It would be a mistake, though, to simply tune out the wackadoodle ideas, if for no other reason than they provide voters a glimpse into the thinking [?] of some of their elected leaders.

Take, for example, Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desire to re-create a state militia under his sole authority – an idea the state’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Mancino, floated in a recent Senate budget hearing.

“Gov. Stitt came to me this year,” Mancino said, “after looking at what he saw occurring on the border in Texas, where they routinely use their state guard, and asked me to take a look at reinstituting that.”

Why? To keep Texans south of the Red River? Or keep Coloradans, New Mexicans, Kansans, Missourians and Arkansans from streaming across our borders?

Or how about the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner? After all, the chief M.E., Eric Pfeiffer, recently warned legislative budget writers, “We have enough money to maybe get by another year. After that we crumble. We bleed to death.”

Oklahoma already has a National Guard [authority and funding shared with the federal government] that the governor can deploy in a pinch. It doesn’t need a separate state-specific civil defense force answering only to the governor.

What’s next? Stitt strutting around in a uniform adorned with oak leaf clusters?

As if Stitt’s militia folly isn’t enough inanity, brace yourself for legislators’ efforts to MCLA – Make Cockfighting Legal Again.

Lane Rep. Justin Humphrey is the blood sport’s undisputed legislative champion, authoring two measures, HB 1313 and HB 1326, aimed at reducing the cockfighting penalty from a felony to a misdemeanor and – get this! – allowing a rooster to fight a robot so long as the rooster is “unharmed.”

Your read that correctly. Robot. Rooster. Unharmed.

Only in Oklahoma.

Humphrey, of course, denies he’s trying to MCLA. “I’m trying to reduce it to a misdemeanor,” he told Oklahoma Voice. “We’ve reduced dangerous drugs that are killing people … to a misdemeanor, and yet raising a chicken is a felony that carries 10 years. That’s complete stupidity.”

Don’t be fooled by Humphrey’s spin: It is not a felony to raise a chicken in Oklahoma. It is, however, a felony to own, possess, keep or train roosters with the intent to cockfight. The voters made clear they regard that as barbarism worthy of up to 10 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.

Let’s be clear about something else: Stitt and Humphrey were freely elected to propose whatever their minds can conjure, no matter how inane. Same is true of lawmakers introducing anti-vaxx measures at a time when whooping cough is surging and measles are making a comeback.

All this nonsense should serve as a reminder to both voters and non-voters: Elections have consequences.