The Oklahoma State Capital

Last month, the nation watched as Utah Governor Spencer Cox—thrust onto the national stage—struggled to come to terms with the terrifying societal sickness that has spawned a new phenomenon: political assassinations, gruesomely broadcast live to the world through social media, beginning, of all places, in his own “conservative” state.

To the insightful viewer, however, who could recall the last time Cox was in the national spotlight, any appreciation for Cox’s attempted eloquence was immediately tempered by the lingering memory of this particular politician’s presence on the national stage.

It was 2021, when Cox appeared on a Zoom call with high schoolers, virtue signaling by smugly declaring that his “pronouns” were “he/him.”

As good as that is to know, if Cox really wishes to come to terms with today’s new, shocking reality, he must accept blame. In 2021, sober minds recognized the implications of Cox and many other weak politicians, including those in Oklahoma, who, in denying God-endowed biology, unambiguously declared to a group of still-forming minds that they possessed the power to override God—the ability to decide their own biology, the right to nullify a law of nature, and, if their pursuit of happiness so required, the authority to redefine their own existence.

It didn’t take a serious student of human nature to see what would come next: those who refused to agree with this new proposition would become the villains—the fascists, the deniers of happiness, even the genocidal. For by denying happiness, they would, according to the new religion of transhuministic woke, once carried to it’s logical extreme, be committing genocide against those who sought it. After all, if one’s chosen identity was the key to happiness, then a life denied that identity was, surely, not a life worth living.

Now, as that generation reaches adulthood, should it really come as a shock that—having been coddled in their every predilection, no matter how offensive to God’s most basic law of nature, by the most influential voices of society—they have grown to harbor immense bitterness and hatred toward anyone perceived as standing in their way? That resentment, nurtured for years, is now driving a not-insubstantial number of them to seek what they believe is justice. And as we’ve seen in the aftermath of last month’s first-of-its-kind, social-media-broadcast political assassination, a disturbingly large segment of the population has eagerly embraced and continues to justify, in various forms, this new ethos of retribution through violence.

Allow me to suggest that it is the weak “leaders” like Cox—and a host of others—who lacked the courage to defend truth, absolute truth, during the last decade of “woke,” who bear no small share of responsibility for what we are witnessing today. These were the ones unwilling to show even the simplest form of courage—when all that courage required was declaring that up was, in fact, up, and down, down. Their cowardice helped pave the way for the cultural and moral collapse whose collateral damage we are only now beginning to come to terms and which will haunt our nation for many years into the future.

As society struggles to come to terms with this new reality—what it means and how to respond—I suggest that step one is this: we must withdraw and/or never again extend support from/to those weak leaders who have already proven themselves fearful and pliant in the face of the barbaric, woke mob.

Yes, they will now show “courage,” now that society is awakening. But through their pandering and virtue signaling of the past, they failed the most basic of tests, and we as a people cannot—must not—allow them the opportunity to “lead” again.

Instead, we must elect those leaders who, throughout the past generation, never wavered—who stood by God’s laws of nature, despite the risk their courage brought to themselves, their reputations, and their careers. And at the very least, we must choose those who, though perhaps not yet tested in the public arena, have yet to betray those laws.

On balance, courage among politicians is difficult to find. Increasingly, well-defined principle and strength of character are prerequisites for survival in today’s political world where most who enter the public arena cannot withstand the pressures for long without becoming multi-faced in their dealings—telling each audience whatever it wishes to hear, regardless of what they told the last, until they are so conflicted in their own mind that they themselves no longer know up from down.

Thus, the conscientious voters, especially those who have stepped forward to serve in populist grassroots movements must never take a politician’s present-day words at face value, to do so is more likely than not to betray one’s own values. One must instead look at the record.

Regular readers of these columns will likely sense where this is going.

I’ve long observed that when the current generation of state Republican legislators betrayed their voters in 2017 and 2018—by passing an array of tax increases—they not only betrayed the values of those who elected them, they established a culture of duplicity, an era of darkness.

If the politician seeking your vote today was part of that group and voted for those tax hikes, know that they are undeserving of your support—not merely because they betrayed conservative principles, but because they set in motion a culture of betrayal that, in the ensuing “era of woke,” continued in countless ways to corrode even the most basic of societal norms. It is a betrayal so profound that previous generations could scarcely have imagined it.

I intend to describe some of those abuses in upcoming publications. There's so much to chose from; it’s absolutely overwhelming to attempt to do justice on these matters.

In a July article, I described one such betrayal by a current candidate for statewide office: Charles McCall.

You can read the actual details here, but to summarize, as the era of the super-woke dawned and the Capitol, as it often does, became a target for those advocating social experimentation, a dedicated House employee—charged with protecting female high school students, who were serving as legislative pages for that week—became aware that men dressed as women might be attempting to use the women’s restrooms. Seeking to ensure the students’ safety she granted them access to the legislators’ restrooms.

Her email notifying staff of this precaution was then leaked—an act of what could only have been intense malice by a fellow House employee—thus providing the corporate media all they needed for a breathless news cycle accusing the Oklahoma State Capitol of “discrimination.”

A still-standing X.com post from the “OK House GOP” remains as an indictment — a rusty relic from the dawn of the super-woke era and Speaker Charles McCall’s cowardly acquiescence to the mob.

In that article, I shared my personal view: instead of standing up to the mob and defending both the diligent employee and the simple truth that high school females should never be forced to share facilities with biological males, McCall—then serving as House Speaker—allowed the employee to face public ridicule and sentenced her to human resource “counseling.”

As I recall, McCall won accolades from the left as he sent out the following public response:

“The email was not authorized by me, my staff or my office. It was sent unilaterally by a House staff member without any input or permission. I was unaware that such an email was being sent, and the remarks contained in the email are not condoned by me or the Office of the Speaker. As Speaker, all Oklahomans should feel welcome in the Oklahoma Capitol building. We are looking into this matter, and it will be taken seriously.“

Much like Cox’s declaration of pronouns, McCall’s cowardice in the face of public pressure—and his treatment of that employee—revealed an abandonment of even the most basic principles: principles that should be hardwired into strong men—the protection of women, especially the young. His failure to uphold those principles sowed an intense, righteous disgust in the hearts of those who still believe in God-designed human biology and absolute truth.

A still-standing X.com post from the “OK House GOP” remains as an indictment — a rusty relic from the dawn of the super-woke era and Speaker Charles McCall’s cowardly acquiescence to the mob.

Today, as McCall takes to the television screen—slicing up bananas to prove he isn’t “woke”—and barnstorms the state seeking votes for his next political venture, he again asks for our support. But I, for one, feel that to vote for him would be to betray everything I believe in—to once more empower yet another slick, values-betraying politician.

Should society slip back into a Woke 2.0, I have every sense that McCall would again go weak. Gone would be the days of banana chopping and back would be the days of trans-pandering.

But if I were somehow tasked with defending McCall’s decision, perhaps I would point to the fact that his actions—while despicable—took place early in the era of “super woke.” Maybe, like many humans, he had a moment of weakness—one he might yet acknowledge and even publicly apologize to that employee. By admitting his mistake, he could at the least signal that the next time things grow difficult, he might stand firm.

I don’t believe that defense, however, to be available to McCall’s foremost wingman and fellow candidate for 2026 statewide election, Jon Echols, who now placates the grassroots in an apparent effort to insulate himself from what is likely to come: the public’s awareness of his long record of values-betraying statements and votes.

Echols is a fascinating study. In my view, he is one of the most political personalities in the history of this state—an incredibly sophisticated operator with an uncanny knack for mirroring whoever stands before him. Whatever that person’s politics, they are almost certain to walk away believing they have found an ally in Echols.

That illusion lasts only until one exercises the most basic powers of observation—at which point it becomes clear that Echols is not a kindred spirit but rather an extraordinary politician, capable of massaging, reflecting, and reassuring the beliefs and fears of nearly the entire political spectrum, from right to left and back again.

But, in my view, it’s that political duplicity that’s also his undoing. He’s too political and that leads to an occasional horrific misstep, a tantalizing peak at the tip of the iceberg that cues the wise and the observant into the fact that they are being played.

Such was, in my view, the case when Oklahoma’s politicians, in 2024, found themselves taken for a ride by the woke left during the Great Nex Benedict Hoax—the media-driven frenzy that tore apart the Owasso School District during that year’s legislative session.

It was a hoax that revealed just how far the radical left will go to bully and emotionally devastate both students, and an entire public school district in their never-ending effort to score political points and substantiate their warped worldview.

When it became apparent that the facts did not support the accusations, many Oklahoma politicians—no doubt disappointed by this inconvenient truth—scrambled to salvage something from the wreckage. They issued a press releases clearly aimed at recapturing moral footing, one of which came from some of the House’s most liberal members, and Echols, calling into question the “power of words,” as if to suggest that who were being critical of those who refuse to acknowledge God-created biology, were somehow responsible for the tragedy, and referring high school students to an organization called The Trevor Project.

Aside from the not-so-vailed attack on those who still believe in the antiquated notion of biological reality, those familiar with the Trevor Project immediately understand the significance of Echols’ recommendation. By directing impressionable, high-school-aged youth to what research from the insightful Libs of TikTok social media personality describes as an “LGBT-affirming” hotline, these legislators were, in effect, signaling, through the taxpayer-funded house of representatives press office no less, that underage students should contact adult strangers to discuss sexuality—strangers who were likely to affirm their ability of the underage, to self-declare their own biology.

Specifically, Libs of TikTok explains: “The Trevor Project is an LGBTQ activist organization and encourages children to hide stuff from their parents. They have a ‘quick escape’ feature so kids can chat with them without their parents knowing. A mother tested it out, posed as a teen, and was encouraged to transition throughout the whole process. She was given virtually no information on detransitioning.”

Post by Libs of TikTok

The question, then, is this: why did Jon Echols sign on to McEntire’s Trevor Project release?

This wasn’t the early era of “woke.” This was 2024.

Surely, by then, Echols understood the implications of, in my view, steering underage minors into the waiting arms of those who are almost certainly set to prey on their confusion—driving them toward lives of pain, anger, and bitterness?

Perhaps this is a clue:

That Oklahoma house press release was led by Representative Marcus McEntire, at the time one of the most liberal Republicans in the Oklahoma House—according to The Oklahoma Constitution, the state’s gold standard for measuring legislative conservatism since 1979. Soon thereafter, McEntire became a lobbyist for the medical industry—an industry positioned to profit immensely from the expansion of “gender-affirming” medicine and the unfathomable surgical destruction of the young and an industry in which Echols has had a significant business interest and relationships.

It’s a question that deserves deeper exploration—and perhaps we’ll take that up in a future article—but notwithstanding the specific reason, this lapse in judgment, especially considering the time period, was absolutely disqualifying for future support.

In this and past articles, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the betrayals committed by the current generation of Republican leaders. Stay tuned for next week’s article, as we continue to inform, to expose, for the purpose of helping the grassroots avoid the trap connived by the politicians, and to start paving the way for a future renaissance—one in which the principled statesman of the people to politician ratio is re-balanced and true principle finally triumphs over money, self-dealing and politics.

Today, society is reaping the whirlwind sown by the cowardice and self-dealing of the “leaders” who failed us during the era of woke.

And as the candidates now put on the mask of “unwoke,”

and as they solicit for your good name in support of their latest endeavor,

never forget the wisdom of the old adage:

fool me once . . .