Moving Oklahoma Back to the 11th Century

"An Oklahoma man was arrested by FBI agents earlier this month for posting a series of messages on his Twitter account threatening to use a tax day Tea Party protest to commit politically-motivated mass murder."
AP "Tea Party Twitter Arrest: Daniel Hayden Threatened Mass Murder, Cop Killing", Huffington Post, April 26, 2009.


It is no secret that Oklahoma is way behind the rest of the country in its acceptance of the new direction that the nation is moving. It is, after all, the only state that bucked the national trend to move toward a more progressive agenda - for example, every county in the Sooner State voted for McCain/Palin and the republicans gained seats in the state legislature. So with all of this evidence that I am residing in the most bigoted, backwater state in the United States, it should come as no surprise that the Oklahoma State GOP Party Platform reads like a map that will take the people of Oklahoma back to the 11th century, to a theocratic form of government in which sexual orientation is not even acknowledged let alone discussed, history is rewritten so that it invents a Judeo-Christian basis for the foundation of our nation, where taxes are anathema (they support abolishing the IRS), where every promise made to Native Americans is violated and finally cancelled altogether, where English becomes the official language of this country, and where all power and rights exude from the "traditional family," i.e. one woman, one man, and their progeny.

It elevates biblical teachings to levels that surpass known and accepted science (in other words, it mandates the teaching of "intelligent design" along side instruction of evolution). They reject any standardization of teaching, yet they require that all 12th graders be able to demonstrate 12th grade skills - whatever those may be? They place so many regulations on abortion and family planning so as to make them virtually un-implementable or better yet (in the minds of the insane right-wing whackos who drafted this crazy platform) illegal. Bill Maher penned a brilliant op-ed piece that was printed on Friday in the Los Angeles Times. Here it is: The GOP: Divorced from Reality. Read it and have a good lauch, then send me ideas about how I can relocate out of this redneck state of mind that has nothing to do with the reality that I am trying to live.

Here are links to the Oklahoma GOP Party Platform:
Part One & Part Two