By Ron McWhirter

In our Summer edition I provided my annual analysis of our Oklahoma Conservative Index which scores state legislators based on their votes on ten conservative versus liberal bills. I noted that the Republican In Name Only (RINO) members of the majority Republican Party now make up the largest segment of Republicans in the Legislature. Of the 121 Republicans in the Oklahoma Legislature, only 26 made the Top Conservatives list. So, only about a quarter can truly claim to be conservatives....

By Steve Byas

The Republican primary and runoff elections have revealed some definite problems for conservatives in Oklahoma. First of all, we have become rather lackadaisical about our political status in this “deep red state.” These problems are not beyond repair, but they do need to be addressed. The governor’s race and the state school superintendent’s race are good places to start this post-mortem. Mike Mazzei defeated Attorney General Gentner Drummond in a nail-biter, but it should not have...

By Johnathan Small

As policymakers seek to improve the poor academic outcomes in Oklahoma’s public schools, strengthening teachers’ ability to maintain discipline will be a key component of that effort. State Rep. Rob Hall (R-Tulsa) recently led a legislative study exploring that challenge. ...

By Jason Murphey

Oklahoma’s leftists can’t help themselves: they’ve rarely met a tax they don’t like. From time to time, there’s an anomaly – for example, some on the left appeared to understand the importance of eliminating the state sales tax on groceries and medicine. As a clear matter of principle, the government shouldn’t tax one on the absolute necessities of life. ...

By Allan Wall

Oklahoma has a statewide office, an elected post called the Superintendent of Public Instruction. That office is not to be confused with the Secretary of Education, an appointed cabinet post. Currently, both of those positions are occupied by the same person, Lindel Fields, who was appointed to both by Governor Stitt! Fields was appointed to the Superintendent position following the resignation of Superintendent Ryan Walters, and did not file to run for the ...

By Bob Linn

A young, devout Christian woman told me that she may not vote in November. Her reason was not apathy. It was conviction. None of the candidates, she explained, meets the standards she believes Christ expects of a political leader. To vote for one of them would seem to announce – to Christ, to the church, and to the world – that this person represents her standard for Christian leadership. For her, the familiar advice to choose “the lesser of two evils” offered no escape. She quoted G...

By John Michener

I enjoy leading sea kayaking tours in the Gulf of Maine, where the average tide change over a six hour period is eleven feet. But the ebb and flood do not come evenly over that time. Near a tide change, the water is very slack. Not much is happening. Then energy builds in the middle of the tide cycle. Even then it may appear nothing is happening. There is no visible current, sound, or foam, but the water is moving in a powerful way, bringing dramatic change. ...

By Reed Downey, Jr.

According to information compiled by Take Back the Classroom (www.takebacktheclassroom.com), in Oklahoma there are 29,753 books across 380 school districts and 1,197 schools containing sexually explicit content. The website lists the books that many parents and community members believe are inappropriate for school-aged children. ...

By Aiya Kelley

Through the years, history has somehow rewritten itself in many ways. How does this happen? Sometimes, it is because of a lack of timely Journaling, when those who witnessed the events firsthand fail to record what they saw, heard, and experienced while the memories are still fresh. Other times, it happens when a story is repeated and passed down for decades, changing a little with each retelling. Like a game of “telephone” or a piece of gossip whispered down a long line of people, the end...

By Ron McWhirter

We believe the most important product of this publication is our annual Oklahoma Conservative Index which rates members of the Oklahoma Legislature. We published our first scorecard in the summer of 1979, and with this summer issue we present the 48th edition of the ratings. ...

By Steve Byas

Democracy and republic are two terms that are used by many interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. On the contrary, in many regards, they are poles apart. ...

By Shane Smith

Our state is under a sustained invasion by Big Tech to place their resource-devouring data centers on our land. “Invasion” is an accurate term to describe what is happening, as large corporations descend on Oklahoma to exploit our relatively cheap electricity, water, and gullible city councils who are cajoled into entering into murky agreements with faceless megacorps, and in the process selling out their community and surrounding population for…what, exactly? ...

By Tim Bakamjian

Former State Senator Mike Mazzei finished a close second to Attorney General Gentner Drummond in the Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial primary on June 16, 2026. Drummond won 26.3% of the vote to Mazzei’s 26%, which translated to a less than 1,200 vote difference between the two. As the top two finishers, they advance to the runoff primary election scheduled for August 25th, 2026. ...

By Jason Murphey

As Oklahomans brace for a return of establishment power in the State Senate, there’s one wildcard factor that could change everything. Those who have given in to the doom and gloom surrounding the potential return of establishment Senator Lonnie Paxton to preside over the State Senate are overlooking one very important factor – a wildcard that simply isn’t being properly analyzed. ...

By Allan Wall

July 4th, 2026 was the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, 250 years ago. I hope that all the readers of the Oklahoma Constitution had a good Independence Day. Two hundred and fifty years is a quarter-millennium, making the USA the 23rd oldest nation-state in the world. Oklahoma was not one of the 13 English Colonies that became the USA, so we don’t have Revolutionary War battlefields in Oklahoma. However, as State #46 in the United States of America, ...

By Bob Linn

The appearance of Gentner Drummond as a public figure reminds me of the anti-Christian shift in thought Machiavelli (1469-1527) brought to the political world in 1513. In his brief commentary of Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, author and professor W. B. Allen wrote an article in a 1997 Yale University Press publication that explains Drummond’s stand against historic Western thought. He wrote: “It is remarkable that so many of the architects of modern politics find Machiavelli’s Pri...

By John Michener

I recently received an article from a pro-life apologist who tried to make a positive case for continuing to protect women who choose to kill their offspring by abortion. Here are the author’s key claims in her own words: “[T]he vast, vast, vast majority of women who have abortions…don’t have the level of culpability or knowledge necessary to make it just to prosecute them for having abortions.” “Given the cultural knowledge in the U.S. as it is today, I don’t believe it would b...

By David Deming

There is late news from the US Supreme Court. Last June 30, the Court granted certiorari in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, consolidating challenges to gun bans in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois. After years of frustration and denials, the Supreme Court has finally agreed to review and decide if state and local bans on semi-automatic rifles, such as the AR-15, are constitutional. ...

By Aiya Kelley

As I wrote in last quarter’s article, one of the most important responsibilities we have as citizens is participating in the electoral process. At that time, my focus was on encouraging people across our state to get out and vote. Since then, the primary elections have taken place, and we have now moved into the runoff season. Once again, Oklahomans find themselves with the opportunity – and the responsibility – to help determine who will represent our communities for the years ahead. ...

By Ron McWhirter

We dodged the bullet with the failure of State Question 836 to reach the Oklahoma ballot. The proposal would have dramatically changed the way elections are conducted in Oklahoma. It would have replaced the current “closed primary” system – where only the members of a political party can vote to select the nominees for their party to appear on the General Election ballot for all voters. Instead, under the so-called “open primary” proposal, which is more correctly called a “jungle...