The bottom line question for all voters in 2018

As most regular readers have noticed, there is a stock in trade of what gets published on this blog.  For the most part, the stock in trade of Reason Rest Stop is information.  There may be an occasional humorous story or a run down of an entertainment event or a book or movie review, but the overall take home message offered on this non-professional independent publication is information.  In the run-up to primary season of a midterm election year, we find ourselves on the threshold of a remarkable realization.  In terms of political salesmanship, information does not hold near the value this year that it may have previously.  This relates back to a fundamental tenet related to governing that has been often asserted in past pieces, that being that results matter.  As more registered voters notice that chaos government has not and is not serving the needs of the citizenry save perhaps a relatively few upper quintile taxpayers, information is not going to be required for them to make a decision in the voting booth as to which party’s candidates to endorse with their vote.  Read this now and believe it later, it is all going to come down to the year’s one bottom line question:

What kind of nation do we want to live in?

At a time when youth in significant numbers are speaking out because their very safety is taking a backseat to the favor of industry and interest groups that ostensibly own so many incumbent politicians, at a time when there is a growing movement to retire the failed “War on Drugs” and liberalize cannabis laws and reform criminal justice sentencing guidelines, at a time when heretofore marginalized communities are demanding equal rights and civil recognition before the bar of the law, at a time when the worst elements of American society are emboldened by absent or complicit leadership, at a time when the U.S. is abdicating its leadership role in World affairs because novice diplomacy is losing the confidence of allies, at a time when a growing number of citizens are becoming concerned about access to drinkable water, clean air and a safe environment, enough registered voters to matter can see, feel and are forced to deal with on a daily basis the consequences of the 2016 General Election.  We get the government we elect, and the one that was elected is setting policies that are diametrically opposed to the social tide of the nation.  That pretty much eliminates the need for a litany of information going into the 2018 election cycle.  That bottom line question is the most important query of this election year.

What kind of state do we want to live in?  

It is about as brutally honest and plainly articulated as any interrogative can be.  What’s more, it is not just confined to national identity.  It extends down to state gubernatorial and legislative politics, particularly in Oklahoma where we have the results of eight years of conservative Republican policies to evaluate.  Ten years ago Oklahoma was one of the most seismically inert places in all of North America.  Today it is one the most seismically active places on the entire planet because injection wells located within our state offered one industry the opportunity to profit financially regardless of the damage they may have inflicted on anyone else’s property.  Ten years ago Oklahoma was not dead last in teacher pay.  Say what you will about cost of living, if you have no money to meet that cost then it is purely academic.  One basic duty of the legislature is to enact policies that raise enough revenue to keep the state solvent enough to pay the bills for core services.  When the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has to limit troopers to 100 miles a day because they have not been allocated enough funds to pay for fuel because there are no funds, that is an admission of failure.  Ten years ago ninety-one Oklahoma public school districts did not have to cut back to four-day weeks due to lack of funding.  Ten years ago there may have been some creative budget writing by the legislature but there was there was never a perpetual revenue failure the way there has been the past three years.  Never forget that since 2011 the Republicans have been in control of all levers of government in this state.  Have they produced the kind of state that you would choose to live?  A state where state parks have to be closed because there is no money in the non-existent budget to keep them open?  The results produced by the last four state legislatures have not been commensurate with a passing grade in stewardship.  It is going to require a completely new slate of players under that Capitol Dome at NE 23rd and Lincoln in Oklahoma City along with a new player in the Governor’s Mansion.  It would bode well for a better direction for Oklahoma for these new players to all have a “D” next to their names.  When pondering who to trust with the future of our state, please remember the bottom line question of the year:

What kind of world do we want to live in?

Now is the time to press that bottom line query.  If the results of the last wave election have not delivered what you had hoped, you do have yet another chance to choose.  Such is the benefit of living in a representative republic.  Our institutions have withstood much, even worse perhaps than the willful and wonton deliberate damage currently being inflicted upon them.  This upcoming Election Day like all others is a national exercise in looking forward.  This one however is a referendum on that most important bottom line question that should be asked of every voter and asked often until the polls close on November 6th:

What kind of nation do we want to live in?

Here’s to hoping for a better America and a better Oklahoma!