I've likened this year's legislative budgetary exercises, especially the efforts to fill the $878 million budget hole, to a circus. I now believe it's more like the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, the greatest man-made natural disaster the world has ever known. This analogy hits the nail on the head, as the federal government created the Dust Bowl - and the Oklahoma State Government has created the 2017 state budget catastrophe.
To set the stage for this comparison of legislative disasters, I think it's important to recognize that Oklahoma now has three political parties, not two, as has been the case in the past. The republicans, the democrats, and now the corporatists exist at the capitol. The republican party has traditionally been the party of wealth, and only during the past few decades has been considered conservative in nature. The democrat party was once the conservative party, but has recently turned more neo-liberal. Corporatism is a hybrid of both republican and democratic philosophies. Corporatists do not favor individual welfare programs but do favor corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks to billionaires and business corporations. Many former conservative republicans in the Oklahoma State House and Senate are now corporatists, just as many Federal lawmakers were corporatists back in the Dirty Thirties.
The Oklahoma Dust Bowl (also part of three other states) was created in a large part by federal subsidies (corporate welfare) which were accessed by suitcase farmers (out-of-state farming corporations) which swept in from the east to take advantage of Oklahoma's farm and range land. They bought up or leased every square inch of range they could, and then plowed it all under - to plant wheat and make money ("Making a profit" is the cornerstone of corporate farming endeavors, while "survival" is the goal of local farmers and ranchers). On a personal note - I did not live through the Dust Bowl - but three of my grandparents did and told me some "horror" stories of those times. My grandfather on my father's side (Virgil Beckham) died in November, 1933, as a result of being drug to death by a mule, during a dust storm near Clinton, Oklahoma. My grandfather on my mothers side pointed out the exact location on his ranch where over one-hundred head of cattle were slaughtered in 1935 - because there was nothing left for them to eat. All area ranchers were forced by the government to drive their cattle (except one) to a central location, where they were shot and covered with dirt. My uncle, Ray Smith of Duncan, an 8 year old at the time, told me of how his heart was broken as he and his father drove their "herd of ten cows" 3 miles to be shot. (He got to keep his favorite milk cow). In my opinion, this economic and personal calamity had two causes - the federal government... and corporate acquisition of tax dollars (the love of money). I believe the 2017 State budget fiasco mirrors the Dust Bowl in many ways:
1930's Oklahoma Dust Bowl 2017 State Budget Fiasco
Greatest man-made natural disaster Greatest man-made state
budget disaster...
Caused by corporate greed Caused by corporate greed
Allowed by government corporatists Allowed by government...
Affected farmers and ranchers Affected public schools
National suitcase farmers to blame National and International
charter schools...
Remembered 90 years later Will be remembered 90 years
later...
As many believe, the State Budget Catastrophe of 2017 has much in common with the Dust Bowl of the dirty thirties, and those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We must hope today's state problem is solved much more quickly than the "state" problem of long ago...
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