Gentle Reader:
Have you missed us? It was intentional on our part. We wanted to give Chairman Charity no ability to blame us for dividing the party when she needed to bring it together and implement a GOTV effort. She failed.
Why do we say that she failed? Our first data point is the most significant reason. And we actually didn't come up with it. It was sent to us by many of you who have done the research on your own. Since 1990, every election has seen growth or remained at stasis in the Oklahoma Legislature with the exception of 2018. In 2018, Chairman McLain lost a net of two seats in the legislature. So for 36 years, Republicans have lost a total of two net seats. That's remarkable.
Then here comes Chairman Charity. With her endorsements that failed, her lawsuits against her landlord, her claims that she wants unity, but only on her terms, and her lack of a ground game. As we write, Chairman Charity lost at least six seats in the legislature on her own. Chairman Charity: -6 in one election; 36 years of Chairmen: -2. Larry Stein lost in Oklahoma County. Tedford almost lost. Cong. Bice had her lowest win total in her Congressional career. T.J. Marti had zero support in his reelect and got embarrassed in his defeat. We lost a legislative seat IN LAWTON! What the hell? Mazzei, Shannon, Echols, Tedford and Bice did not win their home counties -- or even come close. Was anything done by the OKGOP to help these candidates? The answer is no. But hey, Charity sent out some banger tweets cheering on a President with a -14 approval rating in the state. At least Mazzei was self aware enough to pull the Trump endorsement from his materials.
Now the excuses: "Well, Trump was unpopular." Trump doesn't lay out the ground game. You do, Charity. Or should. "Hern didn't lead a Victory effort." You lead the victory effort and partner with Hern. "Mazzei didn't spend any money." Lazy Mazzei didn't do much in the general election, no. That's why he only won by 6 (which is embarrassing in Oklahoma.) But that's not an excuse for failing to organize and lead an effort at the Party. Why does the party exist if it isn't going to spend money and organize on behalf of our movement?
In 2018 when Chairman McLain lost the two seats in the legislature, The Charitys of the time called for his head and demanded that he resign. What's fair is fair. Charity should resign. She failed when the most important test of her two-year term was put in front of her. She should view this as embarrassing. But likely won't.
The sad part
of all of this is that, ultimately, nothing will change. Charity won't resign until she announces her Senate candidacy against Senator Bergstrom. Because just like in her time as Chair, she doesn't believe in protecting strong conservative candidates. She'll ignore that she in fact was in charge of the show that went poorly and convince her people that she wasn't the problem, the establishment was. But as Peggy Noonan said in the Wall Street Journal last week (summarized), the establishment was told that they weren't needed, and won't come back. You pushed out real conservatives. The only hope is to organize and get behind a single candidate for the OKGOP convention in the spring. The candidate doesn't have to be perfect, they just need to be competent and willing to build from the ground up. And then the rest of us need to have his or her back.
Now for the national view
We hope that the Action Figure crowd saw what happens when keeping it real goes horribly wrong. Last night was not a rebuke of conservatism, it was a rebuke of creating sideshows. Don't try to put someone's name on everything. Do policy work unless you want to lose Texas, Mississippi and Kansas completely. Pick decent conservative candidates, not Paxton or Vivek. Help illegals exit the country, don't make a sideshow of it. Oklahomans saw what sideshow politics can look like at the Department of Ed. Learn to communicate and use your words. If you start a war, prosecute the war, explain the mission, and don't stop every two weeks to negotiate with people that we know won't really negotiate. Don't piss off conservative friends that you know you will need. This isn't a rebuke of Trump, it's a rebuke of how leaders should operate--not off the cuff, but strategically. Is this that hard?
Finally
Hern trying to bully his way into taking his seat early is what he did in the House when he was first elected there. We have no issue with Hern, except that he's being bratty here. And we aren't fans of Armstrong, but we hope he either refuses to hand the seat over without a lawsuit, or files one himself. We have popcorn at the ready.
Chairman Charity failed. She must take responsibility. Get ready for the ride, it's about to get fun.
CW/CM/SC/WB