Woefully Ignorant State Legislative Proposals
 

This one has passed the first hurdle to becoming law in Oklahoma:

I particularly enjoyed the above bolded text. In my state, the legislature has been overrun by partisan kooks. They're passing idiotic socially conservative legislation like the above as well as doing away with any protections the government has to protect we the people from corporate abuses.

It's getting bad down here.

Soooo if contraceptives are offered, then women are forced to use them? That kind of seems to be his logic. Never mind the whole nullification angle of this. Why did we hit a sudden return of the nullification attempts? From both ends even.

There's no bun in the oven? Damn, I don't know who I am at all. Even forgot my name. I'm doomed.

That's the point.. barefoot and pregnant! Making dinner for hubby and taking care of the kids. We don't even need to think. That's the way all of us should be.

:rolleyes:

Quickly someone help me find the kitchen! I'm lost! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

quick! Knock me up!

And then the same people gripe about women on welfare who keep having children, right?

You would think the politicians would learn from seeing what happened with Akin and the others who made ridiculous decisions about women. Someone should rally the women to refuse sex until this law is overturned.

Michigan legislature has been a piece of work themselves lately. They passed Right to Work in UAW territory?

They also created a Failing Schools school district. They took all the Detroit public schools who were "failing" by standardized testing measures and put them in one district that the state runs. Recent headlines? Detroit Public Schools MEAP scores increase significantly. The state run district is doing worse than it was when it was part of Detroit schools.

You'd be surprised. Despite the national success of the Democrats in Presidential/federal level politics, the statehouses have not seen a similar, left-leaning shift, by and large.

Much of it, I think is just the cultural make up of the states, but a lot of "Akin" types come to power in off-year (non-Presidential) cycles, when turn out is notoriously low.

At some point people need to decide if their state's politics are a good fit for them. I would refuse to live in a state that passed some of the laws enacted in other states. I wish more people would take it seriously and do something about it, rather than stay someplace that, well, just doesn't like them or their beliefs. Kevin, at what point do you say 'enough is enough'?

Sometimes there's not a lot of choice, PeppyGPhiB. I was born and raised in OK. It's where my family is. When I didn't have a job after graduation, it's where I ended up again. Now it's where all my network is. I'm trying to get a job--any job--and I'll go wherever that job takes me, even if it's somewhere even less suitable for my tastes than OK (I'm not sure where that even exists...maybe Texas). Also, if everyone who doesn't agree leaves, it'll just get redder and redder and redder (if that's possible). Change can come from within. Living in Oklahoma is frustrating, certainly, but there are a lot of advantages, too (for one thing, it is cheeeeeeap), and I think to discount a state completely because of its politics is a little shortsighted. But yes, sometimes living in a state that is known for having the opposite of your politics can be very, very hard.

ETA: Also, without politics, all we'd have to complain about would be the weather.

Eventually, the pendulum is going to swing the other way. Especially the way the extremists are swinging for the fences with some of this drivel. I'm a registered Republican just so I can have a say in my local races.

Those of y'all who know me for my postings here probably don't think I'm exactly a bleeding heart liberal, but here, if you're not somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, think that UN Agenda 21 is trying to take away your state's sovereignty and that the President is a Kenyan Muslim destroying this country to get revenge for British colonialism, then you are an evil commie liberal.

My family has been a part of this state since the beginning. My great grandmother (mom's side) was the first school teacher in Anadarko, Oklahoma and had what we believe to be the first flushing toilet in the state. She was on good terms with the Dalton Gang. My great grandfather owned a furniture store in Cushing, Oklahoma and rose to prominence in the town having the only covered wagon to travel to the city and back until the railroad was built. They renamed Main Street to Cherry street because of his orchard. When you have roots like that, you don't just pack up and leave. Also, I'm a lawyer and am inheriting a well established law practice and those don't tend to travel well.

All of that said, living in OKC isn't bad. We have culture, things to do, you can get anywhere in 30 minutes. It ain't NYC or even Dallas, but it's a really nice place to live if you're educated and have a decent income. If you're poor and do manual labor where you might have to go to our about to be reformed workers comp system, God help ya.

Also I think people need to realize that radical idiots =/= entire party or even a specific party in general. That being said, I do think that the republicans need to get their stuff together and be more consistent.

I heard recently that a Congressman will change his vote if he gets 6 calls on a subject. 6. Because he assumes 1000 people agree with the 1 person who actually picks up the phone. If every logical person in Oklahoma (and I'm sure there are a few ;) of you out there) made one phone call or sent an email that was carefully worded and polite, you could revolutionize Oklahoma. If the only people who are squeaking are the wingnuts, that's who they're going to respond to.

Kevin, get 6 people, actual voters in Oklahoma, to start making a weekly call to their electeds to express an opinion on a particular subject, and see what happens.

Unfortunately, what I'd LIKE to ask them is if you only made birth control and abortion illegal for white women, would that be ok? I think some of them would actually be dumb enough to answer that question.

/lane swerve and something I think we should ALL do. Several years ago there was a Congressional election. One of the candidates was asked how a bill becomes a law. She could not answer the question and got completely flustered. Regardless of the fact that anyone who grew up with Schoolhouse Rock should be able to answer that question, a person applying for a job should understand the most basic of principles of what that job entails. Next time you attend a debate ASK THAT QUESTION and then vote accordingly.

I think you're on to something. This is going to be a very Oklahoma specific answer, but I'm at a pretty good vantage point to understand what's going on here.

Prior to the last 5 years or so, Oklahoma had been run by the Democrats in the legislature exclusively for over 90 years. These were Southern [note the capital S] Democrats who fought racial integration, socially enlightened policy, etc. They were corrupt and dominated by trial lawyers, which has resulted in the practice of law being particularly lucrative for my colleague-kin in certain areas.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, the Chamber of Commerce hatched a plan to control the state. With the help of the local media, headed by E.K. Gaylord (those of you in Nashville are acquainted), who had just been put through the ringer by the Attorney General, were naturally very anti trial lawyer and compliant in this endeavor, began to malign attorneys at all levels, to push "tort reform" as salvation, to go after unions and to rejigger the courtrooms to favor large institutions with deep pockets. Bit by bit, folks bought that these ideas were "conservative," even though conservative used to mean personal responsibility, not corporate immunity, the public bought it.

With evil trial lawyers marginalized and the word "conservative" being associated with virtuous for a slight majority of our citizens, the Republican brand caught fire. It was almost a snowball effect--a politician could say anything was conservative and the public would buy it. Destroying Unions? Conservative. Getting rid of pollution controls? Conservative. Capping damages in lawsuits? Conservative. [not making this up] Ensuring oil and gas royalty owners can't file class action suits against producers? Must be Conservative.

To make matters worse, the wingnuts figured this out. We have two groups, OCPAC (Oklahoma Conservative PAC) and the Sooner Tea Party, which are formed of a bunch of self-described conservative/libertarian/constitutionalist malcontents who believe almost uniformly that UN Agenda 21 is a conspiracy against the Constitution to steal our sovereignty and that our President is a Kenyan Muslim whose goal is to marginalize the U.S. to make up for English colonialism. These two groups (which both claim the other is too liberal and continually push one another to further and further extremes) figured out they could take control of the message of Conservatives which the Chamber of Commerce used to control.

If a Republican dares to speak against any of these groups, they will run someone in the primary against him. Sometimes they even do it to their good foot soldiers who march in lock step with the agenda. I am friends with a couple of our Republican legislators. They're intelligent and reasonable individuals, but they have been forced to support some of the stupidest legislation imaginable.

Just a few examples:

-- Making it a felony for a state official to do anything in compliance with Obamacare.

--Allowing local school districts to opt out of state mandated standards.

--Exempting intrastate manufactured firearms from federal regulations entirely so long as they remain within the state.

::bangs head on rock::