OKLAHOMA CITY — The bills cover all sorts of issues.
From abortion to vaccine mandates to the Bible and government overreach. The bills address schools and education. They push back against the federal government and attempt to outlaw teaching about racial issues. The bills call for investigations of the 2020 election and seek to remove books that some might view as offensive.
The bills make guns more accessible and limit the powers of the governor.
They touch on many hot-button issues.
They are attention-getting and they generate campaign donations.
And, in Oklahoma, like many other red states across the country, those bills and a huge influx of other social issue legislation awaits state lawmakers when they return to the Capitol.
“Across these states and others, Republican legislators and governors have operated as if they were programming a prime-time lineup at Fox News,” Atlantic Magazine reported. “They have focused far less on the small-government, limited-spending and anti-tax policies that once defined the GOP than on an array of hot-button social issues, such as abortion, guns and limits on public protest, that reflect the cultural and racial priorities of Trump’s base.”
Part of that reason, the magazine said, is that the issues have been left behind on the national level.
“This surge of polarizing legislation is being driven largely by a combination of confidence and fear. Many observers believe that Republican legislators feel emboldened after Democrats in the 2020 election failed to record the state legislative gains they expected,” the Atlantic reported. “In 2018, as part of the recoil from Trump, Democrats made significant gains in state legislatures, winning control of six legislative chambers and netting more than 300 seats nationwide, many in the white-collar suburbs of major metro areas.”
Still, here in Oklahoma — a state where Trump captured two thirds of the vote — social issues have risen to the top of the legislative agenda for 2022.
For example, state Sen. Rob Standridge, a Norman Republican, filed legislation that would ban books in public schools and school libraries that address topics such as gender, sexual identity and human sexuality.
At the same time, Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed several pieces of legislation that would ensure “election integrity” in Oklahoma. Another measure would prohibit some children born in Oklahoma from receiving citizenship.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, added legislation that would require all voters in Oklahoma to re-register to vote before the end of 2023 or lose their local voting status.
Other legislation would force municipalities to ensure that homeless camps were “properly permitted, just as other campgrounds are required to be,” and one bill would make the King James version of the Bible the official state book.
Social issue legislation, it seems, has taken a front row seat in the Oklahoma legislature.
Part of the reason, one political scientist said, is simple election year politics.
“The election year is the easiest explanation,” said Emily Stacey, a political science professor at Rose State College in Oklahoma City. “You have a mid-term election and you have a national tie to that election. Democrats are running legislation that ties into the national party’s wish list and the GOP is trying their best to push the Trump line.”
But other factors also come into play, she said.
“I believe both parties are suffering from a lack of identity,” Stacey said. “In both major parties you have a distinct lack of leadership and both parties are clearly terrified of the electorate.”
Because of this, Stacey said lawmakers are “throwing issues out there to see what sticks and what they can build their base on.”
“There really isn’t a long-term strategy,” she said. “No one is trying to govern for the next generation.”
Former Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a Democrat, agreed.
Instead of addressing the serious issues facing Oklahoma, Edmondson said the big push for social issue legislation is being done for one big reason: publicity. It’s a trend, he said, that’s gained momentum over the past few decades, well before the pandemic.
“There are groups, obviously, that enjoy creating that type of division,” he said. Edmondson pointed to the American Legislative Exchange Council as one organization that pushes divisive social issue legislation to state legislators.
“ALEC just grinds out the right-wing stuff,” he said. “People bring it home and introduce it to their own legislature.”
The problem, he said, is that bills such those that would ban LGBT books in school libraries affect Oklahoma on the national level.
“It’s just crazy,” he said. “Oklahoma has appeared again in the national press as not a serious state. I don’t think it helps (our) economic development.”
With the beginning of the legislative session just about a week away, the influx of social issue legislation could leave less time for lawmakers to address many of Oklahoma’s more pressing concerns.
“Oklahoma has other problems,” Edmonson said. “We have problems in education, health, transportation, infrastructure and technology. We have serious problems that require serious work.”
And once those issues are addressed, he said, lawmakers can then “go around and look for some weird or stupid legislation to introduce.”
“Until they get the serious problems done, they are just wasting money,” Edmonson said. “The state legislature should concentrate on the problems they were sent to Oklahoma City to fix. Books in the library are not one of them.”
Oklahoma lawmakers return to the state Capitol next week for the opening of the Second Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislature.