A deserved honor for Lankford
THIS week the National Taxpayers Union recognized Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, with its “Taxpayers’ Friend Award,” citing Lankford’s strong record in support of lower taxes, limited government and economic freedom.
NTU included 98 Senate votes in its 2017 scorecard, all of which had an impact on tax, spending, trade and regulatory policy. This year Lankford scored 94 percent on the group’s rating scale, compared with an average Senate rating of 44 percent.
Lankford’s record in Congress includes voting to reduce taxes, simplify tax rates, increase transparency and accountability in the federal rulemaking process, require federal agencies to analyze the full impact of proposed regulations on small businesses, and make public the details, costs and performance metrics of every federal program costing more than $1 million.
“I’m grateful to NTU and its continued commitment to ensure American taxpayers know that some in Congress are still focused on legislation that will lower taxes, remove duplicative and wasteful spending, and promote economic freedom,” Lankford said. “These are all principals I seek to achieve with every vote I take, and I will continue to support legislation that eliminates federal waste, cuts taxes, and fixes the broken budget process.”
It’s a well-deserved honor for Lankford, who should be held up not only as a role model for members of Congress but also many state-level Republican officeholders in Oklahoma.
School calendar change
One idea behind Oklahoma City’s move to a “continuous” school calendar was that students would benefit from intermittent breaks during the year and a shorter summer vacation. That hasn’t transpired as hoped. In announcing a calendar change beginning next year, Superintendent Sean McDaniel said it had become clear the Aug. 1 start date in place since 2011 “hasn’t been working for thousands of OKCPS families.” McDaniel said more than 3,000 students started school late this year and thus “missed critical instruction.” In 2019, the school year will begin Aug. 12. Students will get two weeks off at Christmas, and one-week breaks in October, at Thanksgiving and in March. The change will allow for 28 weeks of class time prior to state testing, instead of 26 weeks, board member Charles Henry noted. “That’s a lot of extra quality time,” he said. Here’s hoping this move pays off for students. We believe it will.
Quite a place
The Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum is really something. A visitor could spend two hours viewing the museum’s displays, videos and other exhibits and walk away moved, uplifted – and wishing he had another two hours to soak up everything. It’s truly a remarkable remembrance of the victims and heroes of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing. And, it’s one of the top 25 museums in the United States, according to the travel review website TripAdvisor. In compiling its list, released this week, the site used an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of museum reviews over a 12-month period. “Remembering and teaching this event make us as relevant today as ever,” said Kari Watkins, the memorial and museum’s executive director. She’s right about that. Kudos.
Nike’s gamble, continued
We recently noted that Nike’s decision to feature political activist and former NFL player Colin Kaepernick could pay off even if many consumers are alienated because the company can still make a tidy profit selling shoes to those who cheer Kaepernick or don’t care if he is the face of the company. Even so, polling by Morning Consult shows Nike’s campaign has hurt the company’s public image. Before the Kaepernick ads, Nike had a net plus-69 favorable impression among consumers. Now that’s been cut almost in half. Nike’s favorability declined among all demographics, including younger generations, Nike users, and blacks. Before the campaign, 49 percent of Americans said they were absolutely certain or very likely to buy Nike products. Now 39 percent feel that way. Nike can still make money despite its reputational damage, but that 39 percent will need to buy a lot of shoes.
Eliminating excuses
The excuses put forth by many citizens who don’t vote are generally weak, and they’re becoming weaker by the day thanks to technological improvement. Registering to vote has always been easy, but it’s becoming even simpler. The Oklahoma State Election Board has announced a new service that will allow voters to update their address or party affiliation online. In the past, a change of address slightly complicated voting for those who didn’t update their registration promptly. Now such updates can be done with ease. First-time voter registration also will be possible online by 2020, once officials tie the election board’s system into the Department of Public Safety’s driver’s license database and computer system upgrades are completed. Of course, the main voting problem is that too many registered voters still don’t vote, but the new system removes one more excuse for that voter apathy.
Bernie Sanders effect
In 2016, socialist Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton by 22 percentage points in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. But when New Hampshire Democrats went to the polls in recent primary races, signs of enthusiasm for socialist candidates appeared to have waned considerably. Michael Graham, political editor of NH Journal, writes, “None of the progressive candidates prevailed in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Hillary Clinton supporters from 2016 will top the Democratic ticket in November.” In some states, Democrats who embrace the socialist label have won nomination fights, at times with Sanders’ explicit endorsement. But in many others, Democratic voters have shifted back to supporting establishment figures. Oklahoma may be an example of that trend as well. To the surprise of many, Sanders won Oklahoma’s 2016 presidential primary, but no prominent Democratic nominee in an Oklahoma race this year is proudly waiving the socialist flag.
Nearing their limit?
California has long been dominated by Democrats pushing liberal measures considered far outside the mainstream elsewhere. For example, California lawmakers recently enacted a law requiring that 100 percent of electric power come from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2045, despite electric rates already being some of the region’s highest. Yet there are signs that generally liberal California voters are nearing their limit. An initiative to repeal a recent 12-cents-per-gallon fuel tax has led in several polls, and now polling from Probolsky Research shows Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, leads Republican challenger John Cox by only a 44-39 percent margin. Cox’s support extends well beyond the GOP base since just 25 percent of California voters are Republicans, and he and Newsom are splitting the Latino vote. Cox remains a long shot, but the fact he’s competitive at all should get the attention of California Democrats.