said. “It’s securing a future for our children, it’s securing land for them. That is the legacy and that is the future of Oklahoma, our children and our land. Both are under attack, both must be defended.”
He seems like he might be a nice guy, but what’s that about?
McCall said something about land, too, that he would identify all “foreign owned land in this state, seize it, auction it back off and put it back in the hands of Oklahomans.”
Can he do that even if it was purchased legally?
Is that kind of rhetoric a play on immigration, or something else entirely, about blood and soil and white nationalist insanity?
Or is it mostly harmless, like Mr. Magoo talking about Waldo and Presley, curious what they’ll be up to next?
To be clear, they really were, all of them, that far out there on guns and abortion, staking out extreme positions that, even in an age of Republican supermajorities, have yet to become law.
Still, when they do, future governors McCall, Keating, Merrick and Mazzei stand ready to sign them.
Mazzei expressed his outrage that a House bill banning mail order abortion pills can’t get a hearing in the Senate.
“Not only do we need to have tough laws,” McCall said, “we need to introduce people to Jesus.”
As long as there’s a Plan B, I guess.
On guns, look out.
“An armed populace is the best way to protect our liberties and freedoms,” Mazzei said.
“We need to go further, helping to equip and arm our teachers,” Merrick said.
“We have seen a lot of preventative violence occur on campuses,” Keating said, “had people been armed to responsibly deal with it.”
“The right to bear arms, that means anywhere and everywhere,” McCall said.
Even in casinos and poker rooms, where the would-be gun-toting are certain to be both suddenly broke and highly inebriated?
At the end, before explaining how he wants to get rid of the state income tax, another eventuality the other three hope to get to, as well as do something about property taxes, which happen to fund schools, Mazzei addressed the elephant not in the room.
“Friends,” he said, “nobody in this room wants an amateur, watered-down, weak RINO to be Oklahoma’s next governor,” a clear and direct shot at Drummond, who was invited but chose not to show, because entering a roomful of ridiculous Republicans like that would have done him no good at all.
Also, maybe, it’s a wink back to the rest of us, corruption still boils his blood, good governance matters, the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions are not to be trifled with and the rule of law exists to protect us all.
Elect Cyndi Munson, of course, and you won’t have to worry where your governor stands on such things.
But that’s the general election.
As for the folks in the room, McCall, Keating, Merrick, Mazzei, Freedom Caucus inhabitants and their cheerleaders?
Isn’t it wild how they lather themselves in freedom, just as long as it means paying less or no taxes, arming themselves to the teeth, awarding no more resources to public education, controlling women’s bodies and saying it’s all all right because, you know, Jesus.
That’s not Oklahoma.
Or, it can’t be.