Ramblings of a Redneck Farmer

It has been a long time since I have written anything about politics but since Nov. 8 is rapidly approaching here we go.

I was taught as a kid to not get mad. I tried with a varying degree of success to instill that trait in my kids. Usually getting mad doesn’t serve us well. Anger clouds our judgment. It will make a sane person insane. It will make us do things that we as normal rational people wouldn’t ever dream of doing. Having said that, I am mad!

Nov. 8 is rapidly approaching and, at best, all you can say about the upcoming election is that it is a snafu. We have two candidates for governor of our great state that are anything but worthy. We have a candidate for state superintendent who wants to run rural schools out of business. We have another who I feel will cower to her side’s insane platform. Who is excited for that?

I’m old enough that I can remember people who wanted to serve the great people of Oklahoma. Now we just have people who want to make a name for themselves. It is a start to an end where they sit on a board of some fancy company and bring home a big salary and stock options. What has happened?

We have regressed to a putrid system of elitism, where you sell your soul to get in with the right crowd, but is it the right crowd?

Oklahoma has a history of being one of the most corrupt states. If you don’t believe me, go back and study our state’s history of governors. But yet, we keep electing the same type of candidates over and over again and sorry to burst your bubble, it isn’t just Republicans or Democrats. It is all of them.

You know one thing that I think would help ease the tragedy of our state’s political system? It’s getting rid of straight party line voting with just a squiggly mark of your pen. If you are a Republican like I am, you cannot tell me there isn’t a better Democratic candidate on the ballot for some office and vice versa you Democrats. Yet how many of you will mark straight party voting on the 8th?

I, for the life of me, cannot understand that kind of logic. I knew the first week of Stitt’s term that he wasn’t going to look out for rural Oklahoma. How did I know? Well, he said on Ron Hayes podcast that whatever was good for Oklahoma City and Tulsa was good for rural Oklahoma and whatever was good for rural Oklahoma was good for OKC and Tulsa.

Then and there I did my best Forrest Gump impersonation and said, “I may not be a smart man but that is ridiculous.” You see I used the brain that God gave me and rationalized out that his statement was crazy talk.

It just isn’t the Republicans who have the market cornered on gibberish. Candidates from both parties have doctorates in gibberish and we perpetually lend credence to what they say with our voting, and it is about time to fix it.

I’m not saying to vote Democrat or Republican. I am pleading with all of you to use your head, do your research and vote your conscience. If you really want to know who I am voting for I guess I will tell you. Lean in real close so you don’t miss it. Are you ready? Okay, here it is. I am voting NO. Until enough people vote NO to this nonsense, what we are living under will never change.

We have to hold all of our elected officials accountable for their actions while in office. How do we do that? We do it by voting them out of office if they aren’t doing their job, or not electing them in the first place. We have a chance to right some wrongs coming up. How about you stand up and be accountable too?

This column doesn’t come from a point of view that is high and mighty. But for the sake of our state and our future we have to use our heads and not just vote willy nilly and put anybody in office because of an R or a D behind their name on the ballot.

I was having trouble finding a verse out of the Good Book to use with this column about politics. Maybe that is an article all by itself, but I did find Romans 12:2. It says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.”

I don’t think Jesus is a Republican or Democrat. He is way better than that. Maybe our candidates and we as voters should try a little more to be like Jesus.

Whew, I feel better. Thanks for letting me rant. Praying you all have a blessed week.