OKLAHOMA CITY — If Oklahoma is going to continue moving forward, it must get past “individualized politics and extremist rhetoric,” the majority floor leader for the Oklahoma House of Representatives said.
State Rep. Jon Echols, who has served as the second in command in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for the past six years, said he is a proud conservative. But Echols said he is always aware that extremists on both sides have damaged the idea that people could debate issues and still develop good policy.
“Part of the reason for the extremists is because the extremist position -- one way or another – is an easier political sell,” he said. “My version, working to develop a consensus and building coalitions, that is a more difficult political sell. I think we have to find a way to rise above any level of individualized politics.”
Take, for example, education.
While Echols said he agrees with State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters on many of the issues facing Oklahoma public schools, Echols said he would approach those problems differently.
“There are a lot of issues that Superintendent Walters is pushing that I agree with, but I probably wouldn’t push them the way he pushes them,” Echols said. “Superintendent Walters has become so polarizing that common-sense people can’t say, ‘I agree with him on some things, and I disagree with him on others.’ We gotta get past that on education.”
One of those issues, Echols said, was critical race theory or the idea that some teachers attempt to indoctrinate students.
“I agree with him that the issues of critical race theory are important, and I agree with him on the issue of indoctrination in education are important,” Echols said.
They disagree, Echols said, on the degree in which either issue is a problem in Oklahoma.
“I think he and I probably disagree on the degree in which it happens,” he said. “I’ve said publicly and I’ve said on television it’s a very, very small degree, but I do think that if it happens, it needs to stop.”
While Echols said he gets the occasional phone call from a student or parent who has concerns over a teacher’s methods, the majority of his phone calls are, “Let me tell you how great my public school is.”
“We’ve allowed ourselves to be polarized in extremism,” he said. “We have to find a way to rise above the level of individualized politics.”
Echols said he is all about building consensus in government. He said being a coalition builder and someone who tries to take everyone’s views into account has served him well.
“I’m a pretty conservative member,” he said. “But I’ve always been a consensus guy. If I want something that is 100 from a scale of one to 10 and you offer me 65, I’m gonna take it and call it a win,” he said. “But I serve with some people who if they want 100 and you offer them anything less than a 90, they are gonna be against it.”
That approach, he said, doesn’t work.
“That’s just not how I view politics,” he said. “I view politics as a game of consensus.”
Extremism works, he said, because it’s an easy sell.
“My version of politics is a harder political sell,” he said. “I’m trying to tell people ‘yes,’ but I can’t always get them what they want. The easiest way to be a politician and to get votes is to have an enemy. The hard way is to continue to be conservative and to have strong principles and to build a collation.”
It’s the style, he said, that he would continue to use.
“I’m not going to be told what I believe. I’m not to going into fall into this ‘I have to pick a side’ thing,” he said. “I want to work with people and to build a consensus. Politicians have done too much of telling people what to believe instead of listening to them.”