Weekly Opinion Editorial
SNAP THOSE GALLUSES!
by Steve Fair
President Donald Trump is coming to Durant, Oklahoma for a rally on Thursday. The rally will be held in the heart of the Choctaw reservation at the Choctaw casino's event center. The Durant location was chosen because of its close proximity to Texas, where Senate candidate Ken Paxton is reportedly in a tight race. Those who want to attend the rally can request up to four tickets on the OKGOP website. There is no charge for tickets.
Trump will be their third president to visit the Choctaw nation. President Theodore Roosevelt visited in 1905 to give a speech preparing Oklahomans for statehood just 2 years later. President Barack Obama visited in 2015 to discuss economic opportunities with tribal leaders. Choctaw leaders say the tribe is not endorsing- they are just renting the Rs space.
The Oklahoma Education Television Authority (OETA) gubernatorial debate scheduled for that evening between Republican candidate Mike Mazzei and Democrat Cyndi Munson will be recorded and aired on OETA at 7pm on Thursday.
The last time President Trump came to the Sooner state was in June 2020. The Tulsa campaign rally was well-attended and blamed by Tulsa county health officials for an uptick in COVID cases. Bear in mind, the Tulsa County health department is among the most liberal in the U.S., so take what they say with a grain of salt.
With a month until the general election, here are three admonitions:
First, voters cast their ballot for Party platforms, not candidates. People who "snap their galluses," and claim they "vote for the man, not the Party," are sadly mistaken. Once a legislator is elected, the lawmaker will 'caucus' with a Party. A Democrat may claim to be independent, moderate, and willing to work across the aisle, but they will join the Democrat 'caucus.' The 'caucus' calls the shots and sets the agenda. The same goes for Republican candidates. Independent thinking is discouraged in the legislature because it gums up the agenda. Sadly, it's more about numbers than principle.
Second, Democrats are more liberal than Republicans. Their platform is more liberal. The reason a candidate runs as a Democrat is because the platform is closer to what they believe than the GOP one. When voters in a Party refuse to support the primary winner because they believe the victor is either too liberal or too conservative, they unknowingly further the opposition's agenda. Party identification is a reliable decision-making tool, because generally candidates align with their party's platform.
Third, if Democrats take control of Congress, things will get worse. Things aren't that great now. Trump's economic policies have yet to produce what he thought they would. Gas and food prices are up. His foreign policy hasn't produced the results he promised. Republican voters have legitimate concerns about Trump's policies and that hesitating/wavering might not be enough to get them to vote for a Democrat, but it could be enough for them to stay home.
Trump will have to rally those who don't show up in Durant. Flashy assemblies fire up the attendees who were going to show up at the polls anyway. It's 'preaching to the choir.' In the next 30 days, individual campaigns better have a plan to get their vote out rather than relying on Trump to motivate lazy Rs to get to the polls. That's about as safe a bet as a slot machine at the casino.
Trump preaching to the choir!Click the headline to read this full article, Trump preaching to the choir!, at FAIR AND BIASED
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