Wandering around the living room a few Sundays back, I saw the KFOR promo for Flashpoint. I stopped, and wondered: Who is Mike Turpen that he has this cool gig of speaking on behalf of Oklahoma Democrats? I mean, I trudged up to OKC for two sessions of the State Democratic Convention. I somehow missed him on either premises.
So, I investigated and discovered that he had served as state attorney general in the 1980’s and once served as party chair – back before current chair Anna Langthorn had been born. Well, I thought, check with the party; see if I’m missing something.
Nope. Mr. Turpen is not even a precinct officer. In fact, my source says that his last involvement in party affairs was in 2008 when he was the legal representative for Hillary Clinton. So, with the youngest state chair in the country, who has a full complement of youthful lieutenants, KFOR trots out Mr. Turpen as their anointed voice for Oklahoma Democrats. He, an interchangeable Ogle and the Republican reactionary seem to have a great time: just some good, OLD – Mr. Turpen is my age – BOYS limiting the discussion to their favored few.
It has been observed before that whoever asks the question controls the debate. That can also be said about whoever chooses the debaters. The state party regularly fields calls on Mondays from party regulars complaining about Mr. Turpen – as if the choice of their supposed representative actually rested with the people supposedly being represented.
(Gary Edmondson is Stephens County Democratic Party Chair.)