ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE ++ TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE
++ TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE


++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

By my calculation, this will be the 21 time in a row that we will be
meeting on the Wednesday before a Thanksgiving day. We usually have a
good crowd as many are off work or perhaps they have family or friends
coming in and they bring them to our meeting. Our 12 noon luncheon for
Wednesday, November 23rd will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801
North Lincoln in OKC. Paul Blair, my pastor at Fairview Baptist in
Edmond will have a few comments and make an important announcement.
Our main speaker will be Dr. G. Thomas Sharp of Noble Oklahoma. In my
65 years I have had the privilege to meet a lot of very intelligent
individuals that have done an excellent job of developing their
intellect and communication skills. I interviewed Dr. Sharp on my
radio program in 2001 and he was just fascinating. He sure upset Ben
Odem and his liberal (excuse me, “progressive” friends) who had a
program which followed mine. Dr. Sharp can speak on many subjects, but
I have asked him to at least discuss some of the very interesting
things that occurred with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and what
happened to Spirit Lake and other parts of the Mountain. Dr. Sharp has
a large collection of dinosaur skeletons which will soon be displayed
in a permanent home on I-35 just South of the Dallas Ft. Worth area.
Don’t miss this meeting.

++ ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE

* TUESDAY, NOV 29TH - OKC AREA - State Representative Charles Key
(R-OKC) will host a campaign kick-off event for his effort to run for
Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The fundraiser will be from 5:30 to 7:00
p.m. at H&H Gun Range, 400 South Vermont Ave, Suite # 110. Speaking on
behalf of Charles in his effort will be Oklahoma House Speaker
Designee, T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton). The public is welcome, so grab your
checkbook and come help Charles get started in this race, even if you
can only contribute a small amount of funds for his effort.

* FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2ND - OKC AREA - The state wide chapters of
the John Birch Society will host their annual Christmas dinner and
auction at the Character Inn, 520 West Main Street in downtown OKC.
Not sure, but I believe the dinner starts at 6:00 p.m. and costs $10
for the meal. Please bring one nice auction item per person or family
and come join the fun. As always, if there is one person in attendance
with a flashier Christmas tie and etc. on than I will be
wearing, I will pay for their dinner. Good luck!

* Monday, December 5th - OKC AREA - The Oklahoma State Republican
Party has invited all the Republican candidates for office to come to
Oklahoma so people can get to know them better. They also use the
occasion for a fund raiser for the party. Mitt Romney has already been
here and the next to come will be Herman Cain. The time will be 6:30
p.m. with the location being the Oklahoma City Marriott, 3233
Northwest Expressway in OKC. The Republican Party is not endorsing
anyone, it is simply a fundraiser and an opportunity for folks to meet
the candidates. The cost to attend is $20.12 per person. We are asked
to register online to Emily@okgop.com or call (405) 528-3501 by
December 3rd.

++ TEA PARTIES, HERE AND ELSEWHERE

I am beginning to hear a lot of people wonder what ever happened to
the Tea Parties which began to fire up about 2 and a half years ago.
First let me say, the Tea Party groups in rural Oklahoma are still
around and busy. However, in our two largest cities, they no longer
exist, as least not as large rallies with clever signs. Many of the
people really determined to make a difference have gotten involved in
organizations such at the 912 groups, OCPAC, OK-SAFE, the John Birch
Society and others.

As far as Oklahoma is concerned, I believe they had only a minimal
effect on the 2010 elections. When it came to our congressional
delegation, their influence was only felt in the second district,
where the under funded Republican received about 45% of the vote
against the well known incumbent David Boren with all the money in the
world and a district with a strong Democrat majority. Boren, realizing
a better funded candidate would come after him in 2012 and it being a
presidential election cycle with higher Republican turnout, has
decided to retire rather than experience the likely hood of an
embarrassing defeat.

Since the rest of Oklahoma’s delegation had opposed President Obama’s
agenda and they were of the opposing party, it was hard to get people
upset with what was happening in Washington to the point they were
willing to toss them out of office.

The only other place the tea parties had much effect was in the
Republican primary for governor. In all my years of activism, the
conservative grass roots had only been able to garner about 40% of the
vote against the Republican establishment candidate for statewide
races. I am talking about past races where we had candidates such as
Mike Fair, Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown running for governor or Tim
Green for attorney general.

The one exception was when Dr. Tom Coburn destroyed Kirk Humphries for
U.S. Senate. That was mainly because Dr. Coburn has his own unique
qualities, which appealed to some of the establishment voters, and
then there was Bob Anthony out there acting like “Jack the
Ripper” (that was Kirk Humphries’s description of Bob) banging away at
Kirk’s liberalism which allowed Dr. Tom to triangulate above the war
between Kirk and Bob.

However, in the Republican governor’s race, Randy Brogdon became the
darling of the tea parties, so Brogdon and the other two Republican
candidates were able to garner over 45% of the vote against one of the
highest profile establishment candidates in history. I believe you can
credit the tea parties with that additional 5% of the vote in that
race.

Otherwise, the tea parties probably had enough additional effect to
help the Republican’s pick up several new seats in the legislature,
particularly in the Southeast quarter of the state.

I believe the awareness ginned up by the tea parties along with better
voter education will continue to have a positive effect for some time
to come. That will be especially true in rural Oklahoma if they remain
active. Their key to success is that they have become more like an
organization with an agenda and strategy to achieve their agenda
rather than an event or gathering like the large crowds of the big
city tea parties.

One other thing about the tea parties in the big cities. They live or
die based on the help from talk radio. With the passing of Mark
Shannon, OKC no longer has a voice able to stir up the emotions of the
populace to get a decent turn out. The Egg Man is a boring 3rd rate
comedian, incapable of serious talk radio and certainly too shallow to
provide any kind of leadership for tea parties. The only reason I know
he is still on air is because I have to listen to his program teasers
throughout the day while listening to KTOK’s syndicated line-up. When
the clock strikes 4:00 and until 7:00 p.m. I begin to listen to Neal
Bortze on 1520 AM, Paul Blair on 800 AM, Shawn Hannity on 740 AM out
of Tulsa, or and investment program on 960 AM out of Enid. Try any of
these programs as they are all superior to the Egg Man!

I have said all this to talk about our guest last week Scott Hennen
and his involvement with the tea parties in North and South Dakota as
well as Minnesota. Before the tea party movement, North Dakota had
been represented in Washington by Democrats for nearly 3 decades, even
though the state voted for Republicans for President.

President Obama’s agenda stirred the wrath of the citizens in ND so
much that they turned out 1500 people to a tea party in Fargo, a town
of only 100,000. Proportionally that would be a larger turnout than
any tea party in either of our 2 larger cities.

The 2 Democrat Senators began to have town hall meetings in barns or
fire stations in very small communities so they could say they were
meeting with the folks, but avoiding the larger cities and thus hoping
to avoid embarrassing moments. Scott would go to these small
communities and broadcast from a local coffee shop, urging people to
come and pick up sheets with the top 20 questions to ask their
Senators. These fire stations and barns would be packed and the people
were so well informed that the Senators couldn’t pull the wool over
their eyes.

Therefore, the Senator up for re-election announced he would not run
again and he was replaced by a Republican, though he doesn’t appear to
be very conservative according to his score of a 50 on the Freedom
Index in the New American magazine. Their 9 term U.S. Representative,
Earl Pomeroy, would not attend town hall meetings and was defeated by
10 percentage points. The Republican who defeated him scored an 80,
the same as our Republicans in Oklahoma. Their loan remaining Democrat
Senator has announced that he will not seek re-election next year and
according to Scott, he is sure to be replaced by the sitting
Republican Governor.

Let me suggest that in states that still have fairly conservative
values, a liberal Democrat’s days will be numbered if there is an
active tea party movement. Also, to take that a step farther, liberal
Democrats or in some cases liberal Republicans will insure that the
tea parties will stay active. Therefore locations, conditions and talk
radio will determine the activities and vigor of tea parties.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com