Tag Archives: politics

Either You are Winning the Debate or You are Losing It

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

— Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain’s House of Commons


One of the biggest issues in my deep red state of Oklahoma is that liberals and progressives very often shrink from the larger, harder debate about how government should be conducted for The People. You know, us.

The recent rise of nation-wide interest in progressive thought comes from a frustration with earlier generations of liberals who maybe tried, but failed to effectively engage in the debate for those who need a voice.

We have seen a transformation over time with President Obama as he tried to take the old liberal approach of reaching out to the other side. It didn’t work. It won’t.

He is just now starting to understand that this is a debate and a contest of ideas. And he seems to understand that unless we advocate for our ideas, no one else will. They won’t be understood or heard.

I wish he had known that in 2009.

Oklahoma Liberals Have Learned the Hard Way

We have seen that here in Oklahoma, where one year after another over the last 30, liberals seemed tongue-tied when opposing corporate-sponsored Republicans. Corporate tools who call themselves “conservative” rode into office on the most bogus of claims about

  • reducing government (they haven’t),
  • getting government off our backs (it’s even more so, now), and
  • lowering our taxes (for the rich, as they raise “fees”, really use taxes, that ordinary people pay daily).

What old-style liberals found out the hard way was that strategies for trying to negotiate with conservatives so that “we all would get along” and so that “we can all be winners” didn’t work then. It doesn’t work now. All it does is buy time for the right wing, whose approach is always – and I do mean always – “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable.”

Most importantly, that strategy conceded too many points that the public needed them to stand up for. Without knowing the other options for thinking through ideas, the bulk of uninformed voters had an “oh well” approach or showed angry resignation against those politicians who essentially betrayed the cause. Perhaps they never understood that it was a cause in the first place.

In politics, there really is no such thing as “business as usual”. Either you are winning the debate or you are losing it.

Rep. Scott Inman during the debate about extending the tax incentive for new wells. Courtesy of the Journal Record
Rep. Scott Inman during the debate about extending the tax incentive for new wells. — Courtesy of The Journal Record
The Necessary Opposition

The debate itself is important. Period.

What I mean by “the debate” is engaging the prevailing mindset and the prevailing party with the determination to not allow a temporary campaign defeat to stop the engagement at the level of ideas.

What we know from history is that groups that have started out small in a democracy can become larger and more powerful by engaging in the debate over time and insisting upon being heard.

Conservatives in general seem to understand this. So do their politicians, either intuitively or because big money donors actually listen to their think-tankers and force their puppets to listen, too.

The value of the debate itself is that more people become informed by the opposition. Most importantly, they are informed from a different viewpoint than the prevailing narrative that slick corporately-funded hired guns deliver to a lazy, compliant media.

Modern-day progressives must push to win in the debate of ideas. It does not serve our concepts or the people who need us to advocate for them if we don’t.

Will we always win? Of course not.

Will we ever win if we never try to win? Of course not.

That’s why the debate of ideas has so much value in and of itself. And debating to win in the arena of public politics and policy is critical.

Time to Participate in a Bigger Way

In earlier posts I have suggested ways in which progressives in this red state can be a part of the debate. It is time to be a bigger part of the debate in this red state.

In the post “Five Ways That You Can Have a Progressive Influence In Your Red State” I showed how you really can have positive, progressive effects on the process in a red state where the dominant Republican Party wants you to believe that you should not be wasting your time.

And since that message is often a real bummer to progressives, I wrote the post “Five Ways for Liberals to Overcome Those Red State Blues”, and posted “Decide that the Ugly Side of Oklahoma Will Note Defeat Us.”

Since pastors are often co-opted by right-wingers in their own congregations in red states, I tried to give progressives some ideas about how to counterbalance that process in this post: “Three Ways to Sway Your Red-state Pastor From Blessing the Radical Right”.

 Good Examples of Political Debate

Here are some very good examples of how liberals and progressives can be the fierce, loyal opposition to conservative control of government.


Reps Inman and Pittman speak to the 2014 Education Rally at the Oklahoma Capitol (video is trimmed to start at 9:21 mark)


From Great Britain: Margaret Thatcher – Tory (conservative) Prime Minister Vs. Neil Kinnock – Labor Leader, on Education


From Great Britain: The first ever House of Commons prime minister’s question time that was televised.

The Stand-out Group: Public School Teachers

My post tomorrow will focus on how public school teachers, generally known for their cultural conservatism, and especially in “red” states like Oklahoma, are a stand-out group who are more progressive than people think because of what they see every day in the classroom.


“Enough is enough. Somebody stand up! Get up!”  — Chuck D and Public Enemy

Teacher, Will Your Legislator Get a Pass Because of Just One Vote?

Having been in the Oklahoma public school classroom for 16 years, and many of those in the alternative ed classroom, I know that I am always looking for that one good thing that a student has done today.  One will do. That’s it. We teachers are just wired that way.

And so it is natural for us to see one good vote from our representative or senator, praise them for it, and give them a pass on 10 bad votes that actually work against public education, especially in funding.

But to allow our legislators to use a  one-good-vote approach and get by with it is a disservice to educational efforts in Oklahoma. It is also a disservice to the legislators. How?

Some may actually want to be more balanced in their voting, but in the absence of any other pressure, they are going to vote the way that lobbyists for those corporate interests tell them to vote.

So, the most cynical ones need to know that we are watching, and the earnest ones need to be able to point to our pressure as a way of holding off the corporate lobbyists.

Prepare for June 24th Primariesvoter line

There are several good ways to keep track of voting records when making your decision on how to vote in the upcoming primaries on June 24th.

  1. Use the tools and general information on the website for the Oklahoma Policy Institute which has a track record of providing hard information on legislative matters.
  2. The Bill Tracker tool on that website is an extremely good way to keep up with matters in the legislature when it is in session and for research in between.
  3. Use the Bill Search feature on the web site for the Oklahoma Legislature.

Just using those tools alone will allow you to keep up with how your particular legislator voted in this last session.

One Vote In Full View, Another Gets in Under the Radar

Here is one comparison that is very important to seeing if your legislator is consistent in voting for public education and public services:

Public education and the children, parents, and teachers of Oklahoma achieved a big win on House bill 2625 – 3rd Grade Retention, authored by Republican Representative Katie Henke.

It originally passed 89-6 in the House and 43-1 in the Senate. The override of Gov. Fallin’s veto passed 79-17 in the House and 45-2 in the Senate.

During the debate, Representatives Henke, Casey, and Nolan wrote an opinion piece for the Tulsa World opposing automatic 3rd grade retention for students who did not pass the one-time, one-day test. Great!

But, lurking in the shadow of all that passion of the big win, and sliding in under confusion due to the same numbers being in this bill, there was House bill 2562 – “Gross Production Tax Cut”. Here is information provided by the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

It would make permanent an incentive that had originally been given for horizontal drilling, and was set to expire next year. Now most drillers use that technique as a matter of course. After the expiration, the production tax would have moved back up to its original rate of 7%, which is the same rate used in neighboring states.

That bill, signed into law today by Gov. Fallin, offered a permanent tax break for Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry that is already flush with cash that they liberally spread around during races for the House and the Senate. It also deprives Oklahoma public services, like public education, of necessary funds in a completely manufactured crisis of funding for Oklahoma government.

The bill passed 61-34 in the House, and passed 23-22 in the Senate.

So, how did Henke, Casey, and Nolan vote?  Henke was excused from the floor that day and Casey and Nolan voted against the bill. To me that’s a good example of consistency in voting. Way to go!

How did your legislators, representative and senator, vote on these two bills?

First, you can look up who they are here.

3rd Grade Retention Votes

Click this link for the voting list for the individual legislator votes on HB2625 – 3rd Grade Retention.

(There are problems with the Senate publication of the vote on the last reading of the bill and their later override.)

Gross Production Tax Cut Votes

Click this link for the voting list in the House on HB2562 – Gross Production Tax Cut (Look for the vote on the measure itself, not the vote to make it an “Emergency” measure.)

Click this link for the Senate vote on HB2562.

No More Passes for One-time Show Votes

If they voted for the 3rd Grade Retention bill and the override of Fallin’s veto when the heat was on, good for them.

But, if they voted to give a big early Christmas gift to oil and gas donors in a bill passed at the very end of the session, then it’s time for them to hear from you. They voted to deprive public education and other services in Oklahoma of necessary funds in a time when Oklahoma’s economy is booming.

Decide now. No more passes.

Photo by TheLostOgle.com
Photo by TheLostOgle.com

 

Barresi’s Attacks Show Teachers What We Need to Do Next

Yesterday’s showdown in the State House of Representatives over HB2625 and the widely circulated negative response from State Superintendent of Schools Janet Barresi said much about where her loyalties lie, where the attacks originate, and what should be done next by teachers who teach, know, and love their students.

House Bill 2625 Passes

The current law gives extraordinary weight to a test given on one day at the end of the third grade and determines whether each student is retained or promoted to the fourth grade. Forget everything else that the student has achieved during the year.

The HB2625 was authored by Katie Henke, R-Tulsa, and is described in today’s report by The Oklahoman:

“Henke’s bill, as amended by the state Senate, would create a two-year window during which students who score unsatisfactory on the test could still be promoted if they can obtain the unanimous recommendation from a team consisting of the student’s parents or guardians, the student’s reading teacher for the past year, a reading teacher at the next grade level, the school principal and a certified reading specialist.”

It passed yesterday and is on Gov. Fallin’s desk waiting here action. She has until the day before the last day of this legislative session to sign it.

Barresi on the Attack

The latest of a long string of attacks was on May 9th when Supt. Barresi released scores and numbers of pass/fails to the media before local districts had the chance to talk to students and parents. Some superintendents were still waiting on the phone or the SDE website for scores when the media started calling about their scores. It revealed a zeal to openly attack public schools and shame those districts who did not do well, no matter what the social circumstances of their students. This account of the negative treatment of Crutcho Schools by KFOR in Oklahoma City because of that SDE PR stunt is only one example of the damage done by an outfit very focused on harming public schools.

Janet-Barresi-450x286
Janet Barresi in full campaign mode. Courtesy of TheLostOgle.com

Who sent Janet Barresi to the helm of the Oklahoma State Department of Education? It wasn’t the teachers. Several legislators have said that it is widely known among them that only around 30% of Oklahoma teachers voted in the last elections and others before that. More on that below.

Instead, Barresi was swept into office by a tide of anti-government, vote-against-Obama sentiment that was heavily funded by corporate interests and coordinated by ALEC and other national groups determined to take over state capitols across the nation for a small minority of the wealthiest people in America.

Who Owns Barresi?

The biggest turnout was from those voters who were mad about two things: having that black president in the first place, and that he was running again. They made sure to turn out the vote against him and just about everything and everyone who they suspected of not hating President Obama. The results showed an even more red state than in the 2008 elections. It had down-ticket impact on every other race in the election, including Barresi’s.

She will always be owned by the corporate interests that sent her to the SDE in the first place. That is a simple truth. The phone calls that she is sure to answer are from coordinators at Governor Fallin’s office, ALEC, and right-wing think tank Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. The rest of us will have to leave a message. They may get back to us this term. Or maybe not.

What are those interests? As I pointed out in a previous post, massive amounts of money have been thrown into the state by private charter school corporations who want to replace public schools with private corporate schools controlled by millionaires in other states.

Also, right-wing political interests that have little to do directly with education, funded by oil and gas corporations, and out of state shadow donors, want an anti-teachers-union superintendent who will vigorously oppose one of the last several effective unions still standing in the state. What better attack vector can there be than controlling the State Superintendent of Schools? It was a very brilliant and darkly evil strategy that did not consider the children of Oklahoma in the least.  It was and still is all about the political win for right-wing domination of Oklahoma government.

Now What?

So the question is this: Do we want a State Supt. of Schools who is influenced by donors who live out of state and, for the most part, are not even known or identified? Or do we want a superintendent who is selected through a wide, democratic process of primaries and elections and supported by Oklahomans who operate in the open and are openly identified?

Teachers and others committed to a truly public education for all of Oklahoma’s children, and controlled by known Oklahoma interests, will need to get out and campaign for the candidates that they believe will best meet that goal. But it means being involved in the political process.

You don’t like politics, teachers? I know. Most of us don’t. We just want to teach. But, the argument that I made in this post still stands. It’s not an option whether you are involved in politics if you care about the children of Oklahoma. You must get out and vote. You must be engaged at some level.

How do you plan on engaging in this process in this election year? There are only five months until election day. Time to get busy.

BestPano.2014-03-31 11.32.01

Three Ways to Sway Your Red-State Pastor from Blessing the Radical Right

If you are progressive and live in a politically deep red state you may wonder sometimes just how the atmosphere became, and remains, so pervasively radical and right-wing. It’s not by accident.

In part, it is due to Christian pastors who play into the hands of the power grab that is under way by radicals on the far right, funded by many wealthy people and organized by the Koch Brothers “octopus” of influence.

For a few pastors, siding with the radical right is cynical, intentional, and motivated by a desire for personal power. But, for the largest portion, the drift toward overt or subtle blessing of the radical right is so incremental that it goes unnoticed even by them until someone like you brings it to their attention.

Here are the three ways that progressives can disrupt this corrupting influence on your pastor, Christian faith, and elected government:

Realize that in your red state, there are people in your congregation who are demanding compliance with right-wing ideology. Every pastor that I have known in my red state deals with a constant barrage of demands from people who want the church to bless, promote, and comply with their political ideology.

Take action by expressing your objections to any accommodation or promotion of right-wing ideology with which you genuinely disagree.   No matter where they fall along the liberal-conservative-evangelical-Pentecostal spectrum of Christian expression, your pastor needs to know that “everyone” does not have the same political views as those right-wing folks who make weekly demands for political purity.

Follow up and persist so that your pastor remembers that there are many different opinions about solutions to political problems in your country, state, and town/city. As individuals among other individuals in America, Christians may contribute to solutions; but, there is no “Christian” solution to problems in a democracy. Right-wing purists want to insist that there is. Pastors must allow for political issues to be worked out in the public sphere that includes many more than are in your congregation or even belief system.

Smart pastors with integrity will welcome your counterbalance of pressure that will allow them to tell the right-wing purists that there are other people in their congregation who do not agree and must be considered, also. They will welcome the reminder that they are in the uniquely neutral position of being in the culture while not being completely of it.

Some smart ones don’t need intervention at all. My strongly evangelical pastor regularly claims in his sermons that Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat and demands that people leave him alone about it. Ha!

On the other hand, pastors who are hungry for personal acclaim and approval, or who don’t want to see the difference between right-wing political ideology and conservative Christian expression, simply do not deserve your support. They are neither effective leaders of the Christian Faith or of the political sphere. Once you are convinced that they are intent upon only blessing a certain brand of secular politics, then it’s time to go. There is never any need to attack. Just be calm, but clear about why with that pastor and others who ask.

It is important that you not engage in a large conflict with other members of your congregation with whom you disagree. It will be energy wasted on tearing up a congregation instead of expressing your faith in a different congregation whose ministry you can truly support. Save that fight for your democracy, which is where the active debate over political ideas is legitimate, necessary, and expected.

End Note: I have been a teacher in Oklahoma for the last 19 years. Before that, I was a Methodist pastor here for 17 years. I know personally how hard it is to be a pastor in a red state. So, this is no attack on pastors. In fact, it is a process that will liberate them.

Five Ways You Can Have a Progressive Influence on Your Red State

The pattern of political action for liberals and progressives goes much like this: Get fired up about a particular candidate. Work hard and get emotional about the outcome. If the candidate loses, fade away, never to be heard from again. If the candidate wins, fade away, never to be heard from again.

It’s time for that to end. Too much is at stake in our future.
Campaigns are critical. However, turning over the long-term political discussion to voices on the right produces a political landscape where we only consider a narrow set of options from the right, none of which are good or remotely logical. For politicians on the right, the only logic is how to deliver power to their benefactors whose only logic is, of course, their power.

The irony with progressives loosing heart and relaxing the pressure between campaigns is this: Because of a lack of political muscle developed between campaigns, it is harder to elect the best candidates when the time actually comes to elect them. In Oklahoma we see this behavior repeated with agonizing consistency.

Case in point: Recently, there was a very good, necessary, and spirited campaign for mayor in Oklahoma City between progressive city council member Dr. Ed Shadid and incumbent Mayor Mick Cornett. As a part of Shadid’s campaign to raise awareness of too many shadowy machinations about a convention center idea, a petition was started to get more sunlight onto the studies that had been done. After Shadid lost an uphill battle against the strong incumbent, the petition drive fizzled so that it was never even delivered on the deadline.

It is clear that if progressive thought will have an impact in very red states like Oklahoma, there needs to be a constant commitment to progressive values and thought between campaigns.
How do we achieve that? Here are some ideas:

1. Support the candidates that represent your values and ideals whether you think that they have a chance of winning or not.

I hear too many people talk themselves out of helping with a good campaign just because they think the candidate won’t win. That’s not the issue. The public needs to hear what that candidate has to say, especially if they are challenging an incumbent that has been too much of a gofer for big money donors in the shadows. And, if the points the candidate is making are important now, they are important in between campaigns, too.

2. Support that candidate again if they want to run again.

Look at how many times influential office holders in U.S. history have lost before they won that influential position. Being a good, tough politician is about coming back from defeat. Like a good cage fighter, a politician has to be able to take several hard punches in order to stay in the fight. If your candidate can, they are worth supporting no matter how much of a long-shot others may think they are. One thing for sure, they will never win without your support, and those important ideas will never influence anyone without your being the carrier of them.

3. Learn as much as you can any way that you can about issues that concern you.

A part of influencing others between campaigns is knowing what you are talking about. People can tell if you do or don’t very quickly and will either listen or turn you off accordingly the next time you speak to them. In Oklahoma, a very good progressive think tank is the Oklahoma Policy Institute, which also has a good daily podcast to keep you up to date on legislative matters.

4. Learn from national news sources to compare with local ones.

There is now a large volume of information available to progressive thinkers about a number of issues that may affect your state. In central Oklahoma, The Oklahoman is usually read by we progressives with a side eye. The local TV stations also reflect a corporate media view that fails to ask the biggest, most important questions. Very strong state-wide sources like the Oklahoma Policy Institute and national sources are important tools for calling out local right-wing-influenced media. That activity will have an impact upon newsroom discussions.

5. Act locally.

  • Participate in your neighborhood association.
  • Accept a leadership position in your neighborhood association.
  • Organize your precinct or ward for your party.
  • Run for a school board seat.
  • Run for town/city council.
  • Run for a seat in your state legislature. (Yes, it’s yours.)

Oklahoma and other deep red states are starting to cause great suffering among common people because the political field has been left to right-wing radicals between campaigns which led to unopposed or weak opposition in the next round of campaigns. It’s time for progressives to stand up and join the debate for logical thinking and sunshine on all things public.