In the early part of the 20th century Oklahoma was a socialist hotbed:

Faded passages on the front page of the Strong City Herald in Roger Mills County, one of socialism’s strongholds in the state in 1916, paint a grim picture of life before reminding readers of the Christian duty to take action.

“Thousands of those that till the soil are homeless and moneyless, with children uneducated and overworked and underfed … They are struggling for existence while a set of grafters live in luxury on dollars coined from the sweat and tears of these unhappy victims. Oh the tragedy of it!” reads The “Sunday Morning Thoughts” column by G.W. Hutton that ran on Aug. 31, 1916.

The column then referenced Bible passages:

“ … Stop doing wrong

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed …”

Pushing an economic justice message through familiar American cultural channels worked, Bissett said.

Between 1907 and 1920, Bissett said, socialist candidates won election to a variety of Oklahoma offices. At its zenith in 1914, the Socialist Party candidate for governor culled 20 percent of the statewide vote. Oklahomans that year elected more than 175 socialists to local and county offices across the state, including six state lawmakers.

However, World War I and the armed Green Corn Rebellion marked the end of the party’s influence in Oklahoma.

Since 1948 Oklahoma has voted republican in every presidential election but one- they voted for Johnson in 1964. While some democratic governors have been elected, it has to be understood that the democratic politicians in Oklahoma are more conservative than the average republican in most states… and a Republican in Oklahoma is FAR to the right of the average republican- look at state senators Inhofe and Lankford and former senator Coburn.

In 2004 Republicans gained control of of the state house, and in 2008 they grabbed the state senate- in 2010 Mary Fallin (R) became Governor… The results were literally Earth-shaking.

The Oil and Gas industries- already obscenely powerful in Oklahoma- were given free reign, any remaining checks on what they could do in the pursuit of profits were removed… and they were not content to just gut state regulations, the attorney general Scott Pruitt -appointed by Fallin- filed lawsuits against the EPA challenging national regulations … this is the same person Trump would later put in charge of the EPA. Shortly after complete republican control of Oklahoma, the earthquakes started.

The obvious cause and effect between fracking and earthquakes was denied by those in power and in the pocket of the oil and gas industry… Oklahoma University President Boren, (and the LAST ‘Democratic’ senator from Oklahoma) pressured university researchers to cover up the link…

By 2012, seismologists at the U.S. Geological Survey linked the surge in earthquakes to disposal of wastewater from oil and gas activities. The fluid lubricates the faults, causing them to slip.

But their counterparts at OGS have wavered amid concerns about derailing the state’s most prominent industry and apparent pressure from oilmen such as Hamm (EnergyWire, April 27).

Harold Hamm
Continental Resources founder and CEO Harold Hamm. Photo courtesy of Continental Resources.
Hamm is a looming figure in Oklahoma and was already a top donor to the university before officials sought the $25 million donation last year.

OGS, which is part of the university, veered toward linking the seismic swarms to oil and gas drilling in the fall of 2013 when it joined in a USGS statement about the rising earthquake hazard in the state.

But after that, state seismologist Austin Holland was summoned to “coffee” with Hamm in the office of university President David Boren (EnergyWire, March 3). Hamm has said that he was actually concerned about Holland’s research linking quakes to hydraulic fracturing and was not trying to bully him (EnergyWire, May 11).

“We care about the industry,” Hamm said. “When people disparage parts of it, I want to know why. I want to know what basis they have for doing that.”

Boren serves with Hamm on Continental’s board of directors and has received $1.6 million from the company since 2009.

After the coffee meeting, Hamm continued to press Boren on man-made earthquakes, according to emails obtained by EnergyWire. Hamm urged Boren to prohibit Holland from talking to reporters about quakes and instead have the university’s spokeswoman handle such questions. When The New York Times wrote about Oklahoma earthquakes in December 2013, he forwarded the story to Boren with a note: “This situation could spiral out of control easily.”

Just before Christmas in 2013, Hamm complained to Boren, a former U.S. senator, about Democrats in Congress pushing for hearings on drilling-related quakes. He worried that continued discussion of earthquakes could lead to more regulation of the industry.

“You can now bet they are on a path to bring forth testimony in Congress which will lead to more unnecessary regulations of the state’s number one industry as well as more unmerited publicity,” Hamm wrote in an email.

Eventually the link was so obvious that to deny it would be laughable (nevertheless, they continued to deny it) so they shifted the argument – the talking point became that the ‘minor’ earthquakes that were damaging peoples homes and property were worth the riches that the Oil and Gas companies brought to the people of Oklahoma… more jobs, more money for education- surely that was worth a few earthquakes, right?

Wrong…

In 2011 Oklahoma ranked 37th in state poverty rate, in 2016 they ranked 38th… they went from 11th in unemployment to 13th… 23rd in income inequality to 27th… and education in Oklahoma suffered larger cuts than in any other state

Oklahoma once again leads the nation in the percentage of per-student spending cuts, according to a new report. Local school district officials called the cuts “disappointing” and “disturbing.”

Since the recession began in 2008, Oklahoma has sliced funding per student in kindergarten through 12th grade by 23.6 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a policy research organization based in Washington, D.C.

Expenditures have been cut by $857 per student in Oklahoma, one of 30 states providing less funding per student for the 2014-2015 school year than they did before the recession hit, figures show.

Oklahoma public schools are near the bottom in nearly every metric… 48th in per-student k-12 funding 2015… MANY Oklahoma school districts have cut back to a 4-day school week due to budget shortfalls….

While I was growing up in Oklahoma the school system was already pathetic- had I not dropped out of school and self educated, there is no way I would be where I am now… the situation is far more dire three decades later.

While Mary Fallin organized a day of prayer for the oilfields, the oil companies were given 100′s of millions in state tax breaks:

Slumping oil prices have hit Oklahoma particularly hard. But according to Reuters, during the boom, cash wasn’t flowing into the state’s reserves so much as into the pockets of a few. Now that the boom is over, oil barons still enjoy enormous tax breaks — to the tune of $470 million in 2015. Government services instead took the hit, with some public schools now operating only four days a week, so low is their funding.

While Oklahoma’s legislature fought to put up the 10 commandments on Capitol grounds, they had the 5th highest infant mortality, and nearly the highest teen pregnancy rate.

And yet, Oklahoma still has the second highest rate in the country and a lot of catching up to do. In fact, some ZIP codes in Tulsa County have birth rates that are three times the national average. This means we need to have everyone engaged: parents, educators, health-care professionals and even adults with no children at home. We all have a vested interest in equipping our teens with good information.

In short, the Republicans enabled looting of Oklahoma’s natural resources on a scale not seen before… lining the pockets of a very few already wealthy people while leaving the people of the state poor… while breaking the very ground they lived on, and poisoning the water they drank.

And now one of the architects of those policies is in charge of the EPA…