What’s wrong with Oklahoma Republicans (and the other Oklahoma Republicans who might stop them)?
It’s a good question.
The headline, that is.
Because Republicans in this state hold supermajorities in both the state house (81 to 20) and senate (39 to 8).
Every winner of every most recent statewide election is a Republican, too.
Not to mention, the monolith that’s Donald Trump, his actual supporters and his in-private-detractors-yet-in-public-supporters makes it politically difficult for even state office holders and state legislators to be caught thinking for themselves in our ruby red state.
A look at this week’s news cycle proves the inanity of our state’s Republican politics
• On Tuesday, governor Kevin Stitt decided, you know what, if the guy in my cabinet entrusted with looking out for clean water in Oklahoma isn’t willing to pollute those waters, well, that guy’s got to go.
• Then, Wednesday, state-superintendent-in-name-only Ryan Walters announced he’ll be taking a crack at creating a new law requiring Oklahoma school superintendents be elected rather than selected and hired by their district’s school board members, who voters have already elected.
Never mind that Walters isn’t a state legislator empowered to write would-be laws, much less vote for them.
Perhaps he just hadn’t been in the news enough lately, and maybe that supposition was in play for The Oklahoman’s Alexia Aston and Murray Evans, given the first 12 words of the story they wrote about it.
“In his latest headline-making move, Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters announced …”
Two more items popped Thursday.
• One, state rep. Jim Olsen, from Roland, has pre-filed legislation mandating a rendition of the Ten Commandments be displayed in every Oklahoma public school classroom, presumably because red hot Oklahoma Republicans are forever the last to understand, though they claim to revere the Constitution, they inevitably, ignorantly and secretly hate the First Amendment.
• Finally, Ponca City state senator Bill Coleman, a previous critic of Walters, is looking to put forth a measure allowing voters to recall statewide office holders, as 19 other states already allow.
“What I want to do,” Coleman told The Oklahoman, “is give the legislature the power to issue a recall election of any state official.”
Were he to get his way, it would be in opposition to a majority of the recall parameters in other states, where recall elections are triggered by public petition rather than legislative vote.
Stitt’s move to abruptly oust Ken McQueen, his secretary of energy and environment is the most brazen and cynical.
It involves a 19-year-lawsuit originally filed by then-attorney general Drew Edmondson, a Democrat, in 2005, accusing major players in the state’s poultry industry of polluting the Illinois River watershed.
Though Edmondson initiated the lawsuit, the state could have dropped it at any time during the attorney general reigns of Scott Pruitt, Cara Rodriguez, Michael Hunter, Dawn Cash, John O’Connor or current AG Gentner Drummond, all Republicans.
None did.
Indeed, McQueen joined Drummond at the case’s latest hearing, there to represent the state’s interest in clean water.
But that didn’t work for Stitt, who took to Twitter to express this:
“I’m disappointed that Ken McQueen would join AG Drummond, former AG Drew Edmondson and environmentalists in opposition to Oklahoma farmers and landowners by appearing at a court hearing today in his capacity as Secretary. This nearly two-decade-old case is a radical left attempt at backdoor regulation through litigation. I’ve fired him from his position as Secretary of Energy and Environment and Director of the Department of Energy effective immediately.”
So radically left a bunch of Republican attorneys general have supported it.
Nice.
Coleman’s inclination toward a mechanism to remove our state’s worst elected actors I might sign up for as a way to get rid of Walters, only it’s way more likely to be used by future Republican majorities to rid Oklahoma of its next Democratic governor, should one ever be elected.
The chances of securing majorities in both legislative forums to rid the state of a fellow Republican are slim and none. Better a move like that come from the grass roots.
Olsen’s move to shove the Old Testament down the throats of Oklahoma students is, one, horrendous policy; two, unconstitutional; three, against Oklahoma law, for only eight years ago, voters killed the possibility of such a move by taking down a state question that would have removed this stanza from our state constitution:
“No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.”
Then there’s Walters who’s proven yet again — forgive the language — he doesn’t give two shits about public education.
Because, sure, a rogue cabal could find itself in control of a school board and do great damage in its hiring, yet those who typically run for such posts are serious about education, want the best for their district’s students and are equipped to come to a non-partisan consensus on who might superintend their district.
Meanwhile, were Walters to get his way, running school districts would be limited to those willing to win the crazy contests that are Republican primaries.
All of it begs questions.
Are state Republicans bored with their own power?
Given their power, must they work so hard at fabricating new straw men in misguided attempts of self definition?
They really are the dogs that caught the cars, with no real plan once the catch is made beyond finding a new car.
Stitt doesn’t even fake it, choosing “farmers and landowners” with an interest in polluting over the masses who’d prefer drink clean water.
Special interests, much?
Walters still doesn’t care what the cost might be in the name of grabbing another headline, raising his profile, hoping to remove the essence of local control from public education along the way, something all of us have long thought conservatives support.
Olsen’s cool with kneecapping both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions.
Coleman may be trying to do the wrong thing for the right reason, and still it’s a move designed to uproot where the power’s supposed to lie, which in cases of recall, should begin and end with petitioning voters.
Meanwhile, because all involved who might make a real difference reining in not just the proposed policies, but the insincere, disingenuous grandstanding rhetoric attached — the real poisoner of Oklahoma politics — are also Republicans, self-neutering runs rampant.
It’s a $&@*#$@ cycle from which we can’t extricate.
It’s Democrats’ fault because they can’t get elected. It’s Republicans’ fault because they do and they like it more than they like making personally perilous political waves.
What’s a state to do?
....Oklahoma's leaders are too busy "virtue signaling" in the culture wars ... actually working on positive improvements in education of students would probably require careful thought and action ... let's just compete with Louisiana & Mississippi for that coveted #50 spot as the worst state in education ... thanks lil rywan wa wa. Oklahoma is (just) OK.
Good questions, Clay, but alarming. I am glad you share my abhorrence for asshat RW, and I think an interesting column would be to delineate what/where his multiple lawsuits lie. Since we taxpayers are having to pay for his ridiculous insolence, we deserve to know how each case is going.