The whole world is trying to figure out what’s up with us here in Red Dirt land. Last Tuesday, for good or bad, we certainly took a different tack, and everyone wants to know why.

The great blog Down With Tyranny regularly has insightful posts about Oklahoma politics, with some of the best rants against Inhofe for years now, and was a good source of info about the Andrew Rice campaign. Today, a look at what the hell happened in Oklahoma last Tuesday. Leading in to the piece is a photo from the Dust Bowl which still epitomizes Oklahoma’s seemingly hopeless situation.

Can You Guess Which State Was The Most Reactionary In This Year’s Elections? Hint: Think Rodgers and Hammerstein

But the state least connected to the American mainstream and most politically isolated on Tuesday was poor, sad, reactionary Oklahoma, which gave almost 66% of it’s vote, the most of any state, to McCain. While analysts are working on a post-mortem, or autopsy, on McCain’s no longer twitching campaign, Oklahomans must be wondering what’s wrong with the rest of America.

Daily Kos’s most famous and beloved Okie diaries, droogie6655321, riffed off Thomas Frank’s 2005 examination of Kansas politics, with What’s the Matter with Oklahoma?

What I’m not interested in is sweeping generalities about Oklahomans. If you want to call us all ignorant, misinformed, racist or backward, I suggest you do it an upcoming open thread and not here. As unfathomable as it may seem to us, there is a reason why Oklahomans choose Republicans over Democrats, and I want to know why.

Droogie’s question generated 988 comments and was followed by Sooner Kos discussion threads here and here

The traditional media weighed in on the anomaly which is Oklahoma. The New York Times:

Where Tuesday’s Tide Was All Republican

“Oklahoma Democrats, with very few exceptions, are the old-line white Southern Democrats,” said David Ray, another political scientist at the university. “They don’t like liberals or liberalism.”

Indeed, the state has a political landscape closely resembling that of the old solidly Democratic South, especially in its southeastern corner, known as Little Dixie, where many Southerners settled after the Civil War. When conservatives of the Old South began abandoning the party decades ago, Oklahoma’s Democrats lagged behind the historical trend. Further, the state has relatively small black and Hispanic populations, and so the Democrats did not absorb as many new voters from those groups as in the states of the old Confederacy.

These days Oklahoma Democrats dread running for local office in presidential election years, for fear of being associated with liberal nominees at the top of the ticket.

“Being liberal in Oklahoma, with the exception of a few legislative districts, will not get you elected,” said State Representative Joe Dorman, a conservative Democrat.

[...]

But Mr. Gaddie said that perhaps the most important factor in Mr. McCain’s strong showing here was religion. An Edison/Mitofsky exit poll found that more than half of Oklahoma voters identified themselves as evangelical Christians and that a heavy majority of them had voted for Mr. McCain.

Mr. Gaddie, himself a pollster as well as a college professor, said: “A question we always ask in our polls is ‘How often do you attend church services?’ If a Democrat is not going to vote for a Democrat, they are a frequent church attender.”

Another advantage for Mr. McCain was that the state’s economy, based mostly on the oil and gas industry, has been buffered somewhat from the national economic slowdown. Unemployment remains low, the housing market stable.

For all of that, the Democratic Party is far from dead in Oklahoma, especially in the state’s southeastern section, where, despite the social conservatism, many people still talk about the New Deal and revere Franklin D. Roosevelt.

and Washington Post also remarked on the Oklahoma phenom.

As Much of Nation Went Blue, Okla. Applied Extra Coat of Red

Exit polls found that more than half of Oklahoma voters identified themselves as white, evangelical or born-again Christians. Of those, a heavy majority went for McCain.

State Republican Chairman Gary Jones said it was “not so much an issue of race,” but rather of conservative Oklahomans voting against someone known as “the most liberal member of the Senate.”

Jones said the conservative positions of McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, helped motivate Oklahoma voters.

One thing all these analysts seem to agree on is that Oklahoma not being so hard hit by the economic downturn played a part in the election results. We just aren’t hurting as bad as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, et. al.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But in Oklahoma, the pain wasn’t great enough to trump the other ideology (”family values”) and/or misconceptions about Obama as elsewhere in the nation.

If Obama does a good job as president, which I expect him to do, perhaps Oklahomans will at least drop the latter rationale for not voting for him when he runs for re-election in 2012.

The political seismic shift that occurred Tuesday night, compressed into ten minutes. I still tear up watching it. Thanks to Jed via Daily Kos.

Watch this fantastic video ’song to Obama’

The singer/songwriter is Hannah Friedman. Talented, smart and brave woman. She left a comment on my last post with the link. Thank you, Hannah, for your great heart. I hope it’s not broken, by Obama, or anyone.

The consensus bottom line: This is just the beginning.

Gloria A. Totten, Progressive Majority

The message couldn’t be clearer: voters wanted progressive change. They elected an outstanding progressive as the next president. They put Democrats solidly in control of the Congress. And, they elected 79 great Progressive Majority candidates to state and local office! More results will be coming in as the votes continue to be counted.

The state and local champions Progressive Majority helped elect yesterday will ring in a new era of leadership committed to our progressive values - and they will be a formidable ground force to enact the change we need.

Tim Carpenter and Laura Bonhan, Progressive Democrats of America

At least we know, for the first time in eight years, the person on whom so much planetary security depends has a solid intellect. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called Obama, “a transformational figure.” We may need no less than that to address the challenges ahead. If tremendous damage has been done to America’s reputation, tremendous healing may come from having as president a man who extolled the need to engage even with one’s enemies, whose extraordinary, world-wide upbringing embodies the maxim think globally, act locally,” and will present a new face to a planet that has become wary of the nation which not long ago was its ideal.

PDA can have a huge role in what is to come. At this year’s annual PDA conference, we were particularly struck to hear John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation, describe Franklin Roosevelt’s less-than-progressive roots, and the degree to which FDR was swayed by the great Fiorello La Guardia and other progressives. This should give us plenty of hope about what is possible in moving an entire administration.

Ron Pollack, Stand Up For Health Care

For those of us fortunate to see, and participate in, this transformative election, our work must not only continue, it must start anew. This election is an opportunity – an opportunity to bring fairness and decency and dignity for those who have yet to share our nation’s bounty.

Our work is far from over.

It’s important we do everything we can to make sure the new Congress and President-elect Obama work together to make quality, affordable health care a reality for all Americans, as soon as possible.

Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund

Elections are about change and this election offers us the
greatest opportunity we have ever had to change course on global
warming.

We must do everything we can to pass climate legislation here at
home and to craft a global compact that unites the world against
the common enemy of rising temperatures, melting ice caps,
erratic weather and the spread of disease.

Here is our post-election campaign memo:
http://action.edf.org/ct/cpq4xAY1Em-Q/. It details the steps
our scientists, economists and policy experts are taking to
seize this historic opportunity.

Frances Beinecke, Natural Resources Defense Council

Hundreds of NRDC attorneys, scientists and policy experts have worked night and day for eight long years to stop the Bush-Cheney juggernaut from laying waste to our public lands, national forests, wildlife refuges and ocean ecosystems. Thanks to your phenomenal support, we have succeeded to an extent that few thought possible.

Barack Obama’s election is a huge win for everyone exhausted from playing defense. Count us among them. It rekindles our hope that environmental protection may be restored to its rightful place as a treasured American value.

On the most important issues of the day — from global warming controls to clean energy solutions to wilderness preservation — President-elect Obama campaigned on behalf of far-sighted policies that NRDC has championed for years.

But hope alone will not turn those promises into reality. It’s time to get to work.

Mary Beth Maxwell, American Rights at Work

One of the most remarkable stories of this campaign season is
how corporate-funded front groups tried - and failed - to use
the Employee Free Choice Act as a wedge issue.

They spent nearly $20 million dollars to smear candidates who
would defend the right to form a union, freely and fairly. And
in almost every race, those candidates beat the lies.

These anti-union groups thought they could scare Americans into
voting for candidates who would look out for CEOs while leaving
the middle class holding the bag. Even Wal-Mart thought it could
bully employees into voting against pro-worker candidates. You
proved them wrong.

Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org

Remember back in 2001 and 2002, when so many of you joined MoveOn? When President Bush had an 80% approval rating, when you held candles to stop a war the media was cheering on, when there were few politicians with the courage to stand up for the truth? Back then, a victory like this seemed impossible.

But yesterday you proved that nothing is impossible. If we stand up together and if we fight together and if we believe together, we can change the course of history.

Today, a new day has dawned in America.

Richard Cohen, Southern Poverty Law Center

Around the world, people everywhere are seeing a new face of America, one that is more tolerant and more just. This is a credit to the sacrifices and the determination of millions of people, like you, who have worked so hard to make equality in our country more than just a dream. As President-elect Obama said to his supporters last night, “This is your victory.”

This election, of course, can never erase the ugly stain of slavery and cannot reverse overnight its terrible, enduring legacy of poverty, discrimination and bigotry.

Nor does it mark the end of overt hate and racism. The campaign exposed deep hostility and even rage among some white Americans who cannot yet accept the idea of a black man as our nation’s leader. And many white supremacists believe this election will rally white people to their cause, especially when our economy is teetering on the edge of an abyss.

I hope and believe that they are wrong, that the growing number of Americans who cherish justice and tolerance will drown out the fear and bigotry that have held our country back for too long.

For now, let’s all celebrate the promise of a new era. Tomorrow, let’s get back to work to make that promise a reality.

Kevin Martin, Peace Action

This morning, I’m thinking about two things: the incredible historical achievement of this country electing an African-American president; and, what that means to people of all colors in this country. What an incredible moment - historically, socially and spiritually.

The other thought is more sobering - President-elect Obama is inheriting quite a terrible mess, on so many fronts, and his policies are frankly not so progressive on war and peace issues. However, at this defining moment we have an opening for positive change, after eight long years of Bush’s and Cheney’s all-out assault on world peace.

We in the peace movement, have steadfastly fought against the war in Iraq, successfully (so far) stopped an attack on Iran. We’ve prevented Bush from moving forward with his new nuclear weapons programs. Now, we have the opportunity for a more positive and proactive type of organizing for peace, social justice and disarmament.

Barack Obama’s message last night was that change is not something he will just deliver for his supporters in some consumerist fashion. He called on us to work harder for the changes we want to see in our country, saying “This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.” He said we have to keep organizing for change. I could not agree more and I intend to take up his challenge!

I know that among our more than 160,000 supporters across the country there is no consensus about Barack Obama. Some folks are passionate supporters, others are highly critical of his positions on various issues.

For me, the celebration today is not just about Obama’s victory or the repudiation of miserably failed Republican politics. The celebration is about the tens of millions of Americans who empowered themselves to take the country in a new, better direction.

Larry Cox, Amnesty International

We have a great opportunity. The world faces overwhelming human rights crises. But with your help, we can turn this country’s policies on human rights back in the direction of alleviating, and not contributing, to these crises.

President-elect Obama has promised to restore the rule of law, to repair America’s damaged perception in the world, to close Guantánamo, and to renounce torture.

These promises bring hope. In the coming days, we will need you to help make those promises a reality.

John Sweeney, AFL-CIO

Because of years of work by people of all ages, races, stations
and faiths hungry for change, the political pendulum is swinging
back toward sanity. It took the inspiration of a rare leader to
translate that hunger for change into an election the likes of
which we have not seen in our time.

Barack Obama brings new hope to America’s working families, and
our increased majority in the U.S. Senate means we can translate
that hope into reality. So thank you for your hard work in
educating and mobilizing voters. (Click here to read AFL-CIO
post-election commentary on our blog:
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/DpqNgjS1VuYS/)

Last night was a time to rejoice, but now it is time to get back
to work fighting for working families.

Cecile Richard, Planned Parenthood:

I’ve been wondering what it would feel like to know that the president of the United States supports women — it’s been a while — and I must say, it feels amazing.

People around here are finally exhaling, after eight long years. Just think, the massive amount of time, energy, and resources that the Planned Parenthood community had to spend shielding women and teens from the harm caused by the Bush administration can now be directed to expanding women’s access to the reproductive health information and services they urgently need.

Not only that, we also defeated anti-choice ballot initiatives by decisive margins in California, Colorado and South Dakota.

Nancy Keenan, NARAL

Thanks to your hard work, Barack Obama is on his way to the White House! In the House of Representatives, the election of at least 16 new pro-choice members means we have more support to protect a woman’s right to choose. And we moved five Senate seats out of the anti-choice column, with four more still being counted. Check our website for a complete list of winning pro-choice candidates.

http://action.prochoiceamerica.org/site/R?i=UnHIZBYJ_btoJeVxyQoxzg..

South Dakotans - thanks in large part to the efforts of NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota and its allies - rejected another attempt by the anti-choice movement to ban abortion by referendum in the state. With the help of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, voters in that state also rejected an anti-choice initiative. And while California’s anti-choice ballot measure is too close to call, the results are promising.

And the advocacy to our new president-elect begins.

Jerry Fowler, Save Darfur Coalition:

A champion for Darfur in the Senate has been elected as the next president of the United States.

President-elect Obama has been a consistent voice for Darfur. But now it is time for more than strong words—we need strong action to end the suffering.

Our voices together can compel the next president to act. …

Presidential leadership can end the genocide. Click here to send your postcard and Be a Voice for Darfur today.

I absolutely believe that thousands of voices, united as one, will compel President-elect Obama to act. That’s why we set a goal of 20,000 new voices by Election Day—and met it. And, that’s why we’re setting a new goal: 100,000 online postcards signed by Inauguration Day.

Nancy Duff Campbell and Marcia Greenberger, National Women’s Law Center

The nation has no time to spare in providing guaranteed, affordable health care for all, passing essential legislation that provides basic fairness in the workplace, like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and undoing some of the onerous restrictions on women’s access to reproductive health that were imposed by the Bush Administration.

A first order of business is to pass and implement an economic recovery plan that addresses the needs of women and their families, including by extending unemployment insurance benefits and by increasing nutrition, energy, housing, child care, and Head Start assistance. In addition, the plan should provide fiscal relief to the states to avert cuts in education, Medicaid, child support enforcement, and other critical services.

We’re eager to begin working with the Obama Administration and the new Congress to expand opportunities for women and their families. And NWLC has developed A Platform for Progress with concrete proposals to address the unmet needs of women and their families in the areas of education, employment, basic economic security, health, and legal rights: www.nwlc.org/platform

The following Republicans are up for re-election in 2010. The netroots will be watching them and posting about any shenanigans.

1. Richard Shelby of Alabama
2. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
3. John McCain of Arizona
4. Mel Martinez of Florida
5. Johnny Isakson of Georgia
6. Mike Crapo of Idaho
7. Chuck Grassley of Iowa
8. Jim Bunning of Kentucky
9. David Vitter of Louisiana
10. Kit Bond of Missouri
11. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
12. Richard Burr of North Carolina
13. George Voinovich of Ohio
14. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
15. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
16. Jim DeMint of South Carolina
17. John Thune of South Dakota
18. Bob Bennett of Utah

and others may choose to retire (after all, actual governing is hard work). So, the fun starts again pretty soon.

Barack Obama has won in a landslide and will soon be at the helm of this nation. Thank all powers, large and small, for that.

A new era is beginning, which, based on my experience, I can only liken to the Kennedy presidency, when a generation of young people felt a dawning of a new world in which their work, their dreams and their ideals, mattered. Public service was the ultimate job. Governing in a democracy was the most honorable vocation. Justice was the light that led the way in dark moments.

I expect to have many issues with the policies, the compromises, that Obama will bring forward. But I trust that he is the perfect person to lead this country, indeed “the free world,” at this moment, with its many and considerable problems.

I only hope that the majority of those who supported someone else will be able to find the strength and good will to come to terms with the new world that a President Obama represents.

The job Obama has sought and today has gained is by nature the most difficult in the world, but now its difficulties have been multiplied exponentially by the misguided values and incomparable incompetence of George W. Bush. Although I am not religious, I will be literally praying that Obama has and can maintain the courage, the intelligence, the temperment and the skill that he will need to navigate this perilous sea.

That his victory has historical ramifications beyond all that was evident in the faces of the people at victory parties across the county who were shown by MSNBC during their coverage. Jesse Jackson (the first black man I voted for) and Oprah Winfrey were shamelessly crying. A woman in Harlem was brought to her knees. Students at Spellman College were radiating disbelief and joy.

In his acceptance speech, Obama referred to a woman in Atlanta who, at 106 years old, voted for Obama. Her life has stretched through three centuries, and she’s seen amazing changes, many of them critical and not to be diminished. But the meaning of having a person who looks like you in the most important position in the world cannot be equaled. Many white men, who take for granted their birth-given rank in the world, have a hard time understanding these symbolic mileposts.

But today is the first day of a new reality. And now we all have to live up to it. Celebrate, cry, pray; then get to work with more passion and purpose than ever before.

Sign the online petition at http://www.iacenter.org/stopvotersuppression

Online Petition Text:

To: President Bush, Senator McCain, Governor Palin, Attorney General Mukasey, Governors of Key States, Congressional and Republican Party leaders and members of the media

In the days leading up to a historic election, there has been a massive, illegal attempt to suppress votes, particularly among the poor, communities of color, and students.

These tactics include:

–In Ohio, the Republicans attempted to illegally challenge the registrations of 200,000 new voters.

–Voters, like in West Virginia counties, have reported that electronic voting machines visibly changed their vote to John McCain when they tried to cast their vote for Barack Obama.

–Students in Colorado, Virginia, and South Carolina were told that they would lose their scholarships and that their parents could no longer claim them as dependents on their tax returns if the students voted in their college towns.

–In Georgia more than 50,000 voters were improperly purged from the voting rolls, a clear violation of federal laws that prohibit massive purging within 90 days of an election. Approximately 4,500 of them have been wrongly identified as “non-citizens”.

–In Indiana, Republican officials filed a lawsuit to close down early voting sites in three key Indiana cities—Hammond, Gary and East Chicago. Indiana’s population is only eight percent Black, but Black voters are heavily concentrated in the three cities targeted by the lawsuit.

–In Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin, right wingers are using the Jim-Crow practice of ‘caging,’ where they send out mass mailings to low-income neighborhoods.  If the letters come back unopened, then those voters are challenged at the polling place.

These are just a few of the tactics that have come to light in the recent period which are part of an ongoing pattern of racist disenfranchisement–an illegal campaign to deliberately deprive people of the hard-won right to vote.

I demand:

•    Stop police intimidation of voters.
•    Keep polls open until everyone has the opportunity to vote.
•    Full emergency staffing of polling places to meet the widely-expected massive turnout.
•    STOP all voter suppression – count all ballots.

Make your voice heard NOW! Sign the online petition and send a strong, clear message to the White House, Congress, Governors of Key States, and the media. You can sign online at http://www.iacenter.org/stopvotersuppression

Make an immediate donation to help stop racist voter suppression in an urgent national campaign.  Donate at http://iacenter.org/donate.

Rachel Maddow condemns “The New Poll Tax”

I agree — this has to be fixed before 2012.

But that’s only one of many problems our presidential elections have.

Close to home, Wayne Green of the Tulsa World wrote up his ideas on An agenda for election reform. A more expansive analysis and corrective is posted at monkeyinmymind.com: How to Reform the US Electoral System.

But a proposal for a national voter registration and federally-run presidential elections by Richard Hasen, Registering Doubt, is getting a lot of buzz on the blogs. Obviously the discussion has just begun and will be revved up in earnest after Nov. 4.

Change is coming! The future is waiting for us. Viva la revolution!