Taking lessons from elections, shutdown, Oklahoma Dems can tell a story that needs telling
Oklahoma Democrats, the scant few in office and the many more who’d like to be, can learn plenty from both the just-finished off-year elections that overwhelmingly fell Democrats’ way and the government shutdown national Democrats made happen, even without being blamed.
That would be the same shutdown many Dem talking heads, activists and social-media warriors, claiming to speak for the base, are now wrongly furious about, believing Senate Dems grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory by caving to Donald Trump and his party.
In fact, Oklahoma Dems can do what those U.S. Senate Dems failed to do.
Explain why.
Follow me on this.
I promise it will make sense.
Those U.S. Senate Dems who voted to end the shutdown (and many more who were ready to but didn’t want to be primaried for doing it) did so for three reasons.
• One, they wanted out before the politics turned, which absolutely could have happened had they let Thanksgiving pass without a deal. Because that would have meant literally starving Americans who rely on SNAP benefits, grinding air travel to a halt, continuing to make essential federal workers labor without pay as others continued to stay home without pay.
Because, at some point, the folks you’re trying to help will get tired of being punished for it.
• Two, they themselves, personally, not politically, were unwilling to be responsible for the who-knows-how-long calamities their principled stands were about to put in play.
That’s because they’re Democrats, and even as messaging from their ancient leadership hasn’t moved the needle on anything in forever, they really do care about the American people, really do care about doing the right thing, really do care about the hard-working-yet-less-fortunate among us.
It’s a governing philosophy going all the way back to FDR.
• Three, Democrats, bereft of imagination or follow through when it comes to communication, nonetheless really do care, while Donald Trump and his Republican Party do not.
And, not caring, the entire stated reason the Dems were willing to shut down the government in the first place — to maintain Affordable Care Act subsidy funding, saving health care coverage for millions of Americans and keeping premiums affordable for millions more — Republicans were never going to allow.
They just weren’t.
They’ve been trying to end or defund “Obamacare” since Trump was elected the first time, so why are Senate Dems supposed to live in a world where they believe Republicans will suddenly stop?
They shouldn’t because they won’t.
At some point, the facts on the ground can no longer be ignored.
Perhaps U.S. Senate Dems could have held out another week, then voted unanimously to end the shutdown and come to the American people explaining they were no longer willing to hold them hostage even though Republicans were happy to hold them forever. They could have rightly said they’d done their duty, believing they’d shined a bright light on who’s committed to them and who isn’t.
Because you know what the problem is with national Dems?
Ancient leadership, which ought to be replaced, has no clue how to communicate, galvanize or be their authentic selves and, afraid of their own shadow, can’t speak without a script.
Simultaneously, the true believers, base proclaimers and social-media peddlers, though communicatively skilled, don’t know how to take a win; to do all that can be done in a moment before moving to the next battle.
If they knew what they were doing, they’d be unafraid to not only communicate authentically, but to get out when the getting’s good, too.
The lesson for Oklahoma Dems?
Avoid those pitfalls, put it all together, and come up with communication that works.
Like this:
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Kevin Stitt wants to create a pathway to zero income tax, saving folks like him tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars, while saving regular Oklahomans pennies and nickels, all while slashing programs that serve them?
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Funding public education at a 49th-in-the-nation-per-student rate while allowing Ryan Walters’ reign of terror and a 50th-in-the-nation education outcome ranking?
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Giving $191 million in 2024 tax credits to private schools and parents already sending their children to private schools; and preparing to give them $250 million in 2026, rather than putting those funds into Oklahoma’s 50th-ranked public education system?
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Not allowing women access to a full complement of reproductive health care, thereby sabotaging their health, freedom and economic standing; not only of them but of the men who love them?
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Politics is changing.
The pendulum that’s made every election in Oklahoma and much of the nation about culture isn’t so much swinging back as evaporating.
Real policy is beginning to really matter.
Oklahoma Dems can begin to change the paradigm, beginning with telling the same true story.
Republicans, well …
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Because they’re not.
It’s why the elections went as they did and why U.S. Senate Dems rightly, if also regrettably and with poor communication, pulled the shutdown plug.
Go with it.
“THEY’RE NOT ON YOUR SIDE.”
Get the bumper stickers ready.
Democracy isn’t being “shut down” — it’s being slowly strangled. The real threat isn’t just closed polls, it’s voter purges, gerrymandering, and billionaire money drowning out ordinary voices. What’s sold as “election integrity” is often suppression in disguise. The left’s job isn’t just to sound the alarm but to fight for expansion — more access, stronger rights, and a democracy that actually represents the people, not the powerful.