The Rise of Corporativism for Our Public Schools

   A friend and fellow rancher, James Albert Campbell, from Hugo recently wrote the following:
"All my life I have heard 'You get the government you deserve', and I get that. If my fellow ranchers and farmers ignore JFK's warning and 'vote not only against himself, but against the welfare of every farmer and every farm' in the Country, then I guess that is our own fault. If everyone of us that comes from a family that lost fortunes and/or nearly starved to death during the Great Depression forget the admonitions of our Fathers and Grandfathers, then I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves.
If our municipal and county leaders choose to side with the forces that gut our REAP funds and continue to shift more and more tax burden upon local governments, then they do so at their own peril.
If our commissioners stand by while the CIRB is raided every year, then it's them that have to take the cussing when our county roads and bridges fall to pieces.
If the many men and women that depend on an ODOT salary continue to back a regime that uses our roads funds like a piggybank, eventually all the projects will be cut and the only thing left to be cut will be their jobs.
If small local business men think they are wealthy enough to demand respect from the Party of the Rich, they will learn their fortunes are directly with that of their poor neighbors.
If our educators and state employees still cannot realize 'who's hitting them over the heads', then they are in store for a world of hurt.
If each of us that claim to be pro-life froth at the mouth over the unborn child, yet continue to elect politicians that don't give a damn about that child outside the womb, then God have mercy on our souls for we truly know not what we do. 
So, all of us adult Oklahomans may deserve the utterly incompetent ruling regime we have.
But, please tell me - what in the hell has our foster children, public school students, and disabled Oklahomans done to deserve the GOP?
   I agree with everything James says, except for one thing - it's the Corporatist Party, not the GOP per say or the Democrats  who've screwed our most vulnerable. James is an avowed Democrat, but not a Liberal Democrat but a "Conservative" in its most traditional definition - Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions such as our public schools and our family farms/ranches. It's a philosophy that "gets votes" for Corporatist  legislators across America, and they know "to lie" about being farmers and ranchers will always ensure victory at the ballot box.
   President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was probably the last "Conservative" Democrat to hold the White House and said "The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways". James Campbell can identify with JFK, and so can I. I didn't vote for JFK in the 1960 Presidential Election and I'm sure James didn't either, because we were too young, but certainly would have - as Dick Nixon, a Corporatist Republican, was the alternative. (Remember the Dick Nixon scandals, much like the state Corporatist scandals of Oklahoma today.) But I digress (ramble) once again...
  Abraham Lincoln, a Conservative Republican President, penned a letter to Col. William F. Elkins on November 21, 1864, and wrote "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Lincoln evidently foresaw the rise of today's Corporatists in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.
   Benito Mussolini, Italy's dictator before and during World War II, once said "Fascism should be more properly called Corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." As the Allies swept through Italy concluding WWII, Mussolini was "hanged" upside down in the town square as he tried to flee. (My uncle, Warren Beckham, earned an Army Silver Star in Italy, helping to defeat the Nazi/Fascists.)
   The bottom line today is to defeat Corporativism at the ballot box, not by "hanging" or running them out of the country. The real problem for Oklahomans is to distinguish the Corporatist Candidates from the true Conservative Republicans or Democrats. It's easy though, if a voter knows where to look. Just go to the website followthemoney.org, type in the name of the office holder or candidate - and become enlightened. The information provided gives the out-of-state and international corporations, including "dark money groups", which have paid-off candidates to do their bidding. If you don't want to know that "your local legislator" is a Corporatist, then I advise you not to look, but remember that "knowledge is power"...