Premature Electionation

Gentle reader:

We have a couple of things to talk about today, and only one of them is about the OKGOP leadership. Let's get to it, shall we?

The story of Ryan Walters is,
as we've said before, the story of a teacher that had a fast ascent to the top of the political world but never had his "college republican" years until now. His formation in conservatism came while wading through real government decisions and, well, that's a combination for disaster. And it proved to be. Even some action figure-adjacent groups quit inviting him to speaking events, tired of his antics. And antics they were.

Do we put much stock in an education ranking called NerdWallet? No. In fact we don't put a whole lot of stock in any of those education rankings. BUT, the reality is that whatever metric you choose to apply, Oklahoma's education system is bad, and it did not improve under Ryan Walters. We continue to believe that consolidation is part of the answer, even if that is consolidation of administration/districts rather than schools. 

Recently Ferlin did a video on the "pile on" effect of saying things when you don't need to. Well, the left went out of their way to pile on here. Wendy Suares did one of those idiotic "why won't you talk to us" chases. A state legislator demanded an Ethics Commission investigation because Ryan is taking a job from a group that he once promoted. Libs are holding "bye bye ryan" parties. All of this is retarded, because if Governor Stitt appoints the right person, that person will be able to operate quietly in the shadow of Ryan, won't look as bad as he did, and will still be able to advance conservative reforms. Sure the left will complain, but that's what they do, and ultimately they will have less to complain about than they do now, so they will get ignored.

There are two groups that lose the most with Ryan gone:

1) Former Rep. Mark McBride. That guy made Ryan-hating all about him, running article-after-article about hating Ryan, doing tv interviews about it constantly, and being the "anonymous source" in stories about Ryan. And as a final push, he made Ryan's resignation about him when he posted one of those self-adulating "I don't know if Stitt will appoint me, but thanks for the hundreds of you that have reached out" posts. Yes you do know he won't appoint you. The answer is no, you're an idiot to even write that on facebook. You should delete your account. And even if he wanted to he wouldn't because state law blocks you from it as a recent former state legislator. Please go into irrelevance now and go away.

2) Print/Online Journalism. What in the world will they write about now? At one point we counted FIVE articles about Walters in the Saturday newspaper. Obviously it was getting clicks online, and those papers won't sell themselves, maybe they'll have to go back to real journalism and find real stories.

If the Greeks of ancient Athens were to write a play about Ryan Walters, it would be written as a tragedy. And they would be right to do so. A tragedy in the sense that he wasted his opportunity to make real and irreversible change rather than the fleeting policies that can be changed with a stroke of a pen by the next superintendent. Ryan Walters is King Pyrrhus of Epirus at the battle of Asculum, and his fleeting victories won at too great of a cost. This, Ryan, will be your epithet: An opportunity wasted in exchange for pyrrhic victories. And because of it we all became a bit dumber.

Speaking of dumber,

let's talk about a new phenomenon that we are seeing in elections. Back in February of this year we started seeing mail pieces and tv ads for Gentner Drummond' Governor campaign. Then, we started seeing them for Speaker McCall's Governor effort. Maybe there's some new political science behind this, or maybe it's just a psychological warfare experiment at a very expensive cost. Nearly all data on elections points to the idea that just about no one begins to think about an election until about one to two months before that election.  Whatever Gentner and McCall are doing, it has allowed us to coin a new term: Premature Electionation.  For a man that deals with premature ejaculation, our research informs us that the problem can be addressed with any number of anti-depressants or even viagra, or even the old idea of putting on a sheepskin. But with the issue of premature electionation, there is no solution, because the consultants make lots of money, and tell the candidates it's necessary, and in the quest to win, the candidates listen.

But the leadership of the OKGOP 

has taken premature electionation to a whole new level: They've put up a website for an election that may never happen. Voteno836.com is funded by the Oklahoma Republican Party, and encourages people to vote no on something that hasn't even made it past the signature gathering stage. It confuses the issue! Rather, maybe the OKGOP should conduct a full-throated "don't sign" effort? Better yet, without even seeing its use in a poll, we guarantee if you call 836 by its scary name, "Jungle Primary," as opposed to "open primary," you might actually succeed in stalling this at the signature gathering phase. Wouldn't that be great?

This may be a small example, but it is yet another example of why the current leadership can't be trusted to walk around with a loaded gun. Premature electionation can strike at a moment's notice. It can be embarrassing for everyone involved, and ruin a promising evening. Help us find a cure for premature electionation; it will benefit all of mankind. 

Enjoy your week!

CW/CM/SC/WB

p.s. Jonathan "Kreeper" Krems has made a claim that OKC Mayor David Holt will not run for reelection. If he's right we tip our hat to him for the insight, but want more than just the statement of a bad lawyer. David Holt is like Mark McBride in that he loves him some him, which leads us to believe he can't just go quietly do his job as Dean of the law school and pass up selfies with the OKC Thunder trophy. Besides, SQ836, if it passed, would finally give Dave a path to the Governor's Mansion as an independent. Wouldn't that be a hoot! We'll write more about SQ836 some time. Remind us.