The Winds of Change are sweepin’ down the plains and to the Right!

According to the latest State of the States poll by Gallup, the American electorate is moving decidedly to the political Right.  The findings of this poll however are lost on those of us residing along the most conservative stretch of the Mother Road as Oklahoma by any reasonable assessment is already there and has been for the past few years.  As the poll indicates, it was not always like that.  As recently as 2006, with President George W. Bush riding herd over things like the botched Katrina response, the Iraq insurgency that only seemed to get worse and domestic economic policies that would eventually collapse like the house of cards they indeed were, the voters of Oklahoma saw fit to elect or reelect Democrats to eight of nine state offices.  It was 2008 and facing the prospect of seeing elected the first part blood African-American to the White House that Oklahoma Democrats felt a decided backlash when all the state’s 77 counties voted for the GOP ticket and on those coattails came a few more GOP state officers and legislators.  This trend of backlash against national Democratic policies was repeated in 2010 as the GOP-heavy legislature redrew state house and senate districts to ensure their majority.  It was again repeated in 2012 when all 77 counties in the state once more were won by the GOP Presidential ticket.  The result of the 2014 General Election was more of the same as now the Oklahoma GOP has its largest legislative majority in the history of the state.  I must therefore respectfully disagree with Gallup’s results that Oklahoma is a “lean Republican” state.  Based on my daily interactions and following of local news happenings and actions of state government, Oklahoma is about as solid Republican as they come.  To underscore this assertion, another first in Oklahoma history is that Republican Party voter registration now outnumbers that of the Democratic Party.  My observations heretofore have been purely anecdotal in the course of registering first time voters at the Tulsa State Fair and other places but so many I noticed were registering as Republican or Independent (FYI, Independents are prohibited from primary voting in Oklahoma).  As these findings demonstrate, the GOP now has an ever so narrow but nonetheless upper hand in registered voters in Oklahoma and sadly many of those who have chosen to have an “R” on their voter identification are not being well served by GOP policies.

All the data from this Gallup poll however seems to fly in the face of Democratic values and policies that have a far and wide appeal among the nation’s electorate.  Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid for instance are incredibly popular, particularly among the disabled and retired populations.  The case for easing income inequality by raising the minimum wage won resoundingly in all locales where it was on the ballot in 2014.  The nation as a whole is accepting same-sex marriage as the new norm despite places like Oklahoma attempting to legislate morality to stop it.  There are an increasing number of places that are watching the legalization of marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington and realizing that weed is not the social disaster it has been demonized as but the War on Drugs to quell it certainly has been.  I will say it again that all eyes are now on the GOP.  The race for the Republicans to reclaim the White House in 2016 is already underway and they have their work cut out for them as their candidates have to outdo each other before their big money donors to prove their conservative credentials.  I only hope they don’t let governing take a back seat to the forthcoming year and a half of campaigning.  Some would say that 2016 is the GOP’s to lose and at this point it is anyone’s ball game.  It remains to be seen if an electorate so enamored with liberal and progressive policy ideas will give the nod to a candidate who will walk it all back.  I am one that is intent on staying curious.

Image by Gallup