One of the benefits of social media for voters is that it paints, over time, a detailed self-portrait of a person's interests, political inclinations, and philosophical commitments. This self-portrait is composed one tweet, one retweet at a time, over years, and in an un-self-conscious way, which gives a social media profile an authenticity that the official campaign website and the full-color giant postcards and the TV commercials lack. Yes, it's possible for an adversary to cherry-pick a post and use it to create a distorted depiction, but if the entire record is there to be perused, voters can quickly determine whether the selected tweet is a fair representation. When a candidate takes his social media account offline, it's possible that he's just pusillanimous and compliant with his risk-averse consultants. But a candidate who had recently converted from Democrat to Republican and then deleted his social media history is pretty obviously trying to pull a fast one on the voters. It's an indication that the candidate knows he is out of sync with the people whose votes he needs to win and that he doesn't credit them with enough intelligence to detect the scam he's trying to run. It suggests a strong degree of contempt for the people whose votes he seeks. Robert Franklin had an active X (Twitter account) which still shows up in search results as https://x.com/franklinmph. The first part of the description shows up on a Brave search:

August 13, 2011 - robert franklin · 6,927 posts · robert franklin · @franklinMPH · school admin. committed to life long learning & advocate for individuals with special needs. Co-founder of

Franklin's X account was still active until sometime in June after the primary. A search on Bing turns up a June 19 reply to Lane Brown. Ben Burnsed posted on Facebook on June 23 that Franklin had scrubbed his account. Burnsed attached screenshots that showed Franklin praising Democrat governor nominee Cyndi Munson, calling for a federal registry of gun ownership, and hoping that John Kasich would be "Trump's kryptonite," praising Kasich for his fiscally irresponsible embrace of Medicaid expansion. Rick Thomas posted an Instagram reel containing screenshots of Franklin's praise for Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico, another liberal "Christian" who attacks Biblical beliefs on abortion and sexuality. At the NonDoc forum before the June 16 primary, candidates were asked to recommend books. The book Robert Franklin recommended "for my college-age students" was Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John Fugelsang. What's the "hate" Fugelsang (and, presumably, Franklin) want to separate from the church? From the book's blurb on the publisher's website:

For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently. But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies. The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren't actually on the side of Jesus--and historically they never have been. How do we fight back against those acting--literally--in bad faith? Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang finally offers the answers. In this informative, perspective-shifting book, Fugelsang takes readers through common fundamentalist arguments on abor­tion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more--exposing their hypocrisy and inaccuracy through scripture, common sense, and deeply inappropriate humor. It offers practical tips on how to debate your loved one, coworker, or neighbor on the issues that divide us using that Bible they claim to follow.

Evidently, Robert Franklin thinks that we're haters, we conservative Christians who believe in the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception, who uphold the normal, Biblical views of sex and sexuality, who insist that immigration policy should put the interests of American citizens ahead of the billions who would like to live here. These "hateful" views are those of a majority of Oklahomans and of the vast majority of Oklahoma Republican runoff voters, and yet Robert Franklin apparently considers these people hateful. That perspective aligns with J. Gresham Machen's characterization of theological liberalism as a different religion than Christianity that uses Christian terminology and tropes to preach a different gospel. H. Richard Niebuhr characterized the liberal gospel in 1937: "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross." Sherrie F. Conley wrote on Facebook:

Franklin's decision to recommend The Separation Between Church and Hate matters because the use of this book as a recommendation serves to reveal something about the ideas that he regards as valuable. He could have selected a work on literacy, classical literature, American history, school leadership, constitutional government or educational excellence. Instead, he selected a book written to challenge conservative Christian theology and politics. A book written to be persuasive and provocative, and seeks to convince readers that one side is right and another side is wrong. Franklin has said very little publicly about the book beyond recommending it. But the act of recommending it was itself consequential. This was a Republican education debate, and he selected a book whose explicit mission is to rebut the religious and political beliefs held by a large portion of conservative Republican voters.

We've written many times that many in the public education establishment regard the public schools as missionary endeavors, whose primary job is to convert children away from the "benighted" values of their parents and toward a more "enlightened" perpective. Franklin's prominent book endorsement suggests that he agrees with that mission. Franklin's supporters echo Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign claim: "This election is not about ideology; it's about competence." The claim is that Franklin's many years as an administrator in public schools (29 at Sand Springs, 16 at Tulsa Tech) should outweigh any concern about his liberal political or theological views. Oklahoma voters weren't taken in by Dukakis and they won't be taken in by Franklin. There are a number of problems with that perspective; here are three: 1. Franklin's experience has been in the front office, not the classroom, and for the last 16 years, he's been an administrator at Tulsa Tech, an exceedingly well funded system thanks to an earmarked property tax millage, and a school that has students who are there intentionally. The conservative candidate in the runoff, James Taylor, has been in the classroom, teaching government and history in a small public school and dealing with the constraints and hardships that Oklahoma's public school teachers face, trying to inspire and educate students who are there because they have to be. 2. Franklin's experience is as an administrator in an educational world that has destroyed academic achievement. This is the public school "blob" (as William Bennett called it in the 1980s) that changes teaching methods every few years so schools have to buy expensive new curriculum. Franklin's milieu is the world of "whole-word literacy" and "balanced literacy" that fails to teach children to read. His world is the world of social promotion, pushing kids along from grade to grade even if they haven't mastered the basics. I've found no evidence that Franklin has ever offered any resistance to the latest fads from the college education departments, the teacher's unions, and the curriculum publishers. 3. Education is unavoidably ideological: What should children learn, what should they be taught about history, what they are taught about human nature, what books and ideas and people are held up as exemplary. Is the USA a good country, worthy of our love and allegiance, or an evil country? I know that James Taylor believes America is a great country; does Robert Franklin? Some of the Left, in places where they don't have to practice taqiyya, are honest enough to say, as the Guardian did in 2015, "Any society has to privilege some ethical viewpoint." I wrote then about how the Left uses the camouflage of credentials to pretend that pushing their perspective is an exercise in neutral expertise, while conservative resistance is "politicization."

Conservative efforts to retake control of our public schools and universities will be characterized as "politicizing" supposedly neutral institutions, and naive folks who are themselves conservative will be led to resist. The fight over AP US History was a preview of coming attractions. I was amazed to see friends who are politically and religiously conservative join in the outcry against the legislative bill to offer an alternative, in response to the Leftist changes to the AP US History curriculum. They believed the line that legislators were politicizing the course, but not the Leftists who were remaking the course to serve their political ends, because the College Board was seen as some neutral authority -- a neutral authority with the power to withhold a desired credential.

Franklin's run reminds me a lot of Joy Hofmeister's 2014 win. In 2014, however, Hofmeister ran a stealth campaign, convincing anti-Common Core conservative reformers like Jenni White that Hofmeister was on our side (and Jenni and others convinced me) and that school choice advocate Janet Barresi needed to go. We say Hofmeister's true colors once she was safely in office, and especially when she switched parties to run against Gov. Kevin Stitt. At least Joy Hofmeister was honest enough to run for Governor as a Democrat. Looking back at that 2014 race, public school administrator support for Hofmeister and Hofmeister's hostility to school choice should have been a great big clue. My hesitation then was overcome by a friend I thought was conservative, a homeschooling parent and pseudonymous blogger whose spouse was also a conservative pseudonymous blogger and a public school administrator. I see now that this "friend" had already gone over to "the dark side" and misused our friendship to shift my endorsement. This year, the public education insiders, teachers' unions, and anti-school-choice zealots are all lining up behind Franklin. They're portraying him as the nice guy in the race, the anti-Ryan Walters. He has such a lovely Charlie Crist tan (and, it seems, Charlie Crist values, too). By trying to hide who he is, by hiding his social media archive, Robert Franklin has shown us who he is. By endorsing Separation of Church and Hate, Robert Franklin has shown us that he thinks people like you and me are hateful because we agree with the Bible. Conservative Republicans aren't going to fall for a stealth candidate again, especially not for such a crucial position. Robert Franklin has tried to hide his opinions, but the mask has slipped enough for us to see the contempt in which he evidently holds conservative Oklahomans. MORE: Robert Franklin's campaign contributions follow a pattern of giving to Democrats to help them win general elections against Republicans, and trying to help candidates in Republican primaries who were evidently out of step with GOP primary voters. Specifics after the jump:
- August 11, 2026 at 12:44AM
Robert Franklin's contempt for conservatives
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Have you ever thought about how utility companies get the right to run pipes and cables over or under your back fence or under city streets? When a subdivision is laid out (platted), easements are dedicated by the developer to the city. Some of these are for streets and are owned by the city, while the easements along your back fence (typically five feet from the fence) remain in your ownership, but the City has limited rights to run sewer lines and other utilities through the easement and to grant franchises to utility companies to run their own overhead lines and underground cables and pipes. These franchises are long-term but not permanent and must be renewed when they expire, which opens up an opportunity for city and utility to renegotiate terms. Under Article VIII, Section 4, of the Tulsa City Charter, each franchise must be approved by a vote of the people. On August 25, 2026, all Tulsans, whether or not there is a City Council race on the ballot, can vote on whether to renew the franchise for Oklahoma Natural Gas for the next 20 years. The last vote on ONG's franchise was on August 9, 2011, and codified as Title 15, Chapter 3. That 15-year franchise replaced a 25-year franchise approved in 1986. There are several major differences between the existing franchise and the new franchise the voters are asked to approve:

• The new franchise is longer, 20 years instead of 15. (Section 301)
• ONG will be required to build temporary sidewalks when the sidewalk needs to be reopened before the permanent sidewalk repair can be completed. (Section 307 C.4.)
• The new franchise fee increases from 3.10% to 4.00% of gross receipts, but the additional 0.90% will be deposited in a "special revenue fund for the maintenance, repair, and improvement of Public Ways, including but not limited to right-of-way and median maintenance and enhancement; streetscaping; landscaping; street and highway lighting maintenance, repair, and replacement; sidewalks; and corridor enhancement and beautification." (Section 312)
• ONG will not be charged "any permit fees, lane closure fees and similar fees or charges for construction, installation, maintenance or restoration work on the Distribution System within the rights-of-way." (Section 312)
• The process and timing of changes to ONG's lines due to city requirements to accommodate other utilities in the right-of-way is set out in greater detail. (Section 308)

The current franchise ordinance, No. 22415, is here. The proposed franchise ordinance, No. 25782, is here. Here is a Draftable comparison of the two, highlighting the differences.
- August 4, 2026 at 01:43AM
City of Tulsa ONG franchise renewal
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When a statutory matter gets written into the State Constitution, amending it is a pain in the ballot. On August 25, 2026, at the runoff primary election (also the City of Tulsa general election), Oklahoma voters will decide State Question 844, which would change some clauses in Article X, Section 6B of the Oklahoma Constitution. The Constitution grants a five-year property tax exemption for new or expanded manufacturing facilities and mandates the State to reimburse local government for the property tax revenue they would otherwise receive. If SQ 844 passes, the Legislature would decide how much to reimburse and how to divide the reimbursement up among taxing entities. Here is the gist of SQ844 that will appear on the August 25 ballot:

This measure amends article 10, section 6B of the Oklahoma Constitution. Section 6B incentivizes manufacturers to locate, expand, or acquire manufacturing facilities in Oklahoma through an ad valorem taxation exemption for five (5) years. Currently, the State must reimburse common schools, county governments, cities and towns, emergency medical services districts, vocational technical schools, junior colleges, county health departments and libraries for revenues lost as a result of each exemption provided. This measure authorizes the Legislature to enact laws establishing the levels and methodologies of reimbursement for the previously mentioned local governmental entities resulting from the manufacturing exemption. The laws are meant to ensure that no individual county receives reimbursement in an amount detrimental to other Oklahoma counties. The levels and methodologies will replace the current statutory framework for reimbursement. For the purpose of calculating the limit on indebtedness for political subdivisions, the measure requires such amount be equal to the amount of reimbursement applicable to such property under laws enacted by the Legislature. This measure will have a fiscal impact on the state that will depend on the application of the levels and methodologies adopted by the Legislature.

Here is what will actually change in Oklahoma Constitution Article X, Section 6B, Paragraphs E & F:

E. The For the purpose of ensuring that no individual county shall receive reimbursement in amounts that result in a detriment to the other counties of the state, the Legislature shall enact laws to carry out the provisions of this section and to provide for the levels and methodologies of reimbursement to common schools, county governments, cities and towns, emergency medical services districts, vocational-technical schools, junior colleges, county health departments and libraries for revenues lost to such entities as a result of the each exemption provided by this section. F. The assessed valuation of property exempt from taxation by virtue of this section shall be added to the assessed valuation of taxable property in computing the limit on indebtedness of political subdivisions contained in Section 26 of this article, in an amount equal to the level of reimbursement applicable to such property under the laws enacted by the Legislature.

There will be no change to paragraphs A through D, which establish the exemption and eligibility, and paragraph G, which establishes a county option to apportion up to 25% of the county 10-mill property tax on previously exempt manufacturing facilities to economic development. Proponents in the Legislature want the flexibility to ensure that reimbursements are not as concentrated to particular counties and that they can be scaled to avoid harming the rest of the state budget. Opponents, mainly from the Left, want to see the school districts where these manufacturing facilities are located continue to get the reimbursements they currently enjoy, and they point out that these reimbursements reduce the amount of money they receive in the state school funding formula. Reimbursements are funded by an earmarked 1% of state income tax collections, but that hasn't been enough to cover the required amount, and the Legislature has had to appropriate additional funds. From FY 2019 through FY 2024, that 1% only covered 30.5% of the reimbursements. I'd love to see these exemptions go away entirely, along with other taxpayer-funded inducements to private business, but that option isn't on the ballot. For now, Oklahomans need to vote yes to give the Legislature the flexibility to balance the various interests involved without overburdening the taxpayers. According to the 2026 annual report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission's Ad Valorem Division, 2026 reimbursements for tax year 2025 total $88,635,421, a significant drop from the 2019 tax year peak of $161 million. The 2024 quinquennial analysis of the exemption by the Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Commission notes that the legislature removed wind farms from the exemption list in 2015, effective for the 2018 tax year, and the previously granted exemptions have been expiring since then. $35.6 million (40%) of this year's $88.6 million reimbursement went to Mayes County. Nearly all of that amount, $34,187,160, is for the exemption to Google LLC - Myall LLC for the data center complex at the Mid-America Industrial Park. That's 38.6% of the statewide total. (A simple way to reduce the number of data centers being proposed for Oklahoma would be for the Legislature to remove data centers from the list of exempt industries, just as wind power generation was removed in 2015. This could also be accomplished by an initiative petition to amend 68 O.S. 2902, the section of law that defines which types of businesses are eligible for the exemption.) Tulsa County is the only other county into 8 digits in reimbursements, receiving $16,949,307 for the 2025 tax year. Holly Sinclair (east & west refineries combined) receives the largest benefit at $3.4 million, followed by Kimberly Clark ($2.1 million), Amazon ($1.7 million), Macy's Corporate Services ($1.7 million), Whirlpool Corporation ($1.6 million), Green Bay Packaging ($1.3 million), and AAON Corp ($1.1 million). The remaining exemptions are mainly in five figures. School districts are the largest recipients of property taxes and are also receiving the bulk of these reimbursements, money they likely would not have received in the absence of the ad valorem tax exemption and other incentives for these industrial developments. The complaints that reimbursements are unfairly concentrated in a few school districts remind me of complaints in the 1970s about districts where large electric power plants were located. On our way to visit my grandparents in Nowata, we would pass the new and growing Oologah Schools complex. Mom (a teacher at Catoosa) would remark on Oologah's new indoor pool and higher teacher salaries, funded by the coal-fired PSO generating plant in the district southeast of the town. At some point, the Legislature changed the law so that public utilities are subject to a higher assessment rate and pay their ad valorem taxes to the state rather than the county, spreading the revenues from regulated public utilities across the state. Whether these exemptions are funding real job growth or just enable financial gamesmanship is hard to tell. The Macy's distribution center in Tulsa's Cherokee Industrial Park, one of the top beneficiaries, closed this past spring. Why are property tax exemptions a constitutional matter at all? After the jump, we'll take a look at the history of Article X, Section 6B.
- August 1, 2026 at 09:54PM
Yes on SQ 844: Give Legislature flexibility on reimbursements to local governments for property tax exemptions
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The Oklahoma Red Book was a two-volume publication containing an encyclopedic collection of information about state government. The 1912 edition is available online at the Internet Archive. The table of contents of the first volume begins with this word of explanation:

This work was not compiled to be used as a book for ready reference, but rather to keep in a durable and compact form the full test of papers of state dealing with the creation and foundation of the commonwealth, the basic laws of the Indian government and all treaties, federal laws, rulings and Acts of Congress affecting Indian and Territorial Affairs, more to be used by the Student and State, hence the compilers think it only necessary to index in a general way. Papers of Indian affairs are indexed chronologically. Other papers in the order of their historical value.

1912 Oklahoma Red Book, Volume 1, contains the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution, with laws regarding citizenship and presidential succession; the Oklahoma Constitution, the Prohibition provision (voted on separately), the 1st Amendment (making literacy a requirement for voting, but with a "grandfather clause"), and the election ordinance for the new state constitution, which defined the townships within each county by which voting was organized. (Tulsa County had 12 municipal townships, two of which were the cities of Tulsa and Broken Arrow.) Following that, there were the constitutions of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Osage. The remainder of the book contains "Indian Treaties, Patents, Agreements, etc." beginning with the Cherokee Treaty of 1817 and continuing through to the Constitution for the proposed State of Sequoyah in 1905. 1912 Oklahoma Red Book, Volume 2, begins with lists and photographs of the elected and appointed officials of the State of Oklahoma, our federal representatives, employees and salaries of the various state departments, officers of the Oklahoma National Guard, members, committees, and rules of the Legislature, and historical officials (state and territorial). There is a description of all of the state institutions of higher education, as well as state charitable and penal institutions (e.g. the school for the deaf in Sulphur, the State Reformatory in Granite, the State Penitentiary in McAlester). In the midst of statistical tables, there is a speech, "Original Sources of Oklahoma Titles, with Special Reference to Indian Titles," by Kirby Fitzpatrick, Chief Examiner of Titles for State School Land Department), delivered before the American Association of Title Men, at Little Rock, Ark., November 18, 1911. It is an interesting glimpse into the contemporary understanding of land title and conveyance in the immediate aftermath of allotment and statehood. Mr. Fitzpatrick has some strong opinions, so it is interesting that this speech was included in an otherwise dry recitation of facts and statistics. Volume 2 becomes something like an almanac. There is a section with platforms and governing officials of state and national political parties, lists of elected officials from the other states, Oklahoma state and territorial election results, lists of Federal department heads, members of Congress, and Federal judges. There's a list of Washington addresses for almost every Senator and Representative. There is Federal census data from 1890, 1900, 1907, and 1910 for every county, incorporated municipality, and minor civil division. County and municipal officials are listed. The book closes with tables of assessed valuations by county and of each railroad, electric, and telephone company in the state. Unfortunately, Volume 1 is a monochrome scan and is missing all the illustrations. Volume 2 is a photographic scan, which is fortunate because of all the portraits and photographs it contains.
- July 26, 2026 at 07:19PM
Oklahoma Red Book of 1912
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Oklahoma has a relatively strong voter ID law, which was approved as SQ 746 at the November 2, 2010, general election, with 74% of the vote. SQ 746 enacted several amendments to Title 26 (Elections) of Oklahoma Statutes. The law specifies the attributes of an ID card that would be considered acceptable (unexpired, government-issued with a photograph and matching name) and makes allowance for provisional ballots for someone who seeks to vote without a valid ID. The sole exception to the photograph requirement is the paper voter ID card that is sent to each voter by the County Election Board to the registration mailing address. (Here's the Oklahoma State Election Board's FAQ on voter ID.) State Question 846 (746+100!) doesn't change any of that, but it would make it a constitutional requirement to present proof of identity to vote in Oklahoma. Currently, the legislature could abolish voter ID without voter approval; SQ 846 would make that impossible without a vote of the people. The question will be on the August 25, 2026, runoff election ballot. In April 2026, the Legislature approved SJR 47 to send the issue to the voters. SJR 47 passed 78-15 in the House and 39-8 in the Senate along party lines. If passed, it would add the following new section to Article III (Suffrage) of the Oklahoma Constitution:

Section 6. Each voter shall present proof of identity to the appropriate election official when voting at any election authorized by law and conducted by a county election board or the State Election Board. Proof of identity shall be required for any method of voting authorized by law. The Legislature shall enact laws necessary to specify the requirements for proof of identity for voting as required by this section.

The current form of Article III was approved in SQ 531 in November 1978, with a slight amendment to Section 1 in SQ 834 at the November 2024 election, clarifying that only US citizens may vote. This is an easy YES vote.
- July 17, 2026 at 01:57PM
YES on SQ 846: Add voter ID to the Oklahoma Constitution
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Truth in Focus Media in Tulsa has launched a podcast covering a variety of issues, including state and local politics. Truth in Focus is headed by and the podcast is hosted by David McLain, pastor of Heartland Church. McLain has also served as chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party and the Oklahoma Republican Party. McLain took up the work begun by the late Bruce Delay, who hosted a weekly broadcast on KFAQ 1170. The TIFMedia podcast and channel is quite new; McLain has also interviewed State Superintendent candidate James Taylor, who made it into the August runoff. Recently I sat down with David to talk about my background, the history and focus of BatesLine, and why citizen journalism matters. We also talked about:

• the impact of data centers,
• corporate welfare and economic development,
• the implosion of the Jackson Lahmeyer campaign and Mark Tedford's win in the open 1st Congressional District primary,
• Craig Hagin's downfall and whether a ministry and calling is heritable,
• massive campaign spending in the Republican primary for governor,
• bait and switch in the legislative process,
• dark money in the Tulsa County District Attorney's race,
• George Soros's efforts to elect district attorneys across America,
• what happened in the 2024 Tulsa Mayor's race and how the local Republican Party could have made a difference,
• Tulsa's homeless crisis and the mistaken view of humanity that shapes Tulsa's philanthropists.

I didn't mention this in the talk, but the logo on my shirt is from my 40-year college reunion, which I attended at the beginning of June. The logo features MIT's Great Dome, with three raindrops to recall the steady drizzle that fell on us as we listened to the world's most boring commencement speaker and waited to receive our diplomas. BONUS: In looking for my Truth in Focus episode, I came across a short interview that Pete Ingemi, DaTechGuy, did with me at the US Capitol back in 2010, the first BlogCon sponsored by FreedomWorks.
- July 12, 2026 at 09:09AM
BatesLine on Truth in Focus podcast
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It's strange to think how rapidly the number of Americans who remember the Bicentennial celebrations is diminishing. Today my wife and I and our daughter went to see Young Washington, Angel Studios' cinematic account of George Washington's role in the French and Indian War. Afterwords we were talking to a woman in her 40s who loved the movie, but felt the there wasn't enough attention being paid to today's 250th anniversary. I was 12 in 1976, which was a great age for experiencing and remembering such a big celebration. Everything that year was about the Bicentennial: There were "Bicentennial Minutes" on TV -- little historical vignettes between shows. The official Bicentennial logo was everywhere. Quarters, half-dollars, and dollars featured special reverses. The Bennington flag, which featured the number 76 amidst the stars of the field, was everywhere. It seemed like a huge deal, and by contrast this year's efforts for the semi-quincentennial have seemed a bit underwhelming to me. 1976 was in the midst of a tough and divided period in American history. For the first time ever, the President of the United States had resigned after two years of scandal over a break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters and the subsequent coverups. American troops left Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese Communists overran South Vietnam, which the USA had been defending. President Ford's pardon of President Nixon, meant to bring healing, scandalized many Americans. The USA's support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War led to the Arab oil embargo and gasoline rationing. Inflation was out of control. American manufacturing faced challenges from Europe and Japan as they emerged from post-World War II reconstruction. Ford's campaign for a term in his own right drew a strong primary challenge from Ronald Reagan, and an obscure Southern governor pulled off an upset in the Iowa Caucuses that led to his nomination and election as President. Americans felt defeated and exhausted, a far cry from the prosperous and energetic post-war period just 20 years earlier. The world was in an uproar, too. As Americans prepared to celebrate the country's 200th birthday, Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and flew the jet to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Non-Israelis were released, and the terrorists threatened to kill the Israeli hostages. A daring raid by Israeli commandos freed the hostages on the 4th of July. The big event for us in Tulsa was the American Freedom Train. For four days, March 15-18, 1976, a 10-car exhibit of American artifacts was parked on the Midland Valley Railroad tracks, east of Elgin between 4th and 7th Street. (The tracks and the viaduct that carried them over 6th Street are long gone.) The 26-car train, pulled by steam locomotives, traveled to all 48 contiguous states, making 140 stops over an 21-month period. You traveled by moving walkway past artifacts from the 200-year sweep of American history: From George Washington's copy of the Constitution with his handwritten notes, to the Louisiana Purchase, to Lincoln's stovepipe hat, to a Lunar Rover and a rock brought back from the Moon on Apollo 16. Carson Attractions handled the tickets ($2 adults, $1 senior citizens and children 12 and under), and Bill White Chevrolet provided a big shelter on their car lot for people to wait in line. The ticket states that the train was at the old Midland Valley Station, but I don't recall noticing the station. I remember boarding the train on the west side of the tracks; the station was on the east side. An interview during that Tulsa visit with the man heading the Freedom Train effort (jump page) makes me feel a little better about this year's celebrations:

It was opening night of the American Freedom Train's four-day Tulsa visit and, judging from people's reactions, it will accomplish the goal its president described: "Remember that if freedom is going to be kept alive, it's up to us to do it. "You as an individual should gain some greater insight into why our nation has become what it has," Petr L. Spurney, chief executive of the American Train Foundation, said of the 12-car exhibit.... Spurney was called in to save the foundation in July, having just rescued Spokane's Expo '74 from financial ruin. An expert in "extravaganzas," Spurney says America needed a giant exposition in 1976 "the nation as a whole could relate to." (A Philadelphia fair was scrapped after $10 million worth of planning.) THE FREEDOM TRAIN IS THE only Bicentennial project with enough nationwide scope to unify the people, but even it is locally oriented since it can only be in one place at one time. "I hope that when the Fourth of July message comes--the celebrations, parades country develops some national goals out of it," Spurney, 41, said. Global goals, too. For the nation's birthday, he reminded its citizens, is the birthday of democracy on earth. "The rest of the world is looking at the Bicentennial--and they don't know what's going on," said Spurney, concerned. He fears, too, that Americans don't know what's going on, either. "WHEN THE BICENTENNIAL IS all done, it's not going to go down in history as a great celebration," he predicted. "A lot of people on July 5 are going to wake up with a big, Bicentennial hangover and not feel like they have anything to remember.' He blamed it on lack of federal financial support. The Freedom Train hasn't a cent from Uncle Sam's, wallet--not even a $2 admission ticket, but Spurney knows why. "Our forefathers made a mistake. "They didn't realize the Bicentennial would be the same year as a presidential election." The Freedom Train, at least, may remind people to vote.

Here's a list from the beginning of 1976 of planned Tulsa observances: A parade down Riverside on the day itself, run by the American Legion, and a picnic on the grounds of Gilcrease Museum; Festival '76 downtown at the end of May; and KRMG's Great Raft Race on Labor Day. I had pleaded with my parents to take us to Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston during the Bicentennial year, but they couldn't make it happen. (We would see the first three cities the following summer.) Instead, later in July 1976, we spent a week in St. Louis, riding to the top of the Gateway Arch and touring the Old Cathedral, visiting the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden, seeing Grant's Farm and the Clydesdales, touring the Anheuser Busch Brewery (the only time I saw my folks ever take a sip of beer), and ending the week at the National Transportation Museum. We stayed in a tent at the KOA in Allenton, near Six Flags Over Mid-America, where we spent a day. Dad had to fix the tent zipper in a thunderstorm, and he had to dig a little trench around the entrance to keep the water out. We were in St. Louis when Viking 1 landed on Mars and began sending back pictures to Earth; I remember seeing one such photo on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I spent the Bicentennial Independence Day with my mom and dad and sister with the rest of the McGee clan at my Uncle Warren and Aunt Nettie's place. They lived in Coffeyville, but they had a trailer out on a piece of land near Grand Lake. I remember going past Buffalo Ranch in Afton to get there. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and had homemade ice cream. We watched a fuzzy picture on a portable TV of the Bicentennial celebration in Philadelphia where President Gerald Ford spoke and rang the Liberty Bell. The only fireworks were the ones we set off. My wife lived near Washington, DC, in 1976. She and her family would go down to the National Mall to see the annual fireworks, Typically you could be almost anywhere near the Mall and see the fireworks because they were fired high into the sky, but she remembers that in '76, a French company provided a very elaborate display, but one that went off low to the ground near the White House, and thus invisible to much of the gathered crowds. Back in Tulsa on the 4th, the Tulsa Oilers split a double-header against the Oklahoma City '89ers at Oiler Park, wearing old-fashioned uniforms for the occasion, with fireworks after the second game. (That summer, several major league teams took to wearing old-fashioned pillbox-type ballcaps, most prominently the Pittsburgh Pirates, who kept them for the next decade.) The 1976 season was the final one for AAA baseball in Tulsa. A. Ray Smith moved the Oilers to New Orleans for the 1977 season. The 4th was a Sunday in 1976, and Tulsa's churches promoted special patriotic services: Boston Avenue Methodist held a 12-hour prayer vigil leading up to their Sunday morning early service. ("One Nation Under God: Renewing, Repenting, Remembering, Rejoicing, Recommitting.") At First Presbyterian, Dr. Wiseman was preaching a special Bicentennial sermon: "The Future We Make." The Chancel Choir would perform an anthem specially commissioned for the Bicentennial and would also sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." First United Methodist Church titled its special event, "If My People," an allusion to 2 Chronicles 7:14; the extravaganza aired on KTUL channel 8. Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church, meeting in a storefront east of 21st and Sheridan, focused its ad on God's providence over the life of our nation and over each individual life:

IT'S NO ACCIDENT that July 4 is America's birthday. It's no accident that many who came to the new world were seeking religious freedom. Many of those who shaped our nation believed the teachings of God's Word, the Bible. These events, like all things, are under God's control. Where is our nation going today? What is guiding your own life? God's grace in Jesus Christ is the only hope for you and for our land. It's no accident that July 4 is Sunday this year. We invite you to worship with us, to give thanks for God's blessings, and to pray for the future.

GRACE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 6540 "K" East 21st Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. "Where Is America Going?" Evening Service 5:00 p.m. "40 and 200" Phone 743-0142

Exciting Eastwood Baptist Church earned its nickname with a special appearance by Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger and the man who sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," at a Bicentennial Concert that evening, followed by an ice cream social. College Hill Presbyterian celebrated with a colonial-style communion, featuring "fencing the table," "communion tokens," and communicants sitting around a table to receive the bread and wine. The pastor of Central Church of the Nazarene was not in a celebratory mood:

Noting the material abundance available in affluent America, Rev. Eugene Sanders, minister of Central Nazarene Church, told his congregation,"My Bible tells me all this will be 'burned up when our Lord returns.' "Recognizing the heresies, doctrinal errors, accepted perversions in the church, one must shudder! Clergy are abandoning in alarming numbers. Laity desertion is accelerating. Immorality scandals shock our decency. Betrayal of leaders hurts. Pornography and overt sexuality flourish. Crime is rapidly escalating. Our leaders, too often, disgustingly and shamefully will not take a stand but succumb (in a cowardly manner) to the sensuous appetites of the masses. "Honestly, I can see little to celebrate in the vital life style of a nation where thousands can run the beaches nude, 'living together' socially acceptable; a segment of the church world is pushing for homosexual ordination, there is denial of literal truth of the Bible, lectures presented as sermons, and judgment of a man (on the basis of) what he owns rather than what he is. "We need a revival of Christian ethics, worship and service before we can celebrate here."

I don't remember anything special happening at our church, but I suspect we sang the National Hymn, "God of Our Fathers." There were parades, picnics, and fireworks displays all over Green Country. River Parks held a four-day festival focused on the Pedestrian Bridge (now demolished), which was newly open to the public in 1976. Ponca City held a Grand Prix. Elvis Presley performed an afternoon concert at ORU's Mabee Center. Discoveryland Amphitheater out in west Tulsa County opened its doors for the first time with the premiere of "Dust on Her Petticoats," the story of Alice M. Robertson, the second woman to be elected to Congress (the first one from Oklahoma), who was swept in by the Warren G. Harding landslide in 1920 only to be defeated two years later. Meanwhile, down in Texas, Willie Nelson held a picnic, too, his fourth annual. (The fifth would be at the Tulsa Speedway in 1977.) Tomorrow, I'll share some reflections on America's 250th birthday and some other memories of Independence Days past.
- July 5, 2026 at 12:55AM
Bicentennial memories
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Inola and Oklahoma are blessed to have District 8 State Representative Tom Gann back for his sixth and final two-year term before term limits. Gann is one of the handful of legislators who refuses all gifts and meals from lobbyists and all contributions from PACs. As you'll see from the letter below, he's intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful, and respectful, not a grandstander. All this explains why the House leadership has done its best to freeze him out, and the lobbyists really wanted him gone. Gann won the Republican primary over challenger Todd Rice by a 54% to 46% vote. No candidates filed as independents, Democrats, or Libertarians, so Gann has been re-elected. Gann raised $23,388.95 (nothing from PACs, all from individual contributors) and lent his campaign $5,000. His opponent, Todd Rice, raised $36,674.31 ($500 from United Community Banker PAC, $600 in-kind), and lent his campaign $3,500. But that's not the whole story. Gann was targeted by $20,000 from American Energy Action (which was involved in many races statewide); $2,912.10 from Oklahoma Conservative Coalition (based in Lawton and spending money with Managed Strategic Services, 529 Telephone Park, Lawton, OK, 73507, which happens to be the address of Hilliary Communications); and $146,500 from the Oklahoma State Medical Association (one eight State House races targeted with a buy, along with the Insurance Commissioner race, spent with Civil Poltix, 3000 W Memorial, Oklahoma City, OK, 73120). Gann has written a respectful open letter to President Donald Trump, expressing his concerns about the impact of the proposed aluminum smelter and related development on the character and environmental conditions of his rural, agricultural district and about the degree of foreign ownership in the facility.

President Donald J. Trump, I write to you as a strong supporter of your America First agenda and as a State Representative from Oklahoma who endorsed you in November 2023. I fully support your effort to strengthen America's national security, rebuild domestic manufacturing, and ensure that our military has reliable access to military-grade aluminum. That mission is vital. My concern is not with the goal, but with the chosen location and ownership structure of the proposed aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma. Inola is a rural community built around farms, families, cattle operations, churches, schools, and a way of life that has existed for generations. The people here are not opposed to American industry or national strength. They are deeply concerned about being asked to absorb a massive industrial project that appears incompatible with their land, water, air, agriculture, and community character. The scale of this smelter would permanently alter the identity of the area and impose significant risks on local citizens whose homes, livelihoods, and rural way of life deserve careful protection. I am concerned that the full local impact of the proposed site may not yet be fully understood. I am also concerned by reports that the project could allow majority ownership by foreign interests tied to the United Arab Emirates. If the purpose is American national security, then control of such a strategic industry should remain firmly in American hands. We should not trade dependency on one foreign supply chain for dependence on another foreign-controlled entity operating on Oklahoma soil. Mr. President, I support your effort to restore American strength. But Inola is the wrong fit for this smelter. I respectfully ask that you pause this project for a thorough review of the site selection, ownership structure, and impact on local citizens, including whether a more appropriate location can serve the national security mission without placing an unfair burden on this rural community. America First must also mean Oklahoma families first. Tom Gann State Representative House District 8 Inola, Oklahoma

MORE: Here is the statement gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei issued regarding the smelter on June 8, 2026:
- June 21, 2026 at 12:37AM
Tom Gann to Trump: Consider impact of aluminum smelter on Inola
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Facebook reminded me that Porter Davis's birthday would have been this week. Porter was a long-time activist in the Oklahoma Republican Party. He was on the libertarian, Ron Paul, wing of the GOP, and in fact had been the chairman of the Oklahoma Libertarian Party in the 1970s, but he seemed to get along with everyone. He served one term from 1982-1984 representing House District 85 as a Republican when it was a predominantly Democrat district. Porter died in November 2023. Porter Davis's heart was with organizing the grassroots at the precinct level. He had a website called The Precinct Leader with his thoughts and counsel on local community organizing to effect change. The website is now offline. He had started to revive it in 2022 after a few years hiatus. In December 2015, Davis wrote about the recent special election in House District 85 which had followed the death of State Rep. David Dank. Chip Carter, backed by PAC money and establishment consultants, won the Republican primary with 37% against Ralph Crawford and two other candidates. There was no runoff in this special election. There were nasty dark-money attacks against Crawford. Cyndi Munson had been the Democrat nominee in 2014 and had lost to Dank 44% to 56%, but she beat Carter in the 2015 special by 54% to 46%. Davis ran the numbers and learned that the district still had a bare majority of registered Republican voters, and more Republicans than Democrats turned out to vote in the special general election, but more Republicans had turned out for the primary than voted in the general. At least 402 of the registered Republicans who turned out voted for Democrat Munson. How did she win? Davis blames GOP division:

Munson is apparently a personable, hard worker. She was able to concentrate her efforts on converting Republican and Independent votes, while doing the basics to secure her Democrat base. She received almost 44% of the vote just six months prior to filing. But that doesn't explain the crossover. In normal times, Carter should have been able to secure the Republican base and concentrate on winning over conservative Democrats and Independents, as all previous Republican candidates have done. But that didn't happen. Why? The truth is that the Republican crossover vote was less a vote FOR Munson and more a vote AGAINST Carter, and what he represented in the minds of the crossover voters. It was a vote against politics as usual by the Republicans..... What turned the tide against Carter was the negative campaigning in the last ten days before the primary. Post cards, flyers, robo-calls and whispers on the doorstep slandered Ralph Crawford and tried to portray him as an Obama-supporting, budget-busting union goon. This was a deliberate misrepresentation of who Ralph Crawford is. At least one negative postcard came from the Carter campaign, while several others came from dark money groups. Indications were that Carter was trailing Crawford before his campaign went to the gutter, creating fear and doubt in the minds of enough voters to get some Crawford voters to switch or stay home. We also heard reports of a whisper campaign slandering Crawford's wife, Laura, a two-time Teacher of the Year, in two different school districts. The slander was that she received that prestigious recognition because she was in the teachers' union. The truth is that she had never been a union member, contrary to most Oklahoma teachers. While "going negative" is politics as usual, in this case, hundreds of people who knew, trusted and voted for Ralph Crawford, took it personally and supported Munson as a protest vote. I've heard many stories of people who were so offended, they chased Carter off their door steps while he campaigned. Many even had Munson signs in their yards, replacing the Crawford signs that were there just weeks before. Munson took full advantage of Carter's negative campaigning. (Crawford did nothing to add fuel to the fire. He didn't have to.) My speculation is that protest votes were also fueled by a combination of disgust with politics as usual and disappointment with the GOP at both the state and local levels. At home, we have a GOP-dominated legislature whose results seem little different from the Democrats who controlled the state so long. Nationally, 62% of Republicans are upset with their own party, helping to account for the Trump phenomenon. Voting for a Democrat is a good way for a Republican to cast a protest vote. It is worth noting that the reason many qualified men and women choose NOT to run for public office is the treatment that Ralph and Laura Crawford got. Most people are reluctant to subject themselves to the rigors of campaigning, especially when they can expect members of their own party to tear them down rather than run on their own merits. As a result, people more inclined to be politicians rather than principled statesmen run and are elected. Special interests contribute tens of thousands of dollars and expect a return on their investment.

I think back to a bruising primary campaign for Lieutenant Governor in 2006. Incumbent Mary Fallin ran for the open 5th Congressional District seat vacated by Ernest Istook, who ran for Governor. House Speaker Todd Hiett (before he became a gropey Corporation Commissioner), State Senator Scott Pruitt (later Attorney General and EPA Administrator in Trump's first term), and State Senator Nancy Riley were the Republican primary candidates. Hiett and Pruitt attacked each other relentlessly in the runoff, which Hiett won narrowly by 2 percentage points. Hiett lost in November to House Minority Leader Jari Askins, who barely topped 50%. Independent E. Z. Million grabbed Republican voters who didn't like Hiett, receiving 2.4% of the vote. It was a terrible year for Oklahoma Republicans anyway -- Bob Anthony was the only Republican to win statewide that year -- but the bitterness of the Lieutenant Governor's primary led to the loss of a winnable seat, and a Democrat had the tie-breaking vote in a Senate tied 24-24. Porter Davis never wrote the promised follow-up on how the Oklahoma GOP could fix the problem. The current state party organization has alienated many conservative activists and donors, so I don't see the official OKGOP encouraging comity and caution in the runoff campaign or uniting the party when the runoff is over, not after state party leaders squandered their credibility and burned so many bridges backing a creep for Congress and backing a progressive RINO for Tulsa County DA against a conservative incumbent. Claiming to have "prophetic insights," they have proven themselves to be "blind guides who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." 2026 does not look like a good year for Republicans nationally -- midterms of a president's second term never are good for the president's party, and there are extra special challenges this year with the Iran war and high energy prices damaging the Trump brand. Both candidates in the runoff for governor will have the resources and dark-money backing to go scorched earth on each other. Republicans on the losing side of the primary may be tempted to think it would be better to have a Democrat governor checked by a Republican legislative supermajority than to have the other Republican in the governor's mansion. Meanwhile, likeable, hardworking Cyndi Munson went on to win a full term in 2016 and every subsequent election for House 85. She just won the Democrat nomination for Governor with 75% of the vote. Munson received over 20,000 more votes (129,152) than any of the Republican candidates for governor. She can sit on the sidelines, raise money, and watch Mazzei and Drummond tear each other apart for the next two months. Over the weekend, I hope to write about the primary election results and their fallout. I was having too much fun Tuesday night to stop to write, and I've been playing catch-up with the rest of my life since then.
- June 19, 2026 at 01:31PM
Cyndi Munson's first win, 2015
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There's always more to say than time to write, so here are some final loosely organized notes and thoughts on the 2026 Oklahoma Republican primary. A politically involved friend texted to ask, "Have you ever in your time in Tulsa seen political campaigns so dark and nasty?" It's been a bad year, and a lot of factors are making it worse: All the statewide races are strongly contested, and all but one (State Treasurer) is an open seat. There's been a massive amount of dark-money spending. The closeness of the Governor's race and the 1st CD race means that a campaign will seize on anything that might add a few voters to the candidate's column or demoralize the other candidate's voters into staying home. Of course, there are so many things to vote on, that demoralization about one candidate wouldn't necessarily cause a voter to give up voting on anything.
- June 16, 2026 at 05:00AM
Primary 2026: Final thoughts
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