Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey on Thanksgiving Day's origins

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are able to take time today to spend time with loved ones, think back over the past year and forward to the next, and thank God for the many blessings you have been given. In this post, you'll find three videos for the day: Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey on the origins of Thanksgiving Day, and 'Tennessee Ernie' Ford singing an old Dutch hymn of thanksgiving, We Gather Together. I hope you'll listen to them.

Sen. Dahm files bills to improve student learning

Sen. Dahm files bills to improve student learning

OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 4th) – Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, has filed legislation to improve student learning in the state of Oklahoma.

“As students return to school this month, now is a perfect time to ensure they will learn factual information rather than modern wokeness,” Dahm said. “These curriculum updates will provide students with an understanding of our philosophical underpinnings, teach them to reason, and allow them to think critically in the classroom.”

Gann: Is OK leadership willing to ignore liberty and capitalism to “Go Green”?

Oklahoma Going Green to Land a “Big Deal”

by State Rep. Tom Gann

Leadership in the State of Oklahoma has been on a fishing expedition to land a "Big One" to propel Oklahoma into a "diverse" energy economy. This effort has resulted in a proposal to include huge taxpayer dollar giveaways, but it could implement Biden's "Green New Deal."  

Hern: Capitalism pulled me out of poverty, why can’t AOC admit it saved her, too?

Capitalism pulled me out of poverty, why can’t AOC admit it saved her, too?

By Representative Kevin Hern

It is well-documented that my colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, worked in the service industry before running for Congress. It’s part of the reason why she gained so much traction with young people in her party. To be honest, I admire her ambition and think it should be applauded that she has found such success. It’s only possible in America.

What’s less well-known is that she is far from the first person to make that economic jump, and there are several sitting Members of Congress who come from much poorer backgrounds and worked their way to prosperity.

No one wants to talk about it because we’re conservative. We believe that capitalism is what pulled us out of poverty, and we want to maintain that system for future Americans.

The beauty of America is that anything is possible. No matter what economic class you are born into, there is opportunity to turn yourself into anything, if you are willing to work for it. There’s no limit to what you can achieve with a big idea and a strong work ethic.

There are not many people in Congress who can testify to that statement quite like I can.

For many years of my childhood, we didn’t have electricity or running water, because my mom and stepdad couldn’t afford to pay the bill. I remember coming home from elementary school not knowing if we’d have food for dinner most nights. I was mocked by classmates for my worn-out clothes. I was looked down on for receiving free lunches at school. We were constantly moving from house to house because my stepdad never made the rent.

That didn’t stop me from dreaming. In fact, it motivated me. It inspired me to work so hard that my future family would never live like that.

1889 Institute: Checking Government-Granted Privilege

Checking Government-Granted Privilege

By Byron Schlomach

Among young people, socialism is as popular as capitalism. Our social fabric is increasingly frayed, and conservative populists are no happier than young socialists about our nation’s general state of affairs. This is not due to Trump Derangement Syndrome, but to a vague sense that increasingly, the economic “game” is loaded in favor of a few over the many. Unfortunately, in many respects this is true.

History and experience has taught that income inequality caused by market forces is a strength. The fact that one can get fabulously wealthy by producing goods and services others find useful is a powerful spur to innovation and hard work. It’s an incentive that has lifted billions out of poverty within the last 30 years. But now, after years of constant drumbeat by socialists, income inequality appears to present an existential threat to the United States.

1889 Institute: Two Stories on why Socialism Fails

Strange But True: Socialism Fails

By Byron Schlomach

What follows is a true story – actually, two true stories, or the same story that occurred in two different places in very different times and circumstances. Read on to find out where.

They had been discussing amongst themselves for months, concerned with poverty, hunger, and lack of progress in growing crops, so important to feeding themselves and building a thriving community. They should have succeeded. They all worked together – clearing, tilling, sowing, weeding, and reaping – everyone in the same fields at the same time. Anyone weak in one skill should have had it made up by others working beside them, so that all should benefit from each other’s labor.

They had a common purpose, which was to prosper and live peaceably. Mostly, they liked and took care of each other. Everybody got an equal share of the yearly harvest. But something was amiss. Harvests were more meager than the farmers knew they should be.

So they finally discussed the problem and what to do about it. It was not a problem of bad soil, or a lack of knowledge, or lack of skill. Instead, they realized none of them truly worked as hard as they were capable. Why? Because they got the same share of the yearly output regardless of their personal effort, all attempted to let others do the work. Nobody was working to their full capabilities because nobody was rewarded extra for doing so, and nobody lost more than others for avoiding work.

The solution was amazingly simple. They divided the fields and worked their own plots individually, keeping the gains for themselves. The next year, the harvest was bountiful, not because of great weather or new, special seeds, but because everyone worked harder. And since most had produced more than they could eat, everybody had more because of trade.

This story has likely played out many times in many settings for ages, but two come to mind. The Pilgrims practiced socialism for two or three years, nearly starving themselves to death. Some 355 years later and half a planet away, farmers in a Chinese village, Xiaogang, defied Communist decree with the same results as when the Pilgrims abandoned socialism. The two stories are the same in every important detail except that the Chinese farmed separately in secret and mutually agreed to raise the children of any that might be arrested.

These two examples of socialism’s failure teach us that all humans respond to incentives and are self-interested. Thus, giving everyone equal shares as a way to guarantee security actually results in poverty and insecurity. As William Bradford, the Pilgrim governor put it, rather than socialism, “God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.”

Byron Schlomach, 1889 Institute Director. Contact: bschlomach@1889institute.org.

OCPA column: Distorting facts to fit a narrative

Distorting facts to fit a narrative

by Jonathan Small

President of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA)

In a recent interview, self-described socialist and congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to explain away low unemployment and recast world history in her own image.

Ocasio-Cortez claimed, “Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs.” But as James Pethokoukis from the American Enterprise Institute points out, “…. only 4.8 percent of employed Americans hold multiple jobs. That’s lower than before the Great Recession and lower than during the 1990s boom. Indeed, that number has been declining for years.”

The socialist candidate went on to claim that, “Capitalism has not always existed in the world and will not always exist in the world.”

While no one can see the future, the history is clear. And it’s not on the side of Ocasio-Cortez. As Pethokoukis points out, “…. capitalism has pretty much always existed. People have been trading since there was something to trade.” And, let’s not forget that no other economic system has done more for the benefit and prosperity of humanity than capitalism.

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments are another instance of trying to change the facts to fit a political narrative. Such distortions are not just for blue-state socialists; unfortunately, it happens in Oklahoma.

Rep. Leslie Osborn, the former chair of the Oklahoma House Appropriations and Budget Committee, spent much of her time there advocating for tax increases. She routinely blamed current shortfalls on previous tax cuts. The truth, however, is that as soon as you zoom out and see the long term trends, Oklahoma government has been growing, not shrinking. Recent declines in revenue were almost entirely due to the effects of low oil prices rippling through our economy. Still, in the long run, the total tax and fee burden on Oklahomans has gone up.

It is not only candidates and elected officials who sometimes bend the facts. Multiple university presidents claimed last year that Oklahoma was “dead last” in spending for higher education. They cited a national report on higher education funding, but the report actually showed that Oklahoma spent more per capita than a dozen other states.

Everybody has their own ideas about politics and public policy. An open and honest debate is necessary to maintain a free society. When politicians and other government officials play fast and loose with the facts, or intentionally distort them for their own benefit, they corrode our very system of government.

We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. Politicos in Oklahoma, and across the country, should stop bending the facts to meet their needs.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

The Conservative View: A Rising Tide and Barriers

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner and conservative activist Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

A Rising Tide and Barriers

I have noticed that many Americans do not understand the concepts of a free market system of economics. Whether it is from a lack of education or being indoctrinated by the main stream press that has very left leaning philosophies, our people fail to see the benefits of the capitalistic system our country once enjoyed. Far too many people have gotten into a system of class envy, they think that just because someone has more than they do it should be the duty of the government to confiscate part of that wealth and redistribute it to someone else.

While some think of money like a small pool of water on a beach, they look at it like there is no other water anywhere and if someone has more water than the other they have the flawed assumption that they have taken it from someone else. Our people have forgotten that freedom allows us to grow our wealth. I believe that like an ocean if the tide is allowed to flow naturally the tide will bring forth more water and the supply will be greater for everyone. There is an old saying that says, “A rising tide floats all boats”. The system works well until someone erects a barrier that restricts the flow of the water. We need to recognize the barriers that our well intentioned leaders place upon our economic system.

I recently heard that the congress will not act upon the Bush Tax Cuts until after the election. If the Bush Tax Cuts are not renewed many people will be facing major increases in the taxes they will have to pay. We need to understand that for the most part the people that have businesses and create jobs want to make a profit. If the government makes the tax burden so punitive that the business owner cannot turn a profit, he will not start the new businesses and not create the jobs that our country needs. We have forgotten that you or I may have been employed at that new business. I have heard people complain about companies moving operations outside of this country, and out of the same breath they complain about the high price of the necessities they need. To stay competitive the business owner has no other choice but to move to another location in order to survive. Until our citizens start to understand the concept of removing barriers placed upon our business owners, a rising tide cannot float all boats.  

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.  

The Conservative View: Blood From A Turnip

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

 The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Blood From A Turnip

One of the biggest flaws in our political system is the fact that many of the people that we elect to represent us have never had their own money at risk or have run a business of any kind. One of the founding fathers once said that any government is a burden and expense to the citizens. It is our duty as Americans to decide how much burden that we are willing to tolerate. I have head it said that the best way to get someone’s attention is to get into their pocket book first. For those of us who actually pay taxes our government has done a good job at getting my undivided attention. Nothing comes without costs, too many Americans do not seem to be able of comprehend this simple fact. I have noticed that the people that support many of the programs that are draining our national piggy bank pay little or no taxes.

Recently I was told that 47% of the American public doesn’t pay any income taxes. Those people fail to understand the dilemma that is facing our nation. When you look at it objectively the taxpayer is paying his bills and raising his family while all at the same time doing the same for someone else. One thing that our politicians do understand is numbers, what they fail to understand is that there is a limit to the amount of taxes that the taxpayer can pay and have a decent living for himself. My parents taught me that there are limits and you can’t get blood from a turnip.

For all of those people who think it is fine to continually tax the ones who are already paying the bills need to realize that when a certain point comes they will kill the preverbal goose that laid the golden egg. Our friends on the left fail to understand the capitalist form of economics, capitalism is the engine that has built our country. To illustrate the point, several years ago in an attempt to raise tax revenues congress passed a huge tax on the yacht industry. The result was that the yacht industry was driven out of business in the United States. I have been told that we humans seldom learn from history but for the sake of our country we had better start learning from the mistakes of the past or we may be a nation of turnips in need of a blood transfusion.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.

The Conservative View: What a Tangled Web

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner.

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

What a Tangled Web

I have always believed that the price of anything is based upon demand and what the American public is willing to pay for it. Whether it is goods, services or labor, the law of supply and demand will find a balance of the proper value and price. What I am describing is the economic system of capitalism. Capitalism is the best system of economics that has ever been devised by man. Over the past few days there has been a huge debate on the proper pay for CEOs in some of the largest companies in America.

Our government has taken upon itself to be the entity that decides the proper salary for the people running our largest companies. I do feel that at times some of the CEOs are paid an exorbitant salary. If I am not a stock holder in that company it is really not my business. Businesses must entice people to invest in their stock for their company to grow. If they use bad judgment with the company’s money, they run the risk of people selling the stock they might have in the company and new investors taking their investment dollars elsewhere.

Our government is using the justification in setting salaries because of the bailout monies that were funneled to those companies in order to keep them open. Like a spider web that we might walk into, the more we try to get it off of us the more tangled it will get. When the government started deciding to give money to certain companies that were not run properly, they kept other companies from moving up to take the place of those that were run poorly. Now unelected bureaucrats who have never run a business or made a payroll are in charge of deciding what the proper pay scale will be for the people running those businesses.

Over the past year there have been several positions created for more bureaucrats, now they are called CZARS. Sadly some of these czars have expressed an admiration of the former leader of China “Mao Se Tung”. Even the manufacturing Czar was quoted in a speech as saying that the free market system is nonsense. He kind of agreed with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. We Americans should be alarmed when the people that are supposed to promote our economic system express admiration for a mass murdering dictator and his economic beliefs.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.