Political Vomit

Excuse me while I spew a little political vomit. This is mostly just my stream of thoughts right now, so it might not all pull together well. I think you'll get the idea, though.

Last Tuesday, my state experienced a major change. (Actually, our entire country experienced a major change, but for the sake of this post, I'm simply thinking about my state's change...and that, honestly, is a whole heck of a lot for me to absorb.) For the first time in state history, the majority of all elected State of Oklahoma offices will be held by republicans, come January. And, to be brutally honest, it scares me.

When I moved to Oklahoma more than five years ago, I was excited to learn that I was moving to a primarily democrat-led state. I soon figured out that Oklahoma democrats basically are just democrats in GOP clothing, but there still were a few true democrats out there...a few like me...a few *true* liberals. While those true liberals are few and far between, it's always made me feel at least a little better.

Two years ago, we, as a nation, elected our first democratic president in eight years -- President Obama. We all knew that he was inheriting a huge mess from the previous eight years, but I believe that most of us had great hope that he could get our nation back on track. Fast forward two years and it seems that almost no one is happy with President Obama. He hasn't accomplished as much as I'd hoped, but realistically, I understand that it took us more than two years to get into this mess, so it's going to take a heck of a lot more than two to get us out.

So, last week, due to massive amounts of unhappiness with our nation's administration, people flocked to the polls. Sadly, this unhappiness manifested itself throughout the entire elections -- both locally, on a state level, and nationally.

In Oklahoma, every single elected political administrative office will now be held by republicans. After January, there will scarcely be a democrat to be found in the state capitol, save the few in the House and Senate who managed to be elected. We ousted some perfectly great democratic administrative officials (insurance commissioner, for one) based solely on the fact that they are democrats. Instead, we elected a very conservative governor who's tight with Sarah Palin...a lieutenant governor who's primarily concerned with making all abortion illegal...and more.

Oh, and we also passed some seriously ridiculous state questions, including one banning the use of Shariah Law and/or all religious and international law (anyone stop to think about some of those little treaties -- you know, like the Geneva Convention?) and one mandating the presentation of official identification at the poll (wait, that happened to me last week anyway). Lawsuits already have been filed regarding the question disavowing the use of Shariah Law. There's no doubt that this new law is unconstitutional and will not hold, but, hey, let's pass it anyway and then spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight it in court! It's not like we're not already in the middle of a budget crisis!!!

I'm worried about what's going to happen in the next several years. I'm afraid that the already monsterous gap between the haves and have nots is going to get even more insurmountable. I worry that we're going to continue to try to take away rights through numerous means. I'm concerned that we're going to increase the amount of xenophobia in this state -- and, let me tell you, we don't need any more than we already experience! I'm worried that things are just going to get worse.

I have to wonder how we're going to make it through the next two-four years. The only thing I can hope is that, come next election cycle, people will be unhappy with this new "change" that they voted it -- and that common sense will prevail and we won't become our own worst enemy.