The Pendulum Swings In Oklahoma Politics

  Oklahoma politics makes a shift, tonight. The people went to the polls in numbers not seen in a 'non-presidential' year. A discontent people came to the polls in record numbers, to do what the legislature refused to. they gave doctors new tools for helping sick people get better.​
  Many factors impacted the discontent of the voters:

• A failed drug policy that resulted in the nation's largest incarceration rate.
• An anemic legislature which violates constitutional mandates and needs 3 session just to create one budget.
• A failed educational vision which harms our next genreation
• Public health needs not being met.

  Many legislators 'jumped ship' in April; choosing to give up on representing their districts. Sure, a few of them were seeking to climb a political ladder toward more power & prestige.
  

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  But the stress if the unending special sessions, and the pending cut in legislative pay has created a strain of the personal finances of many, especially those representing the distant four corners of the state. This led to many politicians jumping at the chance to run for offices in their county or municipal govt.
The elected politicians should have heeded the signs. 

• In October the capitol building was overrun by nearly 10,000 citizens decrying the lack of an adequate mental health policy. 
• In April the educators mobilized and swarmed the capitol, essentially occupying it for over a week, yet nary a peep out of the State Superintendent.
• Rather than passing sensible companion legislation or an alternative medical cannabis proposal, the legislature decided to give themselves a free 3 week vacation and go home early to start their re-election campaigns.

This now becomes a question of whether the current Republican leadership will further diminish the Republican brand and if a Democrat majority is inevitably in our near future.

NEWSOK caught the moment as a woman celebrates Oklahoma becoming the 30th state to regulate marijuana medicine back into healthcare.