Oklahoma Democrats

For too many years, Republicans have had the advantage in  political debate at both the state and local level for some simple reasons. On the national level, two things  happened. First is that many of the leading lights of our Party were not around to defend themselves anymore-FDR, JFK, and to a point, even LBJ never got the chance to defend their historical legacy. (The one who did, Harry Truman, saw his popularity go up every year until he became a cult hero again.) This allowed the most unfounded of claims to often go unanswered or unrefuted. The second thing was that too many of our political leaders either thought the public would see through the false claims (Carter, Dukakis, Mondale) or felt that fighting fire with fire was taking them “off message” (Clinton, Gore, Kerry). The trouble with with the Carter approach was that it required more than 30 seconds to deal with some issues, and with the Clinton approach  the trouble was that while no one thing was decisive, political death by a thousand talk-radio cuts was the result.

Barack Obama learned those lessons for 2008. He seemed to forget them for 2009, but now in time for the mid-terms has learned to fight back and set the agenda. Agree with him or not, HE is deciding what is relevant and making some of the GOP leaders look petty and foolish in the process.

On the state level, for years Democrats could ignore GOP attacks-if they just kept enough of their own vote together, they won. Those days ended with television, which leveled the playing field and reduced “safe” areas, as the whole state saw the same commercials. For about 30 years, many Oklahoma Democrats  campaigned in an almost non-partisan manner; Boren, McCurdy, and most recently Brad Carson come to mind. But the voters were hearing all the negatives about Democrats, and none of the positives in return. It was no shocker that the base vote was declining.

But those days are over now. The Republicans control the federal delegation and the legislature, and are often the subjects of national ridicule for their far-out social agenda. They are trying to use the same old tired “talking points” from D.C., and the Rove-Gingrich school of demonizing your opponent as their playbook. They are going to learn in 2010  however that Drew Edmondson, Jari Askins, and Ken Corn know how to retaliate, debate, and show who is really out of touch.  If Mary Fallin tries to send out more snarky press releases or debate either of our two, she had better bring her “A” game. These Democrats fight back, and will have the funds to do so on television. It is going to be the beginning of a new, and much needed, era.

-Ben Odom

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