Yes, small ‘d’ democracy if you mean we vote. Outside of that, our state is run by dictator/Gov. Kevin Stitt who treats the place and its four million residents like we are serfs who know the emperor has no clothes but are expected to just tolerate him and his lawless, unconscionable behavior.
After his election in 2018, I chalked up his ignorance about the job he had earned to the fact he had not voted for 20 years, was a busy businessman and the father of half-dozen kids. I was sure he would learn because, after all, he is an earned CPA from OSU, appeared conversational, pleasant and approachable.
Nothing could be further than the truth. He is a crook, devious, a congenital liar and self-dealer. Strong words that readers should expect me to prove.
I’m glad to. Read on.
- The turnover in his cabinet is at such a rate if he wins re-election a majority of Oklahomans will have served in it, earning meaningless titles, cushy offices, big salaries and little else. Their advice is ignored if it differs from King Kevin’s – even when it is good, which is rarer than Stitt saying “we” instead of “me.”
2. Stitt may be the worst judge of character and talent of any governor in history, including Alfalfa Bill Murray who never met a racist or Ku Klux Klan member that he didn’t adore. Space limits me to just a few examples but here goes:
[A] Gino DeMarco has screwed up everything from PPE supplies [actually lost millions of dollars’ worth of them] to his job in the Tourism Department selecting Swadley’s bar-b-cue for new restaurants at parks with a sweetheart contract that would make it impossible to fail … but they did and cost you the taxpayers millions of dollars in the process.
[B] Even after all that, Stitt appointed him to the board of the multi-billion dollar agency that oversees health services for 1.4 million Oklahomans from which he recently finally resigned.
[C] And Gino also bought land near a new marina at Lake Murray denying insider information from Tourism had anything to do with the purchase. Yes, and Hitler didn’t know what was going on at Auschwitz.
[D] Next, Clever Kevin picked Elliot Chambers as the new Secretary of the School Land Commission, even though the poor guy had run three energy companies into bankruptcy just prior to filling the vacancy. So what possibly could be Chambers’ other qualifications that were so irresistible to Clueless Kevin? You should know by now. He, too, is a graduate of OSU and a CPA to boot.
[E] According to the impeccably honest State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, Epic Charter Schools, a voucher scheme, is the biggest ripoff of public tax money in the history of Oklahoma, and Kevin tolerated their existence for years until Byrd’s audits final made that position indefensible. Epic’s founders, Harris and Chaney, have now been indicated on nine felony counts, and the company’s CFO only eight, by the Oklahoma County district attorney.
[F] Multi-millionaire Stitt, who has gold-plated health insurance paid for by you, for years fought Medicaid expansion until voters finally took the program into their own hands by state question and passed it over his active opposition.
[G] His handpicked attorney general, John O’Connor, failed to represent you in rate cases before the Corporation Commission, which led to huge awards for OG&E, ONG and PSO that ratepayers will fund through monthly bills for decades to come. Don’t take my word for it. Read the criticism lodged by several Supreme Court justices when they issued their opinions on the mandatory decisions.
[H] And finally, for today, Stitt claimed in campaign ads he provided pay raises for teachers when in fact he opposed them at every chance.
In closing, Stitt is rightfully vulnerable come November for several reasons. Although his primary opponents had little money, over 31% of Republicans voted against corrupt Kevin. His November opponent, Joy Hofmeister, when on the same ballot with him in 2018, garnered 40,000 more votes than he did at the top of the ticket. Voters have rarely made such a grievous error in placing their trust and support for a person as incorrigible and thoughtless as Kevin Stitt but will have the chance in barely four months to correct that mistake.
Best I can tell the only people still with Stitt are minions he buys and sells like sacks of potatoes, which is fitting since many of them will be peeling them in massive numbers in the future. No, not in the closed Swadley restaurants but in your local private or public prisons.
Okies are tolerant people but even they will finally say enough is enough.
And we’ve had more than enough from this mortgage bundler John Kevin Stitt who bungled his term as governor in ways never seen before with one exception – that being his mentor and role model former President Donald John Trump.
How appropriate. Both have the name “John” in their full monikers. How perfect since that’s where they need to end up with only their conviction clippings as toilet paper.
Oh, how that hurts, them more than us!
