Oklahoma Racist Legislation Draws Protest

The Republican Fascist Strategy

Laurence Britt, in his article “Fascism Anyone?,” argues a main feature of emerging fascism is the “Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause.”

He writes, “The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.”

Two years ago, the Republicans created hatred against gay people as an election strategy. This year, Republicans plan on generating hatred against Hispanic people to get their extreme, quasi-fascist base fired up, and the Oklahoma GOP is doing all it can to help out.

Oklahoma Republicans have advanced a bill trying to make life miserable for local illegal aliens who are people primarily from Mexico who come here to make a living. The bill is so senseless and draconian it even has some local Christian bigwigs upset.

(Doesn’t it actually seem weird Christian people would actually care about poor people in today’s immoral right-wing, religious-dominated political scene?)

The bill, sponsored State Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore), would require, among other things, state employees report illegal aliens, penalize business that employ them, and deny them in-state college tuition. Passed by the House, the bill is now pending in the Senate.

Undoubtedly, the bill’s main political purpose is to generate hatred against the growing Hispanic population in the state. The bulk of the illegal aliens in the state are Hispanic. Anti-Hispanic legislation, pushed by Republicans, is pending in many state legislatures this year. The racist legislation is presented under the guise of the “illegal alien” problem. But the point is to create a new scapegoat and thus add more fuel to the Republican hate machine,

Local Catholic Archbishops Eusebius J. Beltran and Edward Slattery, Episcopal Bishop Robert M. Moody and Lutheran Bishop Floyd M. Schoenhals recently came out publicly to oppose the measure. But why didn’t they speak out earlier?

The bill is immoral and would hurt vulnerable people who are trying to make better lives for themselves here in Oklahoma. Those hard-working people who are contributing to our community need an opportunity to become franchised, not disenfranchised.

If you want to stop people coming here from Mexico, then you need to deal with the border. That is a federal issue, not an Oklahoma issue. Only immoral people like Terrill and his supporters on this issue use political expediency and polarization to hurt vulnerable people who are doing nothing more than trying to feed themselves and their children.

The Oklahoma Senate needs to kill or defeat this horrible bill.

TABOR-Lite Less Filling

The strange, is-it-TABOR-is-it not bill promoted by State Rep. Ken Miller (R-Edmond) is apparently dead because the Senate will not consider the bill.

Miller’s bill would have limited the growth of the state budget to a formula to be determined later by some state board. (No, I’m not making this up.) The bill, HJR 1020, will not be considered by the Senate because it did not make a deadline cut.

However, the TABOR issue is far from over here in Oklahoma.

A lawsuit is pending against an initiative petition that would put TABOR, or the so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights issue, on the November ballot in Oklahoma. Those who filed the lawsuit are some of the most powerful, richest business people in the state.

Now, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce has come out against TABOR., saying the chamber stands for controlling state spending but not the TABOR way.

TABOR would limit the growth of state government to the inflation rate and population growth. Colorado, the only state to pass TABOR, recently had to rescind because it had devastated the state’s educational systems.

If TABOR passes here, funding for public schools and higher education will decline drastically. It will devastate the state’s economy.

Oklahomans Deserve Decent Wages

An Oklahoma organization has launched an initiative petition campaign to raise the state’s minimum wage.

RAISE OKLAHOMA would like to see the minimum wage raised one dollar the first year and then one dollar the second year. After that minimum wage raises would be indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

The current federal minimum wage is $5.15. This is not a living wage, and everyone knows it. In addition, overall wages are suppressed and stagnant in Oklahoma right now. Raising the minimum wage would benefit us in the middle-class, even those who make already make decent salaries, who have experience stagnant wages and rising health care costs under the Bush administration.

The ultra rich and Oklahoma’s business bigwigs will argue that allowing people to have livable wages is somehow bad for business here. No, livable wages would actually improve the quality of life here and would attract more business and would increase business profits.

It is about time someone started standing up and speaking for ordinary Oklahomans. Under the Republican agenda, energy, food, health, and tuition costs are skyrocketing, and our salaries cannot keep up.

The Republicans want to transfer as much wealth as possible to the richest people in the country.

If you want to get involved with the petition drive, email Lgraymurphy@aol.com or call 405-921-7080.