End the Lack of Political Choice in Oklahoma

End the Lack of Political Choice in Oklahoma

I first registered as a Republican in October of 1980 and cast my first ballot for president in favor of Ronald Reagan. The libertarian ideals offered by Reagan were not new, but a softer version of those spoken by Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was an electoral disaster in 1964. Even my home state of Oklahoma voted for Lyndon Johnson. That was the last time a majority of voters in Oklahoma voted for a Democratic Party presidential nominee.

I officially left the GOP for good in October of 2014. The overt bigotry aimed at Muslims by a slew of militantly ignorant state legislators, affirmed by the Oklahoma GOP party chair was the final straw. Of course that was the last straw. But there were many other liberty destroying stacks of hay that had accumulated over the years.

There was/is the overt hatred by many in the Oklahoma Republican Party of Hispanic immigrants. In fact, just last year, a smear campaign was launched by elements of the Tulsa 912 organization to defeat Estella Hernandez as state party chair. They succeeded.

Estela arrived in America when she was six years old from El Salvador. She is a first generation American. And of course, a majority of the Oklahoma GOP activists do not want her to be a leader of *their* party. So they got their way. After the smear campaign, she left her position as OKGOP vice chair and moved on to bigger and better things at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Then there is the heaping pile of bigotry aimed at same sex marriage by virtually every elected GOP office holder. Notorious OKGOP politicians led by Sally Kern referred to LGBTQ Americans as a 'greater danger than terrorists." Just to make sure eveyone knew how much they hated same sex marriage, the OKGOP embedded this ideology throughout their state party platform.

The OKGOP has been trying to sell the concepts of "limited government" while pushing overtly big government police statism and devotion to the war state. And they have justified such big government ideals on drug war prohibition that has made us less safe, less free, less economically productive, and more likely to have our privacy violated by the state. And yet there are some activists who probably feel trapped within the OKGOP.

When I left the OKGOP in 2014, I registered as an Oklahoma Democrat. That was the only real choice I had, other than to become an Independent. We don't have much political freedom in Oklahoma.

But now I'm a registered Libertarian because the Oklahoma Libertarian Party obtained the resources to gather enough signatures of registered voters to become officially recognized by the state of Oklahoma. And yet, the party is in danger of dying once again after November if its presidential candidate fails to reach 10% of the vote. A bill in the state legislature would reduce that requirement to 2.5% of vote. But the precise language of the bill has not been approved nor signed into law as of this date.

Entrapping activists to choose between the lesser of two evils must come to an end. Oklahoma needs to allow political freedom beyond the two major parties and provide voice to those who wish to be part of the process as a minor political party.

For once, the politicians should do the right thing and lower party retention requirements. We'll see if that happens or if it's just more talk to gain favor of third party movements.

And while they are tweaking political party laws, it's way past time to allow write in candidates. Perhaps "None of the Above" might win an election and that would be progress in many political races.