The Obsolete Man
Gentle Reader:
Do you watch the Twilight Zone? We're not talking about the remakes, we're talking about the real episodes from the early 1960s. Go back and watch them, they are full of conservative messages. Same with some of the early Stark Trek episodes. Amazing work. Our favorite episode of Twilight Zone is from Season One, and it's called "The Obsolete Man." On the surface, it's about a godless monolith that runs the government. When the government views an individual as "obsolete," or has little further benefit to society, the individual is exterminated. Burgess Meredith is the "obsolete" individual in the episode because he believes in God and works as a "librarian" in a world that no longer has books.
One of the more remarkable lines in the episode is when the main bureaucrat in the episode says, "the problem with the communists and nazis is that they didn't go far enough." And that line crystallized for us the far left and the far right of today for us. Too many of you don't think conservatives go far enough without weighing unintended consequences. Nathan Dahm opposes our control? Obsolete. Ignore that he has an important role in the party, he's in the way of our control. ("The eye cannot say to the hand I don't need you")
This leads us to an email we received earlier this week. The writer explained their "disappointment" with "the OCPAC President [Bob Linn] for his strong and continual support of James Lankford." We wrote only a brief statement back to the person, but we write more here. Essentially, the writer, comparable to the main bureaucrat in the Twilight Zone episode, was suggesting that both Bob Linn and James Lankford were "obsolete" in today's party. This, of course, is absurd. ("The eye cannot say to the hand I don't need you")
We'll focus our
comments on Lankford, but they apply just as well to Bob Linn. The writer proved our point from the last email, and this one as well: Many in the party are more focused on purity than coalition. Don't get us wrong, Lankford frustrates us at times as well. And we've shared that disappointment with him. And we know the unwritten rule among the right that when a conservative enters leadership they magically lose their conservatism and become a liberal, so as one of the top Republicans in the Senate he loses cred as a result. Go look at what Frank Lucas and Tom Cole have done for this state and tell us their service in leadership hasn't been valuable to Oklahoma. That doesn't mean that we don't get frustrated with votes at certain times, but elected officials are in office not to benefit or please us as individuals, but to use their judgment. Go read some Edmund Burke for more on this concept. ("Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays you instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion." Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol, November 3, 1774.) But as even Charity Linch would have to admit at this point, being a leader means having to discern what to push and when to say no. This makes some mad. But remember, you community of narcissists, it's not about you. It can't be, because the narcissist next to you demands their opinion win the day.
This is not to say
that Lankford is our favorite Senator. That award goes to Sen. Mullin. But many of you can't stand him either! This shows your fickle ways. On the passing of Senator Inhofe we wrote a tribute to him that many of you replied "he was a RINO!" So if Mullin (one of the closest senators to Trump) and Inhofe don't measure up, how in the world is Senator Lankford supposed to? From our view, Lankford should be criticized more for graduating from UT-Austin than most of the junk you hens complain about. Remember, context can be important, but most of you don't want to hear that part.
In the end, know this, which we did say to the person that emailed us. Lankford is viewed far more positively by Oklahoma than he is in your small, irrelevant echo chamber. And when you run the false prophet Jackson Lahmyer against him again, you will assure he keeps his seat for another six years despite what Roger Stone is telling you and Mike Mazzei. And you will become further irrelevant because you failed to work with him on the things you agreed with him on, and only wanted to label him obsolete.
Obsolescence also carries over
to how serious some of you take yourselves. You want to legally tag people "obsolete," really without any actual basis to do so. The number of lawsuits out there among the OKGOP community is hilarious, and nearly all of them are extremely stupid. Take a breath, fools. A few highlights:
- After suing John Bennett and the OKGOP in 2021 because he was asked to leave an OKGOP meeting due to the room being at capacity, our old friend/former favorite cabinet maker Al Gerhart sued. And not thinking through the consequences of filing a lawsuit, he lost badly. So badly that he had to pay the legal fees of the OKGOP. Now, thrashing around, and trying to avoid paying the fees, he filed another lawsuit claiming that Judge Natalie Mai is the Cherokee Maiden (ha! She has a great American story, but that's the worst guess we've heard!), and that there was a conspiracy to see him defeated. Go read the briefs. Even when, at his request, the case was transferred to a Democrat Judge, she ruled against him. We'll buy our next order of cabinets from David McLain instead of you, Al. He deserves the work more.
- As a sidelight to this, Al sent a "litigation hold" email to 38 republicans yesterday, demanding they hold records related to his case. We're guessing no one actually has any records related to his case, but it's hilarious that people he should be more friendly with, like John Greening, Paul Blair, Miles Rahimi, Kenny Bob Tapp, Leslie NesSmith, Wayne Hill, and Adam Modisette were included. This effort will surely be dismissed, and Al will have to sell some cabinets soon to pay his bills.
- Tulsa's Al Gerhart, Ron Durbin, filed lawsuits against a group of Republicans because they wouldn't let him film at a private meeting, and the police officer that the meeting organizer hired asked him to leave when he refused to stop filming. Ron is a disbarred attorney that reacts and foams at the mouth like Gerhart, but has no filter to discern wise moves. Just like his friend Melissa Remmington. This lawsuit is not a wise move. Neither are his facebook posts about it. Judge Nightingale is a Republican, Ron, so you might try what Al did and get a Democrat Judge. See if that helps your success rate. We doubt it will. Bluster doesn't win court cases, law does.
- We've grown to love our friend Ferlin Kearns, but his threat to sue the OKGOP rings hollow. He's mad that the OKGOP is censuring people. Not sure he can legally complain about it, but ok. As we told a reader recently, no one pays attention to what the OKGOP does anymore. It has become irrelevant — or, "obsolete" like the bureaucrat actually did at the end of the twilight zone episode— and will remain that way until they recognize that they owe the party not only their industry, but their judgment as well.
Please quit suing each other. The courts don't want your political fights. And you are likely to be disappointed with both your result and your bill at the end of the proceedings.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
CW/CM/SC/WB