I had spent a lot of years criticizing the "Good ol’ Boy" Oklahoma Legislature during the decades of Democratic (and southeastern Oklahoma) domination. They always were forwarding their own interests, rarely the interests of the state as a whole. Then state politics changed, shifting to the right.
Now the "other guys" have the majority in House and Senate, and it is with some trepidation that I check the news from North Lincoln Ave. to see what the Republicans are up to day by day. We saw some blatant good ol’ boy stuff roll out last year; I hope we don’t see that this year.
Of course, human nature is constant, and it functions on both sides of the aisle. And legislative work is always the same: "sausage-making," as the Prussian Bismarck famously called it, bringing together men with substantial differences on issues and hammering out compromise solutions that all can support. And most of the time interests are controlling the results, so interests consequently are served. But interests must not be allowed to dominate!
The polar star of the general welfare of the state has to be the guide.
That’s why the personal character of our legislative representatives — their values, their education and experience and their feelings toward the general welfare of the state as a whole — are so decisive in politics. Which polar star truly guides their decisions? One of integrity? Or one of interests? Yet we rarely measure these aspects of the candidates during the election cycle.
Case-in-point is one of the big things we have needed to do in Oklahoma: workers' compensation reform. No doubt our existing adversarial system, often seen as a boondoggle for the attorneys who specialized in that work, could be improved. Costs were high for employers, leading to major companies avoiding locations in our state, yet truly injured workers often had trouble getting benefits while the artful dodger with the right attorney reaped payments for years — as they rode their horses, mowed their lawns and collected benefits.
Have the Republicans actually given us a better system with their reforms? One hopes so.
Workers' compensation reform thus becomes a perfect test of the GOP; do they deserve their super-majority (both houses and the executive office)? Have they served the general welfare of the state well? Fairly balanced the needs of both workers and employers? Will the new scheme benefit those who are truly injured? Eliminate the taint of sleazy and persistent fraud the old system projected? Help the work of bringing new employment opportunity to our state?
Are the Republicans truly the "white hat" guys? Or just another good ol’ boy club?
Can we in fact trust them with other big questions? Or do we need to find some Reform Democrats to balance their power in the state Capitol?
